http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/Factorfiction.htm
Question: In its "Our Con man In Iraq" cover story of May 31,2004, Newsweek claims Ahmad Chalabi "hyped a story "about a secret meeting in Prague between Muhammad Atta and a high-level Iraqi intelligence officer, Al Ani. Newsweek then states, as proof of its con man case: "After months of investigation, the CIA and FBI determined that the meeting had never taken place." Is it fact or fiction that the CIA and FBI made such a determination? Answer: It is fiction that the FBI and CIA "determined that the meeting had never taken place." In fact, The CIA determined, it was possible the meeting took place, according to George Tenet sworn testimony before a Joint Committee of Congress (June 18, 2002) He stated: "Atta allegedly traveled outside the US in early April 2001 to meet with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague, we are still working to confirm or deny this allegation. It is possible that Atta traveled under an unknown alias since we have been unable to establish that Atta left the US or entered Europe in April 2001 under his true name or any known aliases." Although the FBI could not find any evidence that Atta was in Prague at the time of the alleged meeting-- April 8,2001, it also could not find any evidence that precluded Atta from being in Prague on that date, or, for that matter, his whereabouts. All it determined was that Atta checked out of the Diplomat Inn in Virginia Beach on April 4, 2001 and, that same day, withdrew $8,000 in cash from his SunTrust account. Atta was not seen again in America until April 11, 2001. The FBI also could not account for why he withdrew the money. Czech intelligence-- not Chalibi-- had informed the FBI and CIA that Atta had been identified by an eye witness meeting al-Ani. What Czech intelligence determined, to date, is: 1. Atta made 2 prior trips to the Czech Republic in 2000 at a time he was engaged in the 9-11 plot. 2. In applying for his visa (BONN200005260024) Atta identified himself as a" Hamburg student." 3. Al-Ani had an observed meeting on the outskirts of Prague on April 8th. The person with whom al-Atta met was identified by the observer (after 9-11) as Atta. 4. A surreptitious search of the Iraq Embassy (presumably conducted after the defeat of Iraq) showed, according to a Czech official, that Al-Ani had scheduled a meeting on April 8,2001 with a"Hamburg student" on his appointment calendar. Tenet summed up the true status of the case in his appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Feb 24, 2004: SEN. LEVIN: Was the intelligence Committee's assessment -- what is the Intelligence Committee's assessment of whether or not 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta met with Ahmed al-Ani, an alleged Iraq intelligence officer in Iraq in April of 2001. What is your assessment? MR. TENET: Sir, I know you have a paper up here that outlines all that for you. It's a classified paper. My recollection is we can't prove that one way or another.
