It looked to many in Washington like the ultimate silver bullet, a check intelligence report

alleging a meeting in Prague between an Iraqi intelligence agent and Muhammad Ata, the

ringleader of the 9-11 hijackers.

If true, it would be the smoking gun, proof of a connection between the Iraqi regime of

Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

Not for nothing did advocates of invading Iraq embrace the story.

No one more so than Vice President Dick Cheney, who declared on National TV that the

Ata in Prague story was, quote, pretty well confirmed.

But was it?

In April 2002, while the Bush administration was polishing its case for war, Newsweek magazine

published a story debunking the claim.

It reported that check intelligence officials had quietly acknowledged to the US that they

may have been mistaken about the whole thing.

But the FBI and CIA could find no evidence that the al-Qaeda terrorists had even been

in the country at the time of the alleged meeting.

Quote, we looked at this real hard because obviously if it were true, it would be huge.

One senior US law enforcement official told the magazine, but nothing has matched up.

This week, as controversy continues about another shaky report about an alleged meeting

in Prague, this one supposedly involving Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen and Russian

intelligence officials, will look back at the earlier Ata in Prague story and ask some

pertinent questions.

What is it about the capital of the Czech Republic that causes it to keep popping up as a center

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