Mr. Mojo

This got buried in the news after Saddam's capture took over the headlines

UK Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html

Does this link Saddam to 9/11?
(Filed: 14/12/2003)


A document discovered by Iraq's interim government details a meeting between the man behind the September 11 attacks and Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist, at his Baghdad training camp. Con Coughlin reports.


For anyone attempting to find evidence to justify the war in Iraq, the discovery of a document that directly links Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks, with the Baghdad training camp of Abu Nidal, the infamous Palestinian terrorist, appears almost too good to be true.

Ever since four hijacked civilian jets devastated the United States' eastern seaboard on September 11, 2001, there have been any number of reports circulating Western intelligence agencies suggesting that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had close links to al-Qaeda.

Most of the claims relate to meetings between al-Qaeda and Iraqi intelligence to discuss co-operation on matters such as funding, training and equipment.

Prior to the discovery of the document published today by the Telegraph, the most controversial report related to the suggestion that Atta had met Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, a senior Iraqi intelligence officer, in Prague in April 2001.

But while both President Bush and Tony Blair have dropped numerous hints that they believe there was a significant level of co-operation between Saddam and al-Qaeda, their respective intelligence agencies have actively sought to downplay the significance of the relationship, especially the suggestion that Saddam was in any way involved in the September 11 attacks.

To this end America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with the backing of Britain's MI6, have poured scorn on Atta's Prague meeting.

However, the tantalising detail provided in the intelligence document uncovered by Iraq's interim government suggests that Atta's involvement with Iraqi intelligence may well have been far deeper than has hitherto been acknowledged.

Written in the neat, precise hand of Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) and one of the few named in the US government's pack of cards of most-wanted Iraqis not to have been apprehended, the personal memo to Saddam is signed by Habbush in distinctive green ink.

Headed simply "Intelligence Items", and dated July 1, 2001, it is addressed: "To the President of the Ba'ath Revolution Party and President of the Republic, may God protect you."

The first paragraph states that "Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian national, came with Abu Ammer (an Arabic nom-de-guerre - his real identity is unknown) and we hosted him in Abu Nidal's house at al-Dora under our direct supervision.

"We arranged a work programme for him for three days with a team dedicated to working with him . . . He displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy."

There is nothing in the document that provides any clue to the identity of the "targets", although Iraqi officials say it is a coded reference to the September 11 attacks.

The second item contains a report of how Iraqi intelligence, helped by "a small team from the al-Qaeda organisation", arranged for an (unspecified) shipment from Niger to reach Baghdad by way of Libya and Syria.

Iraqi officials believe this is a reference to the controversial shipments of uranium ore Iraq acquired from Niger to aid Saddam in his efforts to develop an atom bomb, although there is no explicit reference in the document to this.

Habbush writes that the successful completion of the shipment was "the fruit of your excellent secret meeting with Bashir al-Asad (the Syrian president) on the Iraqi-Syrian border", and concludes: "May God protect you and save you to all Arab nations."

While it is almost impossible to ascertain whether or not the document is legitimate or a clever fake, Iraqi officials working for the interim government are convinced of its authenticity, even though they decline to reveal where and how they obtained it. "It is not important how we found it," said a senior Iraqi security official. "The important thing is that we did find it and the information it contains."

A leading member of Iraq's governing council, who asked not to be named, said he was convinced of the document's authenticity.

"There are people who are working with us who used to work with Habbush who are convinced that it is his handwriting and signature. We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's dealings with al-Qaeda, and this document shows the extent of the old regime's involvement with the international terrorist network."

This is the second document published by this newspaper that appears to highlight Saddam's links with al-Qaeda. Earlier this year the Telegraph published details of another Iraqi intelligence document that indicated Saddam's regime was attempting to set up a meeting with Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, who was then based in Sudan.

Intelligence experts point out that a memo such as that written by Habbush would of necessity be vague and short. "Trained intelligence officers hate putting anything down in writing," said one former CIA officer. "You never know where it might turn up."

