The 1993 WTC attack was an AQ attack AND was supported by Iraq. There have been lots of connections between AQ and Iraq for a long time. The O'Neil family lawsuit is a site which lays out a lot of the connections (former FBI Deputy Director John O'Neil was killed in the 911 WTC attack - he had been the FBI's top counter-terror agent:
80. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing took place on the Friday before the two year anniversary of Iraq's defeat in Kuwait, which was February 28, 1991. The anniversary in 1993 was a Sunday, and few people would have been working at the World Trade Center that day; and Iraq and the terrorists wanted to maximize the number of American casualties.
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Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, an Iraqi Intelligence agent, traveled to the United States using travel documents forged in Kuwait during the Iraqi occupation of that country in 1991.
82. Ramzi Yousef arrived in New York on September 1, 1992 using an Iraqi passport and requesting asylum. On December 31, 1992, he presented photocopies of Passports for Abdul Basit at the Pakistani consulate in New York, claiming to be Basit and requesting replacement of his "lost" passport. The real Basit was a Pakistani citizen who had moved to Kuwait
and disappeared during the Iraqi occupation in August 1990. Iraqi Intelligence had access to the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry files and upon information and belief, inserted Yousef's fingerprints into the file and provided him with photocopies of two older passports from Basit's file. The Pakistani Consulate, accordingly, provided Yousef a temporary passport, based on the false documents. This provided Yousef with a means to escape the U.S. two days after the World Trade Center bombing.
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Abdul Rahman Yasin.....U.S. prosecutors later learned that he, along with others, had prior training in bomb making, and had mixed the chemicals and constructed the bomb that was used on the World Trade Center. Iraqi intelligence knew of Yasin's presence in Iraq and provided him with refuge.
On August 4, 1993, Yasin was indicted in absentia for the World Trade Center bombing.
84. In June 1994, Yasin was seen in Baghdad by an ABC news correspondent who was told that Yasin worked for the Iraqi government. U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed that fugitive Yasin worked for the Iraqi government. U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed that fugitive Yasin has been sheltered in Iraq, a continuing violation of United Nations
Security Council Resolution 687, which makes it unlawful to harbor a suspected terrorist. In June 2002, Yasin was interviewed in Baghdad by Leslie Stahl from CBS.
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86. Following his arrest in 1995, Ramzi Yousef told U.S. investigators that his intent was to create an explosion that would cause one of the World Trade Center Towers to fall over onto the other, destroying both and causing massive American casualties. Yousef had also planned to use sodium cyanide to create a toxic cyanide gas cloud throughout the area that would poison those in the building. Fortunately, the sodium cyanide was consumed in the blast and vaporized.
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95. On February 22, 1998, Bin Laden, Khalid Al Fawwaz, and Ayman al Zawahiri of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad issued a fatwa published in the Arabic newspaper Al-Quds stating:
"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it?"
96. In their February 22, 1998 fatwa, Bin Laden and Al Qeda expressly referenced the United States' "continuing aggression" towards Iraq as one of their reasons for calling on all Muslims to kill Americans "wherever and whenever" they are found:
"The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the [Arabian] Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, still they are helpless."
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[In late 1997 and early 1998, the Clinton administration was threatening war with Iraq over it's non-compliance with UNSCOM inspectors. Even normallly dovish Democrats like John Kerry were talking up the threat of war - see Kerry's remarks on CNN's Crossfire on November 12, 1997:
opinioneditorials.com
Ayman al Zawahiri, a senior al Qaeda operative, visited Baghdad and met with the Iraqi Vice President on 3 February 1998. The goal of the visit was to arrange for coordination between Iraq and bin Laden and establish camps in an-Nasiriyah and Iraqi Kurdistan. On Feb. 18, 1998, Bill Clinton was publicly preparing for possible war against Iraq. OBL responded by issuing a fatwa on February 22, 1998, calling on Muslims everywhere to kill Americans. OBL's February 22, 1998 fatwa against America can be viewed as his seal on the Iraq-Al Qaeda cooperation deal and a response to the Clinton administration apparent ongoing plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Earlier it was noted that the 1993 WTC bombing was timed to coincide with the second anniversary of Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. In addition, the U.S. Embassy Bombings in East Africa took place on August 7, 1998, the anniversary of the commencement of UN sanctions on Iraq.
weeklystandard.com
usembassy.it ]
104. In March 1998, Bin Laden had reportedly visited Baghdad for consultations. According to Giovanni DeStafant, an international lawyer visiting Baghdad on business, he encountered Bin Laden in the lobby of the five-star Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad. They engaged in light conversation.
105. In mid-July, 1998, Bin Laden sent Dr. Ayaman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian co-founder of Al Qaeda, to Iraq to meet with senior Iraqi officials, including the Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan. Upon information and belief, the purpose of this meeting was to discuss and plan a joint strategy for a terrorist campaign in the United States. Five months later, the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed.
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107. During the July 1998 visit, Zawahiri toured a potential site for a new headquarters for Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and went to an Iraqi military base and nuclear and chemical weapons facility near al-Fallujah in Iraq. Upon information and belief, Dr. Zawahiri observed training by Iraqi Intelligence officials of Al Qaeda operatives at the al-Nasiyirah military and chemical weapons facility in Iraq. In recognition of Bin Laden's and Al Qaeda's leadership role in the terrorist war against the United States, Iraqi officials allowed Zawahiri to assume formal command over the
al-Nasiyirah training camp in the name of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
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110. On July 30, 1998, Iraq warned it would take action unless the United Nations embargo was lifted. Iraq blamed the United States for the United Nations embargo. On August 4, 1998, Iraq refused to cooperate with the United Nations embargo. On August 4, 1998, Iraq refused to cooperate with
United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq and talks for a resolution of the crisis collapsed, causing U.N. inspectors to leave.
