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To: Peach; ScaniaBoy
The commission is answering a question it wasn't asked. Weldon has made no reference in his statements to Atta being in Prague (that I can find). Typical diversionary tactic. If that becomes the question, the facts that have been disclosed get lost (the Wall, Jamie Gorelick, the actual 911 report). Since I'm easily diverted...

Here is the 911 Commission on Atta (page 8 of Staff Statement #16)
While Hanjour and Hazmi were settling in New Jersey, Atta and Shehhi were returning to southern Florida. We have examined the allegation that Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague on April 9. Based on the evidence available--including investigation by Czech and U.S. authorities plus detainee reporting-- we do not believe that such a meeting occurred. The FBI's investigation places him in Virginia as of April 4, as evidenced by this bank surveillance camera shot of Atta withdrawing $8,000 from his account. Atta was back in Florida by April 11, if not before. Indeed, investigation has established that, on April 6, 9, 10, and 11, Atta's cellular telephone was used numerous times to call Florida phone numbers from cell sites within Florida. We have seen no evidence that Atta ventured overseas again or re-entered the United States before July, when he traveled to Spain and back under his true name.
This is from a June, 2004 NRO interview with Stephen Hayes:
NRO: Did Mohammed Atta meet with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague — multiple times? Hayes: I wish we knew. Atta was in Prague under very strange circumstances in May 2000. What's unclear is whether he returned, as initially reported, in April 2001. If he did, it wasn't under his own name. But news reports claiming that the meeting couldn't have taken place because U.S. intelligence has documentation placing him in the U.S. are not accurate. One of the things I report in the book is that both George Tenet and Condoleezza Rice say privately that they believe the April 2001 meeting took place.

39 posted on 08/14/2005 3:24:54 PM PDT by Freedom is eternally right
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To: JaneAustin

The Czechs neverbacktracked on the claim--that was a lie. Tenet's last statement on this was the matter was inconclusive and the Czechs still insist the story is true.

No one saw Atta in the US on that date, and the FBI's sole contrary evidence is that his cellphone was used in FLorida when he was reported to be in Prague.


41 posted on 08/14/2005 3:28:42 PM PDT by the Real fifi
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To: JaneAustin

In Washington, the FBI moved to quiet the Prague connection by telling journalists that it had car rentals and records that put Atta in Virginia Beach, Va., and Florida close to, if not during, the period when he was supposed to be in Prague. The New York Times , citing information provided by "federal law enforcement officials," reported that Atta was in Virginia Beach on April 2, 2001, and by April 11, "Atta was back in Florida, renting a car."

Newsweek reported that, "the FBI pointed out Atta was traveling at the time [in early April 2001] between Florida and Virginia Beach, Va.," adding, "The bureau had his rental car and hotel receipts." And intelligence expert James Bamford, after quoting FBI Director Robert Mueller as saying that the FBI "ran down literally hundreds of thousands of leads and checked every record we could get our hands on," reported in USA Today , "The records revealed that Atta was in Virginia Beach during the time he supposedly met the Iraqi in Prague."
All these reports attributed to the FBI were, as it turns out, erroneous. There were no car rental records in Virginia, Florida, or anywhere else in April 2001 for Mohamed Atta, since he had not yet obtained his Florida license.

His international license was at his father's home in Cairo, Egypt (where his roommate Marwan al-Shehhi picked it up in late April).

Nor were there other records in the hands of the FBI that put Atta in the United States at the time. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet testified to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June 2002, "It is possible that Atta traveled under an unknown alias" to "meet with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague." Clearly, it was not beyond the capabilities of the 9/11 hijackers to use aliases.

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/PragueConnection.htm



44 posted on 08/14/2005 4:06:19 PM PDT by Peach
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