Iraq, 9/11 Still Linked By Cheney

Washington Post ^ | Oct. 29, 2003 | Dana Priest and Glenn Kessler, also Margot Williams

[pttttt]

Iraq, 9/11 Still Linked By Cheney

Minutes after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, Vice President Cheney was in the operations center with his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, far right, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, center left, and his wife, Lynne Cheney, far left. (White House Photo David Bohrer)

By Dana Priest and Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, September 29, 2003; Page A01

In making the case for war against Iraq, Vice President Cheney has continued to suggest that an Iraqi intelligence agent met with a Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker five months before the attacks, even as the story was falling apart under scrutiny by the FBI, CIA and the foreign government that first made the allegation.

The alleged meeting in Prague between hijacker Mohamed Atta and Iraqi Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani was the single thread the administration has pointed to that might tie Iraq to the attacks. But as the Czech government distanced itself from its initial assertion and American investigators determined Atta was probably in the United States at the time of the meeting, other administration officials dropped the incident from their public statements about Iraq.

[Alamo-Girl]

Hmmm ... I recall it being challenged and then the challenge refuted by a terrorist expert in Prague. I'm not sure who had the last word.

[Cold Heat]

It appears to still be a mystery of sorts.

I wonder how the recent info that Atta was out ranked by another Islamo (forget the name) who went to Allah aboard the Jet that crashed in the field.

I understand that this guy was apparently running the show and Atta was more of a lieutenant or something. I wonder if we have any info on this guys travels prior to 9/11 regarding the Chek meeting. It is also possible that someone used Atta's name or Atta traveled under a fictitious name and passport for the trip.

[Shermy]

I recall it being challenged and then the challenge refuted by a terrorist expert in Prague. I'm not sure who had the last word.

It's interesting. There was a retired fellow, from the intel part of their Foreign ministry, who came out to doubt the story. But he wasn't in the govt at the time, I recall, and wasn't part of the security service who was handling the matter.

All other Czechs check out.

The "Havel quietly told" Bush story was disinformation that came out in the New York Times. Havel immediately denied it.

[Alamo-Girl]

I'm fairly certain the terrorist espionage information we get from the press is inaccurate. And I doubt some of it would be shared with Congress because of leaks. I also doubt all of it is spread within the CIA, because I believe there is some doubt about their loyalties - at least there ought to be IMHO.

I suspect only the very highest levels - NSC, Rice, Tenet, Ashcroft, Ridge, Rumsfield, Powell, Cheney and Bush - have a complete, coherent picture. If Cheney implies there is a connection, I believe him.

[Shermy]

The fact that he didn't drop it is telling - since he didn't need it.

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed. Great catch - again.

[Shermy]

If Cheney implies there is a connection, I believe him.

You notice how all the talk, successes and failures about anthrax and smallpox vaccinations has dissapated since the end of the Iraq war?

Consider whether Iraq was blackmailing us and Cheney knew or sensed it. Or that Uday speech was the "message." And possibly the anthrax attack was Iraqi/AQ coordinated somehow.

Just some food for thought.

[Alamo-Girl]

Great catch, Shermy! Thanks!

[Mitchell]

IMO, what makes the Atta in Prague story intriguing is the degree to which some wanted to destroy it.

And also the degree to which some wanted to promote it. I'm honestly not sure how it balances out.

[Shermy]

And also the degree to which some wanted to promote it. I'm honestly not sure how it balances out.

True.

I think I was impressed in the beginning that the Czechs seemed to me sincere, and the news was taken by surpirse in Washington.

One Czech spokesman now wishes they didn't release the allegation publicly.

[aristeides]

Laurie Mylroie's book Bush Versus the Beltway connects both the anthrax and 9/11 with Iraq through Al Qaeda. She plays up the Prague meeting big, and pretty clearly believes it happened. It's obvious from her sources and the blurbs on the back cover that she has the sympathy if not the agreement of the neoconservatives and hawks in the administration.

[Shermy]

Here's a Spertzel Oct. 6 article of interest

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/7346.htm
GLASS HALF FULL

[okie01]

"YET to be accounted for is some significant WMD-production material that we know Iraq had. It is not apparent that current investigative units are even aware of these - i.e., a spray-dryer ideally suitable for making a powdered agent; 25 metric tons of Aerosil imported by Iraq in 2002, a product important to both the chemical and biological programs; and the missing 1,000-liter fermenters. These should have been among UNMOVIC's highest priorities, but the sites where they were located were not inspected. Where are these items now?"

A very good question, don't you think?

Why does the media show no interest in the answer?

We both know why. But, at least, they could be hammering the administration about something that was actually important...

[Ax]

I was in Baghdad, at the U.S. Interests Section, in the late summer/early autumn of 1983. My walk to the Section from my hotel took me past the PFLP-GC compound every day. At that time, terrorist groups of every stripe were active in Baghdad. More recently, we learned that Abu Nidal "committed suicide" in Baghdad, and Abu Abbas, architecht of the Achille Lauro murder was rolled up by U.S. forces in Baghdad. That Saddam Hussein was in bed with all of these anti-American murdering moslem thugs is not open for discussion. And as President Bush said in his address to the nation shortly after 9/11, if you're harboring or supporting terrorists, you are guilty, and we're coming after your asses. He did, and he was justified.

[Monti Cello]

What are the odds that this is the rope-a-dope of the century?

Bush surely understands that his re-election is the most important aspect of the WOT next year. They don't seem terribly forceful or concerned about correcting misconceptions pushed in the media.

Are they just waiting for the opportune time?

[okie01]

"That Saddam Hussein was in bed with all of these anti-American murdering moslem thugs is not open for discussion."

It defies common sense that Saddam and the terrorist organizations in the Middle East would not be making common cause.

That the media would blithely assume the contrary has always astounded me.

It is as if "birds of a feather" was an unrevealed truth, awaiting some kind of mystical flash of insight...

[cardinal4]

".......And that case has not been made connecting Iraq and terrorism. In other news today, Abu Nidal, architect of the OPEC hostage taking in Vienna in 1975, and also the Christmastime masscres at Rome and Vienna airports, was found dead in his Baghdad apartment. Baghdad is the capital city of the country that is no way connected to terrorism, Iraq. It was ruled a suicide, based on the 9 bullets in the back of his head. Next up, the Bush admin flounders for reasons to go war......."

[Shermy]

You might like this thread.

[Shermy]

You might like this thread, and links.