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)
I wouldn't confuse a conservative security procedure in a time of war where we were attacked with a way out speculation that our middle east enemies are blackmailing us. Would You? BTW, I don't discount the possibility that we might get nuked somehow. I just don't think that Saddam or OBL are blackmailing GW...as if they could.
Sorry if I confused you.
Nah, I don't go for the blackmail angle. Sorry if that is what I seemed to imply. I was just pointing out something I read about the two of the being seperated. That's all.
Given that terrorism has reached our shores in a big way I have to assume that the administration has made provisions for a succession of leadership in the executive branch for a number of steps down the latter and made provisions for things like authority codes to launch a strike. At least I hope so.
Yes, charge them with murder then publically hang them. They have killed people.
Yes, Brian Williams just announced that every branch of the government has an anthrax problem, executive, legislative and judicial.
Must of those policies were written up oh, about 225 years ago. . . .in the constitution. Yes, I am being a bit sarcastic, but you know the succession is in the constitution. Why did you post this?
This is probably obvious to most by now, but there had to be a number of letters sent, open, read, and thrown away that contained anthrax. We'll not really know how many.
It is quite possible that the folks who have sent these antrax letters have supplied proof to the FBI and NSC that they have enough anthrax on hand to mail thousands of leaky anthrax filled mailing bags at once.
It would only take one drum of the stuff smuggled in on one of the millions of uninspected cargo containers which arrive every year. Or as they say, "hide it in a shipment of cocaine".
We might only be seeing the warning shot. The main volley may be their "deterrent card". A thousand leaky envelopes of the stuff mailed the same morning all over the USA would cause a major health disaster, and would shut down our postal system for months, doing great damage to our economy.
Remember, these guys are into "jui jitsu" leverage, using our strength against us. They are the folks who brought down the twin towers with box cutters. Don't underestimate them!
Just a hypothesis.
You have the right to be sarcastic as in you are right. All I can say is Opps.
IOW, he might do it strictly for the kicks, and to hell with his, or any, ordinary people.
Pure evil nihilism, acting in parallel with the evil death cult of Osama.
Could it be that the stuff sent to Daschle is an attack on our government directly. As has been the attacks on the postal service in D.C., the CIA, the Supreme Court. I feel this attack is meant to show what they really have and to let Washington know that if it can be sent through the mail, it can also be released in any number of ways all over the country if the perp wants it done. This is a message. A terrorist message that "I" (the terrorist) am in control over your destiny. Of course this is the dream of Saddam.
We don't have any choice but to fight. To not fight will only give them the victory so that they can move in as they choose. To fight means they don't get us without a battle and they also will get hurt in their effort.
Let's just follow the evidence, shall we, and not our predjudices? Did any right wing militia types meet Iraqi intelligence chiefs in Prague last year? Have they been buying $200,000 milling machines, etc, under the FBI's nose, the FBI which has multiple informants in every so-called "militia group"?
Please.
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