Terrorist Behind September 11 Strike was Trained by Saddam

The Telegraph ^ | December 14, 2003 | Con Coughlin

[quidnunc]

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.

In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy".

The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment — believed to be uranium — that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.

"We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," he said. "But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."

-snip-

[FreedomPoster]

>>I've checked out DU and I swear I can't tell the men from the women...

The women are more masculine, and conversely.

[Paul Atreides]

And, let us not forget that there is absolutely, positively, certainly, irrefutably, totally, utterly, entirely, 100% no-chance that there was ever even the remote chance that Saddam and Osama were aware of one another's existence. However, any unhinged Dim making the claim that there is a theory, unsubstantiate, but a theory, of which no one has even a shred of proof, a conspiracy theory mind you, that President Bush had prior knowledge of the attack, must be reported.

[Paul Atreides]

Oddly, I don't see this posted at DU. I wonder why??

The orderlies probably passed out the meds early, in anticipation.

[Qwinn]

BlogsforBush has posted about it now too.

That's 3 other places besides FR I've found it so far (not counting the Telegraph itself of course). National Review's The Corner, WorldNetDaily and BlogsForBush. Anyone else seen it anywhere else?

Remember, the more this appears on "alternative" media, the harder a time the mainstream media will have in suppressing it.

Qwinn

[secretagent]

Too good to be true indeed. The tipoff that this is a fake is that the SAME memo vindicating the Atta-Iraq link also vindicates the Niger-Uranium link. Too improbable.

Good catch! This, by itself, puts me in the disbeliever camp.

This smells like a set-up to embarrass Bush, like the Niger forgery.

(Now to read the rest of the thread)

[Paul Atreides]

If only the human rights/compassion crowd could give our President one/tenth the humanity they give a butchering dictator.

[witnesstothefall]

Now for an extremely odd coincidence. Also in today's news:

Iraqi intelligence agent denies he met 9/11 leader


NY , WASHINGTON
Sunday, Dec 14, 2003,Page 7
A former Iraqi intelligence officer who was said to have met with the suspected leader of the Sept. 11 attacks has told US interrogators the meeting never happened, according to US officials familiar with classified intelligence reports on the matter.

Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, the former intelligence officer, was taken into custody by the US in July. Under questioning he has said that he did not meet with Mohamed Atta in Prague in the Czech Republic, according to the officials, who have reviewed classified debriefing reports based on the interrogations.

US officials caution that Ani may have been lying to US interrogators, but the only other person reported to have attended the meeting was Atta, who died in the crash of his hijacked plane into the World Trade Center.

Reports that an Iraqi spy had met with Atta in Prague first circulated soon after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, but they have been in dispute ever since.

Czech government officials initially confirmed the reports, even as the CIA and the FBI said they could not corroborate them. Conservatives both inside and out of the Bush administration, arguing for war with Iraq, pointed to the reports as evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization that planned the Sept. 11 attacks.

Possible contacts between Atta and Ani seemed to offer the clearest potential connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda at a time when the Bush administration was arguing that invading Iraq was part of its campaign against terrorism.

But the CIA and FBI eventually concluded that the meeting probably did not take place, and that there was no hard evidence that Saddam's government was involved in the Sept. 11 plot.

That put the intelligence agencies at odds with hard-liners at the Pentagon and the White House, who came to believe that CIA analysts had ignored evidence that proved links between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Eventually, the Prague meeting became a central element in a battle between the CIA and the administration's hawks over prewar intelligence.

Abu Zubaydah, one of the highest-ranking al-Qaeda leaders in US custody, told the CIA that bin Laden rejected the idea of working with Saddam, a secular leader whom bin Laden considered corrupt and irredeemable, according to a classified intelligence report from September last year obtained by The New York Times.

Al-Qaeda's leadership "viewed the Iraqis, particularly the military and security services, as corrupt, irreligious and hypocritical in that they succumb to Western vices while concurrently remaining at war with the US," the report says, summarizing Zubaydah's statements.
This story has been viewed 1 times.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/12/14/2003079547

[txhurl]

It does seem contrived.

But at least it gets a lot of research indexing in order with the press for when they eventually decide to drop-kick the evidence thru the posts.

[Toskrin]

Too good to be true indeed. The tipoff that this is a fake is that the SAME memo vindicating the Atta-Iraq link also vindicates the Niger-Uranium link.

My thoughts as well. One memo conveniently sorts out the links between Mohammed Atta, Abu Nidal, Saddam Hussein, Bashir Assad, and uranium from Niger? Yea, right.

[Mr. Silverback]

Bump!

[Numbers Guy]

Good catch! This, by itself, puts me in the disbeliever camp.

Me too. I'd like to believe it, but it seems a little too pat. I'm sure it was an authentic document, but it may have been authentic disinformation. A Ba'athist plants something backing all of Bush's arguments in his own files, then there's a big brouhaha in the U.S., then the story gets discredited and Bush's credibility takes a hit.

I would guess that the administration is being extremely careful with this one.

[ChadGore]

Hey DAN RATHER! Will this story be the exclusive, one hour "very special" 48 hours ?

No ?

I wonder why.

[Toskrin]

I'm always skeptical of stories quoting unnamed officials leaking classified information. Ninety-nine times out of one hundred the "leak" is bogus - either intentional misinformation, a low-level government bigmouth who doesn't know the facts, or a reporter playing loose with the truth.

I'm sure we have poured over documents at Iraq's Czech Embassy and had a few words with the former ambassador. I've not seen a word of it reported, though.

[txhurl]

Strange.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Terrorist Behind September 11 Strike was Trained by Saddam

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

I seriously doubt Saddam trained anybody in terrorism

[Qwinn]

"I seriously doubt Saddam trained anybody in terrorism"

Uh, what do you think Salman Pak was there for then?

Qwinn

[nuffsenuff]

Actually, that's what leads me to believe that it's probably true...

Anyone looking to fake the evidence wouldn't be stupid enough to put it all in one document.

It could just be that this Tahir guy was the link for all this stuff...

[Toskrin]

I think it's fake too. However, a simpler explanation is that it was created by a well-meaning but none-too-bright Iraqi trying to maintain U.S. support. The Iraqi National Congress tried the same thing prior to the war, but our intel analysts had little trust of the information coming from the IRC.

[Toskrin]

Anyone looking to fake the evidence wouldn't be stupid enough to put it all in one document.

Never underestimate the stupidity of the criminal mind. If detectives used the logic "No, they would never be stupid enough to ..." no crimes would ever be solved.

[Lunatic Fringe]

So you think Saddam was there personally, leading a class in terrorism?

My point was regarding the misleading headline. It should have read "trained by Iraqi Intelligence"