Report Emphasizes Dubious Iran-al-Qaeda Ties
US Officials Admit Situation Not Well Understood
The latest piling on with respect to the Iran war hysteria is an exclusive article today by the Associated Press implying that Iran may be funneling al-Qaeda detainees to the battlefields in Northern Pakistan to fight against the US.
The claims are centered around a murky, and supposedly canceled CIA program known as RIGOR, which officially aims to track al-Qaeda members who fled into Iran but which officials are saying is more of a “feasibility study” into the possibility to infiltrating Iran to assassinate them.
Sunni fundamentalist al-Qaeda has a long history of open hostility to the Shi’ite Iranian government, so much so that the notion of even an alliance of convenience has long been unfathomable. Al-Qaeda was, after all, Jundallah’s chief ally against Iran before the two groups’ falling out, when the US began supporting Jundallah.
It is perhaps only the ridiculous levels of belligerence US officials have shown toward Iran which gives such rumors any credence: that Iran has become so desperate to hedge against US attack that they’re willing to countenance any potential aid, no matter how unsavory.
But even with the CIA’s RIGOR and other efforts, officials concede that their view of the relationship between Iran and al-Qaeda is murky, at best. The Iranian government has been holding many of the alleged al-Qaeda as detainees for quite some time, and has held members of Osama bin Laden’s family under house arrest. The fact that Osama bin Laden’s 17-year-old daughter was allowed to move from Iran to Syria figures heavily into the claims of collaboration, which underscores just how little concrete information is available on this putative relationship.
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E.A. Costa
May 14th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Classic: "US Officials Admit Situation Not Well Understood".
Where are the satellite photos of a squad of white-robed riders on attack camels led by the emaciated figure with a falcon on his wrist?
There, there–look closely–the kidney machine on Camel #4!
That does it, phone the President, he'll want to drone them personally.
RockyRococo
May 14th, 2010 at 7:57 am
I sometimes wonder if the makers of US propaganda take a perverse pleasure in deliberately insulting the intelligence of the public with the BS they expect us to swallow. First tales of al-Qaeda in cahoots with the secular westernized repressive Arab nationalist Saddam. Almost the definition of the rulers that al-Qaeda ideology calls for overthrowing. Now attempts to link al-Qaeda to the Iranian Islamic Republic, as though there were nothing more natural than the two most extreme present day examples of the sides of the schism that has sundered Islam in endless bitterness since its earliest days, that set the friends and family of the Prophet himself at each others throats in bloody, mortal combat. And we're supposed to believe these two forces are suddenly patching things up after 1400 years in order to carry out fizzling shoe and underwear bombings of US-bound airliners? Do they really think we're that stupid? Are we?
pwi
May 14th, 2010 at 10:27 am
"insulting the intelligence of the public with the BS they expect us to swallow."
Well it seems to work. BTW I wonder who will replace Simon Crowell on american Idol?
pwi
May 14th, 2010 at 10:30 am
What luck for rulers, that men do not think.
Adolf Hitler
Kris
May 14th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Hi to all.
The Islamic Republic Iran has a set of rulers and henchmen who are extremely adept at spotting fundamentalists a million miles off. They know , because they used to be like that themselves. But now they are entrenched in a rich country of 65 million plus and strive for status quo and a revolutionary facade. And, they are most definitily not sunni-leaning. They will shoot anything that walks, talks or smells lie al Qaeda. Add to that that the majority are Iranian nationalist first, secon and third. After that, Shiite Muslims. Way down the list , some are Hezbollah.
Kris
AntiPeace(AP)
May 14th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Fucking AP. Those imperial apple-polishers posing as a news service can fall off the face of the earth and burn in hell. Motherfucking liars and murderers.
epppie
May 14th, 2010 at 11:22 am
And isn't it amazing that the US political elite apparently expects Iran to protect us from Al Queda WHILE we are threatening to nuke Iran!!!!!
That HAS to be the most amazing imperial hubris in all history.
FM newswire for May 14, interesting articles about geopolitics « Fabius Maximus
May 14th, 2010 at 7:01 am
[...] today’s hot info ops (we’re the target): “Report Emphasizes Dubious Iran-al-Qaeda Ties“, AntiWar, 13 May 2010 — “US Officials Admit Situation Not Well [...]
phonk
May 14th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
In my opinion; These AP have some inches of space in a newspaper/magazines, their main concern is to fill the spaces allocated to them…with what… is not important.
Jeff.Davis
May 14th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Didn't Achmadinejad kidnap the Lindbergh baby? Doesn't he hate apple pie, kittens, and his own mother? Butter cookies with sprinkles throw him into an inconsolable rage. Won't go anywhere near water (goes for all those Muslims, explains why they live in the desert). And he's stupid and ugly and I've heard from anonymous administration officials of conclusive scientific evidence proving that he is Satan himself. And Satan of course is the God of all terrorists. Nuke Satan. Nuke Satan. Nuke Satan.