Meeting between bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence getting new look

By John J. Lumpkin

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – A 1998 meeting between Osama bin Laden and a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in Afghanistan is coming under new scrutiny as U.S. officials search for clues of a state sponsor of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Farouk Hijazi, an Iraqi intelligence officer who is Iraq’s ambassador to Turkey, met with bin Laden in Kandahar, a region in southeastern Afghanistan where bin Laden is known to have training camps, a U.S. official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. It is not known what was discussed at the December 1998 meeting.

An Iraqi diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity, denied reports that Hijazi had met with bin Laden. Turkish intelligence officials would not immediately comment on the reports.

Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday there was no evidence to link Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to the attacks by suicide hijackers on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

A second U.S. official said that investigators and intelligence agencies have no hard evidence linking any country to the attacks, and all indications are that bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network was responsible. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

The meeting between Hijazi and bin Laden is the second known link between Iraqi intelligence and those suspected in the hijackings.

One of the suspected hijackers, Mohamed Atta, believed aboard one of two planes that slammed into the World Trade Center, met in April with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Europe, officials said.

Atta also apparently had dealings with a German import-export firm that has been tied to bin Laden’s finance chief, officials said Wednesday.

Both Iraq and bin Laden have denied taking part in the attacks, which left more than 6,000 people missing or dead.

Saddam accused the U.S. government of using the attacks as an excuse to settle old scores with Muslim countries. The United States lists Iraq as a state sponsor of terrorism, and some in the Bush administration are advocating strikes against Iraq regardless of specific ties to Sept. 11.

Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the anti-Saddam Iraqi National Congress, is among those who contend that the Iraqi president supported the attacks. Chalabi said ties between Saddam and bin Laden date back to the early 1990s, when bin Laden lived in Sudan. Bin Laden was later expelled.

“We believe that Saddam sees the (al-Qaida) network as a great avenue to take revenge on the United States,” Chalabi said.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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