Atta meets Iraqi intelligence service agent in Prague

Um, shouldn't the headline be in past tense?

sic

CARVE UP IRAQ!

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

USA BACKS BRITISH DOSSIER ON BIN LADEN The Statesman (India) Global News Wire October 6, 2001

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE WASHINGTON, Oct. 5.
The USA has said it backed the facts and conclusions in a British report accusing Osama bin Laden of last months terrorist attacks but refused again to reveal its own evidence pointing to the Saudi militants guilt.

The state department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, said London had provided Washington with a copy of the report before the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, presented it before his parliament earlier yesterday and that US officials had cleared it.

But there is hardly a mention of the previous attack on the WTC in 1993, apart from a quotation from Osama that the bombers were role models....Some will see a sinister motive behind this omission. The New York trial raised suspicions about Mr Saddam Husseins possible involvement in the 1993 bombing. Blaming Iraq for the latest atrocity would be unhelpful to the present coalition that Mr Blair and President Bush are trying to build.

We saw it in advance, we looked at it, enough to confirm the facts for them, we agreed with the facts as asserted in the British paper, he said. We agree with their conclusions, Mr Boucher said. I dont have any reservations about the British paper. Earlier, Mr Blair became the first Western leader to outline publicly evidence against Bin Laden for the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington.

Mr Boucher said Washington had cleared the document because it didnt contain information that could jeopardise US Intelligence sources or practices. However, he declined to say when an American version of the evidence would come out.

We will continue to look for opportunities to make information available in an unclassified form for the general public (but) I dont have anything for you today. Key aide planned suicide hijacks: Blair Mr Blair disclosed yesterday that he knows the identity of Osamas lieutenant who was responsible for the meticulous planning of the suicide hijackings in America, adds The Times, London.

A 21-page dossier published by Downing Street yesterday reveals nuggets of secret Intelligence information but admits that it falls short of a case prosecutable in a court of law. While some details must remain secret to protect Intelligence sources, the government disclosed that the attacks on New York and Washington were planned by one of Bin Ladens closest and most senior associates.

Downing Street also revealed that Osamas aides were given a deadline to return to Afghanistan for their own safety. From August this year, they were sent warnings that they had to return from wherever they were in the world by 10 September: the eve of the suicide attacks.

Intelligence agencies have briefed the Prime Minister that, just before 11 September, Osama boasted that he was preparing a major attack on America. The warning was only uncovered after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been hit. Just before 11 September, Bin Laden associates were naming the date for action as on or around 11 September, Downing Street said. The government says that at least three of the hijackers have now been identified as associates of al-Qaida.

Ms Laurie Milroie, a former White House adviser, highlighted the omission from the document of the suspected meeting of Mohammed Atta with an Iraqi Intelligence agent in Prague before he flew to America to organise the suicide mission.

It has emerged that one hijacker also played key roles in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es- Salaam, and helped to blow up USS Cole in Aden last year. Evidence blames Osama for these past atrocities. The most tantalising of 70 points of evidence comes close to the end, where the government claims: There is evidence of a very specific nature relating to the guilt of Bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to release. One diplomatic surprise is that, as recently as June this year, the US authorities were offering to help the Taliban to get rid of Osama and expel al-Qaidas terrorists from Afghanistan.

The dossier provides more questions than answers. A long account of Bin Ladens terrorist career emphasises a 1993 massacre of US soldiers in Somalia, the embassy bombings in east Africa and the USS Cole attack. But there is hardly a mention of the previous attack on the WTC in 1993, apart from a quotation from Osama that the bombers were role models. The possibility of a link between that and the 11 September attacks is not explored, even though some of those convicted for the first bombing were proven members of al-Qaida.

Some will see a sinister motive behind this omission. The New York trial raised suspicions about Mr Saddam Husseins possible involvement in the 1993 bombing. Blaming Iraq for the latest atrocity would be unhelpful to the present coalition that Mr Blair and President Bush are trying to build.

Ms Laurie Milroie, a former White House adviser, highlighted the omission from the document of the suspected meeting of Mohammed Atta with an Iraqi Intelligence agent in Prague before he flew to America to organise the suicide mission.

The dossier also fails to mention the arrests around Europe in the past weeks of terrorists suspected of plotting to blow up the US embassy in Paris and Natos headquarters in Brussels. It ignores reported evidence from the Israeli Secret Service that Imad Mughniyeh, the Lebanese terrorist behind the kidnapping of Terry Waite, plotted the suicide hijackings. He is in Iran, which Mr Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, has been wooing to join the alliance against terrorism.

I wish there were some way to warn folks of references to the Western "wooing of Iran to the anti-terrorist coalition" and Russia's defense of her partner Iran's noble anti-terrorist track record in their own War Against Terrorism.

My mind reels to the point of nausea.

I take exception to Osama's getting credit for the massacre of our men in Somalia. Where are his co-conspirators Albright and Annan?

Atta arrived in Prague from Germany where he studied at the Technical University in Hamburg. He spent only one day in the Czech Republic and left on a regular Czech Airlines (CSA) flight to New Jersey, the paper says.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to learn of sudden overcrowding in middle eastern universities, after ALL western nations deported EVERY SINGLE STUDENT of middle east AND of muslim country origin?

How about that, NATO, EU, G7, G8, etc.?

Not only should we ...

CARVE UP IRAQ!

We should also ...

CONQUER & CONVERT IRAN! (apologies to Ms. Ann Coulter)

Indexing