Posted on 06/08/2003 10:04:32 PM PDT by Wallaby
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PRAGUE, May 9 (CTK) -
Interior Minister Stanislav Gross's statement that Muhammad Atta, the leader of the hijackers of aircraft from September 11, 2001, met with an Iraqi diplomat in Prague, has entered the U.S. judiciary, the daily Lidove noviny writes today.
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It was recognised as a piece of evidence by a court in New York on Wednesday which ruled that the terrorists who destroyed the New York twins, were connected with the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the paper says. |
Judge Harold Bear ruled in the trial that the families of two victims of the attack on the World Trade Centre have the right to $ 100 million in compensation. The defence counsels of the relatives together sued Usama bin Laden, the Al-Queda terrorist network, the Taliban movement, Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein and his regime. The plaintiffs proved that Iraq provided aid to bin Laden and Al-Queda, even though indirectly, Bear said about the verdict. According to Lidove noviny, the complaint was partly based on Gross's statement. He said after the attacks against the USA that according to the Czech intelligence services, Atta met with an Iraqi agent in Prague. This information was cited in the court by former CIA director James Woolsey.
Reports about Atta's meeting with Iraqi diplomat Ibrahim Ani in Prague started to appear already shortly after the terrorist attacks on the USA. First they were confirmed by Gross at a press conference on October 26, 2001. Later former premier Milos Zeman and deputy foreign minister Hynek Kmonicek confirmed them. Some U.S. government officials said that no such meeting had taken place.
The lawyers of the victims contacted Kmonicek who is now Czech ambassador to the United Nations asking him for the information about Atta's meeting with Ani.
"I only sent them the recording of the relevant part of Gross's press conference and added one sentence to it that I have no other, fresh information at my disposal," Kmonicek told the paper.
Earlier Kmonicek has rejected reports by the British press, according to which he signed in February, the Czech government's confirmation that such meeting could have taken place, Lidove noviny says.
Here's a news flash for you: the Bush administration wasn't desperately trying to link Saddam to anything. They were desperately trying to hustle Saddam off stage without linking him to 9/11. And they pulled it off. So, anybody who was hoping that the administration would whip out the smoking gun now, when Saddam is no longer a problem (wherever he is) is going to be disappointed. It's the same issue as the WMD. Time to wake up and smell the coffee. We are now in the "move on" phase of this campaign. You'll never hear an administration figure talk about Prague again.
That whole scene was a story in itself...
Not for me, I'm the one standing on the bridge with a pail and a rope. I also want to know where Iraq figured in OKC, and I want the American people to finally come to the realization that the Muslims are out to get us and have been for years.
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