Add to the Myrloie files> http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2122962 Sept. 26, 2003, 9:05PM
Files suggest Iraqi aid to '93 Trade Center suspect Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- U.S. teams in Iraq have uncovered some signs that a participant in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center may have received help from the government of Saddam Hussein after the bombing, Bush administration officials say.
Vice President Dick Cheney first asserted that one of the bombers -- a U.S. citizen and one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists -- received help from Iraq, although he offered little detail. Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said while some evidence has been uncovered, it was too soon to reach any conclusions.
Cheney, speaking Sept. 14 on NBC-TV's Meet the Press program, did not mention the suspect by name. Other officials have confirmed he was speaking of Abdul Rahman Yasin, who is accused of mixing the chemicals in the bomb used in the 1993 attack.
"And we have learned subsequent to that, since we got into Baghdad and got into the intelligence files, that this individual probably also received financing from the Iraqi government, as well as safe haven," Cheney said.
Yasin fled the country after the 1993 bombing.
He is the only man wanted for that attack who is still outside U.S. custody.
Saddam's regime said it had imprisoned Yasin since arresting him in 1994, and that offers to turn him over to the U.S. government were rebuffed in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
In 2002, he was interviewed on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes at an Iraqi prison. He has not turned up in postwar Iraq.
The U.S. official said some Iraqi intelligence files indeed suggested support for Yasin after the 1993 bombing. But the official said it was too early to conclude what, if any, he received.
-- Michael Pugliese