[The Great Satan]

My guess is that Perle actually spoke of Atta's meeting with Saddam's agent in Prague, and this report is a sloppy, garbled version of that. I would be most surprised if Saddam Hussein met with Mohammed Atta personally, or that, if he did, we would have proof of it or, that if we had proof of it, the first person to hear about it would be an Italian reporter for a business daily. The administration gave the LA Times a heads up a few weeks ago that the Atta-al-Ani meeting did take place and would form part of the case for taking out Saddam: White House says Sept. 11 skyjacker had met Iraqi agent.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Thank you for using common sense...I agree wholeheartedly.

[AM2000]

My guess is that Perle actually spoke of Atta's meeting with Saddam's agent in Prague, and this report is a sloppy, garbled version of that.

Now that I can believe!

[Mitchell]

Vice Pres. Cheney, on Meet the Press today, said that the intelligence report of Atta meeing an Iraqi agent in Prague was "credible," but he did add that it was "unconfirmed."

[Nogbad]

Atta may not have met Saddam, but it is amusing to note
there is a Scottish Labour MP (whose name I forget)
who is a strong supporter of Saddam
and who claims to have met with him in his bunker
some 300 feet underground.

[okie01]

"My guess is that Perle actually spoke of Atta's meeting with Saddam's agent in Prague, and this report is a sloppy, garbled version of that. I would be most surprised if Saddam Hussein met with Mohammed Atta personally, or that, if he did, we would have proof of it or, that if we had proof of it, the first person to hear about it would be an Italian reporter for a business daily."

I will be shocked if this is not precisely the case.

If the Atta-Saddam meeting were true, the story would not be first told to an Italian business daily. And it would not be Richard Perle doing the telling.

This is either a.) an accidental misreporting of Perle's remarks, as you suggest or b.) an intentional misreporting, so as to damage the credibility of whatever evidence the administration may subsequently produce on an al-Qaeda-Iraq tie.