LAT: Some U.S. Officials Fear Iran Is Helping Al Qaeda

Some U.S. Officials Fear Iran Is Helping Al Qaeda
They say intelligence suggests that the regime lets key figures plot. But the picture is cloudy.
By Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writer
March 21, 2006

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials, already focused on Iran's potential for building nuclear weapons, are struggling to solve a more immediate mystery: the murky relationship between the new Tehran leadership and the contingent of Al Qaeda leaders residing in the country.

Some officials, citing evidence from highly classified satellite feeds and electronic eavesdropping, believe the Iranian regime is playing host to much of Al Qaeda's remaining brain trust and allowing the senior operatives freedom to communicate and help plan the terrorist network's operations.

And they suggest that recently elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be forging an alliance with Al Qaeda operatives as a way to expand Iran's influence or, at a minimum, that he is looking the other way as Al Qaeda leaders in his country collaborate with their counterparts elsewhere.

"Iran is becoming more and more radicalized and more willing to turn a blind eye to the Al Qaeda presence there," a U.S. counter-terrorism official said.

The accusations from U.S. officials about Iranian nuclear ambitions and ties to Al Qaeda echo charges that Bush administration figures made about Iraq in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion three years ago....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iranterror21mar21,0,6266532.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Fundie Shi'ites (Iran) aiding fundie Sunnis (Al Queda) when each believe the others to be heretics?

That is even LESS believable than secular Saddam funding the fundie Al Queda who called him an infidel and would have happily overthrown him, which is why he refused to allow them a toe-hold in Iraq before the invasion.

All from just this one article!
Some officials, citing evidence ...
... a U.S. counter-terrorism official said.
A U.S. intelligence official said ...
... the official said.
Still, the official acknowledged ...
To some U.S. intelligence officials, ...
... the intelligence official said.
The U.S. counter-terrorism official was more blunt ...
U.S., European and Arab intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issues publicly.

It's so thick in there, I can hardly walk.

Some officials believe the Iranian regime is playing host...
They suggest that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be forging an alliance...

As you say, the article is total BS. Nothing but conjecture from anonymous "officials".
If you read the rest of the article, other officials say precisely the opposite, that we have no such evidence, but that's not the impression you get from the headline.

would be a "cakewalk". These lying bast*rds must be stopped!

kills one of their cases for war

Whatever the long standing emnity between Shiites and Sunnis, when it comes to both of these particular adherents, they share a deep animosity towards the United States and I wouldn't entirely discount their willingness to minimize their differences, especially in the short term, to wage a common war against the American Infidels.

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al Qaeda as well as for our problems in Iraq. I read somewhere that the suggestion has already been made that the latest generation of IEDs bedeviling our forces in Iraq are Iranian-made. Perhaps this will be revealed at an opportune time as part of a build-up for military action against Iran?