BEN LADEN WAS IN IRAN, PREPARING NEW TERRORIST OPERATIONS

Iran Press Service ^ | 6.25.2003 | Ahmad Ra’fat

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

Thanks for the ping. Interesting reading here.

[jraven]

Actually, he was in Iran to attend a bar mitzvah.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I would bet that they are al Qaeda.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think I heard on Fox that the Villagers said they were people they didn't know.

So it is very possible they were connected with Al-Queda or the Iranians!

[AdmSmith]

"Though I can not tell more on the details of the report, but I can confirm that based on what our security organisation has stated in the report, firstly Osama Ben Laden is alive and secondly he has left Afghanistan, hiding in another country that could be the Islamic Republic of Iran", he said, confirming that al-Qa’eda planned terrorist operations in Italy.

I do not think that this report is correct, read the vague "confirmation" above.

[Angelus Errare]

There have been stories for the last several months that high-ranking members of al-Qaeda are being sheltered by the IRGC. According to Time Magazine, documents recovered from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed indicate bin Laden's family was turned over to the IRGC for safekeeping. His son Saad was sighted in Tehran in February and based on data recovered from the plane crash as well as the Riyadh bombings, the CIA evidently believes that numerous al-Qaeda leaders are holed up at an IRGC base out in Kerman province that used to be one of the Shah's old hunting lodges.

The Iranians have also granted a safe harbor to Ansar al-Islam and have allowed them to reconstitute from within their territory. Your belief is, as I understand it, that only elements of the IRGC are involved in all of this, but even if that is in fact the case the rest of Iranian government appears to be doing little to stop said policies or the harboring of the leadership of the organization that calls for our destruction. And if the Iranian government won't act on this one, then the US will have no choice but to deal with that non-compliance.

[AdmSmith]

I agree with most of your description of the situation. However, my estimate is that there are parts (minority) of IRGC that are supporting al Qaeda. This type of support is as well provided by some people in the iranian intelligence community.

The Iranian state is run both by the Iranian government and the maniac clerics and it is not always clear who is in command of what. This is the main reason for the conflicting information from Iran regarding foreign policy etc.

This situation will prevail until the clerics will return to the Mosques and return to the pre-Khomeini interpretation of Islam.

[AdmSmith]

I just read another article quoted here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935805/posts?page=8#8
that claims "As President Khatami has said, a government has been formed inside the government, and some organizations are arresting citizens,” Hadi Qabel, head of the reformist Participation Front party in the city of Qom told Tosea."

It seems to be a violent summer in Iran this year.

[John_11_25]

The thought that they will only do major attacks in the US and thereby crashing the US economy is wrong. If they strike at any major country in Europe or in fact in the world, (Hong Kong, Beijing, Japan, Australia, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands etc.) it will have a major impact on the US economy, as the US invests in stock markets all over the world, not to mention billions of dollars in loans.

It is impossible for the US to protect everyone.

[Coop]

While I wouldn't doubt that he is or was in Iran, I have little confidencen in the shoddy details in this story.

[Uncle Miltie]

"Italian military intelligence"

Triple oxymoron alert!

[Uncle Miltie]

"admitted that up to five hundred members of the network who had crossed the porous Iran borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan had been detained, some of them handed over to the countries they had their passports, including Saudi Arabia"

As was widely rumored and reported at the time, Saudi Arabians were paying millions for safe passage through Iran of their Al Qaeda fighters.

[ppaul]

Your submissions please:
AMERICA ATTACKED/AMERICA GOES TO WAR: Online FReeper library -
Post your links to videos, photos, graphics, etc. HERE

:

[Angelus Errare]

This is my own personal understanding of the situation, but I would say that it's more than a few of IRGC involved with al-Qaeda based on a simple matter of geography. The al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan transited into Iran via Zabol and remained there until August 2002 under the protection of the IRGC, which allegedly allowed them to establish a new training camp with some assistance from VEVAK. That means that the IRGC in Sistan province were aware of al-Qaeda's activities.

Then we go to Kerman province, the location of that damned "hunting lodge." Kerman borders Sistan as well as Iranian Baluchistan, and the IRGC there have been named as having protected al-Qaeda's leadership, including Saif al-Adel and Saad bin Laden.

Finally, in the case of Ansar al-Islam and Zarqawi, they appear to be based in Iranian Kordestan (Kurdistan) and Baijan provinces, once again being protected by the local contingents of the IRGC. And given that at least some of Ansar are being sent to Tehran (as well as Saad bin Laden's appearance there in February 2003), that the IRGC in Central province are also in on supporting al-Qaeda. So the situation that is formed, at least IMO, is one in which IRGC contingents in at least 5 of Iran's provinces are aware of al-Qaeda activity and are supporting them in this effort. And from a purely security perspective, that is simply unacceptable.

The situation expands greatly if one takes into account Michael Ledeen's claims that the 500 al-Qaeda that Iran claims to have deported were in fact sent to Ein al-Hilweh and the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon to help regroup. Ledeen's sources aside, one can safely conclude as I stated above that at least 5 IRGC provincial groups are in cahoots with bin Laden and his stormtroopers. VEVAK's involvement, OTOH, can likely be shown to be much more extensive.

"The Iranian state is run both by the Iranian government and the maniac clerics and it is not always clear who is in command of what. This is the main reason for the conflicting information from Iran regarding foreign policy etc."

I understand how Iran very much has two governments to it. However, if the existing elected authorities are unwilling or unable to keep the ayatollahs and their minions in the IRGC in line, I would argue that it doesn't make much of a difference what their official foreign policy towards us is because it puts us in a situation where the inmates (the "rogue elements" of the IRGC) have taken control of the assylum.

"This situation will prevail until the clerics will return to the Mosques and return to the pre-Khomeini interpretation of Islam."

I concur entirely. However, my belief is that one of the reasons that the ayatollahs (and while you may disagree, I am of the opinion that Khamenei or at least Rafsanjani have a hand in all of this) are supporting al-Qaeda is because if it gives them a means with which to eliminate their opponents or call in extra muscle if needed to suppress the rising calls for democracy. The Washington Post article that was originally cited states that al-Qaeda operatives who were arrested traveling from Iran were told by VEVAK that they would be asked to repay Iran for their good will at some point.

"It seems to be a violent summer in Iran this year."

Oh I concur completely. However, this is IMO just another reason why the ayatollahs will be looking to import external forces to prop them up. They seem increasingly short of allies at home.

[swarthyguy]

BILL CLINTON did indeed refuse 2 Presidential Offers from the Sudan in 1996 (with a 3rd Offer made in 2000) to extradite OSAMA bin LADEN to the United States for a Trial that would have prevented the attacks of September 11, 2001 on US.


The only person who says this story is true is mansur ijaz.

His role is amibigouos to say the least; if ijaz was that convinced that the Sudanese offer was real, why didn't he push for it with the CLintons instead of backing off and surfacing after 9/11 with story.

It's BUll, IMO, Ijaz is a self serving character, who only came out in public after 9/11 with these stories to curry favor with Republicans.

[ASA Vet]

[AdmSmith]

In general I agree, but I think that the elite in Iran is much more divided than is normally assumed, both between and within the various Intel organizations there. See an open sources description of them http://fas.org/irp/world/iran/

You might take a look in the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin http://www.meib.org/articles/0304_iran.htm on The Origins of Iran's Reformist Elite by Mahan Abedin. It is interesting reading.


My guess is that decision-makers in the West not realize this difference and forget that Khomeini introduced legislation that is alien to the traditional Shiite interpretation of the Quran.

We do not need active measures in Iran, the change will come from within. I have not checked in the history books, but the MTBF (=mean time between failure) for a theocracy is short. An example is Florence under Savonarola http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girolamo_Savonarola