Anthrax May Have Been Mailed To Company Posted: 12:50 p.m. EDT October 12, 2001 Updated: 6:23 p.m. EDT October 12, 2001
BOCA RATON, Fla. — The editorial director of American Media says his company knows how the man killed by anthrax was exposed to the disease. He is also making scathing comments about the Palm Beach County Health department. Steve Coz, Editorial Director at American Media in Boca Raton, says that the company knows how the anthrax bacterium got into their building, and he says there is a connection to the terrorists.
Coz says that Bob Stevens, the employee who died of anthrax, was infected after exposure anthrax spores delivered to AMI in a letter. He said the letter came into the mailroom, and was opened by someone else who handed it to Stevens.
Because of vision problems, Stevens (pictured, left) then held the letter close to his face to look at it, according to Coz, giving the 63-year old a massive dose of anthrax spores.
The FBI has asked American Media not to go into detail about the letter, and they currently deny any connection between the letter and the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Coz says he believes there is a connection, particularly to Mohamed Atta, the hijacker believed to be the leader of the terrorists who resided in South Florida. “We know Mohamed Atta was within three miles of the [American Media] building, we know he was within a mile of Bob Stevens house. We know that the FBI is now going to local pharmacies to see if he did in fact get Cipro. We know that he showed up at a pharmacy with red hands. There are people in this area who have very direct recollection of seeing him. He worked out in a gym where some of our employees were.” The FBI continues to say they have not made a direct connection between the terrorists and the anthrax cases.
A congressional source says that more anthrax spores have been found in the mailroom of American Media, but the FBI is not confirming that or any of the statements made by Steve Coz.
Steve Coz also blasted the Palm Beach County Health Department for not informing American Media about Bob Stevens illness earlier. He said, “We found out that Bob Stevens had anthrax on the Internet at 3:00 on Thursday — we turned on the TV sets and it was all over television. We called the Palm Beach County Health Deparment from 3:00 to 7:30 leaving messages — we must have left 20 messages. At 7:30 somebody finally picked up the phone.”
Second Man Exposed To Anthrax Improving, Has Message For Co-Workers Ernest Blanco, the second person at American Media to have a confirmed exposure to pulmonary anthrax, continues to improve, though his family says they have been getting a mixed message about his condition.
State health officials say that Blanco does not have the full-blown case of the anthrax that killed his co-worker.
His family says they are confused and they have been told two stories. State health officials say that Blanco (pictured left, file photo) is sick with pneumonia, but doctors have told his family that he has anthrax in his blood and lungs.
Blanco no longer has a fever or is being fed intravenously. He has been moved out of intensive care and weaned off a respirator. His stepdaughter Maria Orth says that he was near death at one point. She said, “One of his doctors disagrees that he ever had anthrax … yet, another doctor assured me he did have it in his blood stream and in his lungs. It’s very confusing.”
Blanco was tested for anthrax because health officials said he happened to be in a hospital for what co-workers said was an unrelated heart problem.
His wife, Elda said she was rattled when she heard that her spouse had been exposed to anthrax. “I’m not one who cries much, but I feel it inside.” She tested negative for anthrax but was given the antibiotic Cipro to take as a precaution.
Meanwhile her husband continues to improve. In a prepared statement he said, “To all my friends at American Media, thanks for all your prayers. Every day, little by little, I’m feeling much better. I hope to be back at work soon.”
All Credit Given To: Pierre Legrand
http://pierrelegrand.net/2006/07/08/mohamed-atta-iraq-anthrax-connection-and-the-fbi-info-suppression.htm
___________________________________________________________________________
IRAQI LINKS TO TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICA
"In this man's heart (Osama bin Laden) you'll find an insistence,
a strange determination that he will reach one day the tunnels of the White House
and will bomb it with everything that is in it.....with the seriousness of the Bedouin
of the desert about the way he will try to bomb the Pentagon after he destroys the White House.
...the revolutionary bin Laden is insisting very convincingly that he will strike America on the arm that is already hurting.
That the man....will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs."
(A reference to Sinatra's "New York, New York"?)
- From the Iraqi publication Al-Nasiriya: July 21, 2001
(Also noted in the Wall Street Journal, "Saddam and the Next 9/11", 2/14/03)
"At this stage it is possible to turn to biological attack, where a small can,
not bigger than the size of the hand, can be used to release viruses that affect everything....
The viruses easily spread by air, and people are affected without feeling it."
- Uday Hussein, 9/20/01 (NOTE: The first Anthrax-laced letters were mailed on 9/18/01)
(That means Hussein's son wrote this before any news had come out about the Anthrax mailings in the U.S.)
(Noted in the Wall Street Journal, "Saddam and the Next 9/11", 2/14/03)
GENERAL ARTICLES CONNECTING IRAQ TO TERRORISM
NICE COMPENDIUM OF ARTICLES CONNECTING IRAQ TO AL QAEDA AND TERRORISM AGAINST THE U.S.
The Iraqi-Bin Laden Connection
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S PHILANTHROPY OF TERROR - (PDF verion with images)
American Outlook
By Deroy Murdock
Fall 2003
As President Bush continues to lead America’s involvement in Iraq, he increasingly is being forced to confront those who dismiss Saddam Hussein’s ties to terrorism and, thus, belittle a key rationale for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bush’s critics wield a flimsy and disingenuous argument that nonetheless enjoys growing appeal among a largely hostile press corps. Hussein did not personally order the September 11 attacks, the fuzzy logic goes, hence he has no significant ties to terrorists, especially al Qaeda. Consequently, the Iraq war was launched under bogus assumptions, and, therefore, Bush should be defeated in November 2004.
