No Evidence of Meeting With Iraqi (Atta in Prague)

WASHINGTON, June 16 - A report of a clandestine meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer first surfaced shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. And even though serious doubt was cast on the report, it was repeatedly cited by some Bush administration officials and others as evidence of a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

But on Wednesday, the Sept. 11 commission said its investigation had found that the meeting never took place.

In its report on the Sept. 11 plot, the commission staff disclosed for the first time F.B.I. evidence that strongly suggested that Mr. Atta was in the United States at the time of the supposed Prague meeting.

The report cited a photograph taken by a bank surveillance camera in Virginia showing Mr. Atta withdrawing money on April 4, 2001, a few days before the supposed Prague meeting on April 9, and records showing his cell phone was used on April 6, 9, 10 and 11 in Florida.

The supposed meeting in Prague by Mr. Atta, who flew one of the hijacked jets on Sept. 11, was a centerpiece of early efforts by the Bush administration and its conservative allies to link Iraq with the attacks as the administration sought to justify a war to topple Saddam Hussein.

The Sept. 11 commission report also forcefully dismissed the broader notion that there was a terrorist alliance between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

The report said there might have been contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden moved to Afghanistan in 1996, "but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship."

In effect, the commission report endorsed the views of officials at the C.I.A. and F.B.I., who have long been dismissive of a supposed Prague meeting and of the administration's broader assertions concerning an Iraq-Qaeda alliance.

The panel's findings effectively rebuke the Pentagon's civilian leadership, which set up a small intelligence unit after the Sept. 11 attacks to hunt for links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. This team briefed senior policy makers at the Pentagon and the White House, saying that the C.I.A. had ignored evidence of such connections.

The C.I.A.'s evidence of contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraqi dates to the early 1990's, when Mr. bin Laden was living in Sudan. The debate within the government was over their meaning.

The C.I.A. concluded that the contacts never translated into joint operational activity on terrorist plots; the Pentagon believed the C.I.A. was understating the likelihood of a deeper relationship.

The staff report cited evidence that Mr. bin Laden explored the possibility of cooperation with Iraq in the early and mid-1990's, despite a deep antipathy for Saddam Hussein's secular regime.

The report said Sudanese officials, who at the time had close ties with Iraq, tried to persuade Mr. bin Laden to end his support for anti-Hussein Islamic militants operating in the Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq, and sought to arrange contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraqi intelligence.

A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly visited Sudan three times and met Mr. bin Laden there in 1994. Mr. bin Laden reportedly requested space in Iraq to establish terrorist training camps as well as assistance in acquiring weapons, "but Iraq apparently never responded," the commission report stated.

The staff report added that two senior Qaeda operatives, previously identified as Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, "adamantly denied that any ties existed between Al Qaeda and Iraq."

Soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, Czech officials said they had received reports that Mr. Atta had met in April 2001 with Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence officer stationed in Prague.

But the C.I.A. and F.B.I., and some top Czech officials, quickly began to cast doubt on the story, and Czech security officials were never able to corroborate the initial report, which was based on a single source. That source made the report after the Sept. 11 attacks, when Mr. Atta's photograph was published worldwide, and after it had already been reported that Czech border records showed Mr. Atta had visited Prague a year earlier, in 2000.

The evidence concerning Mr. Atta's whereabouts in Virginia and Florida in early April 2001, at the time of the purported Prague meeting, severely weakens the case for it.

The staff report's findings on the Prague meeting were also based in part on reporting from unidentified detainees in United States custody. One is Mr. Ani, who was captured and taken into American custody after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Under questioning, he has denied that the meeting ever happened, American officials have said.

The right question is: Who other than al-Ani did Atta meet with in Praha?

