Senior government official: Iraqi operative met with Atta in Czech Republic

By Danica Kirka

Associated Press

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – An Iraqi diplomat held several clandestine meetings in the Czech Republic with one of the suspected hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a senior government official said Thursday.

The Iraqi was being watched by Czech security officials because they feared he might be involved in plotting an attack on Radio Free Europe’s offices, which are headquartered in this central European city, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

“They met, and more than one time,” the official said. The official said Czech authorities do not know what the suspected hijacker discussed with the diplomat, who since has been expelled.

“That is the $64,000 question,” the official said.

The meetings with suspected hijacker Mohamed Atta and the Iraqi diplomat, Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani, aroused no particular interest until the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“Atta was not part of the picture” when Al-Ani was being monitored, the official said.

Czech officials have acknowledged that Atta landed at Prague’s Ruzyne international airport in June 2000 and stayed for less than 24 hours before boarding a Czech airlines plane for Newark, New Jersey. Authorities have not revealed what Atta did during his short stay here.

Besides the June meeting, it was not immediately clear when the three – and possibly four – meetings took place between Atta and Al-Ani.

The official acknowledged it was possible that Al-Ani also met with another of the suspected hijackers in the Czech Republic, but did not offer details.

The Iraqi diplomat was expelled in April after what Czech authorities described at the time as “activities that are incompatible with his status as a diplomat.”

Another government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Czech officials were warned that the diplomat could be using the country as a base for espionage activities, but refused to elaborate on how the warning came about.

“The suspicion is that he and other people had shown an undue interest in the (Radio Free Europe) installation,” the senior official said.

The Iraqi government has long complained about Radio Free Europe’s broadcasts to Iraq. When the broadcasts began in 1998, the Baghdad government called the programing an “act of aggression” and vowed to halt all trade with the Czech Republic.