CASE CLOSED
The Weekly Standard
By Stephen Hayes
Editor's Note, 1/27/04: In today's Washington Post, Dana Milbank reported that "Vice President Cheney . . . in an interview this month with the Rocky Mountain News, recommended as the 'best source of information' an article in The Weekly Standard magazine detailing a relationship between Hussein and al Qaeda based on leaked classified information."
This is the Stephen F. Hayes article to which the vice president was referring.
THE VISIBLE HAND: The Iraqi Connection
Wall Street Journal
BY RICHARD MINITER
Monday, September 24, 2001
In President Bush's soaring, Reaganesque speech Thursday night, two words were missing: Saddam Hussein.
Is America's Gulf War foe behind the attacks? Secretary of State Colin Powell and other Bush administration officials say there is "no evidence" of that. Yet veteran State Department watchers say that "evidence" is a kind of Foggy Bottom shorthand for absolute proof--the kind that lawyers would need to convict the Iraqi dictator in court.
Still, there is a strong circumstantial case that Iraq has backed Osama bin Laden and has been waging a terrorist war of assassination plots and bombings that had already killed hundreds of Americans before Sept. 11--from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to the attack on the USS Cole last year.
Israeli intelligence services reportedly met with CIA and FBI officials in August and warned of an imminent large-scale attack on the U.S. There "were strong grounds for suspecting Iraqi involvement," a senior Israeli official later told London's Daily Telegraph.
THE IRAQ CONNECTION: Blood Baath
by R. James Woolsey
Issue date 09.24.01
In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday's attacks, attention has focused on terrorist chieftain Osama bin Laden. And he may well be responsible. But intelligence and law enforcement officials investigating the case would do well to at least consider another possibility: that the attacks--whether perpetrated by bin Laden and his associates or by others--were sponsored, supported, and perhaps even ordered by Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi Connection: Interview with James Woolsey and Others
11/24/2001
The role of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon is well-documented. Indeed, bin Laden virtually claimed credit for the terrorist attacks in a videotape circulated to his al-Qaida followers. But did bin Laden’s terrorists have help from a state -- besides Taleban-ruled Afghanistan? There is evidence that Iraq may have been involved, evidence that U.S. officials are paying increasing attention to. Did the September 11th terrorists have help from Saddam Hussein? I’ll ask my guests, James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Laurie Mylroie, author of "Study of Revenge: The First World Trade Center Attack and Saddam Hussein’s War against America."
Iraq suspected of sponsoring terrorist attacks
Septmber 21, 2001
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Osama bin Laden was in contact with Iraqi government agents from his base in Afghanistan in the days leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to U.S. intelligence officials
Saddam link to attacks: INTELLIGENCE has suggested the prime mover behind the attacks was Saddam
Sunday, September 23, 2001
(Melbourne Herald Sun)
The former head of Israeli's Mossad secret service, Rafi Eitan, and a former CIA director, R. James Woolsey, said there are clear indications that the Iraqi president played a leading role in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
"I have no doubt whatsoever that the mastermind of this atrocity is none other than the Iraqi dictator," said Mr Eitan, a security adviser to three Israeli governments and mastermind of the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in May 1960.
This week's revelation that Mohamed Atta, 33, an Egyptian suspected of hijacking the first plane to strike the World Trade Centre, met an Iraqi intelligence official in Europe earlier this year, adds weight to the theory.
Officials have also suggested bin Laden was in contact with Iraqi agents from his base in Afghanistan in the days before the attacks.
Mr Eitan said bin Laden may have been a partner, or merely a pawn, in a plot by Baghdad to strike back following its Gulf War defeat and to show the world it is still capable of action despite 10 years' of crippling UN sanctions.
The Iraqi Regime's Links to Terrorism: Harboring Terrorists Abu Nidal and Abu al-Abbas
August 30, 2002
On August 28, 2002, a U.S. federal grand jury issued a new indictment against five terrorists from the Fatah Revolutionary Command, also known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), for the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan. Based on "aggravating circumstances," prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty for the attack, in which twenty-two people -- including two Americans -- were killed.
Another Major Compilation of Links to Articles Related to Possible Iraqi Involvement with Terrorism
9/11 MASTERMIND Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) LINKED TO IRAQ
Against All Enemies: Proving Saddam's Iraq Was Behind 9/11
3/28/04
When Dr. Laurie Mylroie appeared before the 9/11 Commission and released her newest book, "Bush vs. the Beltway: How the CIA and the State Department Tried to Stop the War on Terror" in July of last year, there was scarcely a mention of it by the mass media. Dr. Myrloie's work offers the opposite position of Dick Clarke. A former insider of the Clinton Administration, Mylroie holds that the prior Democratic administration dropped the ball in focusing on loose terrorist networks rather than state actors, and Iraq in particularly, in combatting terror against America. She believes that President George Bush and his Administration acted heroically in targetting Iraq in disregard of myopic policy recommendations by entrenched, career-minded government bureaucrats like Dick Clarke. But such a pro-Bush profile has made Laurie Mylroie and her views anathema for mass media coverage. Yet, at least in the interest of balanced reporting, you'd think Mylroie's perspective would now deserve some media attention since Richard Clarke, the man of the hour, clearly fingers her influence on the Bush Administration as the cause of mistaken policy decisions to target Iraq in the War On Terror.
