JUNE 2, 2000 : (ATTA ARRIVES IN PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, BY BUS FROM GERMANY) on June 2, 2000, he [Mohamed Atta] had came to Prague from Germany by bus in the morning hours. ------------ "Terror Additive Tests Find Laced Anthrax; Atta Met Iraqi," ABCNEWS, Oct. 27 "Atta Met Iraqi Spy ," by Brian Hartman , ABC NEWS
JUNE 2, 2000 : (ATTA ARRIVES VIA BUS IN PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC) Similarly, they know little about Atta’s second visit [to Prague]. During that visit, the future terrorist arrived by bus on June 2, 2000. According to a closed-circuit camera and information from the Security Information Service (BIS) [the Czech intelligence agency], Atta lingered for a while at the Happy Day casino at Prague’s Florenc station and departed the next day on a Czech Airlines flight to New York.
No record, however, has been found of his having spent the night at any Czech hotel; hence it appears he stayed at a private residence. What is interesting is the fact, unpublicized until now, that three days after this Prague visit, tens of thousands of dollars were transferred from several accounts to Atta’s own American and German bank accounts (officials have not made public the precise amount, and it is not available from unofficial sources). ------- "Mohammad Atta’s Decisive Meeting," By Jaroslav Spurny, Respekt (Czech) 16/11/03, Dec 1, 2003, 08:58
JUNE 2000 : (ATTA IS IN PRAGUE , CZECH REPUBLIC) CIA can confirm two Atta visits to Prague--in Dec. 1994 and in June 2000; data surrounding the other two--on 26 Oct 1999 and 9 April 2001--is complicated and sometimes contradictory and CIA and FBI cannot confirm Atta met with the IIS. Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross continues to stand by his information. ------- the Feith memo [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/378fmxyz.asp via 15 posted on 12/14/2003 6:28:26 PM PST by denydenydeny
JUNE 2000 : (PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC : ATTA MEETS WITH AL ANI, AN IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER) The ringleader of the 19 hijackers from the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Mohamed Atta, met twice with Iraq intelligence operatives in Prague, in June 2000 and then again last April, Newsweek reports in the current issue. The second meeting was with Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, who was called back to Baghdad before Sept. 11. One intelligence source called the two meetings interesting, but still far from proof of Iraqi involvement in the plot, Newsweek reports. ------ NEW YORK, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ ---- PRNewswire, Oct 7, citing Newsweek
JUNE 2000 : (PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC : ATTA MEETS WITH AL ANI, AN IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER) -- PRNewswire, Oct 7, citing Newsweek
JUNE 3, 2000 : (ATTA LEAVES FOR THE USA) The next day, [Czech Interior Minister Stanislav ] Gross said, [Mohamid] Atta left for the United States. -----"Atta Met Iraqi Spy ," by Brian Hartman , ABC NEWS------- "Terror Additive Tests Find Laced Anthrax; Atta Met Iraqi," ABCNEWS, Oct. 27
JUNE 3, 2000 : (ATTA TAKES CZECH AIRLINES FLIGHT TO NEW YORK) ------- "Mohammad Atta’s Decisive Meeting," By Jaroslav Spurny, Respekt (Czech) 16/11/03, Dec 1, 2003, 08:58
JUNE 3, 2000 : (ATTA FLIES TO NEWARK, NJ) Baathist Fingerprints
JUNE 5, 2000 : (THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ARE TRANSFERRED TO ATTA'S PERSONAL US & GERMAN BANK ACCOUNTS) What is interesting is the fact, unpublicized until now, that three days after this Prague visit [on June 2], tens of thousands of dollars were transferred from several accounts to Atta’s own American and German bank accounts (officials have not made public the precise amount, and it is not available from unofficial sources). ------- "Mohammad Atta’s Decisive Meeting," By Jaroslav Spurny, Respekt (Czech) 16/11/03, Dec 1, 2003, 08:58
