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Ionic Quadra Special

U.S. investigating Iraq-Anthrax connection

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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