IS Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) AN IRAQI AGENT?
3/18/03
Is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed), the mastermind of 9/11 who was captured March 1st in Pakistan, an Iraqi agent?
There is reason to suspect he is and, what's more, since he is now in custody, it should be possible for authorities to verify whether or not he is who people think he is. And should Khalid Mohammed NOT be the real Khalid Mohammed, then the smoking gun has been found that establishes Iraqi complicity in the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in September 2001.
The Baluch Connection: Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tied to Baghdad?
BY LAURIE MYLROIE
Tuesday, March 18, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, is a Pakistani Baluch. So is Ramzi Yousef, who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 1995, together with a third Baluch, Abdul Hakam Murad, the two collaborated in an unsuccessful plot to bomb 12 U.S. airplanes. Years later, as head of al Qaeda's military committee, Mohammed reportedly planned the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings, as well as the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.
CBS 60 Minutes II - The Mastermind
March 5, 2003
Osama bin Laden may still be at large, but the man captured in Pakistan last Saturday was even more important than bin Laden in the planning and execution of the Sept. 11 attacks.
LA Times - The Plots and Designs of Al Qaeda's Engineer: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed)
December 22, 2002
Senior Pakistani and American intelligence officials say the operational commander of Al Qaeda, the man believed to have planned the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, narrowly avoided capture during a raid in which authorities took his two young sons into custody.
It was one of at least half a dozen missed opportunities over eight years to seize Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed), who is described by intelligence analysts on three continents as the man most responsible for Al Qaeda's continuing terrorist attacks.
Newstrove.com: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
9/11 LEAD HIJACKER MOHAMMED ATTA MET IRAQI INTELLIGENCE
Mohammed Atta met Saddam prior to September 11: US official
Sept 8, 2002
MILAN, Sept 8 (AFP) - Mohammed Atta consulted Saddam Hussein prior to leading the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, according to Richard Perle, an advisor to the US defense secretary.
Newsweek: The Investigation Hard Questions About an Iraqi Connection
Oct. 21, 2001
In investigating the Sept. 11 attack, few tasks are more difficult -- and potentially more ominous -- than unraveling the role of a mysterious Iraqi official named Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani. Until last spring, al-Ani was listed as the chief of consular affairs in the Iraqi Embassy in Prague. But last month U.S. officials were told by Czech intelligence that al-Ani had been spotted having a number of meetings with Mohamed Atta, the suspected hijack ringleader, near the Iraqi Embassy during a visit Atta made to the Czech Republic in April 2001.
Iraq Linked to WTC Attack Tactic
The Jerusalem Post
October 14, 2001
By Melissa Radler
NEW YORK - An Iraqi intelligence agent who met with suspected hijacker Muhammad Atta six months ago in Prague helped devise the terrorist tactics that downed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon, according to an Iraqi opposition group.
An official at the Iraqi National Congress (INC) in Washington said the terrorist plot was hatched by Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and a former brigadier-general in the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), and its current brigadier-general, Habib Ma'amouri.
Bomber met Iraqi chief of intelligence
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19 2001
The Times
FROM ROLAND WATSON AND DAMIAN WHITWORTH IN WASHINGTON
A LINK between Iraq and one of the World Trade Centre attackers was disclosed last night amid British concerns that Washington might use President Bush's war on terrorism as a pretext to topple Saddam Hussein.
American intelligence officials said that Mohammed Atta, who is believed to have been at the controls of the first jet to crash, met the head of Iraqi intelligence this year.
Hijacker met with Iraqi official
Source: Washington Times
Published: 9/19/01 Author: Bill Gertz
An Iraqi intelligence official met secretly with one of the airline hijackers a year ago, raising the likelihood of Iraqi government involvement in last week's terrorist attacks in the United States, officials said yesterday.
The unidentified Iraqi intelligence official met with Mohamed Atta, whom U.S. officials believe to have been the leader of a terrorist cell linked to Islamic terrorist Osama bin Laden. Atta traveled regularly between the United States and several countries, including Germany and Spain.
Atta is believed to have been aboard the first commercial airliner that crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
Suspected Hijacker Met Iraqi Intelligence- Source
Tuesday September 18, 2001
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mohamed Atta, suspected of being one of the hijackers aboard the first plane that struck New York's World Trade Center last week, met earlier this year with an Iraqi intelligence official in Europe, a U.S. government source said on Tuesday.
CBS News first reported that Atta had met with the head of Iraqi intelligence. But sources pointed out that just because Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence official did not necessarily mean that the government of Iraq had supported the attacks that demolished the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon (news - web sites).
SALMAN PAK TERRORIST TRAINING BASE NEAR BAGHDAD
Salman Pak: Iraq's Smoking Gun Link to 9-11?
August 13,2002
With all the talk about how little evidence the Bush administration has tying Saddam Hussein to the 9-11 attacks, we're more than a little surprised at how quickly reporters, not to mention the White House, seem to have forgotten about Salman Pak.
That's the name of the Iraqi training camp located south of Baghdad where, according to the accounts of at least two Iraqi defectors quoted in the New York Times last November, terrorists from around the world rehearsed airline hijackings aboard a parked Boeing 707 that bore an eerie resemblance to what transpired on 9-11.
