Epstein's answer to his question is also below.

Question:

In a front page scoop by James Risen on December 13, 2003, The New York Times reported that "‘U.S. records now indicate that Atta was in Virginia Beach, Va., in early April 2001, when he was supposedly in Prague to meet [Iraq consul] Ani."
If true, such records would belie earlier information supplied to the FBI by Czech intelligence that 9-11 hijacker Mohamed Atta met with the Iraqi consul al-Ani in Prague on April 8, 2001.
Is it true-- or pure invention-- that there are U.S. records that show Atta in Virginia Beach on April 8, 2001?

Clue:

Risen's earlier scoop

Answer:

It is pure invention that the U.S. government has any record or any evidence that Atta was in Virginia Beach on April 8th. 2001

The FBI only has records for April 4, 2001 that show that Atta and his roommate Marwan Al-Shehhi checked out of the Diplomat Inn in Virginia Beach and then cashed a check for $8,000 from al-Shehhi's SunTrust account. The next record of Atta is April 24th, when he is stopped by policeman in Coral Springs, Florida.

Between those 20 days, there was only one eyewitness sighting of Atta : a Czech intelligence (BIS) watcher identified him as meeting with al-Ani in Prague on April 8th.

The FBI claims that a cell phone Atta had used was used to make calls to Florida in April. But of course a cell phone is not unique to a single person and that cell phone could have been used by his roommate. So, as Tenet testified, there is no evidence precluding Atta from going to Prague under an alias on April 4 (with$8,000) and returning April 9th.

Ed Epstein Rebuts NYT's Risen

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