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Purported Iraqi document shows direct link to 9/11
I readily admit that this seems too good to be true. I’m only reporting what I’ve read in reputable newspapers, while expressing my own strong doubts that it is true. According to a story by Con Coughlin in The Telegraph, and a longer version of the same story by him in the New York Sun, the Iraqi interim government has found a document directly linking, on one side, the Hussein regime and the Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal (who lived in Baghdad for years before his death) to Muhammad Atta and the September 11th attack. The document, dated July 1, 2001, is addressed to Saddam Hussein, and is signed by Habbush Al-Tikriti, the head of the Iraqi Intelligence service. 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.The document also says that Iraqi intelligence, helped by an Al Qaeda team, arranged for an unspecified shipment from Niger to Baghdad.
For obvious reasons, all of this seems too neat, too perfect, to be real. At least one blogger thinks it’s horsefeathers, while leaving open the possibility that the document is genuine. (However, even a writer who has promoted the theory of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link agrees that this document seems unbelievable.) If it did turn out to be genuine, however, it would establish beyond any doubt that the Hussein regime was involved in 9/11. Comments
Exactly as Mr. Auster says, this looks just too good, too perfect, too simplistic even — almost an amateurishly obvious fake. IF IT IS TRUE, however, it is a worldwide political/diplomatic/security/military bombshell of a magnitude such as this country and the world have not seen in quite some time and will have implications for the long-term occupation of Iraq as well as for our dealings with other Middle Eastern countries and with North Korea, it will be a MAJOR humiliation for the Continental European countries who were such a thorn in our side over this mess (and will force high-level resignations there, almost certainly), and will all by itself tremendously bolster W’s chances for re-election in 2004 as it DEVASTATES his most strident Dem war critics. It is best to assume this is some sort of forgery or “plant” until proven otherwise. Posted by: Unadorned on December 15, 2003 11:23 PMIt does seem to good to be true. But, remember one thing, Sadaam’s party patterned itself after the Nazis. And like the Nazis they believed they would be there forever and also like the Nazis they had a penchant for the paper record. At the end of WWII the Allies discovered wharehouses full of documents that illuminated the trail of atrocities. I’m sure a similar paper trail is being discovered in Iraq and this blockbuster document will be just one of many that will come out. It does seem phoney, but it also reflects an arrogrance that was a hallmark of the Ba’athists. Posted by: Charles Rostkowski on December 16, 2003 9:58 AM |