"Al Qaeda, backed by Iraq, carried out the September 11th terror attacks with the financial and logistical support of numerous individuals and organizations," the complaint says. "These individuals and organizations provided Al Qaeda with the means to recruit, train, and employ thousands of terrorists."One of those "thousands," according to the suit, was September 11 ring-leader Mohammed Atta, who, "through his close connections to Iraqi intelligence and his activities as a conduit of information and funding, became an agent of the Iraqi Intelligence Agency."
O'Neill's estate charges that Atta not only met with an Iraqi intelligence agent, but also met several times with Iraq's former ambassador to Turkey, Farouk al-Hijazi. According to the suit, cooperation between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein goes back more than 10 years to a 1992 visit to Baghad by Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and a top aide to Osama bin Laden.During that visit, Dr. Zawahiri met with Saddam, according to an Iraqi intelligence veteran quoted in the complaint, which states that Mr. bin Laden sent Dr. Zawahiri back in 1998 for more strategy sessions with Saddam and his top aides, including the vice president of Iraq, Taha Yassin Ramadan.
During that visit, Dr. Zawahiri also toured a potential site for a new headquarters for Mr. bin Laden and Al Qaeda and went to an Iraqi military base and nuclear and chemical weapons facility near al-Fallujah.