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The Czech connection was just one of a few overt pieces of intel. A far more important one was a hand written note, that both speaks to the Yellow Cake issue and the AQ/Iraq tie to 9/11:

Written in the neat, precise hand of Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) and one of the few named in the US government's pack of cards of most-wanted Iraqis not to have been apprehended, the personal memo to Saddam is signed by Habbush in distinctive green ink.

Headed simply "Intelligence Items", and dated July 1, 2001, it is addressed: "To the President of the Ba'ath Revolution Party and President of the Republic, may God protect you."

The first paragraph states that "Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian national, came with Abu Ammer (an Arabic nom-de-guerre - his real identity is unknown) and we hosted him in Abu Nidal's house at al-Dora under our direct supervision.

"We arranged a work programme for him for three days with a team dedicated to working with him . . . He displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy."

There is nothing in the document that provides any clue to the identity of the "targets", although Iraqi officials say it is a coded reference to the September 11 attacks.

The second item contains a report of how Iraqi intelligence, helped by "a small team from the al-Qaeda organisation", arranged for an (unspecified) shipment from Niger to reach Baghdad by way of Libya and Syria.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11313

DK

That memo is not believable. According to it, Atta didn't just meet with an Iraqi spymaster in Europe, he travelled to Baghdad itself in order to be personally trained by Abu Nidal, as late as mid-2001. Oh, and by the way, the uranium from Niger arrived - and Al Qaeda helped us get it!

There is supposed to be a market in Iraq for forged regime documents. But I would go further and say that this one looks like an elaborate set-up. Consider the timing: it's released to the world on the eve of Saddam's capture. The journalist is Con Coughlin, previously accused of being a channel for disinformation from Britain's MI6 agency. It's touted as authentic by Ayad Allawi, who is not from Chalabi's much-criticised INC, but from the CIA's favorite, the INA.

So I surmise that this is in fact part of the campaign against an Iraq/AQ connection. But instead of casting doubt on the evidence (as was done with Atta's visit to Prague), here they're telling people what they want to hear, in spades... so that later, when the story is discredited, the idea of a connection will have even less traction. "Once bitten, twice shy."