PRESS CONFERENCE WITH MILOS ZEMAN,
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

National Press Club,
Washington, D.C.

9 Nobember 2001

Excerpts

Q I'm -- (inaudible). I work for Reuters. Let's see what we can do about getting the Czech Republic on the front pages. (Inaudible.) I'm a little confused about statements that you made in an interview with CNN earlier today. I'm a little unclear on what the Czech Republic government knew about Mohammed Atta and planned attacks on Radio Free Europe in Prague. And it's unclear to me what connection there is between -- we know Muhammad Atta was in Prague before September 11th. He met with the Iraqis. Did you know, did the goverment know, anything about the plans for an attack on the World Trade Center?

PRIME MINISTER ZEMAN: Well, this is -- (inaudible) -- frequently repeated in all my discussions with American journalists. Why not? Anyway, even if I'm not the agent of Osama and I'm not the agent of Saddam Hussein, and that's why I have limited information.

What I have told CNN this morning has very transparent substance. It is not only the twins, even if this was the first target and first aim of the terroristic attack. There are many, many sensitive times, including the building of Free Europe at Prague, which might be the second, third or fourth target, all over Europe, all over the States, including the Czech Republic, of course.

And what I have tried to accentuate was the simple fact that there was a meeting of Mr. Atta with the representative of Iraq has been, according to some information of secret services, oriented towards the possible attack on the building of Free Europe. And that's why the Iraq diplomat has been expelled from the Czech Republic after two weeks, I guess. It was before the twins attack, yes. And, of course, nobody expected that just Mr. Atta will be one of the assassinators. More than that, please do not forget that Mr. Atta lived approximately for one year in Germany and he had many other contacts, not only the contacts in Prague.

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So, as for the discussion between Mr. Atta and Iraq counsel, as far as I know, there were no listening devices. And we may only speculate the contents of their discussion. Yes, you cannot exclude also the hypothesis that they discussed football, ice hockey, weather and other topics. But I am not so sure.

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