Certainly the memo's detail concerning Mohammed Atta and Abu Nidal fits in with the known movements of the two terrorists in the summer of 2001. Abu Nidal, the renegade Palestinian terrorist responsible for a wave of outrages in the 1980s, such as the 1985 bomb attacks on Rome and Vienna airports, was based in Baghdad, under Saddam's personal protection, for most of his career.

Having briefly relocated to Libya, Abu Nidal returned to Baghdad at some point in early 2001. At the time it was assumed that Saddam had lured the Palestinian terrorist back to help the Iraqi leader plan a number of terrorist attacks aimed at destabilising American plans to remove him.

In particular, Saddam wanted Abu Nidal to revive his network of "sleeper cells" in Europe and the Middle East to carry out a new wave of attacks. During 2001 Abu Nidal lived in a number of houses in the Baghdad area, including a spacious home in the al-Dora district where he is reported to have met Atta.

The relationship between Abu Nidal and Saddam, however, quickly turned sour, mainly because - as the Telegraph reported at the time - the ageing Palestinian leader was reluctant to accede to Saddam's request to train al-Qaeda fighters in sophisticated terrorist techniques.

Abu Nidal was murdered in August 2001, although the Iraqis tried to claim that he had committed suicide. Habbush appeared at a hastily arranged press conference in Baghdad in an attempt to persuade the sceptical Arab media that Abu Nidal had taken his own life after Iraqi investigators had uncovered a plot to assassinate Saddam.

Although Western intelligence agencies have attempted to trace Atta's movements in the months preceding September 11, there remain several periods during which his precise whereabouts are unknown. Having moved to Florida from Hamburg in 2000, Atta is known to have made at least two trips from the US to Europe in 2001.

In early January he flew to Madrid for a few days. His next confirmed trip was to Zurich in early July. In between, American investigators have concluded from a detailed examination of Atta's credit cards and phone records, that he spent most of the spring and early summer of 2001 in Florida, interspersed by occasional domestic trips. The only confirmed sighting of Atta during this period, however, was on April 26 when he was pulled over for a traffic violation in Florida.

This traffic offence, taken with other evidence collated by FBI agents, is one of the reasons that CIA officials have discounted the report that Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague earlier in the month (the Czech authorities claim Atta was in Prague on April 8). Yesterday the New York Times reported that Ani, who was taken into US custody last July, had told American interrogators that he had not met Atta in Prague.

"The Prague meeting does not appear very convincing," said Lorenzo Vidino, a terrorism analyst at The Investigative Project, a non-profit organisation that investigates international terrorism, in Washington. "But even if that meeting did not take place you have to remember that Atta used a large number of aliases when he travelled. It is not inconceivable that Atta slipped out of the US undetected sometime in the first half of 2001."

The US Congressional report into the September 11 attacks states that Atta used 16 to 17 known aliases, although American intelligence experts concede that there may have been others.

It is entirely conceivable, then, that Atta secretly made his way to Baghdad to undertake training with Abu Nidal a few months before the September 11 attacks. But as long as Saddam and his senior intelligence operatives remain at large, it is impossible to assess just how much they knew about, and were involved in, the planning and execution of the September 11 atrocities.

•Con Coughlin is the author of Saddam: The Secret Life (Macmillan)

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

__________________
When I jerk off I feel good for about twenty seconds and then WHAM it's right back into suicidal depression

Conclamo Ludus

Its interesting. If it is true, you would think that the US and UK would be on it quite a bit. It would be quite a justification.

__________________
Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul
I wouldn't mistreat you baby, for my weight in gold.
-Son House, Death Letter Blues

apechild

This, along with the well publicized article that appeared in the Weekly Standard not long ago (link), seem to make a fairly compelling case.

One also wonders whether these stories will continue to be ignored by the New York Times, CBS, ABC, NBC, and others...

__________________
Skwerl. Its wuts fer dinner.

Conclamo Ludus

In all fairness why would the administrations be ignoring it as well? The article itself talks about the CIA and MI6 downplaying this information. This doesn't seem logical to me. Although it wouldn't surprise me if those media outlets ignored it anyway...

