wasn't that why they felt they had to forge that letter? On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 6:56 AM, Larry Lyons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >The Atta-Prague connection is murky, but it is clear he was there at >> >least once, and perhaps twice, though the April, 2001 meeting is >> >unclear. What did he do in six hours inside the Prague airport, >> which >> >he flew to knowing that he could not get out of the airport because >> he >> >didn't have a visa? The case on what Atta did in Prague and who he >> met >> >with is hardly clear, even now. >> > >> >http://www.slate.com/id/2091354/ >> >> You know I did a quick search on it, all I could find that still >> supported the Atta-Iraq connection was extremist right wingnut blogs >> and media sources. Not the most reliable of sources. BTW you brought >> up the only other article not from a right wingnut source, but is >> there anything more recent that 5 years ago? > > BTW here's a pretty good newsweek article from last year that actually > examines the issue, and finds no reliable evidence for any connection. > > http://www.newsweek.com/id/60443/output/print > > Terror Watch: Dubious Link Between Atta And Saddam > > A Document Tying The Iraqi Leader With The 9/11 Terrorist Is Probably Fake. > Plus, How Terror Financiers Manage To Stay In Business > Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball > Newsweek Web Exclusive > Updated: 1:15 PM ET Oct 23, 2007 > > A widely publicized Iraqi document that purports to show that September 11 > hijacker Mohammed Atta visited Baghdad in the summer of 2001 is probably a > fabrication that is contradicted by U.S. law-enforcement records showing Atta > was staying at cheap motels and apartments in the United States when the trip > presumably would have taken place, according to U.S. law enforcement > officials and FBI documents. > > The new document, supposedly written by the chief of the Iraqi intelligence > service, was trumpeted by the Sunday Telegraph of London earlier this week in > a front-page story that broke hours before the dramatic capture of Saddam > Hussein. TERRORIST BEHIND SEPTEMBER 11 STRIKE WAS TRAINED BY SADDAM, ran the > headline on the story written by Con Coughlin, a Telegraph correspondent and > the author of the book "Saddam: The Secret Life." > > Coughlin's account was picked up by newspapers around the world and was cited > the next day by New York Times columnist William Safire. But U.S. officials > and a leading Iraqi document expert tell NEWSWEEK that the document is most > likely a forgery--part of a thriving new trade in dubious Iraqi documents > that has cropped up in the wake of the collapse of Saddam's regime. > > "It's a lucrative business," says Hassan Mneimneh, codirector of an Iraqi > exile research group reviewing millions of captured Iraqi government > documents. "There's an active document trade taking place ... You have > fraudulent documents that are being fabricated and sold" for hundreds of > dollars a piece. > > Mneimneh said he hadn't seen the Telegraph document that purports to place > Atta in Baghdad. But he, along with senior U.S. law-enforcement and > intelligence officials, said the claims of an Atta trip to Iraq in the months > before the September 11 attacks were highly implausible--and contradicted by > a wealth of information that has been collected about Atta's movements during > the period he was plotting the attacks on the World Trade Center and the > Pentagon. > > The Telegraph story was apparently written with a political purpose: to > bolster Bush administration claims of a connection between Al Qaeda and > Saddam's regime. The paper described a "handwritten memo" that was supposedly > sent to Saddam Hussein by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, chief of Iraqi > intelligence at the time. It describes a three-day "work program" that Atta > had undertaken in Baghdad under the tutelage of notorious Palestinian > terrorist Abu Nidal, who lived in the Iraqi capital until his death under > suspicious circumstances in August 2002. > > "Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian national, came with Abu Ammer [who is > unidentified] and we hosted him in Abu Nidal's house at Al-Dora under our > direct supervision," the document states. "We arranged a work program for him > for three days with a team dedicated to working with him ... He displayed > extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will > be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy." > > The document, which according to Coughlin was supplied by Iraq's interim > government, doesn't say exactly when Atta was supposed to have actually flown > to Baghdad. But the memo is dated July 1, 2001, and Coughlin himself places > the trip as the summer of 2001. > > The problem with this, say U.S. law enforcement officials, is that the FBI > has compiled a highly detailed time line for Atta's movements throughout the > spring and summer of 2001 based on a mountain of documentary evidence, > including airline records, ATM withdrawals and hotel receipts. Those records > show Atta crisscrossing the United States during this period--making only one > overseas trip, an 11-day visit to Spain that didn't begin until six days > after the date of the Iraqi memo. > > One FBI document, labeled "Law Enforcement Sensitive," states that during the > summer of 2001, Atta "conducted extensive travel" that included visits in > Florida, Boston, New York, New Jersey and Las Vegas. Indeed, this and other > FBI documents show that during the last few days in June--when the presumed > Iraq trip would appear to have occurred--almost all of Atta's movements are > accounted for: On June 27, 2001, Atta flew from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to > Boston. On the morning of June 28, he traveled from Boston to San Francisco > (flying first class) where he switched planes and landed in Las Vegas that > afternoon at 2:41 p.m. That afternoon, he rented a Chevrolet Malibu from an > Alamo rental-car office, set up an account at an Internet cafe called the > Cyber Zone and checked into the EconoLodge motel on Las Vegas Boulevard, a > cheap motel in a neighborhood of seedy strip joints that is located barely > two blocks from the local FBI office. > > The FBI records show Atta logged onto his Cyber Zone Internet account five > times over the next two days and then checked out of the EconoLodge at 3:30 > a.m. on the morning of July 1. He then returned his rental car and boarded a > flight to Denver at 5:59 a.m., landing in Boston later that day. A week > later, on July 7, Atta boarded a flight from Boston