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-

[jwalsh07]

What do you think, fact or fiction?

[Drango]

I'm sorry I don't believe it...and I think it makes conservateves look like idiots when they grasp at straws such as this.

[Malsua]

More details on that painting?

I did some "technical" looking into that picture.

I found the original large, cleaner version on a website blog of sorts. You can find that file here on my ftp that won't scroll it off. The camera was a Sony FDMavica(I used a Hex Editor to examine the jpg header) and the picture was taken on April/9/2003(assuming camera is set right) as I researched what date formats the FDMavica cameras support. The only date format on Mavicas that supports year first is Year/Month/Day. That's the best I've been able to figure out beyond the obvious

It'd be nice if the original author/poster/GI would step up and give some details.

[aruanan]

Someone needs to put Daschle on a suicide watch.

I'm still waiting for the evidence to come out that Clinton and the House and Senate Democrats had specific and credible evidence about 9/11 months in advance and sat on it so as not to give Bush a chance to avert disaster and look good politically. Oh wait, I guess Clinton did know about the plan for using passenger jets as flying bombs.

[onyx]

Thanks for the ping, arasina. I'm not sure what to make of this, yet. What do you think?

[William McKinley]

The story here isn't the memo. It is who broke protocol and leaked the memo. They must be punished!

[armymarinemom]

Hmmmmm,I'm waiting to see just how fast the libs cover this up.

[squidly]

I can't see the need to fake information now. Politically, Dubya is in pretty good shape. Would have made more sense to fake this a year ago, if one were going to fake it. In any case, I don't think anyone is "grasping" at this or "hanging their hat on it."

[tubebender]

bu Nidal, who was responsible for the failed assassination of the Israeli ambassador to London in 1982, was based in Baghdad for more than two decades.

And didn't he try to assassinate Col Norths family and wasn't that the reason the tax payers were asked to pay for a security system for Ollies home...

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Dems will now want 'irrefutable proof'... all evidence will be discounted as 'bad' and compared to other 'bad' intelligence.. If they have to admit he was there, they will call it a vacation, at most.

Should be fun.

[cmsgop]

I'm not sure what to make of this, yet. What do you think?

A Hat, A Broach? A Terodactyl??????

[William McKinley]

I guess Gore picked the wrong week to give up acid.

[Paul Atreides]

And, let us not forget the best part: after months of asking for proof, Follywood Bush-haters will claim that any evidence produced to be fabricated and planted by the administration.

[Quilla]

I found the photo at littlegreenfootballs.com along with this one:

It is located in their September 6 archive which can be found here. Warning - huge page that took forever to download on my at-home dial-up connection - hence the delay.

[MJY1288]

This is going to be a long 11 months for the democrats. When the facts come out, it will take 30 years for a democrat to be trusted with National Security

[Torie]

Putting aside Hillary (Hillary bores me), I don't know, but Saddam trying to help Al Qaeda while trying to keep it off the radar screen, seems highly believable, indeed, almost obvious. How much he really helped quantitatively is another matter. Saddam had a certain cautious streak, but fortunately for us, it wasn't a constant one. Saddam needed to go for reasons that have nothing to do with WMD or Al Qaeda, and he needed to go sooner rather than later. And any excuse Bush had for doing it, is just ducky with me. If Dean or Chirac or Gore don't like it, too bad. I like it.

[wizardoz]

Written in a letter to Saddam Hussein? I'm curious, what could be more of a smoking gun?

A picture of Saddam, Osama, and Mohammed Atta all dressed up in drag, signed "To Wong Fu, Thanks for everything...."

[highlander_UW]

"Being liberal means never having to say you are sorry." Iconoclast

It's easy when the role model for democrats is Baghdad Bob.

[the Real fifi]

You mean the NYT's was wrong today ? Their top secret leaker of classified material about Atta wasn't correct. Oh, dear.

I'M DANCING IN THE STREETS!!!!

[UB355]

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