Salman Pak - Iraq‘s own terrorist training camp
June 12th, 2002
Two Iraqi Military defectors, an unnamed former Lt. General and a Captain Sabah Khodada recently gave details of an Iraqi school at Salman Pak which includes training for the hijacking of passenger airliners and other modes of transportation. The former Iraqi General said that there was a old Boeing 707 resting next to rail tracks on edge of Salman Pak being used in terrorist training, the existence of this aircraft has been confirmed by UN. Inspectors.
Salman Pak / Al Salman
Former Iraqi military officers have described a highly secret terrorist training facility at Salman Pak, where both Iraqis and non-Iraqi Arabs receive training on hijacking planes and trains, planting explosives in cities, sabotage, and assassinations.
Satellite photos show Saddam’s base to train al-Qaeda terrorists
March 17th, 2003
Rush Limbaugh released high-resolution satellite imagery today, on his website, of Iraq’s Salman Park terrorist training center. This facility, which photographs show houses a full-scale jet fuselage, is used to train terrorists how to hijack civilian airliners, buses and trains, as well as assassination and kidnapping. Reports by defectors, including Sabah Khodada, who served as an administrator at the facility for six months, indicate that “this camp is specialized in exporting terrorism to the whole world.”
SAUDI HIJACKERS USED STOLEN IDENTITIES
Hijackers may have taken Saudi identities
Boston Globe
September 15, 2001
Evidence surfaced yesterday that some of the suicide hijackers who commandeered airliners originating in Boston, Washington, and Newark on Tuesday may have used aliases and adopted the identities of legitimate Saudi Arabian pilots to gain entry to the United States and access to the flight training they needed to carry out their attacks.
A Compilation Of Material On False Identities In Islamic Terrorism
IRAQ BEHIND ANTHRAX MAILINGS
The Anthrax Evidence Points To Iraq
FBI's Theory On Anthrax Is Doubted: Attacks Not Likely Work Of 1 Person, Experts Say
By Guy Gugliotta and Gary Matsumoto
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 28, 2002; Page A01
A significant number of scientists and biological warfare experts are expressing skepticism about the FBI's view that a single disgruntled American scientist prepared the spores and mailed the deadly anthrax letters that killed five people last year.
These sources say that making a weaponized aerosol of such sophistication and virulence would require scientific knowledge, technical competence, access to expensive equipment and safety know-how that are probably beyond the capabilities of a lone individual.
Anthrax: The Elephant in the Room: It's fatuous not to regard Saddam as the chief anthrax suspect
BY ROBERT L. BARTLEY
Monday, October 29, 2001
Despite the earlier official denials, the anthrax in the mail turns out to be weapons-grade, finely ground and with electrostatic charges eliminated to facilitate aerial spread. After weeks of official denials, similarly, the Czech interior minister confirms that Mohamed Atta met with a ranking Iraqi spy on his route to the United States.
This should be a scales-from-the-eyes moment, but our government is back at the old stand, stressing that any Ph.D. microbiologist can whomp up weapons-grade anthrax and leaking that the FBI and CIA suspect domestic cranks. Perhaps this time it's true, but I for one am not reassured. Yes, other scenarios are conceivable, but why ignore the elephant standing in the corner of the room? To wit, Saddam Hussein.
FBI Overlooks Iraq's Connection to Anthrax Attacks
Aug. 17, 2002
Plenty of evidence implicates Iraq in the anthrax attacks on America. But the FBI doesn't seem interested.
Creating, or weaponizing, deadly inhalation anthrax spores is a highly sophisticated process. Some say that the spores involved in the attacks had all the earmarks of having been produced in some government's facility because the job would have been beyond the capability of a lone wolf working in a basement lab.
WAS SADDAM HUSSEIN'S 'STAMP' ON THE ANTHRAX MAILINGS?
February 5th, 2002
As it stands, the FBI investigation into the Anthrax mailings has focused on the idea that the bioterrorism was an act of a lone, domestic terrorist and is not related to September 11th. I believe the truth, however, is that the Anthrax mailings, and most likely the 9-11 attacks as well, were a product of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Osama bin Laden was simply a front man for the terrorism that occurred in autumn of last year, and probably all the other major acts of terror blamed on al Qaeda thus far. Ultimately, what is happening here is really Saddam's Revenge...
IRAQ BEHIND RAMZI YOUSEF AND 1993 WTC BOMBING
Iraqi Complicity in the World Trade Center Bombing and Beyond
Source: Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
Published: June 2001
On February 26, 1993, a massive bomb exploded in the parking garage of the north tower of the World Trade Center building in New York City, killing six people and leaving a crater six stories deep in the building's basement floors. The mastermind of the bombing, Ramzi Yousef, later boasted that he had hoped to kill 250,000 people. Two years later, Yousef was involved in a plot to bomb a dozen US airplanes flying over the Pacific.1
Yousef's bombing plots gave rise to the notion that a new form of international terrorism had emerged that was not state-sponsored, but said to consist of "loose networks" of militant Muslims, not backed by states.2 Yet, as The Washington Post recently noted, "some critics have disputed this approach, contending that rogue nations like Iraq have managed to slip intelligence operatives in and out of bomb conspiracies, leaving the FBI to chase and catch the small fish that the skilled men left behind."3
Indeed, there is considerable evidence that the Trade Center bombing was a case of Iraqi intelligence directing a major terrorist operation and leaving behind a few minor figures to be arrested and take the blame.
