RYAN MAURO: BLOCKBUSTER RULING: IRAN, HEZBOLLAH INVOLVED IN 9/11
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.11098/pub_detail.asp
The killing of Osama Bin Laden in May brought a sense of resolution to Americans, but a ruling by a federal judge shows justice has not been delivered. In a decision that should forever change the story of 9/11 and the West’s Middle East policy, Judge George Daniels has just ruled that Iran and Hezbollah are responsible for 9/11.
Judge Daniels concluded that 9/11 happened because of Iran and Hezbollah’s direct support for the plotters, especially the hijackers, and probably would not have happened without it. The evidence presented in court goes even further, strongly indicating that 9/11 was a joint operation between Al-Qaeda and the Iranian regime. It took over 10 years after 9/11 for Iran’s covert involvement to be exposed, a frightening testament to the ineptitude of our intelligence community and the experts who assured us that Iran would never work with Bin Laden’s terrorist group or directly target the U.S.
Eight law firms acting under the leadership of Thomas E. Mellon presented reams of publicly-available information and over 25 hours of testimony from three Iranian intelligence defectors, whose accounts were deemed credible by Judge Daniels. The three defectors provided first-hand information to prove the culpability of Iran and Hezbollah.
The 9/11 Commission suggested possible Iranian and Hezbollah involvement, relying upon information it only received eight days before the report’s due date. With barely any time left to investigate the connection, the Commission’s report stated that it “found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack” but that there must be “further investigation.” There was no follow-up investigation by the government, apparently considering the case closed.
The 9/11 Commission’s information was startling enough to warrant an open consideration of the possibility that the attacks were state-sponsored. Pages 240-242 of its report revealed that 8 to 10 of the “muscle” hijackers went to Iran between October 2000 and February 2001. Acting on orders from above, the border guards did not stamp their passports, strongly indicating that Iran knew exactly who they were and what they were planning. Imad Mughniyah, operations chief for Hezbollah and Iran’s top terrorist proxy, and one of his close aides were on the same flights as several of the hijackers. At the same time that three of the hijackers were flying to Lebanon and Iran, Hezbollah leaders in both countries were awaiting special guests.
Iran expert Kenneth Timmerman, whose research played an important role in the case, pointed out in his book that Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the key Al-Qaeda operatives overseeing the 9/11 attacks, was in Iran on several occasions. Remarkably, only two months before September 11, Binalshibh went to Iran at the exact same time as an Iranian defector said Ayman al-Zawahiri was in the country.
The three Iranian intelligence defectors filled in the knowledge gaps. One unnamed defector said he personally saw Ayman al-Zawahiri and other Al-Qaeda officials in Iran in January 2001 to discuss the plot with top regime officials. In Timmerman’s book, he mentions a defector named Hamid Reza Zakeri who handled security for Ayatollah Khamenei’s secret intelligence office. He said that Zawahiri and about 30 other Al-Qaeda members came to Iran at that time and me with, among other Iranian officials, Imad Mughniyah. A second defector told Timmerman the same thing.
Zakeri said that he drove Saad Bin Laden, Osama’s oldest son, to a meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei on May 4, 2001. Zakeri also provided top-secret documents from Khamenei’s secret office that referred to an upcoming Al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. in September and emphasized that Iran must limit its contacts to Zawahiri and Mughniyah in order to disguise its role. Zakeri defected on July 26 shortly after he saw a “target wall” in the headquarters of Iranian intelligence that had a large display of the World Trade Center, White House, the Pentagon, Camp David and CIA headquarters, with a missile above with the words “Death to America” written in Arabic on it. He tried to warn the U.S. that Iran had dispatched Arab terrorists to carry out an attack on September 11 to no avail.
The judge heard testimony from a second defector who wrote reports based on interviews with Mughniyah after 9/11. The third defector, Abdolghasem Mesbahi, previously revealed Iran’s masterminding of a bombing in Argentina in 1994. He testified that Iran long had a plan to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and other American landmarks. The plan was titled, “Satan on Fire.” According to Mesbahi, about 18 months before 9/11, Iran imported a flight simulator for Boeing 757s, 767s and 777s for a military base in Tehran. Iran does not own a single one of these aircrafts.
On July 23, 2001, Mesbahi was told by a source in Iran that “Satan on Fire” had been green-lighted. On August 13, he was specifically told that Iran was overseeing the crashing of airliners into New York and Washington. On August 27, his source told him that the plan had some connection to Germany. Mesbahi and his source didn’t know what that meant at the time, but the 9/11 plotters were meeting in Germany to hammer out the details.
There is much more at Iran911Case.com. Mellon and his team also showed a detailed history of ties between Iran and Al-Qaeda, dating back to the early 1990s. Another recent ruling, this one by District Judge John Bates, determined that Al-Qaeda’s 1998 embassy bombings would not have been possible without the training provided by Iran and Hezbollah. Altogether, these cases prove that Iranian involvement in 9/11 or other Al-Qaeda terror plots may be shocking to Americans, but it is not out of character for the Iranian regime. In fact, Iranian involvement should be expected if one looks at the regime’s history.
The judge’s ruling should permanently change how the world looks at 9/11, the terrorist threat and the nature of the Iranian regime.
Ryan Mauro is the National Security Analyst for Family Security Matters. He is the Founder of WorldThreats.com, a national security analyst at Christian Action Network, a Strategic Analyst for Wikistrat and a national security commentator for FOX News.
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