Prague Revisited - The evidence of an Iraq/al-Qaida connection hasn't gone away. By Edward Jay Epstein is a great piece, because it doesn't try to over state the case, and explains both sourcing and procedure very clearly.

Clearly we need to know why the FBI isn't cooperating with the BIS. Wouldn't the administration be ecstatic if it could be proven Atta did indeed meet with Al-Ani? It would really help to know where Atta was when.

Besides the April 8 2001 date, the crucial item seems to be Atta's weird visit to the transit lounge on May 30, 2001. (The Fray remarks regarding this one* are particularly bad, and emblematic of the kind of thinking Jack Schafer's "accompanying" piece excoriates.) But the opening paragraphs of Epstein's piece seem to imply that BIS surveillance of al-Ani was so good that the meeting on April 8 was enough of an anomaly to upset the foreign minister into deporting al-Ani. So, unless explicitly told otherwise, can we assume that al-Ani did not meet with Atta on May 30? Let's say we do.

If I was a foreign reporter in Prague right now I'd like to know what other Iraqi agents could have been meeting with Atta. Or what other Arab/Egyptian/Yemeni/Pakistani/Sudanese/Afghani/AQ types etc., agents might have been meeting with Atta. Maybe he was just getting his orders from OBL? Regardless, it seems like there's a story in that airport lounge.



*Frayster ejk_ :"Furthermore since the Czech airport cameras were not comprehensive in the their coverage of the airport, and he did not show up on any of the cameras, then he must have been avoiding the cameras when he was there. Since he was avoiding the cameras at that time, then he must have been in the airport, since he could not have been avoiding the cameras if he wasn't in the airport."