APRIL 1993 : (ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH MAY HAVE BEEN ORGANIZED BY IRAQI FAROUK HIJAZI) [Iraqi ambassador/ Mukhabarat Intelligence service director of internal affairs Farouk Hijazi] Hijazi... was the man the Washington believes organized the April 1993 assassination attempt on President Bush's father during a visit to Kuwait. - "COWED SYRIA YIELDS SADDAM'S SPY BOSS," by NILES LATHEM, New York Post, 4/26/03

DECEMBER 1998 : (BIN LADEN MEETS IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY, FAROUK HIJAZI) Osama bin Laden reported to have met Farouk Hijazi, Iraqi’s ambassador to Turkey and an intelligence officer (Information from the Wisconian Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a Washington-based think tank. Gary Milhollin, its director and Professor Emeritus of the University of Wisconian Law School, gave evidence to US International Relations Committee on 4 Oct 2001). http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:P4fOFA3WkHAC:www.atranaya.org/News/AIJ/AIJSep16a.htm+%22Information+from+the+Wisconian+Project+on+Nuclear+Arms+Control,+a+Washington-based+think+tank.+Gary+Milhollin,+its+director+and+Professor+Emeritus+of+the+University+of+Wisconian+Law+School,+gave+evidence+to+US+International+Relations+Committee+on+4+Oct+2001%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

1998 (near year's end) : (AFGHANISTAN, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY, HIJAZI, MET WITH BIN LADEN IN KANDAHAR ) The source added that Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which has now effectively merged with al-Qaeda, maintained regular contacts with Iraq for many years. He confirmed the claims first made by the Iraqi National Congress - that towards the end of 1998, Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and a key member of the Mukhabarat leadership - went to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he met bin Laden.

1998 : (IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY FAROUK HIJAZI MEETS WITH BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN) While serving as Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, Hijazi traveled to Afghanistan in 1998 and met with terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. - "COWED SYRIA YIELDS SADDAM'S SPY BOSS," by NILES LATHEM, New York Post, 4/26/03

DECEMBER 21, 1998 : (IRAQI HIJAZI & BIN LADEN TARGET LIST MADE) "Terrorist cells belonging to the network organized by Osama bin Laden...are ready go into action in the countries of the Persian Gulf and Europe...The list of targets is ready. It was agreed in Kandahar 21 December by Osama himself and Farouk Hijazi... The new recruits, together with the veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Bosnia, form the secret army that is expected to use its weapons against all those who oppose the rais of Baghdad. In order to make them even more dangerous, traditional training has been supplemented with training in the use of chemical weapons, toxins and viruses." [Corriere della Sera, February 1, 1999 (Italia)] see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/743697/posts?page=51#51

APRIL 2001 : (PRAGUE, CZECHOSLAVAKIA : FUTURE 9/11 HIJACKER ATTA REPORTEDLY MET WITH IRAQI DIPLOMAT/MUKHABARAT OPERATIVE FAROUK HIJAZI) Newsweek magazine also reported Hijazi met with Mohammed Atta - the suspected organizer of the Sept. 11 terror attacks who died on one of the hijacked planes - in Prague in April 2001. But other sources have cast doubt on that report. - "COWED SYRIA YIELDS SADDAM'S SPY BOSS," by NILES LATHEM, New York Post, 4/26/03

APRIL 2001 : (911 HIJACKERS: ATTA & IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER AL-ANI & IRAQI AMBASSADOR & AL HIJAZI MEET IN CZECHOSLAVAKIA) Mohamed Atta visited Prague, Czechoslavakia at least twice, and perhaps four times during 2000-2001. Czech officials say that a meeting took place with an Iraqi intelligence agent, Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani on his second trip in April 2001, several weeks before Al-Ani was expelled from the country.*
* U.S. intelligence officials that Atta was spotted in Prague in April 2001 meeting with an Iraqi agent. - The Miami Herald, "Atta faced questions about visa at MIA-INS,Police blew 4 chances to deport ringleader" , 10-19-01,| Alfonso Chardy *
* Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross has also confirmed that Atta met with al-Ani in early April 2001 in Prague. - Patrick E. Tyler with John Tagliabue, “Czechs Confirm Iraqi Agent Met With Terror Ringleader,” The New York Times, October 27, 2001.*
* Atta also reportedly met with Iraqi ambassador to Turkey and former Iraqi deputy intelligence director Farouk al-Hijazi in Prague sometime in early April 2001. - Evan Thomas, “The Manhunt: Cracking The Terror Code,” Newsweek, October 15, 2001.*
* His friends call him Abu Amin, 'the father of honesty'. At 43, he is one of Iraq's most highly decorated intelligence officers: a special forces veteran who organised killings behind Iranian lines during the first Gulf war, who then went on to a senior post in the unit known as 'M8' - the department for 'special operations', such as sabotage, terrorism and murder. This is the man, Colonel Muhammed Khalil Ibrahim al-Ani, whom Mohamed Atta flew halfway across the world to meet in Prague, five months before piloting his hijacked aircraft into the WTC. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/568298/posts *