__________________
Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul
I wouldn't mistreat you baby, for my weight in gold.
-Son House, Death Letter Blues

Superbelt

I'm gonna have to see plenty of colloboration on this. Several sources, several perspectives.

Too much information has passed by my eyes that has convinced me that no such link exists.

It's almost common sense anyway. Saddam was secularist with a secular government that included christians. Osama strove for the imposition of islamic law throughout the middle east.
Saddam has killed tens of thousands of the shi'ite muslims which are the strict, devout muslims. The kind of thing that someone like Osama would not forgive.

That alone put them at loggerheads. I can't see either ever cooperating.

Conclamo Ludus

The secularist Saddam argues well against it, but it has been known that he has funded the families of Palestinian suicide bombers that would suggest that he was willing to partner-up for that.

__________________
Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul
I wouldn't mistreat you baby, for my weight in gold.
-Son House, Death Letter Blues

apechild

Superbelt,

Common enemies can unite even the unlikeliest of partners

__________________
Skwerl. Its wuts fer dinner.

apechild

I see two possible reasons.

1 - Since they've already made their case, they would prefer not to appear as though they're relying upon new evidence to make assertions ex post facto. It would weaken their credibility and cast doubt upon the value of the intial conclusions drawn from existing intelligence.

2 - US and British intelligence follow a policy of not commenting on leaked or confidential reports in order to protect their intelligence and its sources.

__________________
Skwerl. Its wuts fer dinner.

Superbelt

Yeah Conclamo, but the militant islamist Osama would sooner bomb Iraq than cooperate with it.

Ustwo

Did you learn this as a penpal of Osama or was it a mind meld?

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Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

Superbelt

Or maybe because I pay attention to world events and know Osamas motivation and have read the things he says.
I think I can infer a few things through that.

.
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Sorry, actually I met him about 8 months ago. I looked into his eyes and was able to determine what kind of a man he was. Much like Dubya does.

Mehoni

Saddam is not well-liked by islamist fundamentalists..

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There seem to be countless rituals and cultural beliefs designed to alleviate their fear of a simple biological truth - all organisms eventually perish.

Sparhawk

Let's see, believe the politicians, who may or may not be using a justification to further their political ends, or the professional intelligence officers with much higher clearances than mine with no vested interest aside from their own sense of pride in their work?

Tough one, let me think about it...

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"In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard. It's - and it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work. We're making progress. It is hard work."

Ustwo

So you think Osama was so pure in his motives that he wouldn't take help from Iraq if offered?

I personally don't make much of this link yet. Right after 9/11 I didn't think Iraq would be involved since Saddam couldn't be that stupid. Then again, I thought he would wise up at some point and not bullshit the weapons inspectors with Bush in office. I was wrong on the last count, so I may well be wrong on the first.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

archer2371

While yes, Osama and Saddam don't really enjoy each others company (ooh, there's an idea, put 'em in a cell together...) they have a greater cause to fight against, the Great Satan of the United States. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Remember we worked with those "pinko-commie bastards" to oust Hitler in WWII, it's not all that strange to see alliances like this.

__________________
"This ain't no Ice Cream Social!"

"Hey Grif, Chupathingy...how bout that? I like it...got a ring to it."

"I have no earthly idea what it is I just saw, or what this place is, or where in the hell O'Malley is! My only choice is to blame Grif for coming up with such a flawed plan. Stupid, stupid Grif."

Mehoni

Just because "the enemy of my enemy" is what the US chose to do with Iran-Iraq, it doesn't mean that that's what Osama/Saddam would do.

Saddam has a bad rep amongst muslims, because Iraq is not governed by muslim law. Thanks to Saddam that is, and most muslims would rather die than to work with the Baath-party (Saddams party btw).

Saddam is an enemy to them. Fuck, the whole Iran-Iraq-thing was about mostly religion.

__________________
There seem to be countless rituals and cultural beliefs designed to alleviate their fear of a simple biological truth - all organisms eventually perish.

archer2371

Stalin wasn't a very popular guy in the US government back before WWII yet we still had to throw our lot in with him. To the Islamic Fundamentalists, anyone who defies "The Great Satan" is a hero, it's as simple as that.

