Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Iran And Al Queda

Time Magazine discusses the connection between Al Queda and Iran:

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 of the four 9/11 aircraft and subduing the crew and passengers—passed through Iran in the period from October 2000 to February 2001. Sources also tell TIME that Commission investigators found that Iran had a history of allowing al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border. This practice dated back to October 2000, with Iranian officials issuing specific instructions to their border guards—in some cases not to put stamps in the passports of al-Qaeda personnel—and otherwise not harass them and to facilitate their travel across the frontier. The report does not, however, offer evidence that Iran was aware of the plans for the 9/11 attacks.

The senior official also told TIME that the report will note that Iranian officials approached the al-Qaeda leadership after the bombing of the USS Cole and proposed a collaborative relationship in future attacks on the U.S., but the offer was turned down by bin Laden because he did not want to alienate his supporters in Saudi Arabia.
Which brings up my esteemed Senator from Illinois, Mr. Barack Obama who wants to bomb Pakistan. I think he should consider bombing Iran - our enemy - before he takes on Pakistan - our ally.

Update: At one point I was wondering why Obama didn't mention Saudi Arabia. I found out why he didn't mention Saudi Arabia. Edwards already has it.

2 comments:

Snake Oil Baron said...

He probably figures that, under a democratic president, following an Iraq pullout, Pakistan would quickly fall to Taliban. (Perceptive, since there would be nothing else for jihadis to do.) That being the case he is just hoping to get a jump on things by attacking them before they become the enemy. This is surprisingly efficient for a Democrat. Declaring defeat in Pakistan before declaring war will save a lot of time.

Cormac said...

An interesting snippet I learned (unfortunately in a documentary so I'm not sure of it's validity) was that Al Queda was a name invented by someone on "this side" to label the loose association of groups that Osama bin Laden happened to be funding. There was no name for the association. The groups he funded were disparate and had different aims, the fact that Osama was funding them was just coincidence. So according to this theory Al Queda is a boogey-man... a boogey-man which may have had teeth at some stage in the past, but a boogey-man nonetheless.