to Zurich--the first leg > on his trip to Spain. He returned to the United States on July 19, 2001. > > Much about Atta's movements is still unknown--and most likely will remain so. > FBI officials believe, for example, that Atta flew to Las Vegas as part of a > series of trips he took that summer to test security at U.S. airports in > preparation for the September 11 attacks. But it is just a theory. The visit > to Spain is believed to have been for a meeting with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one > of the planners of the September 11 attacks, who also was in Spain during the > same time. > > While all of Atta's movements cannot be accounted for, enough is known to > make it "highly unlikely" that the September 11 ringleader could have flown > off to Baghdad for a three-day work program with Iraqi intelligence, a FBI > official told NEWSWEEK. For similar reasons, the bureau has long since > discounted claims by Czech intelligence--and widely promoted by some Iraq > hawks in the Bush administration--that Atta had flown to Prague to meet with > an Iraqi intelligence agent around April 8, 2001. > > FBI records show Atta and fellow hijacker Marwan Al-Shehhi checking out of > the Diplomat Inn in Virginia Beach, Va., and writing a check for cash for > $8,000 for a SunTrust account in that city on April 4, 2001. For the rest of > that week, Atta's cell phone was used to make repeated calls to Florida. On > April 11, Atta rented an apartment in Coral Springs, Fla. While acknowledging > that a few days are unaccounted for, the FBI has found no evidence that Atta > departed the country overseas during this period, an official said. > > Mneimneh, the Iraqi document expert, says that there are other reasons to > discount the handwritten memo touted by the Telegraph. The document includes > another sensational second item: how Iraqi intelligence, helped by a "small > team from the Al Qaeda organization," arranged for a shipment from Niger to > reach Iraq by way of Libya and Syria. Although the shipment is unspecified, > the reference to Niger was immediately suggestive of Bush administration > assertions earlier this year that Iraq sought to import yellowcake uranium > from that African nation--claims that also have been widely discredited as > being based on other forged documents that apparently came from the Niger > Embassy in Rome. > > Mneimneh says the wording of the document makes him highly suspicious: Iraqi > intelligence officials were notoriously conservative and rarely--if ever--put > incriminating information in writing. The reference to the Iraqi intelligence > working with a "small team from the Al Qaeda organization" is "too explicit," > he says. > > Ironically, even the Iraqi National Congress of Ahmed Chalabi, which has been > vocal in claiming ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam's regime, was dismissive > of the new Telegraph story. "The memo is clearly nonsense," an INC spokesman > told NEWSWEEK. > > Contacted by Newsweek, The Sunday Telegraph's Con Coughlin acknowledged that > he could not prove the authenticity of the document. He said that while he > got the memo about Mohammed Atta and Baghdad from a "senior" member of the > Iraqi Governing Council who insisted it was "genuine," he and his newspaper > had "no way of verifying it. It's our job as journalists to air these things > and see what happens," he said. > > Holes in the Terror Financing Net > > What does it take to shut down a major terrorist finance network ? U.S., > European and United Nations investigators acknowledge that despite decisions > by the Bush administration and the United Nations to put out of business a > Swiss-and-Bahamas-based Islamic financial network called Al-Taqwa ("Fear of > God" in Arabic), the network's long-time chief, who is also the subject of > U.S. and United Nations sanctions, still is fighting to keep some of his > businesses open. > > Youssef Nada, an elderly Egyptian financier who founded and ran the Al-Taqwa > network from bases in southern Switzerland and northern Italy, was designated > a terrorist financier by the Bush administration in November 2001. A U.S. > Treasury official testified to Congress that Nada had provided financial > assistance to Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 attacks. In 2002, the > Treasury placed more than a dozen companies established by Nada and an > Eritrean-born business associate named Ahmed Idris Nasreddin on the U.S. > terrorist finance sanctions list. > > But U.N. officials and some news organizations recently have reported that > despite international and U.S. sanctions, Nada and Nasreddin have continued > to operate companies and own businesses--including luxury hotels in Italy > owned by Nasreddin. And NEWSWEEK has learned that authorities in the tiny > alpine money haven of Liechtenstein have recently failed in efforts to seize > control over the remnants of one of Nada's corporate vehicles. > > In an apparent effort to keep part of his financial network alive, > law-enforcement sources say, Nada successfully applied to Liechtenstein > officials for permission to rename two of his companies based in the pocket > principality, both of which were in the process of liquidation. Liechtenstein > authorities subsequently launched an effort to oust Nada as liquidator of one > of the companies, now called Waldenberg, and install a former senior > Liechtenstein government official as the new liquidator. This would have > given investigators control over what remains of the records of the company, > which might have yielded valuable clues as to Nada's financial activities. > > But European law-enforcement sources say that a judge in Liechtenstein > recently rejected the government's proposals to install a new liquidator, > leaving Nada in charge of the failed company--and its critical records. A > recent U.N. report noted that even though U.N. sanctions say that officially > designated terrorist financiers like Nada must not be allowed to travel > internationally, Nada has traveled from his residence in a tiny enclave of > Italian territory surrounded by the Swiss canton of Ticino to Liechtenstein > on business. A Swiss government official said that due to relaxed travel > controls around Europe, it is not practical for the Swiss government to > enforce an international travel ban on Nada, who has repeatedly denied any > connection to Al Qaeda or terrorism. > > Terror Watch, written by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball appears online > weekly > URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/60443 > > >
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