NYT: Court Filings Assert Iran Had Link to 9/11 Attacks

[PeterMP]

I thought people might find this interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/world/middleeast/20terror.html

" Two defectors from Iran’s intelligence service have testified that Iranian officials had “foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks,” according to a court filing Thursday in a federal lawsuit in Manhattan that seeks damages for Iran’s “direct support for, and sponsorship of, the most deadly act of terrorism in American history.”

Imad Mugniyah, the Hezbollah leader killed in 2008, also was accused of a role in 9/11.

One of the defectors also claimed that Iran was involved in planning the attacks, the filing said. The defectors’ identities and testimony were not revealed in the filing but were being submitted to a judge under seal, said lawyers who brought the original suit against Iran on behalf of families of dozens of 9/11 victims.

The suit’s allegation that Iran had foreknowledge of the attacks is hard to assess fully, given that the defectors’ testimony is being filed under seal.

The suit contends that Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant organization with close ties to Tehran, helped Al Qaeda in planning the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and in facilitating the hijackers’ training and travel. After the attacks, the suit contends, Iran and Hezbollah helped Qaeda operatives escape, providing some with a safe haven in Iran."

For more of what the government actually thought/knew:

http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf

A section related to Iran starts on page 257, but 240 based on their numbering in the text.

The conclusion is:

""We have found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the

plan-ning for what later became the 9/11 attack. At the time of their

travel through Iran, the al Qaeda operatives themselves were probably not

aware of the spe-cific details of their future operation.

After 9/11, Iran and Hezbollah wished to conceal any past evidence of

cooperation with the Sunni terrorists associated with al Qaeda. A senior

Hezbollah official disclaimed any Hezbollah invovement in 9/11.128"

We believe this topic require further investigation by the U.S.

government""

Appearantly, the lawyers involved in the case is claiming just days before their report was due that the 9/11 commission was given boxes of papers related to Iran. The 9/11 commission didn't have time to go through them before their deadline, and the government won't hand them over to them.

The lawyers though do have statements from Iranian defectors, and these disagree with what we've learned from Al Qeada members like KSM.

[killerbee99]

Child, please, the same way we were led by some Iraqi "defectors" to believe that Hussein was involved in 9/11

[Bang]

No surprise at all.

~Bang

[PeterMP]

Child, please, the same way we were led by some Iraqi "defectors" to believe that Hussein was involved in 9/11

I don't think there was an Iraqi defector that tied to Iraq to 9/11.

There was a SINGLE Iraqi defector that lied about Iraq's WMD program. If you have multiple defectors that are telling a consistent story, that would be something looking into, no?

But here you actually have some information related to the link. We know (it is in the 9/11 report) that the highjackers travelled through Iran to Afghanistan because the Iranians wouldn't stamp their passports.

We know (again in the 9/11 report) that Iran and Al qeada had more substantial interactions that Iraq and al Qeada ever did.

[visionary]

Wouldn't surprise me, not sure what can be done about this now though.

[TradeTheBeal!]

Wouldn't surprise me. I'm sure several agencies in the mideast could read the tea leaves on that one, especially Israel.

[Bang]

I don't think there was an Iraqi defector that tied to Iraq to 9/11.

There was a SINGLE Iraqi defector that lied about Iraq's WMD program. .

Well, there was more than one. After the fact, the former Iraqi Air force chief wrote a book about his midnight runs with WMD material over the border to Syria while they were playing hide and seek with Hans Blix.

Whether we believe him is up to the individual, I suppose.

~Bang

[PeterMP]

Well, there was more than one. After the fact, the former Iraqi Air force chief wrote a book about his midnight runs with WMD material over the border to Syria while they were playing hide and seek with Hans Blix.

Whether we believe him is up to the individual, I suppose.

~Bang

Okay, pre-war, essentially all of the intelligence about Iraqi WMD came from curveball, who has now admitted he lied.

[twa]

Nice qualifiers in the 9-11 commission conclusion

We just thought they were gonna kill some Americans and ****,not go really pissing ya'll off

[Riggo-toni]

There's no doubt most regimes in the Middle East had some foreknowledge of an imminent attack by Al Quaeda on the US. The official Iraqi newspaper had an article some time beforehand that we would be in for a major attack. John Walker Lindh said Osama boasted about a coming major attack when he visited training camps. Heck, Time magazine had in one of their articles back in the late 90s that Bin Laden was planning attacks on NY and DC to avenge the airstrikes in Sudan and Afghanistan.

That Bin Laden, a Wahhabist/Salafist fundamentalist, would trust a sworn enemy championing a sect he viewed as heretical and a race he regarded with contempt with intimate details - when he witheld such details from everyone but his close inner circle...not buying it. And yes I know they shared mutual hatreds of Saddam, America, and the Saudi royal family.

Defectors always tell people of the countries where they are seeking asylum what their prospective protectors want to hear. Saddam's sons-in-law both claimed Saddam was still developing nuclear weapons post-Gulf War I after they fled to Jordan. Refugees fleeing Vietnam swore they had seen or visited POW camps. IIRC, one came with what he claimed were bones of missing serviceman, and tests showed the bones weren't even human.

[Chachie]

I'm exhausted from 9/11. Not in the way that I don't absolutely mourn that day and respect those we lost. I just mean that no matter who else may be to blame, I'm not into getting even anymore.

[PeterMP]

Well, there was more than one. After the fact, the former Iraqi Air force chief wrote a book about his midnight runs with WMD material over the border to Syria while they were playing hide and seek with Hans Blix.

Whether we believe him is up to the individual, I suppose.

~Bang

I was talking about before the war. The lone Iraqi defector was curveball who has since he admitted he lied.

The story from the air force chief isn't that straight forward either. He isn't claiming that he moved them or even knew of them being moved at the time, but in the post-war Iraq that two pilots told him that they had moved them. Of course, the pilots never came forward themselves nor has he publically named them.

---------- Post added May-21st-2011 at 01:36 PM ----------

Saddam's sons-in-law both claimed Saddam was still developing nuclear weapons post-Gulf War I after they fled to Jordan

This isn't true:

"Kamel confirmed what inspectors had been able to ascertain shortly before his defection, that Iraq had operated a biological warfare program prior to the Gulf War, providing locations for large amounts of undeclared technical documentation. The defection appears to have had a psychological impact in Baghdad due to uncertainty over what Kamel would reveal: soon afterwards, inspectors were invited to revisit weapons sites and new documents were turned over for examination.

In a January 25, 1999 report to the U.N. Security Council, UNSCOM declared that the history of the Iraqi weapons inspections "must be divided into two parts, separated by the events following the departure from Iraq, in August 1995, of Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel."

Kamel maintained that Iraq had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction and related programs after the end of the first Gulf War.

I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons—biological, chemical, missile, nuclear—were destroyed."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_Kamel_al-Majid

Some defectors lie. Some don't. That's why the key would be multiple people telling a stories that are consistent with one another and consistent with other things that we know.

[Prosperity]

sounds like BS

[SnyderShrugged]

Ok. The money question is Now what?

[Riggo-toni]

This isn't true:

My mistake. My memory was that he initially claimed an ongoing WMD program, but changed his story after he decided he wanted to return to Iraq.

[twa]

Ok. The money question is Now what?

We wait for the ruling to see if someone scores some more of Iran's frozen assets.