So where was Mohammed Atta?

The 9/11 Commission seems to think it has laid to rest the troublesome notion that Mohammed Atta may have met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague. Their big piece of new evidence discrediting that notion is the use of Atta's cell phone in Florida on April 6, 9, 10 and 11 -- while the supposed Prague meeting was April 8.

Just think about that a little bit though and you know that this is not slam-dunk evidence. Try to put yourself in Atta's shoes and suppose that you are going to Prague. You know that your American cell phone doesn't work in Europe. Furthermore, you have ongoing responsibility for holding together four terrorist cells spanning 18 other people in the United States. Do you think maybe, just possibly it would be advisable to leave your cellphone with your adjutant (Marwan al-Shehhi)? Seems preferable to leaving the phone unanswered for a week.

How will you pay for your plane tickets and your accommodations? Credit card? Of course not, that leaves a trail. You'll need cash. On April 4, a bank camera in Virginia recorded Atta withdrawing $8,000 from his account. Could be a coincidence, I know. Like how Czech intelligence's eyewitness reported seeing the Arab later identified as Mohammed Atta in Prague on April 8. Like how Atta's own visa application for a Czech visa identified him as a "Hamburg student," while a subsequent clandestine search of the Iraqi embassy in Prague discovered that the Iraqi intelligence officer's appointment book showed an April 8th meeting with a "Hamburg student." Remarkable coincidences, these. And don't forget that it has been positively determined that Atta was in Prague on two previous occasions in spring of 2000.

How does the Commission explain any of this? Since we all apparently agree that at least Atta's year 2000 Prague trips occurred, could we at least get some explanation of just what he was doing there at that time that was so important? On these matters, however, the commission is silent.