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMB: Who is Ramzi Yousef? And Why It Matters (1993)
Source: The National Interest
Published: Winter, 1995/96 Author: Laurie Mylroie
Posted on 09/12/2001 07:17:34 PDT by JeanS
ACCORDING TO THE presiding judge in last year's trial, the bombing of New York's World Trade Center on February 26, 1993 was meant to topple the city's tallest tower onto its twin, amid a cloud of cyanide gas. Had the attack gone as planned, tens of thousands of Americans would have died. Instead, as we know, one tower did not fall on the other, and, rather than vaporizing, the cyanide gas burnt up in the heat of the explosion. "Only" six people died.
Few Americans are aware of the true scale of the destructive ambition behind that bomb, this despite the fact that two years later, the key figure responsible for building it--a man who had entered the United Stares on an Iraqi passport under the name of Ramzi Yousef--was involved in another stupendous bombing conspiracy. In January 1995, Yousef and his associates plotted to blow up eleven U.S. commercial aircraft in one spectacular day of terrorist rage. The bombs were to be made of a liquid explosive designed to pass through airport metal detectors. But while mixing his chemical brew in a Manila apartment, Yousef started a fire. He was forced to flee, leaving behind a computer that contained the information that led to his arrest a month later in Pakistan. Among the items found in his possession was a letter threatening Filipino interests if a comrade held in custody were not released. It claimed the "ability to make and use chemicals and poisonous gas... for use against vital institutions and residential populations and the sources of drinking water." [1] Quickly extradited, he is now in U.S. custody awaiting trial this spring.
Ramzi Yousef's plots were the most ambitious terrorist conspiracies ever attempted against the United States. But who is he? Is he a free-lance bomber? A deranged but highly-skilled veteran of the Muslim jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan? Is he an Arab, or of some other Middle Eastern ethnicity? Is there an organization--perhaps even a state--behind his work?
Saddam's Fingerprints on N.Y. Bombings
The Wall Street Journal
By Laurie Mylroie
June 28, 1993
Military retaliation from Baghdad was the main administration concern following Saturday's strike on Iraq. Yet U.S. officials should start thinking seriously about the question of retaliation through terror. It is quite possible, for example, that there was a connection between Saddam and recent attempts to blow up Manhattan. It is quite possible that New York's terror is Saddam's revenge.
TERRORIST FUGITIVE ABDUL RAHMAN YASIN IN BAGHDAD
60 Minutes: The Man Who Got Away
May 31, 2002
Abdul Rahman Yasin is the only participant in the first attempt to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993 who was never caught. Yasin, who was indicted in the bombing but escaped, was interviewed by CBS News' Lesley Stahl in an Iraqi installation near Baghdad last Thursday, May 23. Stahl's report appeared on 60 Minutes, Sunday June 2nd.
FBI Most Wanted Terrorist - Abdul Rahman Yasin
Abdul Rahman Yasin is wanted for his alleged participation in the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center, New York City, on February 26, 1993, which resulted in six deaths, the wounding of numerous individuals, and the significant destruction of property and commerce.
THE 1995 'PROJECT BOJINKA' PLOT
Washington Post - Bust and Boom
By Matthew Brzezinski
Sunday, December 30, 2001
Six years before the September 11 attacks, Philippine police took down an al Qaeda cell that had been plotting, among other things, to fly explosives-laden planes into the Pentagon.
U.S. warned in 1995 of plot to hijack planes, attack buildings
September 18, 2001 Posted: 1:54 PM EDT (1754 GMT)
By Maria Ressa
CNN Correspondent
MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- The FBI was warned six years ago of a terrorist plot to hijack commercial planes and slam them into the Pentagon, the CIA headquarters and other buildings, Philippine investigators told CNN.
1995 Raid in Phillipines Unearthed Plot to Use Civilian Airliners in Terrorist Attack
Sept. 13, 2001
The use of hijacked commercial planes to attack key structures in the US was hatched in the Philippines by the men of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden in 1994.
Sources in the local intelligence community disclosed this yesterday as the government announced it is stepping up efforts to hunt down Mohammad Jafal Khalifa, a brother-in-law of Bin Laden, the prime suspect in TuesdayÕs terrorist attacks on the US. The Armed Forces Southern Command has also tightened security measures over the countryÕs so-called "backdoor," which leads to Malaysia and Indonesia, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US.
The plane attack, code named Project Bojinka, was hatched by Bin Laden's men Ramzie Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan, who were convicted in the US for the first bombing of the World Trade Center in New York in 1993.
Newstrove: Bojinka
IRAQ LINKED TO OSAMA BIN LADEN'S AL QAEDA NETWORK
Powell's mission: to link Saddam with terror
February 1 2003
There is no shortage of evidence that links Saddam Hussein with Bin Laden's al Qaeda network and some of its notorious attacks, writes Tony Parkinson.
Iraq to 'outsource' counterattacks
February 26, 2003
Baghdad is using embassies to forge ties with extremist groups to attack US facilities, say Filipino officials.
Starting in October of last year, Iraq began preparing for war with the US by instructing agents in its embassies worldwide to organize terrorist-type attacks on American and allied targets, Filipino and US intelligence officials say.
Barzan Ibrahim El Hasan al Tikriti, a former head of Iraq's intelligence agency and senior adviser to Saddam Hussein, hatched a plan to dispatch a mole to Indonesia; suicide bombers to Amman, Jordan; and a woman agent to help with planned attacks in the Philippines, according to an Iraqi defector interviewed by US intelligence.
