|
The Iranian Time Bomb
Frontpage Interviews guest today is Michael A. Ledeen,Excerpt: FP: Why was the U.S. so unprepared for 9/11? Ledeen: Lousy intelligence, driven by many years of policy makers who didn't want to know what was really going on, because they were not prepared to act against the terror masters. FP: Can you talk about some of the ways that the Clinton administration left us vulnerable to 9/11? Ledeen: Two main ways. The first is the empowerment of Iran, a story I had forgotten until I was forced to review the Clinton years while writing "The Iranian Time Bomb." Clinton carried out three secret policies: first, he arranged to have Iran arm the Bosnians via secret arms deliveries. This violated UN Resolutions and public American policy. Second, he permitted Russia to arm Iran. And third, he permitted Russia to provide Iran with nuclear technology. Ironically, the latter two deals were negotiated by Vice President Al Gore, and both contravened a law known as the McCain-Gore Act. The second is the well-known failure to know enough about al Qaeda, and to act against it. By now, there are several extensive treatments of these monumental failures, of which the two most famous are the reports by the 9/11 Commission and the Silberman-Robb Commission. FP: Can you talk a bit about the Shiite regimes collaboration with al-Qaeda and other terror groups? Ledeen: Iran is the leading sponsor of jihad, and has worked closely with al-Qaeda since the mid-nineties, starting from contacts in Sudan. When al-Qaeda was smashed in Afghanistan, the top leaders went to Iran, and some of them stayed there. This includes Saif al Adel, the military commander, Saad bin Laden, and probably the top two as well: Osama and Zawahiri. Already in 2000, Zarqawi created a European terror network from his headquarters in Tehran. So we have decades of close working relations between Shi'ite Iran and Sunni terrorists. But the link goes all the way back to the early seventies, when Arafat's (Sunni) al Fatah trained the (Iranian Shi'ite) Revolutionary Guards Corps in the (Syrian controlled) Bekka Valley in Lebanon. Posted by: ed 2007-10-01 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=200859 |