Is Iran Helping Al Qaeda Plot Attacks On The West

Iran Helping Al Qaeda Plot Attack On West, Intelligence Sources Say -- New York Post/SKY News

LONDON -- Iran and al Qaeda's core leadership under Ayman al Zawahiri have established an operational relationship amid fears the terror group is planning an attack against the West.

There are concerns such an attack, possibly targeting the London Olympics later this year, would be in revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden by the US last year.

Intelligence sources said Iran has been supplying al Qaeda with training in the use of advanced explosives, "some funding and a safe haven" as part of a deal first worked out in 2009 which has now led to "operational capacity."

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My Comment: I am skeptical of these reports (an Iran-Al Qaeda alliance) .... especially since Al Qaeda leader Zawahiri has a long history of threatening to attack Shiite Iran.

Iran - Al Qaeda Link In Washington DC Court Ruling

US Embassy bombing: Nairobi, Kenya, 1998. US State Department

Iran Showed Al Qaeda How to Bomb Embassies -- Weekly Standard

In a little noticed ruling on Monday, November 28, a Washington, D.C. district court found that both Iran and Sudan were culpable for al Qaeda’s 1998 embassy bombings. As is typical in state sponsorship of terrorism cases, neither Iran nor Sudan answered the plaintiffs’ accusations. But in a 45-page decision, Judge John D. Bates issued a default judgment. The court found that the “government of the Islamic Republic of Iran…has a long history of providing material aid and support to terrorist organizations including al Qaeda,” which “claimed responsibility for the August 7, 1998 embassy bombings.”

Judge Bates continued (citations omitted, emphasis added):

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My Comment: I cannot say that I am surprised.

Are Al Qaeda And Iran Working To Kill Americans Abroad And At Home?

(Image from Cox And Forkum)

Iran Receives al Qaeda Praise For Role
In Terrorist Attacks -- The Telegraph

Fresh links between Iran's Revolutionary Guards and al-Qaeda have been uncovered following interception of a letter from the terrorist leadership that hails Tehran's support for a recent attack on the American embassy in Yemen, which killed 16 people.

Delivery of the letter exposed the rising role of Saad bin Laden, son of the al-Qaeda leader, Osama as an intermediary between the organisation and Iran. Saad bin Laden has been living in Iran since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, apparently under house arrest.

The letter, which was signed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command, was written after the American embassy in Yemen was attacked by simultaneous suicide car bombs in September.

Western security officials said the missive thanked the leadership of Iran's Revolutionary Guards for providing assistance to al-Qaeda to set up its terrorist network in Yemen, which has suffered ten al-Qaeda-related terror attacks in the past year, including two bomb attacks against the American embassy.

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My Comment: If true, this will be on the top of President Obama's "security threats and danger" list. But unfortunately, this is not the first time that Iran's fingerprints are on terrorist operations that killed Americans.

Did Iran Help The U.S. After 9/11?

Photo: AP/CBS

Iran Gave U.S. Help On Al Qaeda After 9/11 -- CBS

Former U.S. Officials Say Iran Rounded Up Hundreds Of Possible Terrorists Following Sept. 11 Attacks.

(CBS/AP) Iran rounded up hundreds of Arabs to help the United States counter al Qaeda after the Sept. 11 attack after they crossed the border from Afghanistan, a former Bush administration official said Tuesday. Many were expelled, Hillary Mann Leverett said, and the Iranians made copies of almost 300 of their passports.

The copies were sent to Kofi Annan, then the secretary-general of the United Nations, who passed them to the United States, and U.S. interrogators were given a chance by Iran to question some of the detainees, Leverett said in an Associated Press interview.

Leverett, a Middle East expert who was a career U.S. Foreign Service officer, said she negotiated with Iran for the Bush administration in the 2001-3 period, and Iran sought a broader relationship with the United States. "They thought they had been helpful on al Qaeda, and they were," she said.

For one thing, she said, Iran denied sanctuary to suspected al Qaeda operatives.

Some administration officials took the view, however, that Iran had not acknowledged all likely al Qaeda members nor provided access to them, Leverett said.

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My Comment: Another article that I am skeptical about. Iran's behavior has always been calculated .... their survival is based on having a "boogey man" out there that is always threatening their survival .... and the U.S. fits the bill perfectly.

Iran in Secret Talks With al Qaeda, U.S. Officials Say

From ABC News:

Sources Say Iranian Govt., Terror Group in Contact About Militants Under House Arrest

Senior U.S. officials tell ABC News that in recent months there have been secret contacts between the Iranian government and the leadership of al Qaeda. It's a development that has caught the attention of top officials in the White House, the Pentagon and the intelligence community.

According to U.S. officials familiar with highly sensitive intelligence on this issue, the contacts are on the status of high-level al Qaeda operatives, including two of Osama Bin Laden's sons, who have been under house arrest in Iran since 2003. The officials don't believe Iran will allow these operatives to go free, but said they don't know Iran's motivation for initiating the talks.

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My Comment: This is another clear indication that close ties are maintained between Al Qaeda and Iranian Government officials. Because this involves two of Osama bin Ladin's sons, it is not hard to figure out who in Al Qaeda is directing these talks. The question is why Iran is doing this now. What is their strategy? This is an answer that I do not know.