Originally posted by SlappyJack
The meeting in Prague bewteen Atta and the "unidentified Iraqi agent" (convenient) has been refuted by both the 9/11 commission and was long ago by the Czechs.
Bullshit.
I argued this same subject a while back. Behold!
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (CNN) -- Suspected terrorist hijacker Mohammed Atta contacted an Iraqi agent to discuss a terror attack on the Radio Free Europe building in the Czech capital, Prague, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman told CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europ...inv.czech.atta/
Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said last year he took issue with U.S. press reports that the meeting did not take place. "I believe the counterintelligence services more than journalists," Mr. Gross told a Prague newspaper.
Mr. Gross told reporters last year that Atta visited Prague twice in 2000 and then met al-Ani, who was expelled from the country on April 22, 2001, for intelligence activities.
U.S. officials said Czech intelligence is 70 percent certain the meeting took place at the Iraqi Embassy in Prague.
The Bush administration made no reference to any Prague meeting in the months leading up to the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
The intelligence community released information indicating that an al Qaeda "associate," Abu Zarqawi, ran a terrorist training camp in northern Iraq with the support of Iraqi intelligence.
http://washingtontimes.com/national...93909-9839r.htm
The Czech envoy to the UN has confirmed that an Iraqi agent met with suspected Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, in the latest rebuke to widespread U.S. media reports dismissing the Prague encounter as a fabrication.
"The meeting took place," Hynek Kmonicek, a former deputy foreign minister, told The Prague Post flatly in a New York City interview.
Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross announced last fall that Atta and Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, a second consul at the Iraqi Embassy in Prague, had conversed at least once, in April 2001. Gross would not rule out other encounters.
The controversial meeting became known as "the Prague connection" and was mentioned frequently as a possible pretext for renewed hostilities between the United States and Iraq.
Al-Ani was expelled from the Czech Republic April 22, 2001 -- less than a month after the conversation -- for "engaging in activities beyond his diplomatic duties," a phrase usually reserved for allegations of spying or terrorist-related activities.
http://www.praguepost.com/P02/2002/20605/news1a.php
And, finally, here's another one by Ken Adelman (a favorite writer of mine) :
My occasional breakfast-mate, CNN's Bob Novak, gets it right most of the time.
But last week, he got it all wrong on the most important issue facing our national security.
Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross shocked the world by saying: "We can confirm now that during his trip to the Czech Republic" in April 2001 (his second such trip there), Sept. 11 terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta "did have a contact with an officer of the Iraqi intelligence, Mr. Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al Ani."
But recent reports in The Washington Post and its sister publication Newsweek called that assessment into question. This prompted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to profess "I donÂ’t know" when Novak asked him whether or not Atta flew to Prague to meet with an Iraqi agent before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Novak then used RumsfeldÂ’s remarks to justify his own longstanding opposition to the United States attacking Saddam Hussein and removing him from power [see "A Must Meeting for the Attack-Iraq Crowd," Washington Post, May 13].
But in doing so, the ace reporter got it all wrong.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,53349,00.html
Here's a few other bonus articles that people seem to forget :
Iraqi intelligence documents discovered in Baghdad by The Telegraph have provided the first evidence of a direct link between Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein's regime.
Papers found yesterday in the bombed headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Iraq's intelligence service, reveal that an al-Qa'eda envoy was invited clandestinely to Baghdad in March 1998.
The documents show that the purpose of the meeting was to establish a relationship between Baghdad and al-Qa'eda based on their mutual hatred of America and Saudi Arabia. The meeting apparently went so well that it was extended by a week and ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden to visit Baghdad.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...4/27/walq27.xml
(AP) Documents discovered in the bombed out headquarters of Iraq's intelligence service provide evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Papers found Saturday by journalists working for the Sunday Telegraph reveal that an al Qaeda envoy met with officials in Baghdad in March 1998, the newspaper reported.
One document, dated Sept. 25, 2001, from Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri to Saddam's palace, was based on a briefing from the French ambassador in Baghdad and covered talks between presidents Jacques Chirac and George W. Bush.
Separately, The Sunday Times reported that its own journalists had found documents in the Iraqi foreign ministry that indicate that France gave Saddam Hussein's regime regular reports on its dealings with American officials.
The newspaper said the documents reveal that Paris shared with Baghdad the contents of private transatlantic meetings and diplomatic traffic from Washington.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003...ain551632.shtml
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