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.