Jack Kelly: Debunker mentality - It's hard work, seeing no ties between Iraq and al-Qaida
Sunday, December 15, 2002
The United States hasn't proved Saddam has weapons of mass destruction . . . but he'll use them against U.S. troops if we invade. Saddam has no connections to international terror groups . . . but he'll launch terror attacks inside the United States if America attacks him.To argue credibly against war with Iraq, opponents must maintain either that Saddam Hussein isn't a threat, or that he is so great a threat that an attempt to oust him would produce unacceptably high casualties. These positions contradict each other, and are contradicted by the facts.
Jane's: Who did it? Foreign Report presents an alternative view
19 September 2001
Israel’s military intelligence service, Aman, suspects that Iraq is the state that sponsored the suicide attacks on the New York Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington. Directing the mission, Aman officers believe, were two of the world’s foremost terrorist masterminds: the Lebanese Imad Mughniyeh, head of the special overseas operations for Hizbullah, and the Egyptian Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, senior member of Al-Qaeda and possible successor of the ailing Osama Bin Laden.
The two men have not been seen for some time. Mughniyeh is probably the world’s most wanted outlaw. Unconfirmed reports in Beirut say he has undergone plastic surgery and is unrecognisable. Zawahiri is thought to be based in Egypt. He could be Bin Laden’s chief representative outside Afghanistan.
The Iraqis, who for several years paid smaller groups to do their dirty work, were quick to discover the advantages of Al-Qaeda. The Israeli sources claim that for the past two years Iraqi intelligence officers were shuttling between Baghdad and Afghanistan, meeting with Ayman Al Zawahiri. According to the sources, one of the Iraqi intelligence officers, Salah Suleiman, was captured last October by the Pakistanis near the border with Afghanistan. The Iraqis are also reported to have established strong ties with Imad Mughniyeh.
Iraq-al-Qaida links go back decade: CIA reports show nearly 100 examples of cooperation, says reporter
December 11, 2002
CIA reports of Iraqi-al-Qaida cooperation number nearly 100 and extend back to 1992, according to a reporter for Vanity Fair whose sources include senior Pentagon officials.
David Rose, writing for the magazine and the United Kingdom's Evening Standard, says he is convinced of the links between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam Hussein's Baghdad regime.
Terrorists contacted Iraq envoy after blast
February 12, 2003
CEBU, Philippines — A senior Iraqi diplomat was in contact with Muslim terrorists in the southern Philippines hours after they killed a U.S. soldier and injured another in a bombing in October, according to Philippine officials and intelligence sources.
ABU MUSAB ZARQAWI IN BAGHDAD
U.S.: Top al-Qaeda operative recently in Baghdad
10/02/2002
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top al-Qaeda operative was in Baghdad about two months ago, and U.S. officials suspect his presence was known to the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a defense official said Wednesday.
Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian, is believed to have left Iraq, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. counterterrorism officials have called Zarqawi — also known as Ahmad Fadeel al-Khalaylah — one of al-Qaeda's top two dozen leaders.
Newstrove: Abu Musab Zarqawi
1993 IRAQI ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON GEORGE BUSH SR.
U.S. Strikes Iraq for Plot to Kill Bush
By David Von Drehle and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, June 27, 1993; Page A01
U.S. Navy ships launched 23 Tomahawk missiles against the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service yesterday in what President Clinton said was a "firm and commensurate" response to Iraq's plan to assassinate former president George Bush in mid-April.
The attack was meant to strike at the building where Iraqi officials had plotted against Bush, organized other unspecified terrorist actions and directed repressive internal security measures, senior U.S. officials said.
IRAQ BEHIND 2000 USS COLE ATTACK
Iraq - Bin Laden USS Cole bomb link
USS Cole: 17 dead mourned as experts piece together attack
Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian
Thursday October 19, 2000
Investigators in Yemen yesterday uncovered evidence suggesting the bomb attack on the warship USS Cole had been a meticulously organised conspiracy, which a leading US terrorism expert said may have been the first joint operation between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Under an overcast sky at the Norfolk naval base in Virginia, President Clinton led thousands of US servicemen in mourning the 17 victims of last week's blast, as the state department warned that more attacks against US citizens could be on the way in the Middle East or Turkey.
In Aden, Yemeni police and FBI agents were examining a flat apparently rented by the bomb makers four days before the attack. Bomb-making materials were found in the flat, which was rented by two non-Yemeni Arabs, at least one of whom had a Gulf accent, local residents said. They kept a fibre glass boat parked nearby.
"I didn't think it possible that Osama sitting up there
in the mountains could do it....those who executed it were much more modern.
They knew the U.S., they knew aviation. I don't think he
has the intelligence or the minute planning. The planner was someone else."
- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
"If Saddam's operatives manipulated simple-minded Islamic zealots to bomb the World Trade Center, it is only prudent to assume his agents are capable of striking again."
- The Boston Globe, 1/18/95
"From inside America, how five planes flew.
Such a mishap never happened in the past!
And nothing similar will happen.
Six thousand infidels died.
Bin Ladin did not do it;
the luck of the president [Saddam] did it."
(Text of poem recited in the presence of President Saddam Hussein by
Shaykh Ali Bin Shallal, head of the al-Sharji tribes, at a meeting with
tribal chieftains from Basra and Maysan Governates on 12/3/01.
Was the 5th plane the crash of AA Flight 587 into Queens, NYC on November 12, 2001?)