APRIL 17, 2001: (IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER AL-ANI EXPELLED FROM CZECHOSLAVAKIA, 911 HIJACKERS, ATTA, AL-SHAHRI, JARRAH) (double check this) the Czechs expelled al-Ani, who had diplomatic cover, as a hostile spy. (OK, on what did they base the idea that he was a spy?) A senior US diplomatic source told The Observer that Atta was not the only suspected al-Qaeda member who met al-Ani and other Iraqi agents in Prague. He said the Czechs monitored at least two further such meetings in the months before 9/11/2001. The senior US intelligence source said the CIA believed that two other hijackers, al-Shehri and Jarrah, also met known Iraqi intelligence officers outside the US before the 9/11 attacks. It is understood these meetings took place in the UAE - where Iraq maintains its largest 'illegal', or non-diplomatic, cover intelligence operation, most of it devoted to oil exports and busting economic sanctions. See this http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/568298/posts"

SEPTEMBER 2001 : (IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY, FAROUK HIJAZI, DISAPPEARS FROM HIS EMBASSY ) Mr Hijazi also disappeared from his embassy last month after the first reports of his meetings with al-Qaeda ...- "Hijacker 'given anthrax flask by Iraqi agent'," by DANIEL MCGRORY, The London Times, SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 2001, Additional reporting by Roger Boyes in Berlin; Richard Owen in Rome and Andrew Finkel in Istanbul

OCTOBER 2001 late : (IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY, FAROUK HIJAZI, IS BELIEVED TO HAVE RETURNED TO TURKEY, BUT THERE ARE NO AIRPORT RECORDS OF HIS RETURN AND THE IRAQI EMBASSY CLAIMS HE IS "RESTING") Mr Hijazi also disappeared from his embassy last month after the first reports of his meetings with al-Qaeda, and he is believed to have slipped back into Ankara [Turkey] earlier this week. The Foreign Ministry in Turkey says it has not been told that the Ambassador had returned, although the Iraqi Embassy says that he is “resting”. What puzzles Turkish officials is that there are no airport records of his return. - "Hijacker 'given anthrax flask by Iraqi agent'," by DANIEL MCGRORY, The London Times, SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 2001, Additional reporting by Roger Boyes in Berlin; Richard Owen in Rome and Andrew Finkel in Istanbul

2003 : (IRAQI MUKHABARET OFFICER/FORMER AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY & TUNISIA FAROUK HIJAZI FLEES TO SYRIA AFTER THE FALL OF BAGHDAD TO US/UK LED COALITION FORCES) The United States had evidence that Hijazi was among the regime figures who had fled to Syria in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, and his continued presence in that country was high on the list of complaints the Bush administration had made against the Syrian government for its backstage role in helping Saddam.
Hijazi, who most recently served as Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia, was the man the Washington believes organized the April 1993 assassination attempt on President Bush's father during a visit to Kuwait. - "COWED SYRIA YIELDS SADDAM'S SPY BOSS," by NILES LATHEM, New York Post, 4/26/03

APRIL 15, 2003 : (CNN INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE RUBIN ON SYRIA; ALSO INFO ON IRAQI OFFICIAL HIJAZI)

