Following the CIA’s release of nearly half a million documents confiscated during the 2011 Navy SEAL raid which killed Osama Bin Laden, a deep relationship between the Iranian Regime and al-Qaeda has been uncovered.
This is not surprising to those in the intelligence communities who have know that the relationship between the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and the Sunni terror cell dates back to at least 1991, when Iran needed help spreading its ideological revolution and attacking American interests in the Middle East and al-Qaeda needed money and training to pull off terrorist attacks.
So, the Iranian Regime began training al-Qaeda militants via its proxy group Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda repaid this by attacking the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and killing over 200 people.
The Regime even let al-Qaeda militants travel across its borders without stamping passports or checking visas in the lead-up to the 2001 terror attack in New York and Washington DC, which leads many to suspect that Iran was involved in the plotting of September 11th.
While the documents do show some divide between the rogue nation and the terrorist cell at some points over the years, it is important that we do not see this as Iran condemning al-Qaeda or vice-versa.
Rather the Iranian Regime was eager to save its own skin and distance itself from the group, following the US’s victory in Iraq.
They put the al-Qaeda members responsible for plotting 9/11 under house arrest in Iran (although, as they didn’t hand them over to US authorities, this amounts to sheltering terrorists) in order to use them as leverage to get Iranian criminals back from the US and/or cause the US to turn their back on the Iranian Resistance (People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)), then living in exile in Iraq.
Nothing ever materialised because the US saw through this plot.
The Regime also sheltered Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of the Iraqi al-Qaeda, and groomed him using the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. His group became the predecessor to ISIS, so the Iranian Regime’s links to terrorism are growing by the document.
So why was this kept from the public in 2011? Well, obviously the CIA needs time to examine documents before releasing them but it is unclear why the US would go on to agree a nuclear deal (which had no anti-terrorism provisions) with a country that was linked to al- Qaeda?
This is highly worrying for all involved.
Human rights activist, Heshmat Alavi, wrote on Al Arabiya: “Iran will deny any relations with al-Qaeda. Interesting is how Iran initially denied any role in Syria and Iraq. The status quo proves Iran’s lethal footprint in literally opening the gates of hell upon these two nations. The Obama years are over. Al-Qaeda and ISIS have lost their organizational structure, after Iran took complete advantage of them. Iran and the IRGC, however, continue causing mayhem…. Despite their differences, the European Union and the United States should join forces in the long overdue effort to end Iran’s foot-print in Syria and Iraq.”
Source » ncr-iran