Posted on 10/26/2001 10:29:45 PM PDT by kattracks
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - A Czech cabinet minister on Friday became the first official to acknowledge that suspected suicide hijacker Mohamed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agent during a trip to the Czech Republic.
Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said the meeting between Atta and Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani took place several weeks before Al-Ani was expelled from Prague on April 22, 2001 for conduct incompatible with his diplomatic status.
``We can confirm now that during his ... trip to the Czech Republic he did have a contact with an officer of the Iraqi intelligence, Mr. Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani,'' Gross said.
Gross would not reveal the precise date or venue of the meeting but his comments confirmed a link between Baghdad and those who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks. Iraq has vehemently rejected suggestions that it was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
A Czech intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that his American counterparts had been told of the meeting, but he did not provide specifics or say whether U.S. intelligence was tipped off about the meeting before the Sept. 11 attack.
``If we have any information which could be of interest for our U.S. partners, they will learn it from us,'' the intelligence official said.
Atta, an Egyptian who studied in Germany, is believed to have been on American Airlines Flight 11 that smashed into the World Trade Center.
Czech officials are investigating the number of trips Atta made to the country. Gross said he first entered the Czech Republic by bus from Germany on June 2, 2000 and then flew to the United States from Prague the next day.
Gross did not provide further details or reveal al-Ani's whereabouts.
A Czech official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were investigating whether Al-Ani may have also met with another hijacker in the Czech Republic.
Government officials told The Associated Press earlier this month that Al-Ani had been under the surveillance of Czech intelligence, which believed he might have been involved in plotting an attack on the headquarters of Radio Free Europe.
Meanwhile, in London on Friday, an Algerian pilot suspected of training some of the hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, was ordered detained for another month while U.S. prosecutors build a case for extradition.
Lotfi Raissi, 27, is wanted on a U.S. warrant for providing false information on an application for a pilot's license and failing to disclose a 1993 criminal conviction in Britain for theft.
Prosecutors have said he flew from Las Vegas to Phoenix on June 23 with suspected hijacker Hani Hanjour.
Raissi has not been formally charged with any offense and denies any ties to terrorism. The United States has until Raissi's next court appearance, scheduled for Nov. 27, to present it's extradition case against him.
Two other Algerians suspected of plotting terrorist attacks made brief court appearances in London as well.
Amar Makhlulif, 36 - also known as Abu Doha - is wanted by the United States in connection with the millennium plot to blow up the Los Angeles airport. Mustapha Labsi, 32, is sought in France in connection with an attack on the Lille police station in 1996.
Makhlulif and Labsi were arrested in February by British anti-terrorism police.
They were ordered detained Friday until their next court appearance on Nov. 27.
Britain has posted an appeal for information about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on radical Islamic Internet sites, the government said Friday.
``The purpose is clear. We are asking members of the public to telephone us if they have any information that could help us track down terrorists,'' said a spokesman for the Home Office, on customary condition of anonymity.
In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said Friday that at least one Algerian suspect detained in Bosnia had links to al-Qaida.
Bensayah Belkacem was arrested Oct. 8 on the basis of foreign intelligence reports that he allegedly made telephone calls to an aide of bin Laden. Police found a number of blank passports from various countries at his house.
Bosnian police, in cooperation with NATO-led forces, have detained dozens of suspects since the Sept. 11 attacks. Most have been released but six Algerians remain under investigation by the Supreme Court, the only Bosnian tribunal dealing with suspected terrorism cases.
Copyright © 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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