Free Republic

The caller told Lisa Namphy that he was from the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, Iran. A hiker had come down from snow-capped Mount Damavand on Sunday with news that Namphy's mother had died on the mountain trail. Then things got worse. "There are so many conflicting stories,'' Namphy, of Palo Alto, said. ``And we have so little information. What we do know is that my mother is missing on Mount Damavand.'' Kathleen Namphy's family wasn't used to worrying about her. The 69-year-old mother, cancer survivor, veteran world traveler, peace activist and honored Stanford lecturer had been adventuring around the planet...

An even more devastating terrorism charge could be laid on Iran's doorstep if intelligence reports linking Iran to al-Qaeda are confirmed. Insight has learned of new links between top Iranian intelligence officials and the al-Qaeda leadership that suggest direct Iranian government involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. mainland. Documents and information provided to this magazine by a recent Iranian defector, if confirmed as authentic, could open a new front in the war on terror. The defector, Hamid Reza Zakeri, says he worked in the intelligence office of Supreme Leader Ali Khameini and personally handled security at two...