Washington war hawks salivating at the thought of attacking Iraq were dealt a punch Monday with a news report from the Czech Republic that an Iraqi intelligence agent had never met with a top Al Qaeda man, as reported earlier. The Czech daily Mlada Fronta Dnes last Friday said "the only evidence of a link between the [September 11] terrorists and Iraq has fallen."

According to the newspaper, a government inquiry into Mohammed Atta's supposed visits to the Czech Republic in 2000 reportedly discovered that there was indeed a Mohammed Atta who'd gone there. However, he was not the terrorist in question but a Pakistani business man. There is no connection between the Iraqi agent and the terrorist.

That's a setback but hardly a deathblow for the battle-hungry, who are intent on taking out Saddam Hussein. Recently the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk was dispatched from its command post in the Arabian Sea to Kuwait, where 70,000 troops were being transferred. Meanwhile, elements of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions were reported moving to a big U.S. base in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.