| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| US probing Iran/al-Qaeda ties |
| 2004-07-20 |
| President Bush said Monday that the United States is actively investigating ties between the Iranian government and al Qaeda, including intelligence unearthed by the independent Sept. 11 commission showing that Iran may have offered safe passage to terrorists who were later involved in the attacks. Bush noted in a brief Oval Office meeting with reporters that the CIA had found "no direct connection between Iran and the attacks of September the 11th, " but he said that "we will continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved." Intelligence officials have said emphatically that while Iran's Muslim fundamentalist leaders appear to have offered a transit point to some of the Sept. 11 terrorists and other al Qaeda members, there is nothing to indicate that Iran knew in advance about the plot. Bush's comments came as the White House suggested for the first time that it is open to a proposal for the creation of a post of national intelligence director, which is expected to be the central recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission in its final report. Bush did not comment on news reports about the commission's proposal for a national intelligence director, but he said that "the 9/11 commission will issue a report this week and evidently will lay out recommendations for reform of the intelligence services of the United States" and that "I look forward to seeing those recommendations." Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the commission's report would offer extensive new evidence to show that Iran had provided logistical support over the years to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. Most alarmingly, they said, the commission recently obtained intelligence showing that Iran had allowed as many as 10 of the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks to pass through border stations in late 1990 and early 1991 without having their passports stamped, making it easier for them to enter the United States without raising suspicions. A spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, known formally as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, said that the panel welcomed the president's comments suggesting that he was receptive to its findings and that he would act on the report. "We're gratified by the president's comments," said the spokesman, Al Felzenberg, who said the commission planned to brief Bush and congressional leaders in person about the findings of the report before its release to the public. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |