CNN Breaking - Iraqi Official w/ 9/11 ties in US Custody

[Cooley Hurd]

No link yet...

[LosinIt]

1. Huh?? Explain what that means

Iraqi official w/ 9/11????????????

[Cooley Hurd]

4. whoops... edited subject line

nothing more yet - Paula Von Zahn led off the broadcast saying an Iraqi official who allegedly met w/ someone tied to the 9/11 hijackers was now in US custody...

[killbotfactory]

6. Are they talking about the bogus Atta meeting?

What great timing, BTW!

[CatWoman]

7. probably

Saddam's mother's sister's cousin's great-nephew.

[Kellanved]

8. strange

Why is this "cnn breaking news" just right for the American prime time? In Iraq it's early morning; I very much doubt, that anybody was arrested just now.

[Cooley Hurd]

10. ...and right at the top of the 8 o'clock news.

Oddly, still nothing else (not even on Faux...)

[AngryWhiteDemocrat]

28. Wait!! I know who it is!!

Iraqi official met with somebody tied to 9/11......

[BadGimp]

44. ROTFLMAO

[skip fox]

2. with 9/11 links?

n/t

[AngryWhiteDemocrat]

3. Gee, wnat amazing luck!

Good thing there wasn't anything on the news the White House wanted to bury!

[karlschneider]

5. Horse

shit.
:-(


(not directed at you, but the "report")

[PROGRESSIVE1]

9. Ever Notice...

everything these days is considered "breaking news"!

:argh:

[Nambe]

11. Link - MSNBC

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters07-08-170009.asp?reg=MIDEAST

[Kellanved]

12. yahoo has the story ;

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030709/ts_nm/iraq_arrest_dc&cid=564&ncid=1478

[papau]

13. Reuters Story below:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-arrest.html

U.S. Holding Iraqi Said to Have Met 9 / 11 Hijacker
By REUTERS


Filed at 8:02 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has taken into custody an Iraqi intelligence official who is reported to have met the ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers just months before the 2001 attacks, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. The military took Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani into custody last week, the official said. Some Czech officials have said al-Ani met Mohammed Atta, suspected leader of the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, in Prague in April 2001.

The CIA and FBI were unable to confirm that the meeting took place.
<snip>

[killbotfactory]

16. It IS the bogus Atta meeting!!!

They have receipts of Atta renting cars and staying in hotels in America during the time of this meeting. What bullshit!

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Wasn't that story debunked?

Time to go googling. I'm sure I saw something that proved Atta wasn't even in Praque, when the supposed meeting happened.

[htuttle]

14. Is this some kind of Rovian "Hail Mary"?

Or what?

If they are talking about the alleged Atta meeting, that was debunked in depth long ago.

Whenever the heat gets on them, it's '911!' '911!' '911!'

Kind of like calling the fire department, I suppose.

[snippy]

29. It smells like one of Turd Blossom Rove's tricks.

He is trotting out some week-old news to try and create the illusion of competence. I think this is another opportunity for the democrats to attack Bush on more lies.

From a May, 2002 BBC article:

American investigators have said an alleged meeting between one of the 11 September hijackers and an Iraqi spy did not take place - dismissing a key link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the attacks.
. . .

According to a Newsweek report, the Czechs acknowledged several months ago that they may have been mistaken about the whole affair.
. . .

Atta is known to have been in Prague in June 2000, but investigations indicate that at the time of the alleged meeting with the Iraqi agent, Ahmed Chalil Ibrahim Samir Ani, in April 2001, he was in Virginia Beach and Florida.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1961668.stm

From an August, 2002 Frontline piece:

But, by the spring of 2002, the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection was being dismissed in news articles in The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time and The New York Times. The reports quoted administration officials and CIA and FBI analysts--almost all unnamed--who said that on closer scrutiny, "there was no evidence Atta left or returned to the U.S. at the time he was supposed to be in Prague." FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III went on the record at a San Francisco meeting in April 2001 saying the evidence wasn't there: "We ran down literally hundreds of thousands of leads and checked every record we could get our hands on, from flight reservations to car rentals to bank accounts..."

Bush is recycling old lies.

[peterh]

15. Another link…

http://www.powervacuum.org/articles/03/07/08/230253.shtml?tid=12

Ahmed al-Ani is his name, and he is believed to have met with Mohamed Atta in the Czech Republic about six months before 9/11. US intelligence won't admit to being 100% sure about the meeting in the Republic. Apparently al-Ani has been in US custody since last week.



I think the freepers will try to get some mileage out of this….the timing of this is very suspect. I don’t think they have anything.

[killbotfactory]

18. They had him for a week, and broke the story now...

Surprising!

I guess they forgot that the Mohamed Atta meeting was total bullshit!

[tjdee]

19. Is everyone an idiot?

There's a problem with the administration...

LOOK OVER THERE!! 9-11!! 9-11!! TERRRRRAAAAAAA!!!


Oh, I'm so fucking sure there's a significant link between Iraq and 9/11.

Yeah, uh huh. And the media is so complicit, it's disgusting at this point.

