Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Captain Jack who wrote (14355)	3/23/2002 5:29:59 PM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27718

There's hope when even the NYT starts to "get it." This is a long, well documented article on the Iran/Pal connections etc. nytimes.com March 24, 2002 A Secret Iran-Arafat Connection Is Seen Fueling the Mideast Fire By DOUGLAS FRANTZ and JAMES RISEN EL AVIV — American and Israeli intelligence officials have concluded that Yasir Arafat has forged a new alliance with Iran that involves Iranian shipments of heavy weapons and millions of dollars to Palestinian groups that are waging guerrilla war against Israel. The partnership, officials said, was arranged in a clandestine meeting in Moscow last May between two top aides to Mr. Arafat and Iranian government officials. The meeting took place while Mr. Arafat was visiting President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, according to senior Israeli security officials who declined to describe the precise nature of their information. The new alignment is significant for several reasons, American and Israeli officials said. In recent years, Iran's support for terrorism around the world has been on the wane, with the notable exception of its ties to Hezbollah, the militant group that fought for 18 years to expel Israel from southern Lebanon. Israeli officials say they are alarmed by Mr. Arafat's alliance with Iran because they say it gives the Palestinians a powerful and well-armed patron in the increasingly violent conflict with Israel. American officials echoed that concern and said they were also worried by intelligence reports that say Tehran is harboring Al Qaeda members, including one leader who recently tried to mount an attack against Israel from his sanctuary in Iran. Questions about Iran's relationship with the Palestinians came into public view early this year when Israel seized a ship carrying 50 tons of Iranian-supplied arms, including antitank weapons that could neutralize one of Israel's main military advantages over the Palestinians and rockets that could reach most cities in Israel. Both the Palestinians and Iranians deny they are working together, but American and Israeli officials say they now see the shipment as part of a broader relationship. They say that began with several smaller attempts by Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon to supply arms and was cemented in the Moscow meeting. Officials of Israel and the United States say they believe that Mr. Arafat personally approved the dealings with Iran. American officials said that Israeli intelligence reports about the Moscow meeting were at the heart of secret briefings that Israel provided to the Bush administration after the arms shipment was intercepted. "There's plenty of evidence to show that it wasn't a rogue operation," a senior State Department official said of the ship that Israel seized in early January. Palestinian Authority officials dismissed the charges of any Iranian involvement in their struggle against Israel and denied that Mr. Arafat knew of the arms shipment. They said the allegations were an attempt by Israel to discredit the Palestinians and to justify Israel's military operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "This is a factory of lies," Yasir Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian minister of information, said. "Israel is like any colonial power. When they get in trouble, they try to blame outsiders. There has not been a single Iranian here since the 14th century." Iran also has denied any involvement with the Palestinians or the arms shipments. Ali Shamkhani, the Iranian minister of defense, told the state news agency, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has had no military relations with Arafat, and no steps have been taken by any Iranian organization for the shipment of arms to the mentioned lands." For several years, American counterterrorism experts believed Iran's terrorist apparatus had fallen dormant. Hezbollah and other groups backed by Iran had not attacked American targets since the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia killed 19 American servicemen in 1996. Iranian leaders had apparently decided that state sponsorship of anti-American terrorism was too risky at a time when the country was trying to build closer economic ties with Europe. Post-Intifada Enthusiasm Iran also seemed locked out of Palestinian issues while Mr. Arafat pursued the Oslo peace process with Israel. Relations soured so badly between Tehran and Mr. Arafat after the Oslo accords in 1994 that the Palestinian leader became convinced that religious leaders in Iran had issued an order that he be killed for dealing with the Jewish state, according to American and Israeli officials. But American intelligence officials said that they believe that the onset of the Palestinian uprising known as the intifada in September 2000 renewed the enthusiasm among Iran's hard-liners for terrorism. "The main variable is that the intifada has stirred the radical juices in Iran," said a senior American official. "With the outbreak of the intifada, the Iranians decided they wanted things to burn hotter. The Iranians are now supporting a number of Palestinian groups — it's been a bad news story on Iran over the last 18 months." George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, recently told Congress that Iran's political reformers were losing momentum in the long-running battle for power with the conservative clerics who control the Iranian intelligence and security agencies that support extremist groups. He warned that there had been little reduction in Iran's backing for terrorism and he said that Tehran had failed to seal its eastern border with Afghanistan to block the escape of Al Qaeda members. Israeli officials said there was new evidence that some Iranian officials have allowed Al Qaeda to use the country not just as a transit point after escaping Afghanistan, but as a staging area. Abu Musaab Zarqawi, a senior Al Qaeda leader who fled the western Afghan city of Herat after the American military campaign began, has turned up in Tehran under the protection of Iranian security forces, according to senior Israeli and American officials. Last month, Mr. Zarqawi dispatched three Afghan-trained operatives to attack Israel, Israeli officials said. The three, two Palestinians and a Jordanian, were arrested when they crossed from Iran into Turkey on Feb. 15. Turkish authorities said the men had possessed fake documents, had diagrams for bombs and claimed that they intended to attack targets in Tel Aviv on orders from a leader known as Abu Musaab. Israeli intelligence said his full name was Abu Musaab Zarqawi, and American officials said he was believed to be the highest ranking Al Qaeda leader now in Iran. The new information about his presence in Tehran raises questions about his actions and the activities of other Al Qaeda terrorists who entered Iran in recent months. American officials say they are uncertain how much direct support senior Iranian government officials are giving to Al Qaeda members. Al Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim group, but Iran is Shiite. Moreover, Iran strongly supported the Afghan opposition groups that fought the Taliban. But Mr. Tenet told a Senate committee that old religious divisions among Muslims did not rule out cooperation on terrorism against the United States and its allies. There is evidence that Osama bin Laden sought to bridge the religious divide when it came to terrorist operations by exploring an alliance with the Iranian-backed guerrilla group Hezbollah as early as the mid-1990's. Ali A. Mohamed, an Al Qaeda member convicted of conspiracy in the bombings of the American embassies in East Africa in 1998, testified that he had arranged security for a meeting in Sudan between Mr. bin Laden and Imad Mugniyah, the Hezbollah militant who masterminded the 1983 suicide attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans and helped to define terrorism for Americans. Among many Arabs, Hezbollah's status surged after its long military and terrorist campaign in southern Lebanon helped lead to the Israeli withdrawal from the country in May 2000. Its victory meant that Mr. Mugniyah and Hezbollah's terrorist wing had less work. Soon after the start of the Palestinian uprising, Iran sent Mr. Mugniyah to help the Palestinians, American and Israeli intelligence officials said. "Mugniyah got orders from Tehran to work with Hamas," a former Clinton administration official said.