Farouk Hijazi Captured- More Iraqi ties to Al Queda revealed

Sunday Telegraph: Documents Show Iraq-Al Qaida Link

LONDON - Documents discovered in the bombed out headquarters of Iraq's intelligence service provide evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Papers found Saturday by journalists working for the Sunday Telegraph reveal that an al-Qaida envoy met with officials in Baghdad in March 1998, the newspaper reported.

The paper quoted an unidentified Western intelligence official as saying the find was "sensational."

The paper said the documents show that the purpose of the meeting was to establish a relationship between Baghdad and al-Qaida based on their mutual hatred of the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The meeting went so well that it was extended by a week and ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden to visit Baghdad, the newspaper said.

Journalists found a three-page file on bin Laden inside a folder lying in the rubble of one of the rooms of the intelligence headquarters, the paper said.

"Iraqi agents at some point clumsily attempted to mask out all references to bin Laden, using white correcting fluid," the newspaper reported. "After carefully removing the dried fluid, however, the name is clearly legible three times in the documents."

One of the pages, dated Feb. 19, was marked "top secret and urgent" and referred to plans for the trip from Sudan of the unnamed envoy, who is described in the file as a trusted confidant of bin Laden's, the paper said.

The document, signed, "MDA," which the newspaper said is a code name believed to belong to the director of one of the Iraqi intelligence sections, said the Iraqis sought to pay for the envoy's costs while in Iraq "to gain the knowledge of the message from bin Laden and to convey to his envoy an oral message from us to bin Laden."

The message to bin Laden "would relate to the future of our relationship with him, bin Laden, and to achieve a direct meeting with him," the newspaper quoted the document as saying.

The other documents confirm that the envoy traveled from Khartoum in Sudan to Baghdad in March 1998 and that he stayed at the al-Mansour Melia hotel.

The documents do not mention whether any meeting took place between bin Laden and Iraqi officials, the newspaper said.

Separately, The Sunday Times reported that its own journalists had found documents in the Iraqi foreign ministry that indicate that France gave Saddam Hussein's regime regular reports on its dealings with American officials.

The newspaper said the documents reveal that Paris shared with Baghdad the contents of private transatlantic meetings and diplomatic traffic from Washington.

One document, dated Sept. 25, 2001, from Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri to Saddam's palace, was based on a briefing from the French ambassador in Baghdad and covered talks between presidents Jacques Chirac and George W. Bush.

 

The links don't surprise me but I will say the Telegraph as a news source has been pretty reliable thus far.

I'm upset with France. After their ordeal with people boycotting their imports I felt sorry for them. I even felt they should be involved with post-Saddam Iraq in some shape or form. I guess any chance of them being involved has dissipated. I don't know if its in this country's best interest to continue shunning the French but they have made it difficult for anyone to empathize with them.

 

Heath, One document, dated Sept. 25, 2001, from Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri to Saddam's palace, was based on a briefing from the French ambassador in Baghdad and covered talks between presidents Jacques Chirac and George W. Bush.

Again as Macbeth says you assume all sorts of things to be facts. 1) Note the date 9/25/01. There was no reason to assume Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. Nothing inherently wrong with the French talking about conversations of Chirac and Bush. Iraq was a sovereign nation and France has relations with them. I know you think that this was awful, and along with Bush supported invading IRAQ as they had no right to sovereignity as they were evil, but that is your opinion. 2) You assume that some sort of breach of security was involved, maybe yes maybe no.

Hate the French beause they didn't support your war, but quit making up other things to hate them for.

 

Heath the Chech thing was debunked by our own CIA long ago. Do some research.

 

johnjohnjohn, that is NOT a credible source. I should create a website, say Bush is connection with Mossad and there is a tie between the Republican Party and the Nazi party. Then make the site "mysterious" and give it a name like Edward Fay Smith even though the webmaster is a girl and is a member of Yahoo! But I guess since it doesn't "back up" your false ideals, then it is a useless site.

 

http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2002/msg00593.html
I've posted evidence before, which you seem to ignore. Only a few Czech officials stick to that claim. Many others have backtracked and recanted the story.

