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Subject: Fw: [Iraqsolidarity] Atta, the Times and the Iraqi
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Subject: [Iraqsolidarity] Atta, the Times and the Iraqi
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Follow the Changing Story Atta, The Times and the Iraqi Agent By William Blum Is there anyone out there who's not yet totally cynical about US foreign policy and the propaganda that accompanies
it?
For months we've been told that Mohamed Atta, the alleged ringleader of the September 11 attacks, had met an Iraqi
intelligence agent in Prague in April, with all the ominous
implication of Iraqi involvement in the attack that this
story carried, along with the implied threat of US
retaliation against Iraq.
Well, in case you missed it, the NY Times reported on page B6 of its October 20, 2001
issue that Czech
"officials said they had been
asked by Washington to
comb their records to determine
whether Mr. Atta met
with an Iraqi diplomat or agent
here. They said they
had told the United States they
found no evidence of
any such meeting. ... Petr Necas,
chairman of the
parliamentary defense committee, said, 'I
haven't seen
any direct evidence that Mr. Atta
met any Iraqi agent'."
Well, that would seem to have put an end to that. All the American officials who have been hungering for a
chance to further devastate the people of Iraq would
have to find another pretext.
Then, on October 27, the Times reported that: "Speaking at a news conference in Prague, the Czech interior
minister, Stanislav Gross, said that Mr.
Atta met Mr.
Ani, an Iraqi diplomat identified by Czech
authorities
as an intelligence officer, in early April."
What's going on here? Said the Times: "Mr. Gross and other Czech officials suggested earlier this month that while there was evidence that Mr. Atta
had visited Prague, there was none he had actually met with
Iraqi agents. It was unclear what prompted them to revise
their
conclusions, although it seemed possible that American officials,
concerned about the political implications of Iraqi involvement
in terror attacks, had put pressure on the Czechs to keep
quiet."
Part of the second sentence indicates that the Times writer was a bit confused inasmuch as it's been US officials
trumpeting alleged Iraqi involvement. But that's
neither
here nor there. What's important is the
claim that the first
announcement by the Czech government may have induced
US
officials to put pressure on the Czechs to revise that claim.
If the NY Times can express such unusual cynicism about US foreign policy, who are we to not have our doubts? To
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