Spies on the square

Edward Jay Epstein, who wrote an exposé on Hollywood, is working on a book about the 9/11 Commission. For more than two years he's been looking into the alleged meeting in Prague between 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer. Epstein has suggested repeatedly that there's more to the story than the CIA and FBI are telling. He criticized the New York Times this week for claiming that the Atta Prague connection was based on nothing more than a false tale from an "unreliable drunk." Pity Epstein didn't explore the possibility that the NYT meant Miloš Zeman. Epstein mentioned in passing that U.S. countersurveillance began photographing "suspicious" people on Wenceslas Square because of a threat to Radio Free Europe. The U.S. might or might not be able to pick spies or bombers out of the crowd, but it must have a better database now of Prague pimps, hussies, dealers and cabbies than even city hall.