Posted on 09/28/2001 4:01:45 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Farouk Hijazi, an Iraqi intelligence officer who is Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, met with bin Laden in Kandahar, a region in southeastern Afghanistan where bin Laden is known to have training camps, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. It is not known what was discussed at the December 1998 meeting.
Vice President Dick Cheney said there was no evidence to link Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
A second U.S. official said that investigators have no hard evidence linking any country to the attacks, and all indications are that bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network was responsible. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The meeting between Hijazi and bin Laden is the second known link between Iraqi intelligence and those suspected in the hijackings. One of the suspected hijackers, Mohamed Atta, believed aboard one of two planes that slammed into the World Trade Center, reportedly met in April with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Switzerland, officials said.
Both Iraq and bin Laden have denied taking part in the attacks.
Saddam Hussein accused the U.S. government of using the attacks as an excuse to settle old scores with Muslim countries. The United States lists Iraq as a state sponsor of terrorism, and some in the Bush administration are advocating strikes against Iraq regardless of specific ties to Sept. 11.
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