In what must be history’s longest act of foreplay, the United Nations’ prelude to a blitz grinds on. Amid all the diplomatic billing and cooing, remember why Saddam Hussein must be dislodged, not just disarmed: He runs a one-stop-shop for international terrorists. His lethal largesse already has helped maim and kill thousands of innocent civilians, including Americans. Here’s how: A 9/11 connection? According to Michael Ledeen’s book, “The War Against the Terror Masters,” Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta flew from Virginia Beach, Va., to Prague on April 7, 2001. The next day, he met with an Iraqi diplomat named Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani in Prague. On April 9, Ledeen writes, Atta flew home to Florida. “Less than two weeks later he opened an account at the Sun Bank in Florida, and $100,000 was transferred into that account from an unknown money-changer in the Persian Gulf.” That April 22, Czech officials expelled Al-Ani for “engaging in activities beyond his diplomatic duties,” namely surveilling Radio Free Europe’s Prague headquarters. Collaboration with al-Qaida. U.S. authorities say Abu Musab Zarqawi, a high-level Osama bin Laden associate, ran an Afghan camp that specialized in poisons and chemical weapons. With the Taliban under U.S. attack, he fled to Iran in fall 2001. Between May and July 2002, he had war-related leg wounds treated in Baghdad. Full Story
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