Wed, May. 01, 2002
Miami Herald
Iraqi link to Sept. 11 dissolves
U.S. authorities doubt Atta met with intelligence agent in Europe
WASHINGTON - (AP) -- U.S. investigators no longer believe suicide hijacker Mohamed Atta met last year with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Europe, eliminating the only known link between Saddam Hussein's government and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
American and Czech officials had believed that meetings between Atta, the alleged ringleader of the 19 hijackers, and Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani, an Iraqi diplomat widely believed to be an intelligence agent, took place in Prague in April 2001.
IRAQ'S COMPLICITY
Some observers said the meetings suggested Iraq's complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks -- providing the United States with a reason to attack Iraq.
The Iraqi government denied the meetings occurred, and charged that the reports were fabricated to justify making Iraq a target in the U.S.-led war on terror.
U.S. officials said the content of the alleged meetings was never definitively laid out.
Some Czech officials said Atta had contacted Al-Ani, who was later expelled from the Czech Republic, to discuss an attack on the Prague building that serves as the headquarters for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
But Czech authorities have since retracted their statements to the U.S. government, saying that no such meetings took place. Atta is now believed to have been in the United States during the time he was supposed to have been meeting with Al-Ani, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
NUMEROUS TIES
U.S. officials have established numerous ties between the hijackers and al Qaeda, but none to Iraq's government -- and not for a lack of trying. Similar efforts to tie al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Hussein have yielded few ties. Officials say that while opposing the United States is a common goal, bin Laden's motivations are religious, while Hussein's are secular.
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