Suspected al-Qaida camp seen in Iran

Sources: U.S. images show site near Afghanistan border

By Jim Miklaszewski and Robert Windrem
NBC NEWS

Sept. 25 — U.S. intelligence has detected a suspected al-Qaida training camp in a remote area of eastern Iran along the border with Afghanistan, sources told NBC News. Overhead imagery shows what appears to be a training camp complete with a terrorist obstacle course and a rifle range, much like those al-Qaida used in Afghanistan to train for assassinations.

IT HAS been reported previously that a number of al-Qaida leaders had fled to eastern Iran, but this would be the first evidence that al-Qaida was actually using Iran to resume terrorist training.
      Sources told NBC News that while Iran’s civilian government may not know the training camp is there, Iran’s military and intelligence certainly would.
      There was no word Wednesday on possible U.S. efforts to deal with the suspected al-Qaida camp.
     
ILL WILL BETWEEN IRAN, AL-QAIDA
      Iran’s relationship with al-Qaida appears to have been tenuous at best in the early 1990s, but by the late 1990s it was filled with ill will and even included an attempted assassination by Iran of the Taliban’s leader and al-Qaida’s protector, Mullah Mohammed Omar, in August 1999.  
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        Moreover, it is hard to determine how much, if any, official cooperation there has ever been between al-Qaida and the Iranian government. Documents and testimony in the East Africa embassy bombing trials indicate that some in the Iranian government, among its clerics and in the terrorist organization Hizballah have had contacts with high-ranking members of al-Qaida, including at least one meeting involving Osama bin Laden.
      However, U.S. officials said that while there had been contacts, they were believed to have been “peripheral.” There is also no evidence of any joint attacks, only some discussions and training, officials said.
      As to the possibility of an Iranian link to Sept. 11, a senior intelligence official said: “We do not believe that. There is no such evidence.”
     
AMBASSADOR DENIES CONNECTION
      In an interview with NBC last week, Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Javad Zarif specifically denied any connection between his government and al-Qaida, citing al-Qaida’s role in killing Iranian diplomats. The one [attack] that can be specific and directly attributed to al-Qaida is an attack to our consulate general in Mazar-e-Sharif, where Taliban and al-Qaida killed 11 Iranians. But there are other incidents of cross-border attacks during the time the Taliban had the reign over Afghanistan. There were cross-border kidnappings of Iranian citizens and officials, and murder of Iranian citizens and officials by these two entities.”
      In fact, said a Pentagon official, the United States had satellite photos of the aftermath of an attempted assassination of Omar later that year. A truck bomb exploded outside his compound — a complex built and paid for by bin Laden.
      “I saw a satellite photo of the bomb crater,” said the official. “It was not a half-hearted attempt.”

[url]http://www.msnbc.com/news/813034.asp?0cl=c4[/url]  

Well I think it is time to lite up Iran!

I can see the headlines soon!

Headline: 2 F-16 fighter Planes Today Destroy an Al Queda training camp on border of Afghanistan.

Today two F-16 fighter jets dropped a number of guided munitions and destroyed a newly discovered Al Queda training camp. This camp was discovered by inteligent scources by the United States and later confirmed by Iranian intellegent sources. This new Al Queda training camp was discovered on the Border of Afghanistan. Iranian officials say that due to the terrian and open borders between Iran and Afghanistan, they were unaware of the training camp at the time of its discovery. Iranian officials could only comment and say that they are looking into the matter, and fully support the efforts of the United States to weed out and destroy Al Queda and its leaders!

White House officials could only comment and say that the Al Queda forces are alive and well and are trying to regroup, but with the efforts of the many nations that support the War on Terror, we are able to continute to hunt down and destroy these terrorists and bring them to justice.

Daisy Cutter time!