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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elsewhere who wrote (25563)	1/21/2004 10:13:08 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793778

You might want to check out the original German reports, JJ. I would like to believe this. But you can't trust the source without other conformation. Iran directly involved in planning of 9/11? EFL, The relevant parts translated by me from the Spiegel reporting a new turn in the Hamburg 9/11 trial The federal prosecutors got hold of a man who claims to have been a high-ranking member of the Iranian secret service for many years. In this function he says to have learned about the planning of 9/11 before it happened, seen several al-Qaida bosses in Iran and known some of the death pilots from Germany by name. Up to now only the Federal Propsecution Office knows the name of the man, but he is willing to testify at court under condition of anonymity. According to the interrogation protocol the Iranian secret service agent claims that Iran was actively involved in the planning of 9/11, from page 11 onwards of the protocol he also mentions Mzoudi’s name several times. He says that friends from within the Iranian secret service apparatus have told him that the defendant was supposed to be killed by terrorists after his release in December 2003. The reason: In Iran Mzoudi was suspected to work with Western Intelligence Services or that he was released to be spied upon. In the view of the federal prosecutors the statement proves that Mzoudi must very well have been a member of the Hamburg cell and because of that had to be liquidated as a bearer of top secret information and a potential traitor. Other statements of the new witness incriminate Mzoudi heavily. The witness says that he has heard Mzoudi’s name as the guy responsible for the logistics of 9/11. The Moroccan, he says, had been responsible for the “draft and the dispatch of information to intermediaries”, “because he was familiar with codes”. Especially these statements perfectly fit in the picture sketched by the prosecution which claims that Mzoudi was the man in the background of the terror cell. Again and again federal prosecutors have presented a puzzle of many little assistances before court in order to prove Mzoudi’s guilt. It is true though that the witness hasn’t been able to prove his statements or put them in concrete terms. He only says, that he has this information from a man “at the very top” of the Iranian Secret Service. It should be difficult for the prosecution to bolster the credibility of the new witness. The witness claims again and again that his person is known to intelligence services like the (German) BND and that he doesn’t want to testify publicly at court. But it is doubtful whether the judges will accept that explanation. In the tangled web of international intelligence services the truth is difficult to filter out because of all the different interests involved and the always present desire to protect sources. First of all the ruling judge Klaus Rühle intends to get his own picture of the new witness. He has summoned the two superintendents of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) who had questioned the Iranian on January 15th in Berlin. He wants to know from them, who this witness is and what kind of impression the two investigators have about him. The further progress of the trial will only be decided after that, but at least in this week a judgement is no longer expected. The German Stern reports: Mzoudi’s defence attorney Gül Pinar said that the witness was an unidentified Iranian intelligence agent claiming to have informed US authorities before September 2001 of an impending attack, but was not taken seriously. The Hamburg court received the protocol of the Berlin interrogation on January 19th. rantburg.com