:eyes:

[DisgustipatedinCA]

20. Are the American officials with 9/11 ties in custody?

Didn't think so.

So CNN and (presumably) the white house are crowing about this capture of someone who allegedly met with Atta in Prague?

What has CNN said about George Tenet having breakfast on September 11th with the head of the ISI (Pakistani CIA)? Has CNN also mentioned that the man Tenet met with on September 11 also gave Mohammed Atta 100,000 USD?

Didn't think so.

Bite me, CNN. I'm not buying your crap.

[indictrichardperle]

23. i dont think Rove planted this story

This stinker bears the finger prints of the defense policy board/OSP neo-con rats nest. It is their MO....really stupid, really lame propaganda.

Yes this was debunked by our own intelligence agencies long ago. What total fuc*ing Bullshit. It shows the level of their desperation.

[Old and In the Way]

34. I think Tenet was having breakfast with David Boren (?), an old

friend that morning.

I think the ISI guy was meeting with Graham and Porter Goss(?) (House/Senate Intelligence Committees) that day.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

21. 'Bout Time to Raise the Terrorist Threat Level...

"Hey! Look over here at this shiny object...pay no attention to the 800 pound gorilla in the corner."

...and the lemming public follows along.

In my lifetime, I pray for the day that I see G.W. led out of the White House in shame and the Bush family goes down in history as the criminal cabal that it has always been.

JB

[killbotfactory]

22. The Mohammed Atta meeting was debunked, here's an article...

The Cabal was eager to find a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda, especially proof that Saddam played a role in the 9-11 attacks. The hard-liners at Defense seized on a report that Muhammad Atta, the chief hijacker, met in Prague in early April 2001 with an Iraqi intelligence official. Only one problem with that story, the FBI pointed out. Atta was traveling at the time between Florida and Virginia Beach, Va. (The bureau had his rental car and hotel receipts.)

http://www.msnbc.com/news/919753.asp?0cv=CB10

Lying sacks of shit!!!

[warrior1]

25. SOMEBODY

needs to mail this back to them. All of them.


The Cabal was eager to find a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda, especially proof that Saddam played a role in the 9-11 attacks. The hard-liners at Defense seized on a report that Muhammad Atta, the chief hijacker, met in Prague in early April 2001 with an Iraqi intelligence official. Only one problem with that story, the FBI pointed out. Atta was traveling at the time between Florida and Virginia Beach, Va. (The bureau had his rental car and hotel receipts.)



http://www.msnbc.com/news/919753.asp?0cv=CB10


Lying sacks of shit!!!

[lkinsale]

35. if there are receipts showing Atta was in FL, not Prague

then doesn't it just bring up again how the Bush administration insisted on manipulating the evidence? Pretty risky move, to bring another piece of boogus proof to public attention right now.

[DoYouEverWonder]

24. Here's a couple of reports that debunked the story

http://slate.msn.com/id/2070410/

http://www.counterpunch.org/blumatta.html


Funny thing is that if this is such a big deal, why isn't it a big deal that the head of Pakistani intelligence, met with Atta in the US days before 9-11 and gave him over $100,000?

[indictrichardperle]

26. neo-con thinking goes like this :

The WMDs are too difficult to plant, but the other justification for the war isnt as difficult to plant, its the 9-11/Iraq connection.......

Really lame, really stupid.....but it could be "found" on documents, and confessions might be forth-coming from interrogations.

[paulthompson]

27. correction

This Iraqi story is so debunked it's not even funny. I wouldn't be surprised if they torture the guy and try to squeeze more out of it, though.

But General Mahmood Ahmed, head of Pakistani intelligence, didn't meet with Atta in the US, as far as we know. He was meeting with US officials and sending money to the hijackers indirectly. Here's a mini-timeline I wrote about him:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/mahmoodahmed.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

30. Thanks for the clarification.

So was it just a coincidence that Atta's money man was in the US before and during zero hour? Maybe I'm reading more into the story than is really there, but there seems to be an implication that Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed had some questionable meetings around that time?

[paulthompson]

33. check the link

The details of what Mahmood Ahmed was doing before and after 9/11 certainly seems extremely fishy to me, which is why I have investigated it some.

Of course no journalist is brave enough to investigate, but a best selling and respected French author just did, and again the conclusion is that Mahmood Ahmed was behind the money for 9/11:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EF28Df02.html

Here's some quotes from the article:

When BHL starts to follow the money, his investigation really takes off. It all starts with the famous $100,000 wired to September 11's chief operative Mohammed Atta's account in the US by one Ahmad Umar Sheikh, following instructions by Pakistani General Ahmad Mehmoud - the ISI director general at the time. General Mehmoud was removed by Musharraf less than a month after September 11. The Pakistani press reported at the time that Mehmoud was removed because US investigations had proved a liaison between himself and none other than Omar Sheikh. So BHL then arrives at an even juicier hypothesis: "Not only an Omar linked to al-Qaeda through its most spectacular terrorist operation - but of a collusion ... between al-Qaeda and ISI working together to destroy the Towers. For the Indian services, there's no doubt about the association."

