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| Iran |
| Freeh Links Iran To Khobar Bombing |
| 2003-12-19 |
| Former FBI director Louis Freeh testified yesterday that he believed there was "overwhelming evidence" that senior Iranian government officials financed and directed the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. Gee, Iran again. Go figure. Freeh testified as a key witness on behalf of the families of 12 Americans killed in the bombing, who are suing the government of Iran. The former director took particular interest in the investigation into the bombing, traveling to Saudi Arabia soon after the June 25, 1996, explosion. The bombing ripped a dormitory in half and killed 19 Air Force servicemen and servicewomen. Freeh’s testimony came at a fragile stage in the civil trial, which is in its third week and had been set to end today. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson said last week she might dismiss the suit if the plaintiffs could not produce Freeh and his former FBI counterterrorism chief, Dale Watson, the other critical witness in the case. Neither man got clearance from the Justice Department to testify until late last Friday night. Funny, I haven’t seen any coverage of this trial. You’d think that the press would be all over it, saying Bush failed to protect our troops in 1996 and failed to investigate......Oh, right, wrong president. Freeh told Robinson he was "heavily involved" in the Khobar investigation, and had traveled to the bomb site hours after the explosion. He said he spent nearly two years trying to persuade Saudi diplomats to let FBI agents interview six Saudi citizens whom the Saudi government considered the bombing’s perpetrators, and he ultimately succeeded. They did talk to them? When did this happen? "They admitted they were members of Saudi Hezbollah," Freeh said. "They admitted complicity in the act. And they implicated senior Iranian officials in the funding and planning of the attack." Robinson repeatedly questioned what led Freeh to his conclusion that Iran was responsible, other than the confessions of six Saudis. Freeh responded that other witnesses and evidence corroborated their stories. He said they also named leaders in the Iranian military and information agency who helped select the target site and pay for the group’s training and explosives. Hummm, now who do you suppose gave clearance for Freeh to release this information? Outside the courtroom, Freeh said in a brief interview that he rejects recent theories that al Qaeda may have had a role in the Khobar Towers attack. Interesting, is somebody winding up another clock? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 Days before the attack on Khobar - Iran began/staged large scale military manuevers. Freeh knows what he is talking about. |
| Posted by: JP 2003-12-19 10:30:51 PM |
| #5 #5 During his tenure as director of the Bureau, Louis Freeh spent more time on the Khobar Towers bombing than any other single issue. That's a fact. The Iranian connection -- as I recall -- also involved an association between between Hani al-Sayegh (one of the suspects) and the Iranian MOIS (to include Ali Fallahian). The training, suuposedly, was conducted by the IRGC Quds Force at a camp near Qom in Iran and logistics were facilitated by and smuggled into S.A. with the assistance of the Lebanese Hizballah (Iran's long-time client group (since 1982, in fact). All of this has been published -- a bit here, a bit there -- over time but those are major linkages. Alos, recall that during that timeframe (1996), was when Iran intially established their policy of supporting Gulf Hizballah groups (Saudi, Kuwaiti, Bahraini) in order to destabilize those regimes. What is interesting is that prior to the attack at Khobar in June, a conference was held in Tehran attended by a rep from Al-Qaeda, the Egyptian Gama'a and IJ groups and the Lebanese Hizballah where allegedly the groups agreed to support each other (in word) which was a big breakthrough owing to the fact that this body included both Shia and Sunni adherents. A communique from this meeting was issued under the name of the Movement for Islamic Change. Following the June 1996 Khobar bombing, one of the claimers for the attack was made in the name of the Islamic Change Movement. Coincidence? Probably not. My take is that Saudi Hizballah did Khobar (just as the former director asserts), that the Iranian mullahs facilitated the operations through the use of their security organs and the Lebanese group, and that some support (mostly $$$) to "set in" the "shooters" in safehouses, do final prep them and to try to hide them/exfiltrate after the op was accomplished with money from channels either controlled by or utilized by Bin Laden (hence his connection...in addition to him praising the attack). Of course, we don't know much, because the Saudis did not provide access to those apprehended and blamed for the attacks (before they lopped off their heads) lest the royal family be embarrassed that they did handle business properly. Not much has changed except for the fact that today that hide the fact that they got a BIG problem. Back then, they still were able sing the Egyptian river song, "I'm in De-Nile." Haha. That cracks me up everytime. In any event...that's it....for what it's worth. |
| Posted by: TerrorHunter4Ever 2003-12-19 4:59:07 PM |
| #4 I know it's the WaPo, but why do they have to include this little disclaimer supposedly of Freeh's at the end that Al Queda didn't have a role in this act of SA terrorism? Where's Freeh going with this? That we're going after the wrong guys or what? That Islamist terrorist groups don't work together and trade off doing attacks? Also, let's not forget that Hezbollah was behind the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, too. I'm sure the Marines with their boots on the ground in Iraq haven't forgotten either bombing, either. Heheh. |
| Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro 2003-12-19 4:00:25 PM |
| #3 Bigger Fish to Fry maybe. AQ = rogue punks. Iran = nest of terrorist coordinating, passport faking, car bomb institutes with chow lines and dormitory houseing. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2003-12-19 11:36:32 AM |
| #2 especially since Assad seems a bit more compliant these days. |
| Posted by: B 2003-12-19 11:35:00 AM |
| #1 is somebody winding up another clock? interesting, indeed! |
| Posted by: B 2003-12-19 11:33:31 AM |