Iran has been neck deep in the al Qaida movement since its' inception. Granted, the ISI in Pakistan was responsible for creating the Taliban, but that is a separate organization from aQ. Even today, Iran is sheltering, training, and giving intelligence to aQ.
Pre-911, Iran could have given lots of intel to aQ - such as the FAA schedule for the emergency training that took place on the morning of 9-11, slowing down the actual response to the hijackings. The chances of aQ having a mole inside the FAA is far less than a state sponsor such as Iran - especially when the State Department is doing all it can to kiss the mullah's butts instead of kicking them as they should.
alqaeda was cobbled up with muslims from all over the world to fight the soviets.
That operation was run solely by pakistan.
Iran had no part in it. It was an operation run by the pakis with saudi influence, since they were pumping 1 billion a year into it..
Pakistan is 100% responsible for al qaeda's creation.
You have to see where the group was created and the fact that osama bin laden had his family based in pakistan, i think even after 1998.
He lived in pakistan and afghanistan all this time.
Read news reports from the period and you'd know.
During the war with the soviets, the pakis demanded that the CIA have no contact with afghan resistance and no so say whatsoever in who the funds should go to.
The CIA was pumping a billion a year into the operation and yet they couldn't meet afghan resistance or even decide which groups their money should go o.
All contact had to be through pakistani intelligence, who turned the war into a terror outfit against the US itself.
So a significant amount of the funds ended up in al qaeda and pakistan's nuclear program.