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Posted on 09/20/2001 2:23:24 PM PDT by Wallaby

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

IS BAGHDAD BEHIND A SERIES OF UNEXPLAINED DISASTERS? Isabel Kershner The Jerusalem Report December 6, 1999

EgyptAir flight 990 was the third plane in four years to crash on departing JFK airport. Some put this down to bad luck, and the precise reasons for the EgyptAir crash remained unclear at press time. But Iraqi affairs expert Laurie Mylroie, publisher of the electronic newsletter Iraq News and a strong critic of U.S. policy on Iraq, believes Iraq may have had a role in several such recent incidents. The Washington-based Mylroie, author of "Study of Revenge," which investigates Iraq's involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, suggests that the U.S. is deliberately downplaying compelling evidence that Iraqi intelligence is working in concert with Muslim fundamentalists, helping them carry out far more devastating acts of terror than they would be capable of themselves.

"Of course that was Iraq. That was a professional bomb. It was not built by a bunch of Saudis sitting in a tent in the middle of the desert."

The Jerusalem Report: Where do you see Baghdad's fingerprints? The most compelling cases involve Ramzi Yousef, a twice-convicted terrorist serving a life sentence in a "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado, for his role in the bombing of New York's World Trade Center and the bombing of a Philippines Airlines plane two years later - a test run for a plot to blow up 11 U.S. planes.

In fact, New York law enforcement officials believed Iraq was behind the WTC bombing. It occurred two years after the Gulf War, pretty much on the anniversary of the cease-fire. There is an indicted fugitive, Abdul Rahman Yasin, an Iraqi who came from Baghdad and returned to Baghdad; there are two other Iraqis on the fringe of the conspiracy, one of whom the FBI wanted to arrest; and the bomb was very large.

Yousef entered the U.S. on an Iraqi passport in his own name, but he fled the night of the bombing on a Pakistani passport in the name of Abdul Basit Karim. There really was an Abdul Basit Karim. The son of a Pakistani laborer, he was born and raised in Kuwait, and seems to have died during the Iraqi occupation. The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry maintained a file on Karim that was tampered with in order to create an alternative identity for Yousef. The fingerprint card of the real Karim was removed, and a new card was inserted bearing Yousef's fingerprints.

This plot to blow up 11 planes - how far did it get?

Yousef did a test run of his liquid bombs on the Philippines Airlines plane. He got a bomb onto the plane and it exploded, killing one and damaging the aircraft. The pilot managed to make an emergency landing. The plot was discovered when a fire broke out in Yousef's Manila apartment while he was mixing the explosives. He fled the apartment, leaving behind a computer. The FBI found an address book and, through a contact in it, U.S. authorities captured Yousef in Islamabad.

Yousef hails from Baluchistan on the Iran-Pakistan border. What would his motive be?

I think Yousef has no real ideology. His ambition was to be the biggest terrorist around. After his arrest, he boasted to U.S. authorities that he'd hoped to kill 250,000 in the World Trade Center bombing.

If there is an official Iraqi connection, why would the U.S. be keeping it quiet?

Clinton struck Iraqi Intelligence HQ on June 27, 1993. He said publicly that the cruise missile attack was retaliation for Saddam's attempt to kill George Bush when he visited Kuwait in April. But Clinton meant it for the WTC bombing as well. The White House believed that the strike would take care of the problem.

Indeed it did not; even as we spoke, Yousef's second plot was underway.

My guess as to why the administration did not subsequently acknowledge the suspicions about Iraq was that it knew what it had done was wrong. It had an obligation to tell the U.S. public of the suspicions. And when other bombs later went off, the administration was even more inhibited about acknowledging those suspicions, as Americans had died because of the sly way it had dealt with the first bomb.

For example, regarding the November 13, 1995 bombing of the U.S. training mission in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi ambassador to Washington told me in early 1996: "Of course that was Iraq. That was a professional bomb. It was not built by a bunch of Saudis sitting in a tent in the middle of the desert."

What other, as yet unexplained, incidents do you suspect might bear Iraqi fingerprints?

Among other things, Iraq is working with Muslim fundamentalists to erode the Gulf War coalition. TWA 800 is suspicious. It went down on Iraq's National Day, July 17. The day before, al-Hayat (the London-based Arabic daily owned by Saudi Prince Khalid) received a faxed threat saying action would be taken shortly against the U.S. The next morning, Saddam gave his most violent and angry speech since the Gulf War ended. That night, TWA flight 800 exploded in a fireball. One has to wonder. U.S. authorities have determined that the central fuel tank exploded, but they haven't explained the source of ignition.

EgyptAir is also suspicious. Egypt is a country with enemies that might target it, including Iraq. However, it is early in the investigation.

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