U.S. investigating Iraq-Anthrax connection
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, October 29, 2001
WASHINGTON Ñ The United States is investigating Iraq's possible connection to the current anthrax scare as well as the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Sunday that federal authorities are investigating
reports that the anthrax found in the United States was mixed with betonite,
a chemical believed manufactured in Iraq. He would not elaborate.
"I know that serious people are looking at both of those matters
seriously," Rumsfeld said.
Bentonite is used in a range of products, including cat litter. U.S.
defense sources, however, said that the Bentonite compound discovered in the
anthrax sent by mail to Americans appears to have been produced only in
Iraq.
The defense secretary said if these reports are proven, President George
Bush would have to decide whether to retaliate. Iraqi leaders said
Washington is already preparing for an attack on the regime of Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein.
U.S. officials said they have also confirmed that the suspected leader of the
suicide attacks, Mohammed Ata, met with an Iraqi intelligence official in
Prague earlier this year. They said the FBI is obtaining information from
other governments on the meeting as well as that in which Iraqi officials
convened Bin Laden aides in Baghdad in August.
"We will know that only after the proper law enforcement people
investigate that," Rumsfeld said. "Clearly, the
[Ata] meeting is not nothing. It is something notable."
On Sunday, Saddam met his director of military intelligence and senior
officials to discuss the U.S.-led war against terrorism. The Iraqi News
Agency said Saddam's meeting was the latest in a series of sessions to
ensure Iraqi readiness for any allied attack.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Aziz told the London-based Sunday
Telegraph that Britain and the United States have drawn up 300 targets in
Iraq. "We know that they are preparing for such an attack," Aziz said. "We
are watching what is being said and what is being done in the United States
and in Britain and we know that it is just a matter of time before such an
attack."
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