There is one key piece of the puzzle Rachel Bires chooses to ignore with respect to Operation Iraqi Freedom in her letter yesterday ("Al Qaeda not linked to U.S. action in Iraq" Mon., Nov. 22): Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi is the Jordanian Al Qaeda terrorist operating within Iraqi borders.

At the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, al-Zarqawi was in Afghanistan.

He had a terrorist training camp in Herat, specializing in poison gas. Later that year, after being injured in an air strike, he fled to Iraq.

There he received medical treatment for those injuries in a Baghdad hospital in 2002. He also began to set up shop in Iraq, making it his new terror base. It would include a large Al Qaeda cell and a new poison and explosives training camp. This was before the Iraqi campaign of the "War on Terror" even started.

After the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, al Zarqawi went into hiding, but started carrying out his series of terror attacks. He appears in the hostage and beheading videos.

He is responsible for teaming up with the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime; much like what the Taliban did in Afghanistan, to fight the coalition forces.

He and his terror cell Ansar-al-Islam (recently named "Al Qaeda in Iraq") continue to use bombings, ambushes and kidnappings to incite terror.

The notion that Al Qaeda is not linked with U.S. action in Iraq is not only absurd, but is also false. The mere presence of al-Zarqawi proves this.