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "Good morning, Aaron. Well, U.S. administration officials are saying that a senior -- a former senior Iraqi intelligence chief, a man named Farouk Hijazi, may in fact be in Syria. Now, Farouk Hijazi most recently served as Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia. Before that, he was Iraqi ambassador to Turkey.
He was also believed by U.S. administration officials to perhaps have been involved in the plots of the early 1990's plot to assassinate the first President George Bush. He was also Saddam Hussein's point man with Osama bin Laden in the late 1980's, a contact which began at the instigation of bin Laden at a time when the United States was making nice with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Bin Laden thought he might get kicked out. He was looking for some place else to go. And it was Hijazi who Saddam Hussein designated as the person for bin Laden to talk to. Those contacts are believed to have foundered on grounds of mutual suspicion and distrust.
But the story this morning is that, according to U.S. administration officials, he may be somewhere here in Syria, traveling apparently on a diplomatic passport. As I said, he was Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia. The question, of course, is whether or not he is here, whether or not the U.S. has any interest in him. One would presume if they suspect him of involvement in that assassination plot they might, though he has been a public figure elsewhere for a number of years.
And, of course, we will have to wait and see what the Syrians have to say, who have so far consistently denied any knowledge of any senior Iraqi officials here -- Aaron."

- "View From Syria; Interview with Jamie Rubin, Former Secretary of State," CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN, Aired April 15, 2003 - 23:19 ET,

APRIL 24, 2003: (IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER TARIQ AZIZ SURRENDERS TO US FORCES) U.S. officials also reported that Iraq's high-profile former foreign minister Tariq Aziz has agreed to cooperate after surrendering to U.S. forces this week. Aziz, one of Saddam's closest advisers, returned to Baghdad this week and agreed to surrender and talk in a deal negotiated by his son, who served as an intermediary. Sources said Aziz was suffering from serious heart trouble and U.S. military commanders agreed to give him immediate medical attention and guarantees for the safety of his family in return for his peaceful surrender and cooperation. - "COWED SYRIA YIELDS SADDAM'S SPY BOSS," by NILES LATHEM, New York Post, 4/26/03

APRIL 25, 2003 : (SYRIAN-IRAQI BORDER : SYRIANS HAND IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY FAROUK HIJAZI OVER TO THE US) WASHINGTON -- A longtime Iraqi spy official, suspected of involvement in a plot to assassinate former President Bush and of having links to al-Qaida, was delivered to the Iraqi border by Syrian authorities Friday, U.S. officials said. Farouk Hijazi was taken into custody near the Syrian border, U.S. officials said, indicating new cooperation from a government that had been accused of harboring members of Saddam Hussein's deposed regime. Hijazi most recently served as Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia and was formerly ambassador to Turkey. But he is of particular interest to the CIA and the Pentagon because he was "a lifelong member of the Iraqi Intelligence Service," known as Mukhabarat, a U.S. official said. "He is significant," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "We think he could be interesting."
Hijazi is thought to have extensive knowledge of Iraqi operations and plots dating back decades. He occupied the No. 3 position in Hussein's spy apparatus in the early 1990s when Iraq tried to assassinate former President Bush in Kuwait.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey said that Hijazi's capture was "the biggest catch so far" for U.S. forces and that Hijazi is a key link between Hussein and terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida. "This man was involved, we know, with a number of contacts with al-Qaida," Woolsey told CNN.
But U.S. officials were more measured in their appraisals and expressed some skepticism about reports that Hijazi had once met with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Unconfirmed media reports have indicated that Hijazi was Hussein's liaison to anti-Western terrorist organizations and that he met with bin Laden between 1996 and 1998. "We've seen the reports," one official said. "We don't know how true they are. It certainly presents an avenue of questioning." He said U.S. intelligence analysts are divided over whether Hijazi would have met bin Laden given that the radical Islamic terror chieftain had publicly denounced Hussein's secular regime.
[* My note: that fourth paragraph is the obligatory media "anonymous source antiwar autoresponse" of which we are all by now well-acquainted after the Wilson/Niger/Kelly/BBC/Novak/Pincus/etc affair.]

