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January
15, 2002
William
Blum
Atta
and the Times:
Follow the Changing Story
Edward
Said
Emerging
Alternatives
in Palestine
January
14, 2002
David
Vest
Open
Bag. Eat Pretzels.
Patrick
Cockburn
Collapse
of Georgia
Ignored by the World
Mokhiber/Weissman
Enron's
Accountants:
When In Doubt, Shred It
January
13, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
Why
We Kill People
January
12, 2002
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Forbidden
Truths
January
11, 2002
Lee Balllinger/Dave
Marsh
Neil
Young's Duet with Ashcroft
January
10, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Bush,
Enron, UNOCAL
and the Taliban
St. Clair/Cockburn
Greenpeace
to Greenwash?
Hans von
Sponek
Iraq:
Is There an Alternative
to Military Action?
Jim Lobe
Israeli
Human Rights Group Assails Army
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
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bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
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Pakistan
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Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
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Cockburn
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The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
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January
15, 2002
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?
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