WARNING! - MEDIA PREPARING PUBLIC FOR ANOTHER WAR WITH IRAQ? Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Iraqi Terror Connection? Intelligence Report: Hijacker Met With Top Iraqi Spy Taliban Talk Of 'Holy War'; U.S. Presses Bin Laden Extradition Grand Jury Convenes In White Plains, N.Y., To Probe Terror Attacks Sept. 18, 2001 AP A week after the terror onslaught, acrid smoke billows from ground zero. (CBS) CBS News has learned the United States received an intelligence report that Mohammed Atta, the hijacker who is named as the pilot of the first plane to strike the World Trade Center, met early this year somewhere in Europe with the head of the Iraqi intelligence service. U.S. intelligence officials believe the report to be accurate, but do not know if it is "smoking gun" evidence of Iraqi involvement. It is, however, the first solid indicator that a foreign state may have aided, abetted or had prior knowledge of Tuesday's attacks. Atta, 33, is believed to have been the cell leader of the 19 hijackers, although investigators have no concrete proof of that thus far. Attorney General John Ashcroft said officials were investigating the possibility that more than four planes had been targeted by the hijackers - whose associates, he said, still might be in the United States. Several senior administration officials have been warning, in general terms, that terrorists might try to strike again as the United States mounts a worldwide campaign against them. Meanwhile, a grand jury has convened to review evidence and issue subpoenas related to the terrorist attack last week that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The grand jury convened in White Plains in suburban Westchester County, north of New York City, according to a source familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear whether the grand jury would also investigate the terrorist attack against the Pentagon, and the aborted attack that ended in a crash in Shanksville, Pa. "Empanelling a grand jury is the logical next step in this investigation," said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "A grand jury allows prosecutors to put more pressure on (uncooperative) witnesses than investigators themselves can." New York City stood still for a minute Tuesday to silently mark the exact moment at 8:48 a.m. EDT a week ago when the attack destroyed the 110-story twin towers. The possibility of finding anyone else alive in the ruins is "very, very small," New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. "Those chances are not totally ended or over. We will still conduct ourselves as a rescue effort and a recovery effort." In Afghanistan, as Taliban rulers discussed conditions for possibly extraditing suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden to a country other than the United States, clerics in the war-torn country were urged to prepare for war against America. A Pakistani delegation left the country Tuesday evening empty-handed. In the Middle East, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat announced he is unilaterally enforcing a cease-fire, and Israel responded by ordering a halt to military operations. Both sides have been under pressure from the United States to work out a truce. "I hope that both sides can take advantage of this encouraging development and it will lead to additional meetings," said Colin Powell. In Afghanistan, Taliban Radio, monitored by the BBC, broadcast a speech by Taliban Council of Ministers deputy chairman Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhond, announcing that "our jihad will be formally resuming against the Americans." _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
