Osama Bin Laden's Files Reveal An Iranian - Al Qaeda Alliance

The Telegraph: Iran relationship with al-Qaeda revealed in newly-released trove of Bin Laden documents

A newly released trove of documents recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound have revealed “secret dealings” between Iran and al-Qaeda.

Nearly half a million files found on the computer seized in the May 2, 2011, US raid on the al-Qaeda founder's hideout in Abbottabad were released by the CIA yesterday.

A never-before-seen 19-page document purportedly written by a senior member of al-Qaeda details an arrangement between Iran and members of the group to strike American interests in "Saudi Arabia and the Gulf."

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Update #1: Newly Released Bin Laden Document Describes Iran, Al Qaeda Link -- NBC
Update #2: CIA files shows depth of al-Qaeda's relationship with Iran -- al Arabiya

WNU Editor: In the past ....if a country was caught providing logistical and military support to groups that were waging war against the U.S. .... the U.S. would be within its rights to wage war against that country and its proxies. So why .... with all of this intelligence .... did President Obama instead decide to withhold all of this intelligence from the American public and proceed with negotiating and compensating Iran over the nuclear deal? It is bad enough that Iran supported Shiite militias in Iraq against the U.S. and its allies .... but supporting Al Qaeda?!?!?! Al Qaeda's terror operations provoked the U.S. (as Bin Laden predicted) into a maelstrom of wars and conflicts in Afghanistan and elsewhere that has cost trillions of dollars and countless lives. The fact that Iran made the decision to later facilitate Al Qaeda makes the Obama administration's decision to pursue a nuclear agreement that overturns sanctions and returns tens of billions of dollars even more perplexing. The reverse should have been done .... sanctions should have been enforced, and the victims of this Iranian-Al Qaeda alliance be free to sue Iran for damages in the courts.

Iran's Ties To Al Qaeda Continues

Iran's Ties to Terror Shadow Nuclear Talks -- Voice of America

As the U.S. and the West continue negotiations with Iran over its controversial nuclear program, the specter of Iran’s ties to terrorism - and specifically al-Qaida - lingers in the background, analysts and U.S. officials say.

“This is something that has gone back several decades now, but continues to get short shrift from the U.S. government,” said Jonathan Schanzer at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“Iran’s playing three dimensional chess,” he said. “We see al-Qaida becomes useful to Iran in terms of attacking the United States, attacking the West, vilifying and targeting Israel. All these things very much work in Iran’s favor.”

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My Comment: The enemy of my enemy is my friend .... a strategy that Iran exercises to the full .... even if that enemy is sometimes Iran's enemy.

US, Iran Secretly Discussed Swap Of al Qaeda Detainees

The arrest of Suleiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, has focused new attention on secret talks in 2002-03 between the U.S. and Iran in which a swap of al Qaeda members detained by Tehran for Iranian dissidents under U.S. control was discussed. Handout via Reuters file

US, Iran Secretly Discussed Swap Of al Qaeda Detainees For Iranian Dissidents -- NBC

The arrest of Suleiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, has led to a fresh examination of a little-known chapter in George W. Bush’s “War on Terror’ -- secret talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in 2002 and 2003 aimed at working out an exchange of al Qaeda leaders detained in Iran for Iranian dissidents under U.S. control in Iraq.

The proposed deal fell apart when Washington balked at sending the Iranian dissidents -- members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, best known by the acronym MEK -- to what they believed would be certain death at the hands of Iranian authorities, current and former U.S. and Iranian officials told NBC News.

Ghaith, who is being held in a New York jail cell after spending a decade in Iran among the al Qaeda group, pleaded not guilty last week to charges of conspiring to kill Americans.

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My Comment: Iran's history with Al Qaeda has not received the notice and attention that it deserves. I hope that the arrest of Suleiman Abu Ghaith will illuminate this relationship further.

Iran Is No Longer A Safe Haven For Al Qaeda

 

Iran, al-Qaeda Relationship Is Showing Cracks, U.S. Officials And Analysts Say -- Washington Post

Iran’s expulsion of a senior al-Qaeda official appears to signal a crackdown on the terrorist group that has long been granted safe haven within its borders, U.S. officials say.

Iran’s ouster of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a former al-Qaeda spokesman and the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, marked at least the third time in the past year that a prominent al-Qaeda figure has left the country after living for years in a limbo between houseguest and home detainee.

U.S. officials and terrorism experts say the tougher stance appears to reflect growing tensions between Iran’s Shiite clerics and the Sunni Muslim terrorist group, particularly over the civil war in Syria, where they are backing opposing sides.