2000 summer : (AT LEAST $99,455 WAS TRANSFERRED TO ATTA & AL-SHEHHI'S SUN TRUST ACCOUNT FROM FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE UAE) During the summer of 2000 — as the Los Angeles Times detailed on January 20, 2002 — at least $99,455 flowed from financial institutions in the United Arab Emirates into a Florida SunTrust account Atta shared with his roommate and fellow hijacker, Marwan Al-Shehhi. Baathist Fingerprints
AUGUST 2000 : (VENICE, FL : HUFFMAN AVIATION : ATTA & AL-SHEHHI TAKE FLIGHT LESSONS) That August, they began flight lessons at Venice, Florida's Huffman Aviation. Baathist Fingerprints
SEPTEMBER 2000 : (ATTA KEY WEST, FL : MOCK PASSPORTS) They are touted as being tongue-in-cheek but look authentic: navy blue and red ``passports'' embossed with a ``Conch Republic'' crest -- complete with photo, blank official-looking pages for immigration stamps, personal identification information and expiration dates. Now federal investigators are trying to find out whether Mohamed Atta, one of the men believed to be a key player in last month's terrorist attacks against the United States added a novelty Conch Republic passport to his collection of travel documents. After discovering that a man named Mohamed Atta applied for and likely received one of the passports in September 2000, FBI agents are now combing through thousands of pages of supporting material provided by a Key West group that champions the Keys as the ``Conch Republic'' and issues its own passports. FBI agents hauled away boxes of records, but have been unable to find Atta's passport application and his accompanying passport snapshots, a federal investigator said. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment Tuesday. Agents did find someone in the registration book under the name Atta from New York, but cannot say if it was the suicide hijacker. - Miami Herald, "FBI Examining 'Conch' Passport Link," Wednesday, Oct 3, 2001, BY JENNIFER BABSON http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/538844/posts
OCTOBER 12, 2000 : (YEMEN : USS COLE IS BOMBED ON ITS WAY TO ENFORCE EMBARGO ON IRAQ) Al-Qaeda strikes in Aden : Terrorists attack the USS Cole on its way to enforce the embargo on Iraq, as it lies in harbour at Aden in Yemen. At least 17 servicemen are killed. Al-Qaeda operatives later confirm their involvement - "The path to war timeline: Saddam's 24 bloody years in power," Special Reports, The Observer Sunday March 16, 2003
OCTOBER 19, 2000 : (WAS THE PLOT TO BOMB THE USS COLE A JOINT OPERATION BETWEEN IRAQ'S SADDAM HUSSEIN & AL QAEDA?) “…..Investigators in Yemen yesterday uncovered evidence suggesting the bomb attack on the warship USS Cole had been a meticulously organised conspiracy, which a leading US terrorism expert said may have been the first joint operation between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein…” -- The Guardian 10/19/00 Julian Borger in Washington
DECEMBER 27, 2000 : (FLORIDA : ATTA & AL-SHEHHI ABANDON SMALL PRIVATE PANE ON TAXIWAY AT MIAMI INTERNATIONAL) Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi abandon their broken-down small private plane on a taxiway at Miami International Airport.- "A Mission to die for : Timeline," ABC, Broadcast Monday, 12 November 2001
JANUARY 10, 2001 : (MIAMI, FLORIDA) Mohamed Atta was almost denied entry to the US when an immigration inspector at Miami International Airport became suspicious that he wanted to take flight lessons while on a tourist visa. The inspector ordered Atta out of the regular immigration line so a second immigration officer could question him at length, a federal official familiar with the incident said.
