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May 25, 2012
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Erika Bolstad: Temple cancels Wasserman Schultz speech
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May 24, 2012
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Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll
Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble?
The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
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May 22, 2012
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Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
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The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
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Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
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Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
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May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
December 22, 2011
/ 26 Kislev, 5772
Iran and Al-Qaeda
By
Clifford D. May
Together again for the first time
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Late last week, the State Department announced a $10 million reward for information leading to the capture of Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, A.K.A. Yasin al-Suri — Yasin the Syrian. Serious students of terrorism and counterterrorism saw this as big news for two reasons.
The first is tactical: Never before has a reward been offered for the capture of a terrorist financier. But the money men are vital links in the terrorist chain so targeting them makes sense. Also unusual is the amount: Only Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has been trying to fill Osama bin Laden's shoes at al Qaeda' main office, commands a larger bounty ($25 million).
The second reason is strategic: al-Suri is an al Qaeda operative who, since 2005, has been living in Iran, working in collaboration with the theocratic regime, according to U.S. officials. "Under an agreement between al Qaeda and the Government of Iran, Yasin al-Suri has helped move money and recruits through Iran to al Qaeda leaders in neighboring countries in the region," Robert Hartung, State Department Assistant Director for Threat Investigations and Analysis, told reporters. "He is a dedicated terrorist working in support of al Qaeda with the support of the Government of Iran, which the Department of State has designated a state sponsor of terrorism."
Those are stunning words. Within the foreign policy establishment the prevailing orthodoxy has long maintained that Iran's Shia rulers despise the Sunnis of al Qaeda; that the enmity is mutual; and that operational cooperation between them is therefore inconceivable. It also has been a longstanding article of faith that the terrorist groups threatening America are "non-state" actors, groups limited in their capabilities because they do not enjoy the support of national rulers with all the resources those rulers can bring to the table.
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Dissenting from that paradigm have been such analysts as Michael Ledeen and Thomas Joscelyn of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard. They have argued that Iran and al Qaeda collaborate despite theological/ideological differences; that many, if not most, of the Islamist groups waging war against the West are linked like strands of a spider's web; and that Iran is the "terrorist master."
Ties between Iran and al-Qaeda trace back to the early 1990's when Hasan Al-Turabi, the leader of Sudan's National Islamic Front, made it his mission to encourage Sunni-Shia reconciliation. Al-Turabi facilitated a series of meeting between bin Laden, then living in Khartoum, and envoys from Tehran. It did not take long for Iran and al-Qaeda to reach an informal agreement: Iran would provide training, intelligence and explosives. Al Qaeda would make good use of these services and products against common enemies.
The 9/11 Commission Report has a section titled: "Assistance from Hezbollah and Iran to Al Qaeda." It notes that what began in Sudan continued: "Intelligence indicates the persistence of contacts between Iranian security officials and senior Al-Qaeda figures after Bin Laden's return to Afghanistan… Iran made a concerted effort to strengthen relations with Al Qaeda after the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole …"
The report also found "strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of Al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers." And there is reason to believe that Imad Mugniyah, who was both the military chief of Hezbollah and an agent for Iran (until he was killed in 2008), helped with preparations for the 9/11 attacks. In May of this year, The New York Times reported that two defectors from Iran's intelligence service "testified that Iranian officials had 'foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks'" and that one of them "claimed that Iran was involved in planning the attacks."
There's more. A year ago, Hayes and Joscelyn wrote: "Nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks, not only do we have abundant evidence that Iran, the world's foremost state sponsor of terror, supports al Qaeda. We also have evidence that Iran actively assists terrorists and insurgents targeting our soldiers and diplomats" in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
In November, a Washington, D.C. district court concluded that "the government of Iran aided, abetted and conspired with Hezbollah, Osama bin Laden, and al Qaeda to launch large-scale bombing attacks" against two American embassies in Africa in 1998. That should have come as no surprise: In 1998, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment of bin Laden. It included the charge that al-Qaeda had "allied itself with Sudan, Iran, and Hezbollah."
The conclusion to which all this leads is that Iran and al-Qaeda, despite their differences, can and do cooperate to wage what they see as a Great Jihad against America and its allies. They are not enemies. Rather, they are rivals who work together when it suits their common interests.
It would be an historic abdication of responsibility if American and other Western leaders, ignoring these facts, were to allow Iran's rulers to acquire nuclear weapons that, odds are, sooner or later, they would use — or give to al Qaeda, Hezbollah or other terrorist groups to use.
In an interview last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that if Iranian rulers "proceed and we get intelligence that they are proceeding with developing a nuclear weapon then we will take whatever steps necessary to stop it." Was he bluffing? Or has there been a paradigm shift -- a fundamental change in how senior members of the Obama administration understand who America's enemies are and how they operate? Or is this still an on-going debate within the administration? I suspect we'll find out sometime in the New Year.
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Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism. A veteran news reporter, foreign correspondent and editor (at The New York Times and other publications), he has covered stories in more than two dozen countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, China, Uzbekistan, Northern Ireland and Russia. He is a frequent guest on national and international television and radio news programs, providing analysis and participating in debates on national security issues.
Previously:
• 12/22/11: The Case for Palestinian Nationalism
• 12/15/11: What's Islam Got to Do with It?
• 12/09/11: Buried Treasure
• 11/24/11: What Would the Gipper Do?
• 11/17/11: Appease, temporize, posture and gesture?
• 11/11/11: Brave New Transnational Progressive World
• 11/03/11: What's Wrong with Economic Justice?
• 10/27/11: Autocracies United
• 10/20/11: The most critical threat confronting America
• 10/13/11: We've Been Warned
• 10/06/11: Anwar Al-Awlaki's American Journey
• 09/22/11: Cheney Got It Right on Syrian Nukes
• 09/15/11: The European Caliphate
• 09/08/11: Disoriented: The state of too many Western leaders ten years after 9/11/01
• 09/01/11: Palestinian Leaders to Seek the UN's Blessing . . .
for a two-state solution. For a two-stage execution
• 08/25/11: Better understanding of Islamist experience needed
• 08/18/11: The Arab Spring and Europe's fall
• 08/11/11: Borrowing from Communists to pay Jihadis?
• 07/28/11: Who's to Blame for Terrorism?
• 07/28/11: Do Somali pirates have legitimate gripe?
• 07/21/11: Why Bashar al-Assad matters to the West--- and what the Obama administration still doesn't grasp
• 07/07/11: MAD in the 21st Century
© 2011, Scripps Howard News Service
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