In investigating the Sept. 11 attack, few tasks are more difficult–and potentially more ominous–than unraveling the role of a mysterious Iraqi official named Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani. Until last spring, al-Ani was listed as the chief of consular affairs in the Iraqi Embassy in Prague. But last month U.S. officials were told by Czech intelligence that al-Ani had been spotted having a number of meetings with Mohamed Atta, the suspected hijack ringleader, near the Iraqi Embassy during a visit Atta made to the Czech Republic in April 2001.

The report prompted tense debate within the Bush administration over possible Iraqi involvement in the attack. Al-Ani is believed to be a hardened Iraqi intelligence agent. In late April the Czech Foreign Ministry called in Iraq’s mission chief in Prague and demanded that al-Ani leave the country within 48 hours. Why? U.S. and Czech officials told NEWSWEEK that al-Ani had been spotted “casing” and photographing the Radio Free Europe building in Prague. Czech officials feared al-Ani was plotting an attack on Radio Free Europe, which incurred Saddam’s wrath when it began broadcasting into Iraq in 1998. “I told the Iraqi chief of mission that [al-Ani] was involved in activities which endanger the security of the Czech Republic,” Hynek Kmonicek, the Czech Foreign Ministry official who ordered al-Ani’s expulsion, told NEWSWEEK.