Terrorist Behind September 11 Strike was Trained by Saddam

The Telegraph ^ | December 14, 2003 | Con Coughlin

[quidnunc]

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.

In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy".

The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment — believed to be uranium — that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.

"We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," he said. "But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."

-snip-

[Future Useless Eater]

- SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURED!
UPDATED here -
Iraq's 55 13 Most Wanted Scoreboard

[Robert A Cook PE]

Lot of "keywords and tricky phrases" all coming up at the same time in this story.....

importing from Niger

Targets we agreed to destroy

M. Atta getting trained in Iraq ...

---

Then again. Since Hussein's is captured, why WOULDN'T these stories start coming out?

The perp's have nothing to gain by continuing to stonewall.

[M0sby]

BTTT

[Dubya]

bump

[jellybean]

The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment — believed to be uranium — that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

Gotta read this!!

[Freedom2specul8]

Thanks Nutmeg.. We saw this last night and were wondering.. WILL it go mainstream.

[witnesstothefall]

Bumpity Bump

[Killborn]

BTTT!

[piasa]

That may explain why they killed Abu Nedal.

You mean Abu Nidal didn't coit suicide by shooting himself in the head four times as was claimed?

;o)

[piasa]

That isn't the only painting in Iraq glorifying 911 ... there was another in the Mukhabaret HQ in Basrah, I believe. Somewhere in the south, showing the WTC in flames. I've saved it somewhere on my PC...

[piasa]

AUGUST 14, 2002 : (ABU NIDAL ARRESTED) And so he set up an office with a guard and an apartment--which is where Iraqi intelligence supposedly arrested him this summer on August 14. But here there are two extremely divergent sides to the story. First the account as provided to reporters by Tahhir Jalil Haboush, chief of Iraqi intelligence:
Officials appeared at the doorstep of Nidal's apartment with orders to bring him to court. As "Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism" relays, "when the security officers arrive at his home, Abu Nidal said he needed to go to his bedroom to change his clothes. Haboush said a shot was fired, and the officers found that Abu Nidal had shot himself in the mouth. He was then rushed to the hospital where he died eight hours later."
But Palestinian sources in Ramallah told "Jane's" quite a different story, saying that Abu Nidal "had set up plans to target a senior Iraqi official and that his group received $4 million from an Arab country for the operation. It was this . . . that prompted Iraqi intelligence to order the assassination of Abu Nidal and the arrest of his assistants." Palestinian sources also reported that Nidal's body "bore several gunshot wounds," thus casting doubts on the idea of a suicide.
If the Palestinian sources are to be believed, two questions linger: Which Arab state was helping Nidal? Who was the targeted official? - "An "Apparent" Suicide : Terrorist Abu Nidal dies in Iraq after he shoots himself in the head. Four times." by Victorino Matus , The Weekly Standard, 09/10/2002 12:00:00 AM

[piasa]

"We know that Saddam Hussein has, over the years, been one of the top state sponsors of terrorism for nearly 20 years," Cheney said. "We've had this recent weird incident where the head of the Abu Nidal organization, one of the world's most noted terrorists, was killed in Baghdad. The announcement was made by the head of Iraqi intelligence. The initial announcement said he'd shot himself. When they dug into that, though, he'd shot himself four times in the head. And speculation has been, that, in fact, somehow, the Iraqi government or Saddam Hussein had him eliminated to avoid potential embarrassment by virtue of the fact that he was in Baghdad and operated in Baghdad. So it's a very complex picture to try to sort out." - Vice President Dick Cheney on 'Meet the Press,' September 2002

[lilylangtree]

Thanks for the post.

[piasa]

Atta entered the US twice on the same day back in 2001, according to customs.

[Barnacle]

Bump!

[cyncooper]

Mark and

BUMP

[aristeides]

Tom Brokaw had this writer Kaufman on Meet the Press today, and he told the NBC audience about the Telegraph article.

[aristeides]

Oops, Coughlin, not Kaufman.

[JustPiper]

Lies? Was Atta trained in Iraq?