Neo-conservatives may eventually be tortured by self-doubt, but Indian and Israeli intelligence will certainly love the fact that the information they shared led BHL to an explosive conclusion: "The possible Pakistani responsibility in the September 11 attack remains the great unsaid in George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld's America ... to admit that Ahmad is Omar and he wired the money ... wouldn't it be to question the whole foreign policy which, already at the time, made Iraq as the enemy and Pakistan as an ally?"

---

"Admit that Ahmad is Omar" I assume is metaphorial - that Omar was the arm of Ahmad, and not literally the same person.

[proud patriot]

31. The wicked web weaved in the practice of Deciet

..using something already debunked reeks of desperation IMHO

[fizzana]

32. Kafka must be up there

laughing his head off. If this isn't surreal I don't know what is.

By next week a poll will reveal that 78% of Americans now believe there is a direct link between Iraq and 9/11.

[Exultant Democracy]

36. Is that all they Got?

I've been wondering all day what Dubya & Co. was going to try and fake the public out with. I hope this is the best they can do, but I don’t want to misunderestamate the Chimp squad. This was probably just a stop gap and they will be able to cook up something big by tomorrow. (If they are looking for someone who really did pass weapons and money to both Saddam and Osama I would suggest Tricky Dick and Papa ) The way I see it they only have to buy enough time to let us start dropping bombs on Canada to liberate the Canadian people from an Evil Oppressive Government that has sold out their people to the Gay Agenda.

[prolesunited]

37. Bomb Canada!!!

You're right. That's when we know that they are truly desperate.

Welcome to DU, LeviathanCrumbling. :hi:

[Carl21014]

38. It's the Prague meeting that never happened

They are holding the guy who allegedly met Atta in Prague.

[JM]

39. Total BS...

...trotting this out the day the Dems want a probe on the Uranium claim.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/08/sprj.irq.bush.sotu/index.html

Perhaps the media will someday be able to add 2+2 and actually get 4.

Later,
JM

[DemNoir]

40. This is very rude but....

Why must we suffer about a dozen of these incredible crap posts a day?

Why take the time posting garbage like this?

[NashVegas]

42. Don't You Want to Know What the Admin is Up To?

Or would you rather just ignore it when they try to manage the news?

[indictrichardperle]

43. Faux news updates running with this

"US now has in custody Iraqi intelligence officer who met with Atta"....then voice inflexion with anger and suspicion.."he hasnt confessed yet, but this may link Iraq to 9-11"

Jay-zus, talk about directing a mis-information campaign at the American public.

[killbotfactory]

45. Lying sacks of shit

The lot of 'em.

This pisses me off.

[BiggJawn]

49. Yes, you're right, it IS very rude...

But THIS is RUDER...

Who asked YOU?

First rule of the Board:
Nobody held a gun to your head to click on the damn post!

[Cooley Hurd]

50. ...because CNN led the top of the news w/ this...

...and called it breaking news. That's why I posted it in LBN. No one forces you to read it.
:eyes:

[Bozola]

41. Ebay $9.95

Iraqi Official w/ 9/11 ties in US Custody!

Does tasteless neckwear really constitute a reason to incarcerate somebody?

[enough]

46. NNNOLHI's very useful links to debunking articles in GD forum

"Atta was in Florida when he was supposed to be in Prague"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=10692&mesg_id=10692&page=1

Stories from Newsweek and BBC debunking the Prague meeting.

[davsand]

47. An unnamed "U S Official"? Who's pissed at shrub?

Rove is not a dummy--he knows that the last thing you want to do is float another opportunity for the administration to get contradicted while the media is already hot on the trail of a lie. Floating a story that has been discredited in several places as some type of "distraction" is just not bright at all.

I can buy that the monkeyboy is that dumb, but neither Rove nor Unca Dick is.

So who put this out there? I have to wonder if this is somebody who WANTS to discredit the administration--somebody who wants to provoke questions.

Hmmm, who all has been shat on of late? Could it be...the CIA?

I'm thinking of the old curse "May you live in interesting times." Sounds like it is gonna get really interesting around the Whitehouse.

Laura

[leesa]

48. Ahhh, yes always a 9-11 "find" when Bush is covering his ass

Bush is the most evil son-of-bitch I have ever experienced. May he receive the ultimate punishment for his treason. Will he plead like the executed woman in Texas?? And who will mock him??

[ze_dscherman]

51. This is discussed here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4278&mesg_id=4278&page=


Richard Perle, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board who has contended al Qaeda and Iraq are linked, said he is hopeful al-Ani's capture will lead to a corroboration of his stance.

"If he chose to, he could confirm the meeting with Atta," Perle said. "It would be nice to see that laid to rest. There's a lot he could tell us."

"Of course, a lot depends on who is doing the interrogating," said Perle, adding he fears that if it were the CIA, it could skew the interrogation so as to play down evidence that the alleged meeting with Atta occurred.


More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30323-2003Jul9.html?nav=hptop_ts

[VolcanoJen]

52. Kick!

:dem: