'Atta met with Prague-based diplomat' - Czechs

Suspected suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta met at least once with an Iraqi intelligence agent during one of two trips to the Czech republic, a senior government official said today.

Interior minister Stanislav Gross said the meeting between Atta and Iraqi diplomat Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani took place several weeks before Al-Ani’s expulsion from Prague on April 22, this year, for conduct incompatible with his diplomatic status.

Mr Gross did not give a precise date or venue of the meeting and declined to answer questions on those topics.

Intelligence sources and government officials revealed Atta’s contacts with Al-Ani earlier this month but Gross was the first to state on record that such a meeting took place.

The Iraqi was being watched by Czech security officials because they feared he might be involved in plotting an attack on the headquarters of Radio Free Europe, a government official then told The Associated Press. But he said Czech authorities did not know what the suspected hijacker discussed with the diplomat.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private, nonprofit corporation that receives funding from the US government. It was established in 1949 to spread uncensored news to countries behind the Iron Curtain.

In 1998, the station started broadcasting to Iran and Iraq, provoking an angry reaction from the Iraqi government, which called the broadcast an act of aggression.

US law enforcement officials have said that one of the hijackers of the planes that slammed into the twin towers had met secretly with Iraqi intelligence officials in Prague.

The Czech official acknowledged it was possible that Al-Ani also met with another suspected hijacker in the Czech Republic, but refrained from offering details.

Another government official said the Czech authorities 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 Czechs enjoyed extensive economic and cultural ties with Iraq before the collapse of communism in 1989. Iraqi operatives would have been monitored but otherwise welcomed in the country before communism’s demise. That history would have made it convenient for Iraqis operatives to work here.

Gross today said Atta first entered the Czech Republic by bus from Germany on June 2, last year and flew to the US from Prague the next day.

‘‘We can confirm now that during his next trip to the Czech Republic he did have a contact with an officer of the Iraqi intelligence, Mr Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani,’’ Mr Gross said, again without any details.

He added that ‘‘a certain person’’ also tried to enter the Czech Republic without a valid visa in May last year, but there was no hard evidence this person was in fact Atta.

Asked about Atta’s suspected business ties in the Czech Republic, Mr Gross said he could not confirm or deny such activities.