111. Three days later, on August 7, 1998, at approximately 10:30 a.m., Fazul, Al-'Owhali and Azzam drove a Toyota Dyna truck (outfitted similarly to a Nissan Atlas truck in Dar Es Salaam) to the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and detonated a large bomb damaging the Embassy and demolishing a nearby Secretarial College building and Cooperative Bank building,
resulting in the more than 213 deaths (12 Americans) and injuries to more than 4.500 people.
112. On August 7, 1998, at approximately 10:40 a.m., ten minutes after the bombing in Kenya, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed and Ahmed the German detonated the Dar Es Salaam bomb in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, severely damaging the Embassy building and resulting in the death of 11 people and injuries to more than 85 people.
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117. By mid-November, 1998, Saddam Hussein reportedly came to the conclusion (with the advice and prompting of his son and intelligence chief , the late Qusay Hussein), that a campaign of terrorist attacks against the United States, under the banner of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, was the most effective means of deflecting U.S. attempts to topple his regime.
118. Shortly thereafter, Iraqi intelligence officials reportedly met with Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and Iraq reportedly agreed to join efforts in a detailed, coordinated plan for a protracted terrorist war against the United States. Iraq also reportedly agreed to provide Bin Laden and Al Qaeda with the assistance of an expert in chemical weapons, and Bin Laden reportedly agreed to hunt down Iraqi opposition leaders who cooperated with the United states against Hussein. In furtherance of this agreement, Bin Laden reportedly dispatched four hundred of Al Qaeda's "Afghan" Arabs to Iraq to fight Kurdish dissidents.
119. In December 1998, after a standoff between the U.N. and Iraq and a discovery of weapons violations in Iraq, the United States with U.N. approval, led a coalition of allies in a four-day air strike on Iraq. Iraqi Trade Minister Muhammed Madhi Salah then stated that he expected terrorist
activities against the United States to increase as a result of the bombing of Iraq. The Arabic language daily newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabic cited the cooperation between Iraq, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda in a late December 1998 editorial which predicted that
"President Saddam Hussein, whose country was subjected to a four day air strike, will look for support in taking revenge on the United States and Britain by cooperating with Saudi oppositionist Osama Bin Laden, whom the United States considers to be the most wanted person in the world."
120. The editorial noted that this type of cooperation was already taking place, considering that "Bin Laden was planning on moving to Iraq before the recent strike."
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Al Nasiriyah News Article
142. Iraq knew in advance that Al Qaeda was planning to attack U.S. landmarks and civilians in September 2001 in Washington and New York and supported the planned attacks.
143. Upon information and belief, Iraqi news columnist Naeem Abd Mulhalhal has been connected with Iraqi intelligence since the early 1980s. As such, he has commented on matters of Iraqi political interest for the Al Nasiriyah newspaper, a weekly paper published in the provincial capital city of Al Nasiriyah.
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144. On July 21, approximately six weeks before the September 11th attacks, Iraqi columnist Mulhalhal reported that Bin Laden was making plans to "demolish the Pentagon after he destroys the White House."
145. Mulhalhal's July 21 article further informed that Bin Laden would strike America "on the arm that is already hurting." Upon information and belief, this references a second Iraqi sponsored attack on the World Trade Center. This interpretation is further bolstered by another reference to New York as "[Bin Laden] will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs." (e.g. "New York, New York") identifying New York, New York as a target.
146. Mulhalhal further indicated "The wings of a dove and the bullet are all but one in the same in the heart of a believer." (Emphasis supplied). This appears to be a reference to the use of commercial aircraft as a weapon.
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154. Upon information and belief, between April 8-11, 2001, Atta left Florida where he was a flight student, to again meet in Prague with Iraqi Intelligence agent al-Ani. Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross confirmed that Atta met with al-Ani in early April 2001 in Prague. Atta returned to Florida and within two weeks opened a Sun Country Bank account with $100,000 sent through a money changer in the UAE. Later in 2001, al-Ani was expelled from the Czech Republic for espionage activities. Other intelligence reports indicate that al-Ani met with another September 11th hijacker, Khalid al Midhar as well. Atta reportedly also met with the Iraqi ambassador to Turkey and former Iraqi Deputy Intelligence director Farour al-Hijaziin Prague sometime in early April, 2001.
155. Italian security sources reported that Iraq made use of its embassy in Rome to foster and cultivate Iraq's partnership with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Habib Faris Abdullah al-Mamouri, a general in the Iraqi Secret Service, and a member of Iraq's M-8 Special Operations branch, who was responsible for developing links with Islamist militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan, was stationed in Rome as an "instructor" for children of Iraqi diplomats. Al-Mamouri met with September 11th pilot hijacker Mohammed Atta in Rome, Hamburg, and Prague. Al-Mamouri has not been seen in Rome since July 2001, shortly after he last met with Atta.
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www.infosecwest.com/cryptome/oneill-v-iraq.htm |
