Posted on 12/14/2003 6:15:39 PM PST by 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.’’
I see, Saddam destroyed his weapons of his own volition? lol......Has any dictator in the history of the world destroyed his own arsenal? Puhleeze, Burkeman. .....I'll continue this conversation with you later -- my Hannukah dinner is ready.
My point earlier was that to expect a tyrant like Saddam to willingly give up his WMD's - especially before the U.S. showed that it wasn't messing around in the WOT - is a bit far-fetched, imo. Yeah, Kaddafi just today said he'd been giving up his own arsenal. But he saw the writing on the wall, and probably wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of being dragged out of a hole one day himself.
Why would Syria want such weapons when they know we will invade them?
They know now that we would invade them -- after we showed that this administration isn't a reincarnation of the previous one. A year or two ago they probably thought we'd finish our business in Afghanistan and then quickly revert back to our "paper tiger" status.
Why didn't Sadaam use them in the war?
Either A) they had already been sent off to Syria (or Iran), or B) he knew he'd be nuked - or MOABed - in short order. (I'm sure we made "B" very clear to him).
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