Saturday Dec. 13, 2003; 11:08 p.m. EST
9/11 Bombshell: Mohamed Atta Trained in Baghdad
A bombshell memo written to Saddam Hussein in 2001 and recently uncovered by Iraq's new coalition government shows that lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta was trained to attack the U.S. in Baghdad.
The memo, authored by Iraqi intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, is dated July 1, 2001 and describes the "work program" undertaken by Atta at a base in Baghdad run by notorious Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, reports London's Sunday Telegraph, which obtained the document exclusively.
If authentic, the document would be the first explicit evidence implicating Iraq in the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, since it makes a direct reference to what appears to be the 9/11 plot.
In one passage, the Iraqi intelligence chief reportedly informs Saddam that Atta had demonstrated his capability as leader of the team "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy."
Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, the paper said. But Dr. Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.
"We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," he told the Telegraph. "But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."
In October 2001, two Iraqi defectors told U.S. intelligence that they helped train militant Muslim fundamentalists to overcome U.S. flight crews using hijacking techniques never seen before 9/11 at a south Baghdad training camp known as Salman Pak.
One of the defectors, Sabah Khodada, subsequently told PBS that he believed the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by "graduates of Salman Pak."
In what could turn out to be one of the greatest intelligence blunders of the post-9/11 era, the CIA and FBI dismissed Khodada and other eyewitness accounts of the hijack training regimen at Salman Pak, though their story was corroborated by satellite photography showing the fuselage of the airliner on which they trained.
The Telegraph report makes no mention of Salman Pak or the accounts from eyewitnesses suggesting the camp may have played a role in 9/11.
Editor's note:
9/11 Bombshell: Mohamed Atta Trained in Baghdad
A bombshell memo written to Saddam Hussein in 2001 and recently uncovered by Iraq's new coalition government shows that lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta was trained to attack the U.S. in Baghdad.
The memo, authored by Iraqi intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, is dated July 1, 2001 and describes the "work program" undertaken by Atta at a base in Baghdad run by notorious Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, reports London's Sunday Telegraph, which obtained the document exclusively.
If authentic, the document would be the first explicit evidence implicating Iraq in the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, since it makes a direct reference to what appears to be the 9/11 plot.
In one passage, the Iraqi intelligence chief reportedly informs Saddam that Atta had demonstrated his capability as leader of the team "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy."
Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, the paper said. But Dr. Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.
"We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," he told the Telegraph. "But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."
In October 2001, two Iraqi defectors told U.S. intelligence that they helped train militant Muslim fundamentalists to overcome U.S. flight crews using hijacking techniques never seen before 9/11 at a south Baghdad training camp known as Salman Pak.
One of the defectors, Sabah Khodada, subsequently told PBS that he believed the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by "graduates of Salman Pak."
In what could turn out to be one of the greatest intelligence blunders of the post-9/11 era, the CIA and FBI dismissed Khodada and other eyewitness accounts of the hijack training regimen at Salman Pak, though their story was corroborated by satellite photography showing the fuselage of the airliner on which they trained.
The Telegraph report makes no mention of Salman Pak or the accounts from eyewitnesses suggesting the camp may have played a role in 9/11.
Editor's note:
