Free Republic

IRAN admitted yesterday that some al-Qaeda operatives behind the 11 September attacks may have passed through the country from Afghanistan - but dismissed as "fabrications" reports from the United States that Tehran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks. "It’s normal that five or six people may have crossed the border within a couple of months without our knowledge ... Our borders are long and it’s not possible to fully control them," Hamid Reza Asefi, a foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters. Mr Asefi was responding to an 11 September Commission report - expected on Thursday - that says Iran may have...

Bush: US probing possible Iran role in September 11 2 hours, 59 minutes ago Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo! WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said that the United States was investigating whether Iran played any role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, amid CIA (news - web sites) skepticism of an official link. AFP Photo   "As to direct connections with September the 11th, we're digging into the facts to determine if there was one," Bush said as he met with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos in the Oval Office. His...

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Xinhuanet) -- US President George W. Bush said on Monday that the United States will continue to investigate if Iran was involved in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "As to direct connections with September the 11th, we are digging into the facts to determine if there was one," Bush said at the photo opportunity with visiting Chilean President Ricardo Lagos in the Oval Office of the White House. "Acting (CIA) Director (John) McLaughlin said there was no direct connection between Iran and the attacks of September the 11th. We will continue to look and see if...

DUBAI, July 19 (Reuters) - An Iranian general collaborated with al Qaeda to arrange the transit through Iran of nine of the September 11 hijackers, the Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Monday. "A general in the apparatus (Revolutionary Guard) coordinated with the number two man in al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, to provide 'safe passage' to around nine of those who carried out the attacks," the London-based paper said. It cited as its source an official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and said Zawahri, who requested the help, had links with the general going back to the early 1990s. Iranian...

The organizers of the Council on Foreign Relations special task force to promote the appeasement of Iran must be cursing their uncommonly bad luck. They scheduled a meeting in Washington today to call for increasing normalization of relations between the United States and Iran. With a fine eye for dark comedy, the Council persuaded two relics of the catastrophic Carter years to appear: Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Gates. The principal advocate of the policy, however, is undoubtedly the president of the Council, Richard Haas, who has long seen rapprochement with the mullahs as an "historic opportunity" for the United...

An Iranian general collaborated with Al Qaida to arrange the transit through Iran of nine of the September 11 hijackers, the Arabic newspaper Asarq al-Aqsat reported Monday.'A general in the Revolutionary Guard apparatus coordinated with the number two man in Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, to provide safe passage to around nine of those who carried out the attacks,' the London based newspaper said.It cited as its source an official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and said Zawahri, who requested the help, has links going back to the general going back to the early 1990's.Iranian governmental spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh challenged the...

NEW YORK - Just days after documenting the ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, it appears the Bi-Partisan 9/11 Commission is set to release information in the report that shows extensive ties to fellow "Axis of Evil" member - Iran. Senior U.S. officials are now saying that the Commission has uncovered evidence which places eight to ten of the "musclemen", (hi-jackers that helped overpower the airplanes) from 9/11, in Iran between October of 2000 to February of 2001. The practice supposedly dates back to October of 2000 with Iranian border guards issuing specific instructions to in some cases...

9/11 Panel Report Says (Terrorist Mullahs) Aided Al Qaeda!!!! July 18, 2004 Agence France-Presse The Washington Times The September 11 commission's report, due out Thursday, says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks on the United States by providing eight to 10 al Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan, press reports said yesterday. Weekly magazines Time and Newsweek, in similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources, said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from Osama bin Laden's camps between October...

In its report due next week, the September 11 commission will disclose new evidence suggesting Iranian government officials may have helped facilitate the terror attacks by providing Al Qaeda members with safe passage and “clean” passports as they traveled from Osama bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan through Iran, NEWSWEEK has learned.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The September 11 commission's report, due out Thursday, says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks on the United States by providing eight to 10 al-Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan (news - web sites), US media reports said. Time and Newsweek, in similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources, said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s camps between October 2000 and February 2001. In addition, The New York Times...

Iran Accused of Complicity in World Trade Center Attack! Iran gave free passage to up to 10 of the September 11 hijackers just months before the 2001 attacks and offered to co-operate with al-Qa'eda against the US, an American report will say this week. The all-party report by the 9/11 Commission, set up by Congress in 2002, will state that Iran, not Iraq, fostered relations with the al-Qa'eda network in the years leading up to the world's most devastating terrorist attack. The bipartisan commission has established that between eight and 10 of the September 11 hijackers, who had been based...

9/11 Panel's Report to Offer New Evidence of Iran-Qaeda Ties By PHILIP SHENON Published: July 18, 2004 The final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will offer new evidence of cooperative ties between Iran and Al Qaeda, including information drawn from intelligence reports suggesting that Iran provided several of the hijackers with safe passage in the year before the attacks, government officials said yesterday. The officials emphasized that the commission had no evidence to suggest that Iranian officials knew of the Sept. 11 plot. But they said the evidence raised new questions about why the Bush administration...

THE September 11 commission's report, due out Thursday, says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks by providing eight to 10 al-Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan, according to media reports today. Time and Newsweek produced similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources. They said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from Osama bin Laden's camps between October 2000 and February 2001. According to Time, the commission's report says Iran at one point proposed collaborating with al-Qaeda on attacks against America,...

Iran gave free passage to up to 10 of the September 11 hijackers just months before the 2001 attacks and offered to co-operate with al-Qa'eda against the US, an American report will say this week. The all-party report by the 9/11 Commission, set up by Congress in 2002, will state that Iran, not Iraq, fostered relations with the al-Qa'eda network in the years leading up to the world's most devastating terrorist attack. The bipartisan commission has established that between eight and 10 of the September 11 hijackers, who had been based in Afghanistan, travelled through Iran between October 2000 and...

Senior U.S. officials have told TIME that the 9/11 Commission's report will cite evidence suggesting that the 9/11 hijackers had previously passed through Iran  Next week's much anticipated final report by a bipartisan commission on the origins of the 9/11 attacks will contain new evidence of contacts between al-Qaeda and Iran—just weeks after the Administration has come under fire for overstating its claims of contacts between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. A senior U.S. official told TIME that the Commission has uncovered evidence suggesting that between eight and ten of the 14 "muscle" hijackers—that is, those involved in gaining control...

A young man with a short beard stopped me from entering the shrine of Hazrat Imam Hussein. "You have a video camera," he said. "You need permission to shoot inside." Who is authorised to grant permission, I asked. The young man ignored the question and said that if I wanted to go in, I would have to leave my camera at the reception. I explained that as a journalist I could not operate without a camera. But that only infuriated him and he began shouting, "Go away! Go away!" I was secretly terrified, but informed him politely that I was...

[BREAKING]Nearly 400 Al-Qaeda Members Living in IranDUBAI (AFX) - Hundreds of alleged members of Al-Qaeda, including 18 of its top leaders, and other terror groups are living in Iran, some under tight security, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported. "More than 384 members of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations are present in Iran, including 18 senior leaders of Osama bin Laden's network," the daily said, citing a senior source in the Iranian presidency. The Saudi-owned newspaper said the terrorist leaders were living under tight protection, some of them in villas in the Namak Abrud region, near the town of Chalous...

DUBAI, July 15 (AFP) - Hundreds of alleged members of Al-Qaeda, including 18 of its top leaders, and other terror groups are living in Iran, some under tight security, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Thursday. "More than 384 members of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations are present in Iran, including 18 senior leaders of Osama bin Laden`s network," the London-based daily said, citing a senior source in the Iranian presidency. The Saudi-owned newspaper said the terrorist leaders were living under tight protection, some of them in villas in the Namak Abrud region, near the town of Chalous on the Caspian coast,...

No details yet. Follows on news of Bin Laden associate from Iran/Afghan border surrenders to Saudi authorities.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's government said that the Islamic republic may take up to three years to put on trial captured members of the Al-Qaeda network held in its jails. Cabinet spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh reiterated Iran's position that Tehran would only extradite fugitives deemed not to have acted against the state, and from countries with whom Iran has an extradition agreement. "If not, they will go on trial in Iran. However, it is a long process that could take two to three years," he said Monday. In 2003, Iran confirmed it was holding senior members from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda...