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| WaPo on 9/11 commission linking al-Qaeda, Iran |
| 2004-07-17 |
| While it found no operational ties between al Qaeda and Iraq, the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has concluded that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network had long-running contacts with Iraq's neighbor and historic foe, Iran. Al Qaeda, the commission determined, may even have played a "yet unknown role" in aiding Hezbollah militants in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia, an attack the United States has long blamed solely on Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors. The notion that bin Laden may have had a hand in the Khobar bombing would mark a rare operational alliance between Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups that have historically been at odds. That possibility, largely overlooked in the furor of new revelations released by the commission last week, comes amid worsening relations between the United States and Iran, which announced on Thursday that it would resume building equipment necessary for a nuclear weapons program. In relation to Iran, commission investigators said intelligence "showed far greater potential for collaboration between Hezbollah and al Qaeda than many had previously thought." Iran is a primary sponsor of Hezbollah, or Party of God, the Lebanon-based anti-Israel group that has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States. But perhaps most startling was the commission's finding that bin Laden may have played a role in the Khobar attack. Although previous court filings and testimony indicated that al Qaeda and Iranian elements had contacts during the 1990s, U.S. authorities have not publicly linked bin Laden or his operatives to that strike, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen. A June 2001 indictment of 14 defendants in the case makes no mention of al Qaeda or bin Laden and lays the organizational blame for the attacks solely on Hezbollah and Iran. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #4 I'm with you, RMcL...I'm just completely shocked!...shocked I tell ya. Didn't binny get the memo that either shia's aren't supposed to work with sunnis or fundis aren't supposed to work with "secular" gov'ts (e.g. Saddam)? Man, we must make sure binny gets a copy of that memo and ASAP! (he says with a smirk like the movie "office space.") |
| Posted by: BA 2004-07-17 2:54:16 PM |
| #3 What about Ahmed Hikmat Shakir as an operational link between Saddam and al-Q? For what its worth Ahmed Hikmat Shakir was seen with 9/11 hijacker Khalid al-Midhar on 1/4/2000 in Kuala Lumpur. After the meeting which is believed to be one of the planning meetings for the 9/11 attack, Shakir left his job in Kuala Lumpur. Oddly, he got the job at Malaysian Airlines through a contact at the Iraqi Embassy, and told associates that the same Embassy contact told him when to come to work and when not. Odder still there was a name found on the rolls of Fedayeen Saddam officers: Ahmed Hiqmat Shakir. Common name? Same guy with slightly different phonetic spelling? Did the 9/11 Commission even look? Thankfully Stephen Hayes is looking into it. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-07-17 11:45:36 AM |
| #2 Gee, I didn't think philosophical enemies could EVER work together in the Middle East...I'm just stunned. Stunned, I tell ya... |
| Posted by: RMcLeod 2004-07-17 6:15:55 AM |
| #1 AQ ya say! Iranian greasemen maybe? Fake religion perhaps,,,perhaps? But is there a thread, a belly cosmo! |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-07-17 1:57:52 AM |