In late April 2001, al-Ani was again caught casing the building, and he was expelled from the country. Then, in the chaotic days after September 11, a Czech intelligence source inside Prague’s Middle Eastern community saw Atta’s picture in the media and reported that he had seen the same person meeting al-Ani at the Iraqi Embassy five months earlier. Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman publicly confirmed the story to CNN during a visit to Washington last November. But the uncorroborated report, some Czechs now concede, should have generated more skepticism. "These [informants] tend to tell you what you want to believe," says Oldrich Cerny, the former director of Czech intelligence.

On closer scrutiny, however, the evidence became even less convincing. Although Atta had indeed flown from Prague to the United States in June 2000, the Czechs had placed the alleged meeting in April 2001. The FBI could find no visa or airline records showing he had left or re-entered the United States that month. "Neither we nor the Czechs nor anybody else has any information he was coming or going [to Prague] at that time," says a U.S. official.

But intelligence officials have been reluctant to set the record
straight - both out of reluctance to embarrass an allied government and because so many anti-Saddam hawks in the Bush administration had embraced the story. To be sure, administration hardliners aren’t ready to give up. Newsweek has learned that Pentagon analysts are still aggressively hunting for evidence that might tie Atta, or any of the other hijackers, to Saddam’s agents. It may yet turn up, but for now, at least, the much touted "Prague connection" appears to be an intriguing, but embarrassing, mistake.

Here is another link about Czech officials backing off of their stories. While some still desperately cling to the hope that their is a tie, most evidence denounces it.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/20/102425.shtml
PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Czech intelligence officials have knocked down one of the few clear links between al-Qaeda terrorists and the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, UPI has learned. Senior Czech intelligence officials have told their American counterparts that they now have "no confidence" in their earlier report of direct meetings in Prague between Mohammed Atta, leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers and an Iraqi diplomat stationed in Prague who has since been expelled for "activities inconsistent with his diplomatic status."

"Quite simply, we think the source for this story may have invented the meeting that he reported. We can find no corroborative evidence for the meeting and the source has real credibility problems," a high-ranking source close to Czech intelligence told UPI Sunday.

From the same story a Czech intelligence official seems to be talking directly to JohnHeath.

"One of the most dangerous things in this business is to start believing a report simply because it fits with your preconceptions and confirms what you always wanted to believe," a Czech intelligence source told UPI.

 

I'm aware that some Czech officials are sticking to their story. But many others disagree, and believe it was a mistake. The FBI, and American intel agencies, believe that Atta was in the U.S. at the time that the Czech officials claim the meeting took place.

At the very best you have a difference of opinion in interprating the info. Nothing is even close to being proven in the case. The majority of those involved say that the meeting didnt' happen. If you chose to believe the few that say it did that's fine, but it doesn't prove anything.

 

Out of date and biased dispatches from whatever source backs your latest conspiracy theory. Why not wait a couple of days get some reliable information then start your thread? Instead you've got about 12 replies with 5 different source links to either prove or disprove what your trying to say in the thread. If your going to make a bold statement do some real research from sources that people on both sides of the fence can respect.

 

And since this story works for you, you are also standing by it.

 

Yawn.

DD

 

We already discussed you 'smoking gun' piece of evidence in another thread. If I remember correctly one of the most telling lines from the news story was something along the lines of 'it was never clear if a meeting ever took place.' I couldn't find the thread or I would have posted it.

 

The thing is that no one is going to convince the other one.

All of these articles are slanted, from both sides.

And it is pointless to continue to argue...I do like to read the articles, but they are all so slanted it is a waste of time, and generally contain tainted information.

Even if you hit the liberals in the face with a trout sized piece of evidence, they would simply move the bar further to their own agenda.

Iraq clearly has ties to Al-queda, Saddam clearly was a very bad guy, and would be a threat to give WMD to future terrorists.

What this was about was getting the terrorists to think twice about attacking the USA, and making any government that supports terrorist groups uneasy.

See Syria these days...mission accomplished.

If the USA, Britain, Australia, & Spain are the only countries with the sack to make the world a safer place....so be it.

DD