Posted on 10/26/2001 4:15:17 PM PDT by blam
SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 2001
Hijacker 'given anthrax flask by Iraqi agent'
BY DANIEL MCGRORY
INTELLIGENCE agents from Prague to Swansea are uncovering a trail of clues that point to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq having a hand in al-Qaeda’s terrorist missions. Iraqi ministers have spent the week protesting Baghdad’s innocence to the United Nations, but will not say why some of its diplomats who met Mohammed Atta, one of the suspected September 11 hijackers, disappeared from their European posts after that date.
Nor will Baghdad explain why Saddam’s agents were spotted at various times this year with Atta in Germany, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic.
Many in the Pentagon are sure Saddam helped to orchestrate the simultaneous hijackings and the anthrax attacks, but President Bush and Tony Blair have yet to be convinced. To get proof of the Baghdad connection, senior officials in the Bush Administration even sent a former CIA director to Britain on a covert mission.
Intelligence officers in Washington have deliberately leaked the testimony of an Iraqi defector hiding in Turkey who said that Saddam set up a terrorist training school on the outskirts of Istanbul to practice hijacking a Boeing passenger aircraft. The CIA says that it is assessing the claims.
Meanwhile, a special FBI team sent to Europe to uncover al-Qaeda cells say that they are studying a report from Prague that anthrax spores were given to Atta during his last meeting in Prague in April with Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, the Iraqi consul. “If it can be shown that Atta was given a flask of anthrax,” a Western intelligence official said, “then the link will have been made with Osama bin Laden and with Iraq.”
What is known is that Atta made at least four visits to the Czech Republic to see Mr al-Ani. Czech intelligence officers who saw them embrace at Ruzyne Airport admit that they had no idea who the man greeting Saddam’s envoy was. When they were followed to the headquarters of Radio Free Europe the suspicion was that they may have been plotting to bomb it.
Yesterday the German newspaper Bild suggested a more sinister motive for their meetings. The claim, according to Israeli security sources, is that Atta was handed a vacuum flask of anthrax by his Iraqi contact. From Prague, it is believed Atta flew to Newark. From New Jersey, letters laced with anthrax were sent to broadcasters and politicians in New York, Washington and Florida. Czech officials have been to Washington to reveal all they know, but they can’t question the Iraqi envoy because Mr al-Ani was deported from Prague in April for “activities incompatible with his status as a diplomat”.
Stanislav Gross, the Czech Interior Minister, confirmed yesterday a meeting in Prague between Atta and Mr al-Ani just weeks before the envoy was expelled.
US scientists believe the anthrax spores sent to Tom Daschle, the Senate Majority Leader, had been treated with a sophisticated chemical additive only three countries can manufacture: Russia, America and possibly Iraq.
Former UN weapons inspectors suggest that Saddam could have helped bin Laden to get nuclear material. Critics of the Pentagon’s view say that Iraq would not share its nuclear secrets, but might watch for others trying to buy on the black market.
(Go to the Times site for the rest of the article)
It sounds like it is all coming out of the same container. As you get closer and closer to the bottom the product becomes finer and finer just like a box of cereal. Mystery solved!!
Not to defend Saddam, but actually there is such a defensive purpose. It's to serve as a deterrent against others' using those weapons against you. That's why we developed them ourselves until Nixon's presidency.
What worries me about this scenario is I've heard Saddam's two sons are worse than he is, and have already made threatening statements if anything happens to "dad". And undoubtedly there is a whole army of this ilk waiting in the wings to take over should something happen to the sons. We'll have to exterminate the whole bunch - that might not be easy.
This may be why the Bush Administation is hesitant to link Saddam to the attacks...they may just be buying time to figure out a strategy. And given the obvious ramifications, I think they want to be as certain as possible of Saddam's connections.
So Atta was in Prague in April. And so far we have only heard about trips of his to Spain in January and July. Was he traveling on a false passport?
And I haven't heard until now about Atta's being in Germany or Italy this year, or of Iraqi agents meeting him in Spain. I wonder when these things happened.
I have also read about Atta being in Switzerland some time this year (and possibly buying a knife.) I wonder when he was there.
His sons have already threatened to nuke Israel if anything happens to dad.
This is going to be...interesting.
I kinda think that the source of the Anthrax is known, but it's not being released so we (the American people) don't demand a change in priority of targets (Iraq vice Taliban) until the Taliban is kaput. I swear I don't wear a tin foil hat and ussually frown on conspiracies, but I agree we are being preped for a new phase, but the total picture won't be clear until we (the government) is ready to let us (the people) know and we (the military) is ready to go.
I'm starting to think the same way. We're experiencing the fog of war, psyops 24/7.
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