Atta's curious Prague connection
Slate's Edward Jay Epstein:
"This month, I went to Prague to meet with Czech officials who had directly handled the pre-9/11 expulsion of a senior Iraqi diplomat, a case that would became known as the Prague Connection. Because it goes to the heart of the issue of whether Saddam Hussein might have played a role in the attack on the World Trade Center, this controversy has continued to rage, without any satisfying conclusion, for more than two years.
"...The issue re-emerged three days after the 9/11 attack when the CIA intelligence liaison was told by the BIS that the Hamburg 'student' who had met with al-Ani on April 8 had been tentatively identified as the 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Since al-Ani was an officer of Saddam Hussein's intelligence (and diplomatic) service, this identification raised the possibility that Saddam might have had a hand in the 9/11 attack. It could also be potentially embarrassing, as Kavan pointed out, 'if American intelligence had failed before 9/11 to adequately appreciate the significance of the April meeting.'
"...In Washington, the FBI moved to quiet the Prague connection by telling journalists that it had car rentals and records that put Atta in Virginia Beach, Va., and Florida close to, if not during, the period when he was supposed to be in Prague. The New York Times, citing information provided by 'federal law enforcement officials,' reported that Atta was in Virginia Beach on April 2, 2001, and by April 11, 'Atta was back in Florida, renting a car.' Newsweek reported that, 'the FBI pointed out Atta was traveling at the time [in early April 2001] between Florida and Virginia Beach, Va.,'adding, 'The bureau had his rental car and hotel receipts.' And intelligence expert James Bamford, after quoting FBI Director Robert Mueller as saying that the FBI 'ran down literally hundreds of thousands of leads and checked every record we could get our hands on,' reported in USA Today, 'The records revealed that Atta was in Virginia Beach during the time he supposedly met the Iraqi in Prague.'
"All these reports attributed to the FBI were, as it turns out, erroneous. There were no car rental records in Virginia, Florida, or anywhere else in April 2001 for Mohamed Atta, since he had not yet obtained his Florida license. His international license was at his father's home in Cairo, Egypt (where his roommate Marwan al-Shehhi picked it up in late April). Nor were there other records in the hands of the FBI that put Atta in the United States at the time. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet testified to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June 2002, 'It is possible that Atta traveled under an unknown alias' to 'meet with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague.' Clearly, it was not beyond the capabilities of the 9/11 hijackers to use aliases.
"...Atta's business appeared to be extremely time sensitive and specific to May 30. When Atta learned in Hamburg that his Czech visa would not be ready until May 31, he nevertheless flew on May 30 to the Prague International Airport, where he would not be allowed to go beyond the transit lounge. Although a large part of this area is surveiled by cameras, he managed to spend all but a few minutes out of their range. After some six hours, he then caught a flight back to Hamburg.... Finally, the BIS determined that the Prague connection was not limited to a single appointment since Atta returned to Prague by bus on June 2 (now with visa BONN200005260024), and, after a brief wait in the bus station, disappeared for nearly 20 hours before catching a flight to the United States.
"...The Czechs reviewing these visits in retrospect further assumed that Atta's business in Prague was somehow related to his activities in the United States, given that large sums of laundered funds began to flow to the 9/11 conspiracy in June 2000, after Atta left Prague.
"...Even after al-Ani was taken prisoner by U.S. forces in Iraq in July 2003 and presumably questioned about Atta, no report was furnished to the Czech side of the investigation.
"...the jigsaw puzzle remains incomplete."
The puzzle may be incomplete but the denials are a puzzle by themselves.
Slate's Edward Jay Epstein:
"This month, I went to Prague to meet with Czech officials who had directly handled the pre-9/11 expulsion of a senior Iraqi diplomat, a case that would became known as the Prague Connection. Because it goes to the heart of the issue of whether Saddam Hussein might have played a role in the attack on the World Trade Center, this controversy has continued to rage, without any satisfying conclusion, for more than two years.
"...The issue re-emerged three days after the 9/11 attack when the CIA intelligence liaison was told by the BIS that the Hamburg 'student' who had met with al-Ani on April 8 had been tentatively identified as the 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Since al-Ani was an officer of Saddam Hussein's intelligence (and diplomatic) service, this identification raised the possibility that Saddam might have had a hand in the 9/11 attack. It could also be potentially embarrassing, as Kavan pointed out, 'if American intelligence had failed before 9/11 to adequately appreciate the significance of the April meeting.'
"...In Washington, the FBI moved to quiet the Prague connection by telling journalists that it had car rentals and records that put Atta in Virginia Beach, Va., and Florida close to, if not during, the period when he was supposed to be in Prague. The New York Times, citing information provided by 'federal law enforcement officials,' reported that Atta was in Virginia Beach on April 2, 2001, and by April 11, 'Atta was back in Florida, renting a car.' Newsweek reported that, 'the FBI pointed out Atta was traveling at the time [in early April 2001] between Florida and Virginia Beach, Va.,'adding, 'The bureau had his rental car and hotel receipts.' And intelligence expert James Bamford, after quoting FBI Director Robert Mueller as saying that the FBI 'ran down literally hundreds of thousands of leads and checked every record we could get our hands on,' reported in USA Today, 'The records revealed that Atta was in Virginia Beach during the time he supposedly met the Iraqi in Prague.'
"All these reports attributed to the FBI were, as it turns out, erroneous. There were no car rental records in Virginia, Florida, or anywhere else in April 2001 for Mohamed Atta, since he had not yet obtained his Florida license. His international license was at his father's home in Cairo, Egypt (where his roommate Marwan al-Shehhi picked it up in late April). Nor were there other records in the hands of the FBI that put Atta in the United States at the time. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet testified to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June 2002, 'It is possible that Atta traveled under an unknown alias' to 'meet with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague.' Clearly, it was not beyond the capabilities of the 9/11 hijackers to use aliases.
"...Atta's business appeared to be extremely time sensitive and specific to May 30. When Atta learned in Hamburg that his Czech visa would not be ready until May 31, he nevertheless flew on May 30 to the Prague International Airport, where he would not be allowed to go beyond the transit lounge. Although a large part of this area is surveiled by cameras, he managed to spend all but a few minutes out of their range. After some six hours, he then caught a flight back to Hamburg.... Finally, the BIS determined that the Prague connection was not limited to a single appointment since Atta returned to Prague by bus on June 2 (now with visa BONN200005260024), and, after a brief wait in the bus station, disappeared for nearly 20 hours before catching a flight to the United States.
"...The Czechs reviewing these visits in retrospect further assumed that Atta's business in Prague was somehow related to his activities in the United States, given that large sums of laundered funds began to flow to the 9/11 conspiracy in June 2000, after Atta left Prague.
"...Even after al-Ani was taken prisoner by U.S. forces in Iraq in July 2003 and presumably questioned about Atta, no report was furnished to the Czech side of the investigation.
"...the jigsaw puzzle remains incomplete."
The puzzle may be incomplete but the denials are a puzzle by themselves.
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