The Hindu : Lawsuit alleges Iraq role

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 06, 2002

International

International

Lawsuit alleges Iraq role

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington SEPT. 5. At a time when even the American intelligence agencies are not sure of the role played by Iraq in the terror attacks of Sept. 11 last year, a law suit filed in New York claims that Baghdad had a specific link to the terror attack against the United States.

The law suit filed on behalf of 1,400 victims of the attacks and the families alleges that Iraqi officials were aware before that fateful day last year of plans by Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to strike at targets in New York and Washington. The law suit also claims that Baghdad resorted to terror attacks against the United States to avenge its defeat in the Persian Gulf War.

"Since Iraq could not defeat the U.S. military, it resorted to terror attacks on U.S. citizens'', the suit says. Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and Iraq have been named as defendants who are being sued for damages in excess of $1 trillion.

The case is being handled by a New York law firm that specialises in aviation disaster litigation.

The Iraq angle comes in part from an article written by an Iraqi columnist — said to have close ties to the intelligence apparatus in that country — saying that Osama was seriously thinking about the way he will bomb the Pentagon after destroying the White House. The columnist is also said to have written of Osama contemplating to strike the "arm'' of America that was already hurting — said to be a possible reference to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre.

According to a lawyer representing the firm, the columnist had advance knowledge of Al-Qaeda's specific targets on Sept. 11 and that Iraqi officials were aware of the plans to hit landmarks in the United States.

Iraqi intelligence officials had numerous meetings with Al-Qaeda for about a decade, the law suit alleges.

It is no secret that there are some within the Bush administration who are desperately trying to establish a link between Baghdad and the terror attacks; but both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency have said that no conclusive link has been established.

The Bush administration, in particular, has been looking for evidence on whether one of the hijacker-terrorists — Mohammad Atta — had met Iraqi intelligence agents in West Asia or Europe in the months prior to the horrific events of last September.

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