[Mb-civic] Iran Next?

[Michael Butler]

Also see below:     
Now America Accuses Iran of Complicity in WTC Attack    €
Iran Says Sept 11 Plotters May Have Passed Through    €

     Go to Original

    Regime Change in Iran Now in Bush's Sights
    By Jenifer Johnston
    Sunday Herald

     Sunday 18 July 2004

     President George Bush has promised that if re-elected in November he
will make regime change in Iran his new target.

     Bush named Iran as part of the Axis of Evil along with North Korea and
Iraq almost three years ago. A US government official, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said that military action would not be overt in changing Iran,
but rather that the US would work to stir revolts in the country and hope to
topple the current conservative religious leadership.

     The official said: "If George Bush is re-elected there will be much
more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran."

     The Iranian government announced this weekend that it had successfully
eradicated all al-Qaeda cells operating in the country, but the statement
comes as leaked reports from the US September 11 Commission show definite
links between Iran and the September 11 terrorists.

     The final report from the cross-party inquiry, which is examining the
origins of the September 11 attacks, is believed to contain concrete
evidence of contacts between al-Qaeda and Iran.

     Time magazine reports that at least eight of the hijackers, who lived
in the US for months before the attacks, passed through Iran between October
2000 and February 2001 apparently with help from the Iranian authorities.

     Known al-Qaeda members also seem to have been allowed to cross in and
out of Iran freely across the Afghan border, with Iranian border guards
being told not to stamp the passports of al-Qaeda operatives, harass them or
hinder their ability to travel freely.

     The report is thought to hint that Iranian officials were ordered to
assist al-Qaeda operatives with any travel needs.

     The September 11 Commission report will, however, stop short of stating
that Iran was aware of the plans for the September 11 attacks.

     Tehran has always officially denied helping members of al-Qaeda escape
from Afghanistan in 2001 when the Taliban regime fell.

     State television in Iran yesterday showed the country's intelligence
minister announcing the capture of a number of al-Qaeda supporters.

     Ali Yunesi said: "Iran's intelligence apparatus has identified and
arrested small Iranian deviate branches of the al-Qaeda group." There was no
clarification on how many people had been arrested or charged.

     Yunesi warned that Iran would take a tough line against militants using
Iran as a base. "Those who seek to misuse the safe situation in Iran will
face serious consequences," he said.

     The Iranian government says it has arrested and repatriated hundreds of
al-Qaeda suspects in the past two years in a display of willingness to bring
terrorism in the Middle East under control.

     A suspected Saudi al-Qaeda militant, Khaled al-Harbi, who appeared in a
videotape with Osama bin Laden, gave himself up in Iran last week, and was
flown back to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

     On Friday US officials said the next stage of the September 11
Commission's report would be available this week.

     There was embarrassment for the Bush administration last week when it
emerged a tight deadline was being pushed for the capture of Osama bin Laden
to generate headlines during the Democratic Convention when presidential
rival John Kerry will be grabbing the limelight.

     Pakistani security forces have apparently been given deadlines to
capture bin Laden that are before the US general election in November,
according to US sources.

   

    Go to Original 

    Now America Accuses Iran of Complicity in
    World Trade Center Attack
    By Julian Coman
    Sunday Telegraph U.K.

     Sunday 18 July 2004

     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 February 2001. The terrorists in
question are believed to have been the "muscle" - hired to storm the
aircraft cockpits and overpower crew and passengers.

     Iranian officials were instructed not to harrass al-Qa'eda personnel as
they crossed the border and, in some cases, not to stamp their passports.

     According to testimony received by the commission - based on
information from prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and about 100 electronic
intercepts by the National Security Agency - an alliance of convenience was
established between the Shia Muslim Iranian leadership and the Sunni
terrorist organisation, well before September 11, 2001.

     The report is expected to confirm the claim by Thomas Kean, its
chairman, last month that "there were a lot more active [al-Qa'eda]
contacts, frankly, with Iran and Pakistan, than there were with Iraq".

     It will further inflame tensions between Washington and Teheran, where
hardliners are threatening to restart its uranium enrichment programme, a
key step towards building nuclear weapons.

     A commission official, quoted in the latest edition of Time magazine,
alleges that Iranian officials approached Osama bin Laden after the bombing
of the USS Cole in 1999, proposing a joint strategy of attacks on US
interests.

     A preliminary report from commission staff, released last month,
stated: "Bin Laden's representatives and Iranian officials discussed putting
aside Shia-Sunni divisions to co-operate against the common enemy."

     The offer is said to have been turned down by bin Laden, who was
reluctant to alienate Sunni supporters in Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, in the
wake of September 11, Iran sheltered al-Qaeda militants fleeing Afghanistan.

     The full report by the commission is also expected to endorse initial
conclusions that al-Qa'eda may have been involved in the 1996 bombing of the
Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia, when 19 American servicemen were
killed. The attack has long been blamed solely on Hizbollah, a Lebanese
terrorist group backed by Iran.

     Iran was declared part of an "axis of evil", along with Iraq and North
Korea, by President George W. Bush in 2002. The report will add to pressure
for Iran's theocratic rulers to be the first target of a re-elected Bush
administration. Hawks within the administration want a concerted effort to
overturn the regime by peaceful means.

     Some Bush officials are privately contemplating a possible military
strike against Iran's nuclear facilities before Russian fuel rods are
delivered next year.

     Teheran said yesterday that it had arrested an unspecified number of
Iranian al-Qa'eda supporters.

   

    Go to Original 

    Iran Says Sept 11 Plotters
    May Have Passed Through
    Reuters

     Sunday 18 July 2004

     Tehran - Iran acknowledged on Sunday that some al Qaeda members
involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States may have passed
through the country shortly beforehand.

     U.S. government sources have said a bipartisan commission's report this
week on the Sept. 11 attacks will mention that some of the hijackers
transited through Iran on their way to the United States.

     "We have long borders and it is not possible to fully control them,"
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference
when asked about the commission's report.

     "It is normal that five or six people who cross the border illegally
over a period of five or six months may evade our attention. The same
happens on the border between Mexico and the United States," he added.

     Asefi noted that Iran had tightened its border control since the Sept.
11 attacks.

     "It happened before Sept. 11 and who knew that Sept. 11 was going to
happen?"

     Iran denies U.S. accusations that it has collaborated with and harbored
al Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan  after the fall of the Taliban. The
hard-line Islamic movement was overthrown in a U.S.-led war at the end of
2001.

     Tehran has arrested and deported hundreds of al Qaeda suspects in the
past two years and says it is holding some senior members of Osama bin
Laden's network.

     On Saturday it announced it had smashed a ring of Iranian al Qaeda
supporters.

     "Iran has shown it is against terrorists and extremism and is serious
about confronting terrorists," Asefi said.

     He said news reports tying Iran to al Qaeda were part of a U.S.
cover-up to deflect attention away from its failings in Iraq.

     "The more we approach the U.S. (presidential) election the more we will
witness such news propaganda," he said.

  

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