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-

[DoctorMichael]

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[185JHP]

Thanks.

[eternity]

Good question. What is John Kerry going to say now. Back to the original statement about attacking Iraq. I think he is toast.

[aristeides]

Con Coughlin said on Meet the Press that he had the document authenticated by experts, that the signature on the memo is genuine.

[Flipyaforreal]

Thanks for the ping Saber, Atta being right here in Southwest FL was not fun to learn about back in '01. I know there are many, many more here in FL, including Al Arian's cronies. Very discouraging.

[Qwinn]

"Has anyone from the TV News Stations mentioned this information yet???"

Believe it or not, Chris Matthews talked about it on Hardball on MSNBC tonight among the Saddam Captured news. Gave Coughlin from the Telegraph a phone interview about it, and discussed it with Howard Fineman too.

Matthews is still in form. Earlier today he was making such slanted and obnoxious comments that I once again wanted to ram his head through a wall. And then again, he becomes one of the few journalists willing to talk about something like this. There is no other journalist on any news medium that evokes as much respect and simultaneous disgust in me as Matthews does. He is in my personal dictionary as the case in point definition for the word "ambivalence".

Qwinn

[freeforall]

But, this can't be true. All my leftist foes said it wasn't so...

[Mo1]

I understand

I sitting here watching Chrissy interview Dick Gerhardt and Chrissy just referred to Saddam as a Convict

A Convict???

HELLO .. What is wrong with these liberals

[Ronin]

More on uranium from Niger? Hmmm... very interesting. If it turns out there WAS uranium from Niger the DemonCraps are REALLY going to have a fun time explaining themselves.

But heck, I'm just kidding myself. I am sure that there are plenty of DU threads right now that are claiming that the guy we have is not Saddam. Probably a body-double we hired to play the role. Anyhow, it's all faked up and Dubya is the terrorist, yada, yada, etc.

[MHGinTN]

Con is a fairly regular interviewee on MSNBC. You'd think they would allow him to offer this clear connection during prime time ... NOT. Liberalism is a disease in need of eradication, but the clinics are held by the liberal elite!

[piasa]

bttt

[El Gato]

do they use the same calendar in their offical work as we do?? july 1 2001??

Don't know, but don't you suppose that the newspaper could have translated the date in the same way they translated the rest of the memo from Arabic. After all, the 12th of Aquadalaba, or whatever wouldn't mean anything to the Brit readership.

[Allan]

I am just a bit suspicious of this story
it seems a bit too convenient
and lumping Atta together with the Uranium.
Besides
I don't think you do 'training' in just a couple of weeks
taken off while travelling the world
before flying back to the USA.

[Allan]

Yes
and not only they get Atta into the story
along with the Uranium
but they managed to nab Abu Nidal as well.
Could there be someone in Iraq
who is just trying to get on the good side
of the USA
give them what they want?

[marron]

I could care less if Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, because the US is fighting a war on ALL TERRORISM not a single war against Al Queda and those who did 9/11. And Iraq was a terrorist state even before 9/11.

I agree. My case, since shortly after 9/11, was that we needed to take Iraq down in order to finish off our 12 year war there. Our "containment" was a losing proposition, with major security council members beginning to make their own separate peace deals with Saddam. It was only a matter of time before the containment crumbled completely.

Much of our terrorist problem is Wahab, financed by the Saudis. But we couldn't apply the necessary intimidation to the Saudis as long as we needed them for the containment of Iraq. Taking down Saddam freed us from the Saudis. And the effects of that are only beginning to be felt.

We couldn't properly intimidate the Saudis while Saddam was still standing. Beyond that, Saddam was an important symbol, refuge, source of finance, and source of inspiration that had to go or the terrorists could never be beaten. Thats even if he wasn't backing Al Qaeda, which there was and is plenty of evidence of the connections between them dating from the first World Trade Center bombing. The evidence is that Al Qaeda provided the cannon fodder, and Saddam provided the technical assistance.

Look at the long faces on Arabs everywhere outside of Iraq. They don't care what he did to other Arabs and other Muslims, the mere fact that he was against the Americans was enough to make him a hero. And that means that bringing him down was job one.

I liken it to being faced with a mob in an alley. You pick the biggest, mouthiest, and ultimately the most vulnerable one, and jump on him. The others will lose their focus and back down at least for a moment, which may be all you need to save yourself.

[yonif]

In addition, the conditions of Iraq under Saddam (dictatorship, repression, sponsoring and harboring terrorists) were similar to what was going on under the Taliban in Afghanistan before 9/11. These terror state conditions lead to terrorist attacks, and terrorist attacks on the scale or even greater to 9/11. This war on terrorism seeks to get rid of those governments and terror friendly conditions, so that other terrorist attacks on us do not occur.

Furthermore, you have people say that Iraq with Saddam was not a threat. It is a threat, just like any other terror regime like the Palestinian Authority, Syria or Iran, for the simple reason these places have terrorist friendly haracteristics that in turn spur threats and allow attacks. That failure to understand this led us to believe the Taliban BEFORE 9/11 was a not threat, even though it was.

[Betty Jo]

Where is Lorie Mylorie or however you spell her name when you need her?

[piasa]

My case, since shortly after 9/11, was that we needed to take Iraq down in order to finish off our 12 year war there. Our "containment" was a losing proposition, with major security council members beginning to make their own separate peace deals with Saddam. It was only a matter of time before the containment crumbled completely.

This is a concept too many people can't seem to grasp.

[Bigg Red]

They are hanging themselves, with rope given to them by President Bush, and he has the facts that will "drop the door" beneath their feet and break their freaking necks....

***

I pray you are right. I am so nervous, even 11 months before the election because the lamestream press is so strident in its efforts to undermine the President. And there is little that can be done to counteract the negative
messages -- some subtle, some not so subtle -- that bombard the general public, most of whom are unwilling to delve into the material and think for themselves.

I noticed yesterday that as soon as CBSABCNBC reported Saddam's capture, they were quick to add that his capture was unlikely to stop the terrorist attacks on our guys. And it just sickens me to see how they are almost gleeful when they can intone, "More US soldiers were killed today in Iraq..."

[BOBTHENAILER]

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.

Making the logical leap here:
Abu Nidal was killed by Saddam to literally bury the evidence of Saddam's support for al Qaeda and 911.

This will be supported in coming months, IMHO.

Weeping, moaning and gnashing of the teeth at DNC/terrorist headquarters. And yes, Virginia, I'm comparing the DNC to the ones they enable: terrorists.