.....Is it a possibility?
Recently I came across several op-ed's pieces on the links between Mohamed Atta & the Former Iraqi Regime which by now most people have heard or read about to some extent. The report on the link itself, if true, could seriously upset what I've come to term as the Hyper-Left or even the "Useful Idiot" crowd for those that know the phrase whose arguments have been one part revolutionary, one part socialist dogma and one part intellectual elitism who have made their rather passe' catch-phrase agruments their bread - and - butter.
In short the story regarding the link goes pretty much like this:
Prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, Czech Intelligence had been keeping surveilance on a particular member of the Iraqi Embassy in Prague, Ahmad Khalil Ibrhim Samir al-Ani, a known and documented member of Iraqi Intelligence for some time. On April 8, 2001 of that year, al-Ani (with Czech surveilance in tow) was observed as he met with an Arab speaking man in Prague....some reports cite that the surveilance team made either/both video or photograph record of this meet but so far I have not seen any evidence supporting this but it is part of standard surveilance procedure that both types of equipment are used. It is important to note that al-Ani who was posted to Prague from March of 1999 to late April of 2001 was under that same surveilance for a majority of his time there.
After 9/11, when the highjackers had been identified (although certain Hyper-left conspiracy sites say that the highjackers were either aids infected pilots pissed at the current state of aids research or US servicemen under "orders" by Bush to crash the commercial planes.....Can we say not in touch with reality?), and their pictures were shown to the general public, several agents from the Czech counter-intelligence unit assigned to keep tabs on al-Ani identified Atta as the arab speaking man who had met with the Iraqi intel agent back in April of 2001. The statement by the Czech agents led to al-Ani being expelled two weeks later.
In the wake of Baghdad falling to the coalition in the war, the Iraqi Embassy in Prague was searched uncovering documents showing that al-Ani had a scheduled meeting with a 'Hamburg student' on that April 8 2001 date were uncovered. Although al-Ani denied he met with Atta and repeated his denial while detained by US forces and failed to indicate who he had the April 2001 meeting with. To date..publiclly...the CIA has been unable to confirm the Prague meeting between al-Ani and Atta (this does not mean as is repeatedly said in both the media and blogs the world over that US intelligence discounted the Czech report as false..sorry to burst the Hyper-Lefts bubble yet again) and that US intelligence is somewhat skeptical at this point of Saddam's former regime had a hand in the 9/11 attacks. ( again for the benefit of the Hyper-Left...skeptical does not equate into discounting it.) Lastly, for those asking how Atta could have slipped into Prague unnoticed as it were, Spanish Intelligence uncovered info indicating that several Algerians, Khaled Madani & Moussa Laouar, supplied both Atta and another al-Qaida member, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, with false passports...I wonder if the name on those passports matches up with visa records in Czech republic? Finally, one last side note...of the several news stories have been written bout Iraqi Intelligence's possible connections to al-Qaida the most interesting are the ones regarding the dealings between Iraqi Intel and Ansar al-Islam in particular but instead of writing more about it the link below will take you to the story or one of them anyway.
I'm not sure if the Czech report is credible (I give it the benefit of the doubt which is more then the Hyper-Left does) but if it is...it would most certainly shake many misconceptions that persist today to their core..while it is said that Saddams regime was secular and would not in any way have dealings with the likes of al-Qaida I find that tired agrument somewhat hollow....consider the way organised crime operates.....when you have say the American Mafia working with the likes of the Russian Mob or even say the likes of the Chinese Triads, they may not like each other...they may even hate each other...but in the end they work together for one simple and unified goal....it's business....why does this possibiltiy of two diametriclly opposed ideologies working together against a common foe..this case the west or more to the point the US get thrown aside as nothing more than an illusion?
Link
Try the link above to read one particular story on possible connections of Iraq & al-Qaida