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My Comment: The Syrian sectarian civil war is exacerbating Sunni-Shiite ties throughout the region. The Shiite clerics do not trust Al Qaeda's Sunni terror leaders .... and they have every reason to do so.

Peter Bergen has a good review of this relationship.

Iran - Al Qaeda Links?

US Fears Iran's Links To Al Qaeda As Officials Believe Country May Have Provided Aid To Terror Group -- FOX News

WASHINGTON – U.S. officials say they believe Iran recently gave new freedoms to as many as five top Al Qaeda operatives who have been under house arrest, including the option to leave the country, and may have provided some material aid to the terrorist group.

The men, who were detained in Iran in 2003, make up Al Qaeda's so-called management council, a group that includes members of the inner circle that advised Usama bin Laden and an explosives expert widely considered a candidate for a top post in the organization.

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Update: U.S. Fears Iran's Links to al Qaeda -- Wall Street Journal

My Comment: This view is not shared by others.

An Iran - Al Qaeda Alliance?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran is vital to al-Qaeda. Reuters

US Accuses Iran Of 'Secret Deal' With al-Qaeda -- The Telegraph

The US has accused Iran of entering into a “secret deal” with an al-Qaeda offshoot that provides money and recruits for attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The US Treasury Department announced sanctions on six men accused of operating the terror network.

Iran-based Ezedine Abdel Aziz Khalil, aka Yasin al-Sura, was named as a “senior al-Qaeda facilitator” who has operated from inside Iran since 2005 “under an agreement between al-Qaeda and the Iranian government”.

Khalil launders al-Qaeda money and recruits from across the Middle East through Iran and then to Pakistan “for the benefit of al-Qaeda senior leaders,” the Treasury said in a statement.

Pakistan-based Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, formerly Osama bin Laden’s “emissary in Iran” was also named on the list. Rahman is currently al-Qaeda’s overall commander in Pakistan’s tribal areas, it said.

Four others – Umid Muhammadi, Salim Hasan Khalifa Rashid al-Kuwari, Abdallah Ghanim Mafuz Muslim al-Khawar, and Ali Hasan Ali al-Ajmi – were also named as part the operation working through and in Iran, the Treasury said.

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More News On Iran And Al Qaeda Working Together

U.S. accuses Iran of aiding al-Qaeda -- Washington Post
Iran Plays Host To Al Qaeda Network, Treasury Says -- Wall Street Journal
U.S. Sees Iranian, al Qaeda Alliance -- Wall Street Journal
Treasury: Iran funding al-Qaeda -- Politico
US charges Iran with al-Qaeda links -- Financial Times
US accuses Iran of 'secret' deal with al Qaeda to send money & fighters to Afghanistan & Pakistan -- ABC News
US Accuses Iran of Secret Al-Qaida Ties -- Voice of America
U.S.: Iran Has 'Secret Deal' with al-Qaeda -- Time/AP
US sanctions alleged Iran-centered Qaeda network -- AFP
U.S. Says Iran Is Partnering With Al Qaeda -- Atlantic Wire
U.S. Accuses Iran Of 'Secret Deal' With Al-Qaeda -- Radio Free Europe
Treasury targets Iran's 'secret deal' with al Qaeda -- Long War Journal
Is Iran working with al Qaeda? And is there a Qatari connection? -- Blake Hounshell, Foreign Policy
Al Qaeda’s Money Man In Iran -- Nathan Vardi, Forbes
Al Qaeda in Iran. The U.S. finally acknowledges the terror connection. -- Wall Street Journal editorial

Iran And It's Support Of Al Qaeda Concerns Western Intelligence Agencies

Senior U.S. officials tell ABC News that the government of Iran and al Qaeda leadership have secretly been in contact regarding the status of several of the terror group's high-level operatives under house arrest in that country. (ABC News Photo Illustration)

'Iran Loosening Grip On al-Qaida' -- Jerusalem Post/AP

US intelligence shows Teheran is re-examining ties with terror.

WASHINGTON — Al-Qaida operatives who have been detained for years in Iran have been making their way quietly in and out of the country, raising the prospect that Iran is loosening its grip on the terror group so it can replenish its ranks, former and current US intelligence officials said in a statements published Thursday.

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My Comment: Rumors and stories of Iranian - Al Qaeda links have been circulating for years, but this is an extensive report from the AP (via the Jerusalem Post) on how deep these links are.