In the lead-up to the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, CIA director George Tenet believed that Shehata and Yussef Dardiri were both being allowed to operate in Baghdad by Saddam Hussein since May 2002, and used this "intelligence" as part of the bid to tie the dictator to terrorism, suggesting that "Shehata was willing to strike US, Israeli, and Egyptian targets sometime in the future" and stating that he had trained "North Africans" in the use of truck bombs in Afghanistan.