The U.S. official familiar with the investigation said the INS officer who inspected Atta's papers at 5:03 p.m. Jan. 10 became concerned when Atta said he was in the US for flight training. The inspector pulled Atta out of the line because he had a tourist visa, not the M vocational training visa commonly issued to foreign students seeking flight training, the official said. Atta told the inspector that he had applied for an M and was awaiting a change in status, the official said. The INS officer told Atta to report to a second INS official for secondary inspection, ostensibly a more thorough interview in which an arriving passenger is grilled extensively on his or her intentions while in the US. After a 57-minute delay, the second inspector cleared Atta into the country as a tourist, the official said. Atta's brief detention at the airport on Jan. 10, after arriving on a flight from Madrid, Spain, is the fourth instance that has come to light since the attacks that U.S. authorities missed a chance to stop the 33-year-old Egyptian pilot before the hijackings. The INS inspectors who interviewed Atta failed to notice that he had overstayed his visa by 32 days during a prior trip to the US.
Atta's arrival record for Jan. 10, the day he was briefly detained at the Miami airport, contains another intriguing feature: He was admitted to the US twice on the same day. It's unclear on which entry Atta was delayed at the immigration line because the record does not show a time of arrival. On one entry record that day, Atta was given until July 9 to stay in the United States, on the other until Sept. 8. The immigration record does not explain why Atta was cleared into the country twice on the same day. But a small notation on the record says the second entry ``may be another person entering with identical passport.''
A U.S. official familiar with the document said it was also possible that Atta left the country on a private plane and returned the same day. Establishing whether another person used Atta's passport is important because of the contention by U.S. intelligence officials that Atta was spotted in Prague in April 2001 meeting with an Iraqi agent. INS records do not show Atta leaving the country at all between Jan. 10 and July 7, when he again left Miami for Madrid. If Atta left the country and returned before July 7, he did so without leaving a trace. - The Miami Herald, "Atta faced questions about visa at MIA-INS,Police blew 4 chances to deport ringleader" , 10-19-01| Alfonso Chardy
(* My note: Remember this guy? Al-Tourabi was the broker between Iraq's intel agent/ambassador Farouk Hijazi and bin Laden; Hijazi's also one of the Iraqi agents Atta would later meet with in Europe) :
FEBRUARY 21, 2001 : (SUDAN : ARREST OF HASSAN AL-TOURABI - See also Bin Laden, Atta, and Saddam Hussein)
FEBRUARY 22, 2001 : (SUDAN : SECURITY TIGHTENED FOLLOWING ARREST OF AL-TOURABI) Security has been tightened in Sudan following the arrest of Islamist leader Hassan al-Tourabi, a former close ally of President Omar al-Bashir. At least 20 of Mr Tourabi’s Popular National Congress (PNC) supporters have been rounded up since his arrest on 21 February, says an aide. Armed police have also deployed around the party headquarters as well as the offices of his newspaper, Rai al-Shaab, which was not published on 22 February.
Sudan’s Information Minister, Ghazi Salah Eddin, told the BBC that Mr Tourabi had been arrested because he was cooperating with what he called a terrorist organisation to fight the state. He added that at a news conference, Mr Tourabi had given details of the proposed cooperation with the rebels and that this had gone further than what was in the document. - "Sudan. Clampdown after al-Tourabi’s arrest," (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 23 February 2001) - via http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:gAByeEa7PFIJ:www.peacelink.it/anb-bia/week_2k1/010301d.htm+%22Hassan+al-Tourabi%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
FEBRUARY 26, 2001 : (SUDAN : HASSAN AL-TOURABI IMPRISONED) 26 February: Detained Sudanese leader, Hassan al-Tourabi, is being held in solitary confinement in a rat-infested prison cell with no access to newspapers or writing material, his wife said in recent remarks published today. «He will not answer ant of their (interrogators’) questions...he asked me for papers and pens», she said. Al-Tourabi’s Popular National Congress has reiterated its commitment to the Memorandum of Understanding it signed last week with the SPLA. - Sudan. Al-Tourabi in prison — (CNN, 27 February 2001) - via http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:gAByeEa7PFIJ:www.peacelink.it/anb-bia/week_2k1/010301d.htm+%22Hassan+al-Tourabi%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8