APRIL 25, 2003 : (RUMSFELD BRIEFING ON THE CAPTURE OF IRAQI OFFICIAL FAROUK HIJAZI AND ANOTHER SENIOR IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE WITH THE 'AMERICAN PORTFOLIO' ) As US officials announced the capture of an Iraqi official with suspected al-Qaeda links, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said other key prisoners were providing useful information. Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia and a former high-ranking intelligence official, joins Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and others under interrogation. The key questions put to them: What happened to Saddam Hussein and the rest of the Iraqi leadership? Where are chemical and biological weapons hidden? What links did Saddam have to terrorist groups?
"You can be certain that the people who we have reason to believe have information are being interrogated by inter-agency teams, and they are in fact providing information that's useful," said Rumsfeld, briefing reporters yesterday [April 25, 2003] at the Pentagon. "He is significant. We think he could be interesting," Rumsfeld said of Hijazi.
Rumsfeld said another senior Iraqi intelligence operative, who he said "had the American portfolio," was also captured. He did not identify that person. ...
If Hijazi was indeed a liaison to terrorist organisations, he would know to what extent Iraq assisted such groups, one official said. As a foreign ambassador, he may also have information on any efforts to acquire illicit materials abroad for Iraq's alleged weapons programs, the official said. Hijazi wasn't on the military's top-55 list of Iraqi leaders. -- "Iraqi intelligence agents held,"AP via TheAge.com.au, April 26 2003

That reminds me. Has anything been said about the early report that the secret code to Air Force One (an identifying code, I think) was known to associates of the hijackers? If I remember correctly, Safire is the one who stated this originally.

JUNE 13, 2001: (MUBARAK, G8 ASSASSINATION PLOT ON PRESIDENT W. BUSH) In an interview on French television on Monday, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt spoke in specific terms about the threat, saying that "on June 13 of this year, we learned of a communiqué from bin Laden saying he wanted to assassinate George W. Bush and other G8 heads of state during their summit in Italy."

JULY 21, 2001 : (IRAQ, IRAQI NEWSPAPER ARTICLE IMPLIES AL QAEDA THREAT AGAINST WHITE HOUSE?) On July 21, approximately six weeks before the September 11 th attacks, Iraqi columnist Mulhalhal reported that bin Laden was making plans to “demolish the Pentagon after he destroys the White House.” - Findlaw, Ashton, et al. v. al Qaeda ... see also http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110003069 from the WSJ

SEPTEMBER 2001 after 9/11? : (GERMAN INTEL PICKS UP CALL "WE HAVE HIT THE TARGETS" - BUT WHO WERE THEY MONITORING GIVEN THAT ALL THE HIJACKERS ARE DEAD?) German intelligence monitored a phone call by a man they suspected of having linked to al-Qaeda. He is alleged to have said: "We have hit the targets." - ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1581000/1581063.stm- "The investigation and the evidence," BBC, Friday, 5 October, 2001, 15:10 GMT 16:10 UK

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 : (ASSASSINATION PLOTS : DEATH THREAT PHONED IN TO WHITE HOUSE ABOUT TRYING TO TAKE OUT AIR FORCE ONE) A death threat was called in to the White House that morning, saying the plotters were out to get Air Force One. The caller provided secret information that caused grave concern about the President's safety. In fact, the threat was taken so seriously, White House officials say, that Bush crisscrossed the country in Air Force One, going from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska before returning to the White House. In addition, it is believed the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania may have been on the way to attack the White House or Air Force One. Neither of the men in custody here has been charged with any crimes. - Two Saudi Nationals Eyed In Plot to Slay Bush /Computer File Found : killpresidentbush.exe , GREG B. SMITH, NY daily News, 9/22/01

SEPTEMBER 13, 2001 : (TERROR WEB : BUSH ASSASSINATION PLOT : TWO SAUDIS TRY TO BOARD FLIGHT FROM KENNEDY AIRPORT TO LA WITH TICKETS DATED 9/11/2001) Two key witnesses in the terror attack probe were found with a computer file labeled "killpresidentbush.exe" and documents linked to a money launderer for Osama Bin Laden, sources told the Daily News. The witnesses were identified as Saudi nationals who tried to board a flight from Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles two days after the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack, a source familiar with the federal investigation confirmed. Their names remain secret. The two men showed up at Kennedy Airport on Sept. 13 seeking to board a Los Angeles-bound flight with tickets dated Sept. 11, the day of the attack.
Authorities at the airport grew suspicious because their tickets were backdated and because all four of the flights that were hijacked flew out of Eastern airports and were bound for the West Coast. The Daily News has learned that authorities found two pieces of evidence that prosecutors believed could link the two Saudis to the terror plot. One of the men had a computer file labeled "killpresidentbush.exe," said a source familiar with the investigation. The source would not describe the contents of the computer file.
The other man had documents with references to a man the FBI has identified as a money launderer for Bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire who has called for Muslims to attack American civilians. Investigators were taking the potentially explosive evidence very seriously. The "killpresidentbush" reference was of particular significance because of death threats that were made against the President on Sept. 11 — the day of the attacks. The White House revealed afterward it had received information that the terrorists' ultimate goal was to kill President Bush. - Two Saudi Nationals Eyed In Plot to Slay Bush /Computer File Found : killpresidentbush.exe , GREG B. SMITH, NY daily News, 9/22/01

