Cheney, Powell, Rice Mum on Saddam's 9-11 Hijacking School

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condollezza Rice said Sunday that they had no evidence directly tying Saddam Hussein to the 9-11 kamikaze attacks on the U.S.

But the top Bush administration officials were not asked about, and did not raise the subject of, persistent reports that the Iraqi dictator ran a hijacking school just south of Baghdad know as Salman Pak, where al Qaeda terrorists trained aboard a parked Boeing 707 to take over U.S. airliners using the exact same methods employed on 9-11.

"I'm not here today to make a specific allegation that Iraq was somehow responsible for 9-11 - I can't say that," Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Instead he cited post-9-11 reports that had revealed "a number of contacts over the years" between Iraq and al Qaeda, including what he described as an "unconfirmed" meeting between 9-11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence.

Cheney also noted the recent execution-style death of notorious terrorist Abu Nidal in Iraq, saying that the "speculation has been that in fact, somehow, the Iraqi government or Saddam Hussein had him eliminated to avoid potential embarrassment."

But the vice president did not mention reports suggesting that Nidal's assassination could have been linked to his knowledge of possible Iraqi involvement in 9-11.

"Nidal's specialty was airplane hijacking and sabotage," noted the Pittsburgh Post-Gaztte two weeks ago.

A few days earlier, Wall Street Journal reporter Asla Aydintasbas revealed that Abu Nidal's terror gang operative Assem Omar Jarrah was "a constant figure" in the life of Flight 93 hijacker Ziad Jarrah, who was Assem's great nephew.

"After living in Germany for 18 years, Ziad's uncle disappeared two months before the attacks of Sept. 11, saying he was heading back to his native Lebanon," Aydintasbas reported after Nidal's death.

Though Cheney never raised the possibility of a Nidal link to 9-11, he suggested there was other evidence linking Iraq to al Qaeda that he did not want to discuss, telling "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert, "I'm trying to be very cautious and restrained in my comments and I hope everybody will realize that."

Secretary of State Powell was particularly vague on any potential 9-11 links to Iraq, telling "Fox News Sunday," "Who knows who's speaking to whom over a long period of time."

While Powell said he "would not dismiss" an account published Sunday from a former mistress to Saddam Hussein who claimed that Osama bin Laden had contacts with the Iraqi dictator going back to the 1980's, he said he couldn't confirm the woman's statement.

On whether the Bush administration had evidence that Iraq had been working with al Qaeda to kill Americans before 9-11, Powell said, "We cannot yet make a definitive conclusion that such a thing has occurred.... We cannot come up with the kind of evidence and smoking gun case that some people would like to see."

National Security Advisor Rice seemed to suggest the Bush administration wasn't counting on establishing a link between Saddam and the 9-11 attacks.

"I think that if you ask, do we know that he had a role in 9-11 - No, we do not know that he had a role in 9-11," she told CNN's "Late Edition." "I think that this is a test that sets the bar far too high."

"I don't think that we want to try and make the case that he directed somehow the 9-11 events," the Bush NSA chief added.

Still, as recently as last week, Journal reporter Aydintasbas suggested the evidence of an Iraqi link to the 9-11 attacks was compelling, as she detailed her own interview with a former Iraqi intelligence officer who worked at Salman Pak to WABC Radio's John Batchelor and Paul Alexander.

"He was in charge of training a special unit called 'Fedayeen Saddam,'" which she said translates into "the bodyguards of Saddam."

"He was in charge of training them in hijacking," Aydintasbas told WABC. "He has been debriefed by U.S. authorities who find that his evidence seems like what other people (have said)."

The Salman Pak curriculim included "hijackings, exercises in kidnapping and a daily regimen of assassination - learning how to use weapons and knives," she said.

"It's interesting that this facility, outside Baghdad, was nowhere near an airport, yet it had a parked Boeing 707," which, Aydintasbas said, is still visible in recent satellite photography of the region.

"Another defector who worked in the same complex has also talked about the existence of non-Iraqi Muslims; Arabs from several countries," the Wall Street Journal reporter said, adding, "Egyptians and Saudis, he remembers."

Aydintasbas first detailed what she knew about Salman Pak for the European Wall Street Journal last October, weeks before a corroborating report appeared in the London Observer contending that the camp's al Qaeda trainees were instructed to target American airplanes for takeover using gangs of four or five armed only with "small knives."

Despite the Bush administration's decision thus far to turn a blind eye to Salman Pak, last week relatives of the victims of 9-11 filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan alleging, among other things, a link between the Iraqi terror facility and the 9-11 attacks.

The trillion dollar claim, brought by the firm Kreindler & Kreindler, names as defendants Iraq, the Iraqi intelligence agency, Saddam Hussein and his sons, Al Qaeda Islamic Army, Osama bin Laden, the estates of the hijackers, the Taliban and organizations that provided money for the attacks.

The suit alleges that Naeem Abd Muhalhal, an Iraqi news columnist, reported in July 2001 that Osama bin Laden was making plans to "demolish the Pentagon after he destroys the White House," the New York Times said Thursday. Muhalhal has been linked to Iraqi intelligence since the 1980's, the suit contends.

Interesting. Then why the big push to off saddam? If he didn't do it... Seems to me the search needs to expand to Saudi Arabia and Iran just as much... Saddam can wait and maybe wither on the vine til there's PROOF of involvement.

I a big supporter of NewsMax's work but I must take issue with this article.

"But the top Bush administration officials were not asked about...Salman Pak".

So why would they answer.

"I'm not here today to make a specific allegation that Iraq was somehow responsible for 9-11 - I can't say that,"

It's not good to steal the bosses thunder.

NewsMax, you can do better than this.

It's too easy... Once this information is revealed about Iraq's ties to 9/11, the public will demand that something be done. If these ties also include the Anthrax attacks, watch out. Iraq has hired the propagandist, Scott Ritter to give their lies some "credibility", but at the same time, this man who is being paid by Sadaam, is telling the Iraqis that the only way to get the U.S. to back off is to give free, unfettered weapons inspections and comply with U.N. resolutions. Sadaam is looking for his possession of WMD as a way out of conflict if you ask me. Scott Ritter is being paid to say this, by none other that the Butcher of Baghdad. Of course, everyone knows that the weapons inspections is just a stall tactic on behalf of Sadaam. I would go as far as to say that WMD isn't the main issue altogether. It's one issue in a laundry list of complaints in which 9/11 and possibly Anthrax are right at the top. It would be useless to reveal everything you know until the pieces are all in place, it also helps to protect your sources. We will finish this war at an hour of our choosing.

There are witnesses to this and other meetings between Iraqi citizens and the terrorists. I am sure the administration knows all about them.

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