__________________
"This ain't no Ice Cream Social!"

"Hey Grif, Chupathingy...how bout that? I like it...got a ring to it."

"I have no earthly idea what it is I just saw, or what this place is, or where in the hell O'Malley is! My only choice is to blame Grif for coming up with such a flawed plan. Stupid, stupid Grif."

Superbelt

Stalin didn't kill tens of thousands of americans.

Saddam killed tens of thousands of devout muslims. The kinds Osama considers his bretheren.

Theres a clear, justified, hate difference there.

Mojo_PeiPei

False the whole Iran-Iraq think was Saddam trying to consolidate power because even back in the day he was very paranoid. At the time leading up to the Iran-Iraq war you had the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Saddam was secular and feared that the Shiites in Iraq would rally behind the Ayatollah and revolt.

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To win a war you must serve no master but your ambition.

apechild

Guys, what about all the calls by Muslim militant leaders throughout the Middle East to unite and fight the American occupiers after the war began? What about all the Syrians, Egyptians, Saudis, Iranians, and others who answered the call, crossed the border, and took up arms alongside former Iraqi Republican Guards?

Their contempt for Baathist politics didn't get in the way of their desire to martyr themselves on Iraqi soil in a fight against a common enemy.

Many viewed their disagreements with the Baathists more as a disagreement within the family, or brotherhood of Muslims. But when push came to shove, they still saw themselves as a part of the same familty. The bonds are stronger than they may appear to outsiders.

__________________
Skwerl. Its wuts fer dinner.

filtherton

Is this the new conspiracy theory thread? How are any of you attempting to pretend to know of a link between saddam and 9/11?
Since in the months leading up to the war the admin tried to subtley imply a link (that they later admitted didn't actually exist) You'd think that if they found solid evidence they would scream it from the rooftops. They want a link, because a link would validate this war in the minds of many people(who vote) who see the current war as unjustified.
None of us can know if there was a link, but i'm sure that if there was, bush would actually make a direct statement to that effect, rather than just implying a link.

Superbelt

http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3741646&p1=0

See? Unless Atta had some kind of way to travel back and forth to Baghdad in several hours, many times, over a 3 day span (because he would have had to do it MANY times to still be able to have the contacts we do have of him in america in those three days) without our FBI being able to acertain that.... Atta was never in Iraq, Saddam had no connection to 9/11 and this is just going to fuel the bullshit that has 60% of americans STILL thinking Saddam was responsible for 9/11.

Tophat665

While I am not going to lay quite that much scorn on this, I am going to have to see this in the liberal media (no, not ABC and CBS, more like the Guardian or Mother Jones) before I swallow it whole.

Just one nibble though, if this is the straight dope, it's dynamite. Were it the case (note well the subjunctive) I would have to admit that, while the whole Iraq situation was poorly played at the highest levels (and brilliantly played on the ground by the Army and Marines in the early going) both in terms of planning and diplomacy, it may well have been justified.

However, for now it still looks a lot like a bloothirsty debacle for political points (though brilliantly executed in the early stages by the Army and Marines).

Sparhawk, love the name. <clouseau>Does your horse bite?</clouseau>

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Tophat665

Of course, this kind of puts the subjunctive right to rest and turns it to straight contrapositive.

__________________
Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns.
Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

MrSmashy

The problem is that this information all relies on members of the Iraqi interim government and their lackies.

I am especially suspicious since they won't/can't say where they got this information.

Endymon32

Just as a capitalist nation once allied itself with a communist nation?

Superbelt

Like I said to you before, because we were already both at full blown war against the same foe.
A foe who was looking almost impossible to beat without a broad coalition to divide their forces along two different fronts.

It was a partnership of actual survival.

Endymon32

You dont think, that their is a possiblity that Bin Laden could have worked with Saddam? Or is that just impossible?

filtherton

It is probably as possible as bush waiting for the most opportune moment to capture obl- as long as we're attempting to define the possibilities.

Endymon32

I thought UStow already explained the reason why that would be a bad thing?

filtherton

Oh, i thought we were just talking about what is possible. Since when does speculation on the internet render something impossible?