SEPTEMBER 13, 2001 : (NY TIMES REPORT DETAILS SEPT 11 THREAT : "AIR FORCE ONE IS NEXT") Cheney promptly called the president in Florida, who had just boarded Air Force One, and urged him not to come back to Washington immediately. In the PEOC, the vice president was joined by Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, among others. . .A threatening message received by the Secret Service was relayed to the agents with the president that "Air Force One is next." According to the high official, American code words were used showing a knowledge of procedures that made the threat credible. (I have a second, on-the-record source about that: Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, tells me: "When the president said 'I don't want some tinhorn terrorists keeping me out of Washington,' the Secret Service informed him that the threat contained language that was evidence that the terrorists had knowledge of his procedures and whereabouts. In light of the specific and credible threat, it was decided to get airborne with a fighter escort."). . .The most worrisome aspect of these revelations has to do with the credibility of the "Air Force One is next" message. It is described clearly as a threat, not a friendly warning — but if so, why would the terrorists send the message? More to the point, how did they get the code-word information and transponder know-how that established their mala fides? That knowledge of code words, presidential whereabouts and possession of secret procedures indicates that the terrorists may have a mole in the White House — that, or informants in the Secret Service, F.B.I., F.A.A. or C.I.A. If so, the first thing our war on terror needs is an Angleton-type counterspy. -- "Inside The Bunker," N Y Times, September 13, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/opinion/13SAFI.html

SEPTEMBER 2001 : (AL-MARRI AND THE STEAMER CHEST) Like so many other Middle Eastern men living in the US at the time, Ali Salem Kahlah Al-Marri became a so-called person of interest to the FBI within a week of the Sept. 11 attacks. The FBI office in Peoria had received a lead from its Indianapolis office regarding a steamer chest that Al-Marri had shipped to the US. The Peoria office also had gotten a call from a salesman at US Cellular who expressed concerns regarding Al-Marri's cell phone account. FBI agents Nicholas Zambeck and Robert Brown began a preliminary investigation and discovered that the Social Security number used by Al-Marri also was being used by two others, someone in California and someone in Illinois. They also found a discrepancy in the date of birth on his enrollment form at Bradley. Al-Marri had first said he was born Feb. 3, 1965, and on a later form listed his date of birth as Sept. 24, 1965. - "Mystery man in 9/11 terror case-Who is Ali Al-Marri? FBI links him to hijackers," by RICHARD T. PIENCIAK, New York Daily News 1/12/03

SEPTEMBER 23, 2001 : (ASSASSINATION PLOTS : WAS A GOVERNMENT MOLE INVOLVED IN THREATS AGAINST AIR FORCE ONE?) U.S. intelligence officials have not ruled out the possibilty that a government mole may have given terrorists the top secret code language they used to deliver the threat "Air Force One is next" as the World Trade Center and Pentagon were under attack. In an interview with Tony Snow of "Fox News Sunday," National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice confirmed that the Sept. 11 threat against President Bush's life included a "coded name.". . .In a related development, the FBI has taken into custody two Saudi nationals who were found with computer files labeled "killpresidentbush.exe," the New York Daily News reported Saturday. The two suspects tried to board a plane from New York to Los Angeles on Sept. 13, two days after the Twin Tower and Pentagon attacks. They had tickets dated Sept. 11. "The two are among a group of 10 material witnesses now in custody," the News reported. The FBI has declined to make their identities public. -- "Rice: Not Clear Whether Mole Involved in Air Force One Threat," Newsmax, http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2001/9/23/95808

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