Quote:
Originally Posted by DC at the Ridge
It's fascinating how you highlight Iraq over and over and over in your excerpts, then reference Iran as if they are interchangeable.
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sorry having network issues today... now part2
The
9/11 Commission Report stated that 8 to 10 of the hijackers on
9/11 previously passed through Iran and their travel was facilitated by Iranian border guards.
[SIZE=2][58][/SIZE][SIZE=2][63][/SIZE] The report also found "circumstantial evidence that senior Hezbollah operatives were closely tracking the travel of some of these future muscle hijackers into Iran in November 2000."
[SIZE=2][63][/SIZE] After the commission called for "further investigation" into a possible Iranian role in the attacks, President
George W. Bush demanded that Iran sever its ties with al-Qaeda, while saying that in his view, "There was no direct connection between Iran and the attacks of September 11."
[SIZE=2][64][/SIZE]
Judge
George B. Daniels ruled in a federal district court in Manhattan that Iran bears legal responsibility for providing "material support" to the 9/11 plotters and hijackers in
Havlish, et al. v. Osama bin Laden, Iran, et al.[SIZE=2][65][/SIZE][SIZE=2][66][/SIZE] Included in Judge Daniels' findings was that Iran "used front companies to obtain a Boeing 757-767-777 flight simulator for training the terrorists",
Ramzi bin al-Shibh traveled to Iran in January 2001, and an Iranian government memorandum from May 14, 2001 demonstrates Iranian culpability in planning the attacks.
[SIZE=2][65][/SIZE] Two defectors from Iran’s intelligence service testified that Iranian officials had "foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks."
[SIZE=2][67][/SIZE] By contrast, the 9/11 Commission "found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack. At the time of their travel through Iran, the al Qaeda operatives themselves were probably not aware of the specific details of their future operation." In addition, both bin al-Shibh and
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed denied "any relationship between the hijackers and Hezbollah" and "any other reason for the hijackers' travel to Iran" besides "taking advantage of the Iranian practice of not stamping Saudi passports."
[SIZE=2][63][/SIZE]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_a...ored_terrorism
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Iran (Shia) and Al Qaeda (Sunni) seem like unlikely bedfellows given the Shia-Sunni divide that often exists in Islamic society. This divide, however, has not precluded cooperation in certain conditions, as the two have found "
common cause in their mutual hatred of America; both can see the virtue in having more anti-U.S. violence, whatever the source."
Iran has collaborated with
Al Qaeda covertly and often by proxy due to the latter's notorious reputation. This covert cooperation began in the early 1990's in Sudan, continued after Al Qaeda relocated to Afghanistan, and even manifested itself on Iranian soil before, during, and after the September 11 attacks. Although such cooperation has been known by authorities, for the first time in July 2011 the U.S. formally accused Iran of forging an alliance with Al-Qaeda that includes harboring Al-Qaeda operatives on Iranian territory and helping Al-Qaeda transit money, weapons and fighters.
Iran-Al Qaeda links are not new. Ties between the two were initiated in the early 1990s when
Hasan Al-Turabi, the leader of Sudan's National Islamic Front, began to encourage Sunni-Shia reconciliation in order to defeat the common enemy, namely America and its allies.
According to the U.S. court record for the 1998 U.S embassy bombings, Osama bin Laden was living in Khartoum when the Sudanese religious scholar Ahmed Abdel Rahman Hamadabi brought Sheikh Nomani, an emissary of Iran, to meet the nascent Al Qaeda leadership. Sheikh Nomani "had
access to the highest echelons of power in Tehran."
As a result of this meeting, "Iran and Al Qaeda
reached an informal agreement to cooperate, with Iran providing critical explosives, intelligence, and security training to bin Laden's organization."
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Recently, a former spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Said Qasemi, surprisingly disclosed that Tehran sent agents to Bosnia and Herzegovina to train Al-Qaeda members. He added that Tehran’s operatives were hiding their identity by acting as humanitarian workers for Iran’s Red Crescent.
In late 2017, a trove of 470,000 documents released by the CIA revealed close ties between Tehran and Al-Qaeda. The late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden advised his followers to revere Tehran, and wrote that Iran was the “main artery for funds, personnel and communication” for the group.
For more sophisticated training, Al-Qaeda members traveled to Lebanon. According to the documents, Iran offered Al-Qaeda fighters “money and arms and everything they need, and offered them training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon, in return for striking American interests in Saudi Arabia.” Most likely, three Iranian institutions have been instrumental in helping Al-Qaeda: The IRGC, its elite Quds Force and the Intelligence Ministry.
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https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/al-...h-relationship
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