‘Saddam had ordered Atta training’

Indianexpress.com ^ | 12/14/03 | Press Trust of India

[TexKat]

LONDON, DECEMBER 14: The mastermind of the September 2001 attacks in the US, Mohammad Atta, was trained in Baghdad by a Palestinian terrorist at the instance of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a media report said today.

Atta, who was trained by Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, visited Baghdad just weeks before the terror attack, The Sunday Telegraph reported. The details of Atta’s visit are contained in a secret memo, written to Hussein by the former head of Iraqi intelligence service Tahir Jalil Habbush Al-Tikriti, it said.

The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained by the daily is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day ‘‘work programme’’ Atta had undertaken at 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.’’

Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, 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,’’ Allawi 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.’’

[GEC]

Interesting, but the original article is from almost a year and a half ago when Abu Nidal died.

It does not include the new information which proves conclusively that Saddam and Al Qaeda were directly linked in the planning of 9-11 itself.

In addition, we have Syria implicated as an accomplice as well. We need Assad the younger's head on a stick... for 9-11.

[Diverdogz]

You, sir, have an excellent intuition. Just saw today where the FBI has debunked the memo.

[lutnick]

You people are all fools. The reason mainstream news organizations haven't picked up on this alleged atta/saddam link is because the memo is total B.S. Newsweek has an expose on this, quoting law enforcement officials and others who have intricately tracked Atta's movements prior to 9-11 and they all say Atta could not have trained in Iraq at the times indicated by the memo. Moreover, other officials note that other facts about the memo indicate it is likely a forgery, including the fact that the memo is very blunt about its connection with Al-Qaeda. Iraqi intelligence documents are famously non-descript; it is inconsistent with past practice for iraqi intelligence officials to have reduced incriminating statements like this to writing. Note also that the memo was given to this reporter by a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. There is also a veritable flee market in forged iraqi documents right now; this reporter was simply duped and Fox News and other outlets desirous of a Saddam/9-11 connection have simply unquestioningly picked up on it and reported it. So keep living in your netherworld. There is simply no evidence Saddam was involved in 9-11.

[smith288]

Im glad I didnt comment on the news story... Dont want to be called a "fool" by lutnick... The shame of that is troubling...

[dirtboy]

There is also a veritable flee market

Yeah, if I was a Saddam henchman, I would be fleeing right about now.

Have a nice day, our moderators have some lovely parting gifts for you.

[HenryLeeII]

Ok.....I've seen this story in the Telegraph, WorldNetDaily, Indianexpress.com (whatever that is), and on the O'Reilly Factor. When is the mainstream media going to pick this up?

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!! ROTFLMFAO!!!! You are kidding, right Mr. Mojo? You know better than to expect the Maureen Dowd Kneepad Brigade to print truthful items that might get in the way of their mindless, traitorous, provincial filth, don't you? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to wipe up the coffee I spewed all over my monitor when I read your post, and put some music on...

[Mr. Mojo]

lol....of course I was kidding. But I did see the story reported on CNN yesterday by the only conservative on that station, Lou Dobbs. He also blasted his bosses (Time-Warner) for outsourcing jobs to India, and spent 20 min of his hourlong show on the subject of illegal immigration (as he's been doing all week). Amazing the guy is still there.

[HenryLeeII]

Yep, he's going to show up at Fort Marcy with twelve bullet holes in his back in an obvious suicide, if he's not careful.

[OXENinFLA]

You people are all fools.

Do all you DUmmies start off saying things like this?

[Burkeman1]

And it appears that it was. You were correct.

[JoeSchem]

Another anti-war talking point biting the Mesopotamian dust?

[Burkeman1]

Not quite:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3741646/

[clamper1797]

It is my prediction that we are going to eventually find evidence that OBL was working under the direction of Saddam and that he only was carrying out Saddams orders to take out WTC

[jws3sticks]

Here's the dude, getting all pretty by the Queer Boys:

[Mr. Mojo]

Don't you worry, proof of the Saddam-9/11 connection will eventually be uncovered. And now that we've unearthed the "fearless" Iraqi leader from his rathole, he should be singing like a pig about the location (and suppliers) of his WMD. Iow, it's all good ......be patient.

[Burkeman1]

We had 3/4's of the deck even before we captured Sadaam. We would have found them by now. I doubt Sadaam has anything to give up.

[ridesthemiles]

Ijaz says US has a source, who now that Saddam is in custody - is talking now. WMD's transported into Iran & Syria as Baghdad fell - the guy and his family did some of the transporting of enriched uranium, and have cancer to show for it.
I feel very vindicated. I have said this ever since the "convoys" into Syria were noted before the bombs dropped in March.
I hope Syria is hammered for their part in this.
I also hope a number of Arab nations take a good long look at the actions of Libya today. It wasn't a surprise,either
I got caught short with Iran. I thought there was toomuch hatred back and forth, but with these tribes which go back thousands of years, who knows there the bouncing ball is at any one time?

[ridesthemiles]

When is the mainstream media going to pick this up?
When they are done getting massive Heimlich maneuvers done to themselves for their past spewing of anti-Bush statements. I hope these "anchors" choke on their fancy wines in the next few months. They make an awful lot of money, and for what? Most of them have NEVER had a callus on ANY part of their body in their entire lives. Never will. Any guesses when the last time Katie Couric was in the grocery store like the rest of us? Pumping her own gas in the rain and snow?
Maybe someone needs to put on a reality show, putting these high profile people into daily situations we all deal with. And I don't mean Paris Hilton spoofs.

[Mr. Mojo]

I'm sure you realize how many little ratholes there are in that rathole of a country (the size of CA), and enough WMD's to kill millions of people can be placed in just one of them. Without getting tipped off, it could take years to find them. And you know how paranoid Saddam is -- I highly doubt he'd have trusted any of those in the 3/4 of the deck you mentioned. Either the weapons are well-hidden within Iraq or Saddam gave them to another nation - probably Syria - for safekeeping until after a war that the egomaniac probably thought he could survive. The existence of the damned things themselves is beyond dispute -- even the anti-war socialists at the UN admitted that he had them.

[Burkeman1]

Syria was going to take his WMD's but not take Sadaam and hide him? They would be insane to do that since we brought our weight down on Iraq over these weapons. Why would Syria want such weapons when they know we will invade them? The answer is of course they don't have them. Why didn't Sadaam use them in the war? The answer is that he destroyed them long ago but wanted his neighbors to think he had them. Our intel was bad and we were fooled.

The UN said they existed while Clinton was in power and he is a socialistic lib like them and he needed an excuse to bomb Iraq every once in a while to cover his butt on domestic scandals. When Bush came in they couldn't very well say that the WMD's didn't exist.