Czech Leader Cites Atta-Iraqi Plot

W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 10 -- Suspected terrorist Mohammed Atta contacted anIraqi agent with plans to blow up the Radio Free Europe building inPrague several months before the terrorist attacks in the UnitedStates, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman said.

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Czech officials say Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agentworking as a diplomat in Prague in April. The agent, Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Ani, was expelled from thecountry on April 22 for spying. "At first, Atta contacted some Iraq agent not to prepare theterroristic attack on" the trade center, "but to prepareterroristic attack on just the building of Radio Free Europe,"Zeman told the CNN news channel on Friday. Czech intelligence officials have made previous accusations thatIraqi spies were plotting possible terrorist attacks on theheadquarters of the U.S.-financed Radio Free Europe, but Zemancomments were the first time Atta has been connected to the plot. U.S. investigators believe Atta was at the controls of one ofthe planes that crashed into New York City's World Trade Center.They also believe he led the terrorist cell for Osama bin Laden,the Saudi-born fugitive who is the FBI's top suspect in the Sept.11 attacks on the trade center and the Pentagon. President Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government has long complainedabout Radio Free Europe's broadcasts to his country. When thebroadcasts began in 1998, the Baghdad government called theprogramming an "act of aggression" and pledged to halt all tradewith the Czech Republic. Iraq has denied having taken part in any bomb plot or havingconnections with bin Laden's group.—The Associated Press

French Agents Detain Five Suspected of Bin Laden Ties

P A R I S, Nov. 10 —

Five Algerians with alleged linksto Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden have been detained in theeastern French city of Strasbourg, a police source said ontoday. The four men and one woman are suspected of organising theescape to Spain of Mohamed Besnakhria, 34, an Algerian said tobe one of bin Laden's chief lieutenants in Europe. They were detained on Friday on the orders of Frenchanti-terrorist judges as part of an inquiry into a suspectedplot to launch attacks in Strasbourg in December 2000, and werestill being questioned in Strasbourg, the source said.