All Credit given to: Spirit of Truth.Org
http://www.spiritoftruth.org/iraqlinks.htm
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Finally
What The 911 Commission Did Say
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation and the signature of President George W. Bush in late 2002, is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. The Commission is also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.
On July 22, 2004 the Commission released its public report, which is available for download from this site. The report is also available in bookstores nationwide and from the Government Printing Office.
On August 21, 2004 the Commission released two staff monographs, available for download along with other staff statements on this site.
The ten members of the 9-11 Commission announce the creation of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project.
The Commission closed on August 21, 2004.
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So, what is so credible and/or circumstantial in the evidence alleging Saddam Husayn supported, coordinated, or controlled Usama bin Ladin, al-Qaida, and the terrorists who attacked the United States on September 11?
- Ramzi Yousef, the Trade Towers and alleged control by Baghdad. Yousef was convicted for his involvement in the 1993 Trade Towers attack. The story of false identities and tampered documents belonging to a Pakistani and filched from occupied Kuwait is intriguing and rivals anything John Le Carre has written. Should we make the assumption that only Iraqi intelligence could have tampered with the files and planned far in advance to create a "legend" for an operative? Granted, Iraqi intelligence officers and operatives were trained by East German, Czech, and Soviet counterparts. To repeat a point made earlier, except for assassination hits against their own dissidents and defectors abroad, Iraq's intelligence services did not show exceptional talent or success in long-range, long-time operational planning.
- Muslim extremists are not capable of carrying out complicated plots or producing material that could be used in a biological or chemical attack or act of sabotage. This argument claims the anthrax attacks could only have been carried out by al-Qaida operatives who received the materiel, targeting information, and directions from a state sponsor, Iraq. I disagree. Many of al-Qaida's affiliate groups, as in other extremist groups in the Middle East, are led by men with advanced degrees from Western schools in science and technology.
- Only a devoutly religious Muslim would work for or with an Islamist terrorist group like al-Qaida. I don't know if Ramzi Youssef was an Islamic fundamentalist or not. It doesn't matter if he was willing to work for al-Qaida or, at least, take their shilling. I believe we know from press accounts tracing the last days of the 9/11 operatives that they were told to go to bars, womanize, drink, and do what was necessary to maintain their cover-they would still be received in Paradise.
- Saddam and Usama could not possibly have worked together because of the differences in religious sect or the secular versus religious nature of their beliefs. They could have. Terrorist groups and state sponsors have cooperated tactically even though they have sectarian or doctrinal differences. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran's Islamist extremists sought to export their revolution by legitimate and illegitimate means. They tried to appeal to Sunni extremist factions, for example offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, while encouraging Hizballah groups among the Shias of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the smaller Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Iran's clerical extremists based their appeal on similarities and ignored differences in faith and practices. In this sense, Sunni extremists and Shia militants both shared a vision of living in an Islamic state under shariah (religious law); they would have removed their illegitimate and unrepentant Muslim rulers and the foreigners-read the U.S.-who kept them in power. In a similar vein, Saddam was willing to back Sunni extremists against his rival for Arab and Ba`thist leadership-Hafiz al-Asad. What made Saddam's cooperation with Usama bin Ladin unlikely, in my mind, was Saddam's certain knowledge that he would be a target of Usama's once the Al Sa`ud were removed and Usama's deep hostility to Saddam.
- Saddam and Bin Ladin worked together and Iraqi intelligence "ran" the al-Qaida networks. Evidence includes meetings between Iraqi intelligence agents and al-Qaida operatives in Sudan, the Czech Republic, and Afghanistan. In the 1980s and 1990s every international terrorist group and state sponsor was represented in Sudan. Iraq, Iran, and most Islamist organizations were welcomed by Hassan al-Turabi, the Islamist leader of the military-dominated regime. How could they not meet in Khartoum, a small city offering many opportunities for terrorist tête-à-têtes. Czech and American intelligence officials say they are unable to confirm any meeting between al-Qaida operative Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer, identified as Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani. I would be disappointed if an Iraqi intelligence officer did not meet with al-Qaida operatives. He would have been derelict in his duty if he did not at least try to arrange a meeting. His purpose would have been to assess intent, operational capability, and recruitment potential. It would not have been sufficient for both simply to hate the U.S. Saddam always demanded total loyalty from and control over any group he supported. The evidence is fairly clear, at least in my mind, that al-Qaida would not be subordinated to any government, even if Usama had admired Saddam, which he did not. Finally, it is claimed that a senior Iraqi intelligence operative, Farouk Hijazi, who served as head of the Iraqi intelligence service as well as ambassador to Turkey, Jordan, and Tunisia, met with Usama in Afghanistan.
If these alleged facts are true, we should be able to confirm them-we have al-Ani and Hijazi in custody. If a terrorist calls Iraq, does that prove state complicity? If a terrorist meets with an Iraqi intelligence officer, does that make him a tool of the Iraqis? If a terrorist receives money from the UAE, does that make the UAE complicit? I think not on all counts.
Recommendations
Given the examination of the role of intelligence in supporting Administration actions or intent to act, a few recommendations come to mind:
- Recognize the limits as well as the strengths of intelligence. It is more art than science, despite the state-of-the-art technology, the ability to hear and see what no one has heard or seen before. In terrorism, as in other intelligence issues, HUMINT is needed to flesh out methods and intent. Fancy technical means of collection are not as reliable as one might think-they, too, need to pass the test of reliability and intent used to validate HUMINT.
