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IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 382 Friday December 14 2001 ISM is produced by the Mariam Appeal www.mariamappeal.com ___________________________________________ Czech paper casts doubt on suicide bomber's meeting with Iraqi agent. Prague, 13 December: The theory about a connection between the terrorists from 11 September in the USA and the Iraqi embassy in Prague, which has served as the chief evidence against Iraq, is crumbling, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes writes today. Egyptian Mohammed Ata, who blew up a New York skyscraper, had only been in the Czech Republic twice. His alleged meeting with an Iraqi diplomat has not been confirmed. All information about his other stays in the Czech Republic checked by the Czech intelligence and police have proved unsubstantiated in the past days... The "Prague trace" and especially the meeting with the Iraqi spy were the only clue for Americans which suggested a connection of the al-Qa'idah members with Saddam Husayn's regime. "I can confirm that documents only prove two stays," police chief Jiri Kolar said last night. Mohammed Ata visited Prague last May, when he landed at the Ruzyne airport. Since he did not have visa, he was not allowed to leave the transit room. This was his first stay. He returned to Germany and a few weeks later he returned to Prague by bus. This was his second stay. "He spent here a single night in June and the second day he boarded a plane bound for the USA. Unfortunately, we have not ascertained where he was during the night," an intelligence officer told the daily. According to the original information, Ata had come by plane twice. However, the police now found that the other Mohammed Ata was a man from Pakistan and only had his name in common with the terrorist. "His identification number was different, there was a big difference in their age and even nationality. Simply everything was different. It was someone else," an Interior Ministry official told the daily. Without presenting any evidence, Prime Minister Milos Zeman told CNN in mid-November that Ata and Iraqi consul al-Ani had at their meeting planned a terrorist attack on Radio Free Europe, which is based in Prague's centre. Zeman later said that this was just one of the hypotheses. The information was later denied unofficially by the Czech secret service and President Vaclav Havel did so officially last week. Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 2306 gmt 13 Dec 01. ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
