Iraqi Agent Denies He Met 9/11 Hijacker in Prague Before Attacks on the U.S.

New York Times ^ | December 14, 2003 | James Risen

[Shermy]

Saturday's news from the New York Times.

[ladyinred]

And OJ is looking for the real killers of Ron and Nicole on the golf course in Florida.

[Shermy]

American records now indicate that Mr. Atta was in Virginia Beach, Va., in early April 2001, when he was supposedly in Prague to meet Mr. Ani.

"Now" indicate.

"Now", after the Respekt article and Edward Jay Epstein's article.

Some backtracing, fixing-upping on the "timeline"?

Times is famous for planting the fake-Havel statement.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

How to keep The New York Times busy

[Shermy]

Might be true, but the New York Times is the preferred outlet for disinformation on this matter, notably for the fake Havel statement.

CIA going overtime perhaps? Continually the "spin" givenis that "neo-conservatives" are behind making false connections, ie, code word to liberal opinion makers to rant about Cheney and ignore further inquiries.

Just this morning I saw somehting interesting.

Andrea Mitchell spoke about two things in the same segment, David Kay and Atta in Prague. She started about the doubts of the Czech meeting in April (avoiding other possible instances) then moved on to David Kay. INteresting linkage....

Kay, she says, is in the US now on vacation. "doubts" are rising about finding weapons, he's meeting CIA chief George Tenet tomorrow, and she hinted the search for WMD might stop.

Very interesting timing and linkage...

[Shermy]

LOL

I think it interesting to read the Times to, so to say, read the tea leaves.

One faction is very worried about the Prague connections, and has used TImes and Newsweek to float its deflections before. This time this writer continues the "conservative" red herring, and add s words like "many Czechs think..."

Funny, I've read all the articles and never seen this before. Naturally it is untraceable, since no names are used.

[Shermy]

PIng for new dis/information.

[eastforker]

It may very well be that we will never be told the truth about WMD in Iraq.Can you imagine the panic that could come from the US announcing they found Small Pox viruses or other nasty things.The media would go crazy about the idea that they may have already been given to terrorist. The last thing we ever want to do is give terrorist credibility that they really do have WMD. Our economy is turning around nicely,no need to set it back again. Oh,and if the terrorist do have WMD and they decide to use them our economy will be tanked anyway.Could be we are trying to stop them before they get a chance.

[OldFriend]

I did not meet with that terrorist in Prague. Never, not one time!

[Cicero]

At first glance, this story seems to be sourced. But in point of fact, it is not.

"according to United States officials familiar with classified intelligence reports on the matter. . ."

"according to the officials, who have reviewed classified debriefing reports based on the interrogations. . ."

"American officials . . ."

Probably from Valerie Plume.

[plain talk]

American records now indicate that Mr. Atta was in Virginia Beach, Va., in early April 2001, when he was supposedly in Prague to meet Mr. Ani.

There are 30 days in April. A lot can happen in 30 days. We're supposed to believe the "word" of an Iraqi intelligence officer over a letter. This is laughable.

[Shermy]

"Probably from Valerie Plame."

Good one. Not unlikely.

I'm surprised no writers have written about the Vanity Fair piece. It's quite interesting...reading through the lines... Wilson was trying to set up a gold mining deal with the Niger Govt, his second wife was a French diplomat, etc. etc. An no mention of his work on the Kerry Campaign, and little discussion about his Saudi and Rock Creek Corporation connections.

[piasa]

Al Qaeda's leadership "viewed the Iraqis, particularly the military and security services, as corrupt, irreligious and hypocritical in that they succumb to Western vices while concurrently remaining at war with the United States," the report says, summarizing Mr. Zubaydah's statements. "

Well, that settles it, then. Using similar logic, the 911 hijackers couldn't have been members of al Qaeda since they spent time in Florida and Las Vegas getting lap dances and drinking booze. Thus, it is reasonable to assume they were working for Iraq, a secularist state known for making the best beer in the region and where gang-banging with the Hussein brothers was the national sport.

[denydenydeny]

But the C.I.A. and F.B.I. eventually concluded that the meeting probably did not take place, and that there was no hard evidence that Mr. Hussein's government was involved in the Sept. 11 plot.

First of all, we know from the Feith memo that the CIA has concluded that there were strong operational ties between Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaeda. Has the Times ever acknowledged that?

Specifically dealing with the Atta matter, the Feith memo points out the CIA's actual position is not so definitive:

CIA can confirm two Atta visits to Prague--in Dec. 1994 and in June 2000; data surrounding the other two--on 26 Oct 1999 and 9 April 2001--is complicated and sometimes contradictory and CIA and FBI cannot confirm Atta met with the IIS. Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross continues to stand by his information.

[Mo1]

Whatever the truth is .. it will come out

Regardless of what the NYT's reports

[Cold Heat]

It is amazing(not):-( that the "slimes keeps bringing this so called information to their pages, yet this is the only guy who claims the meeting never happened.

This is also connected to the husband of the so called outed CIA agent that everyone already knew about.

I expect that the slimes is trying to keep this issue alive and try at the same time to negate any value of the victory in Iraq.

Any positive or helpful thing that helps GWB's re-election is a target of the history re-writers of the New York Slimes . This media giant is so in the pocket of the socialist movement. The smell is gagging me.

[Cold Heat]

It may very well be that we will never be told the truth about WMD in Iraq.

I am not sure what you meant by this statement.

I believe that we already know the truth of the WMD story.

What we don't know is where the remaining stockpile is, or how and when it was disposed of, or where it was hidden or sent to for safe keeping, if that is the case.

As to the bio aspect, we know that there was a active program to produce it, but from the information gleaned so far, it appears that no major quantities, (other than anthrax) were produced for a weapon. It appears that most of what they had was chemical in nature.

Personally, I think that much mis-information was put out by the Hussein regime to keep the U.S. off balance and also keep his own people confused on the issue. I believe that the bio and chem programs were mothballed after the first conflict in 92 and much of the stocks were in fact disposed of or sent out of the country. I think he kept enough equipment and precursor chems to quickly go back into production as soon as the U.N. inspectors finished their job.

Unfortunately he was so cocky about his situation and so sure that France would protect him from invasion that he never allowed the inspections to finish and sanctions to lift.

He had to give countries like Iran the idea that he had WOD ready to deploy so that they would not take advantage of a perceived weakened defense. Unfortunately for him, this ruse also caused his ultimate downfall. He sure was a dumb SOB.

I think that there is much more evidence buried in various places in Iraq. I also think that France, Russia and Syria helped him to hide some things.

As to the truth of the matter, it is so obfuscated by lies that no one will believe any one truth about what happened.

Even if the truth is out there it will never be something that can be said to be the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

[Shermy]

Interesting tidbit, IMO

The author of this NYTimes article, James Risen, is the same person who floated the false story last year about Vaclav Havel denying there was a Prague meeting.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/773774/posts

[Cicero]

Good catch. It looks as if someone in the administration, such as George Tenet, is turning to the Times to do his dirty work.