- Always check reliability statements and do not blindly accept what is not vetted or what seems implausible. Learn how to read an intelligence report, be it a report directly from a clandestine source, one filtered by the CIA, or produced by the collected wisdom of the Intelligence Community (known as estimates). These are, in my experience, the most difficult to write, the most complicated to coordinate, and probably the least satisfactory to read in their tendency to go for the lowest common denominator. That is an analyst's profession and sometimes they get it right.
- Intelligence does not make policy and policy should not shape intelligence.
A Short and Selective Chronology of Reports and Events
Regarding Saddam, al-Qaida, and U.S. Targeting
First efforts: Iraq's efforts to encourage Palestinian terrorist factions and to send Iraqi terrorist teams abroad to attack American targets fail. The Palestinians refuse to act, and the Iraqi agents are arrested on landing. In April 1993, an Iraqi attempt to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush in Kuwait fails. Both efforts reflect sloppy tradecraft by the Iraqis.
The Prague Connection. Much of the evidence of Iraqi links to al-Qaida is based on meetings alleged to have occurred in Khartoum, Prague and Kandahar between Iraqi intelligence agents and al-Qaida operatives. Czech President Vaclav Havel denied there was any evidence to confirm reports that Mohammed Atta, a leader of the 9/11 attacks, had met with an Iraqi intelligence officer, Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, in Prague in April, 2001, five months before the attacks. American records indicate Atta was in Virginia Beach in early April 2001, and DCI George Tenet told Congress in testimony after 9/11 that the CIA could find no evidence to confirm that the Prague meeting took place. (James Risen, "Prague Discounts an Iraqi Meeting," The New York Times, 21 October 2002). Al-Ani was subsequently ordered to leave the Czech Republic after he was caught taking photos of the Radio Free Europe Building in Prague. Iraq recalled its Ambassador to Turkey, Farouk Yahya al-Hijazi on 30 November 2001 following allegations he had been in contact with Mohammed Atta and other members of al-Qaida. According to press reports, Usama bin Ladin was "believed to have met repeatedly with officers of Iraq's Special Security Organization . . . and seems to have ties to Iraq's Mukhabarat." Hijazi allegedly traveled to Afghanistan in December 1998 and, according to a 1999 report in the Guardian (UK) Saddam was "thought to have offered bin Laden asylum in Iraq." (Richard Miniter, "The Visible Hand: The Iraq Connection President Bush must win the war his father started," The Wall Street Journal Online, 24 September 2001.) An Israeli specialist on terrorism cites an Italian press article that Hijazi met bin Ladin in Sudan as early as 1994. European security officials claimed in March 2001, however, that Saddam personally decided against allowing Usama bin Ladin and al-Qaida to use Iraq as a base because he feared they might destabilize his regime. See David Ignatius, "Dubious Iraqi Link," The Washington Post, 15 March 2001, p. A23.
Training Camps. Two defectors, one of whom claimed to be a senior mukhabarat officer, alleged they had worked at an Iraqi camp south of Baghdad called Salman Pak, where Islamist terrorists had been trained since 1995. The training included, in particular, hijacking techniques useful in seizing aircraft like the American-made Boeing model in use there. How did the defectors know these were Islamists? The defectors said the men prayed and had beards, obviously marking them as Islamists in Saddam's secular Iraq. The information on the Islamists was provided by the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and was not confirmed by other sources. The existence of a terrorist training camp at Salman Pak has been long known, but the aircraft used for training was an old Soviet Antonov and not a Boeing 707, as the INC sources claimed. See Chris Hedges, "Defectors Cite Iraqi Training for Terrorism," The New York Times, 8 November 2001.
Saddam, al-Qaida, and Ansar al-Islam: An American diplomat in Jordan, Lawrence Foley, is murdered in front of his house in Amman on 28 October 2002. Al-Qaida leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who directed the murder, is a Jordanian of Palestinian origin who allegedly was in Baghdad in spring 2002 recovering from wounds received in the fighting in Afghanistan. According to press citing government sources, no evidence links Iraq to Foley's killing or Zarqawi. Zarqawi may have been linked to Ansar al-Islam, a small group of approximately 150 Arabs trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and living in an area of Iraq controlled by the Kurds, and not Baghdad. Ansar al-Islam members had fled Afghanistan after the U.S. military campaign and taken refuge in northern Iraq. According to press sources, the CIA believes that the last anti-American operation planned by Iraq was the April 1993 Bush assassination attempt in Kuwait. See Dana Priest, "U.S. Not Claiming Iraqi Link to Terror," The New York Times, 10 September 2001, p. A1; James Risen and David Johnston, "Split at C.I.A. and F.B.I. on Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda," The New York Times, 2 February 2003.
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 | http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing3/witness_yaphe.htm |
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Current News
The Commission has released its final report. [more]
The Chair and Vice Chair have released a statement regarding the Commission's closing. [more]
The Commission closed August 21, 2004. [more]
Commission Members
Thomas H. Kean
Chair
Lee H. Hamilton
Vice Chair
Richard Ben-Veniste
Fred F. Fielding
Jamie S. Gorelick
Slade Gorton
Bob Kerrey
John F. Lehman
Timothy J. Roemer
James R. Thompson
Commission Staff
Philip D. Zelikow
Executive Director
Chris Kojm
Deputy Executive Director
Daniel Marcus
General Counsel
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