And I've Got a Bridge To Sell Ya

[Update: I should know better than to blog past my bedtime. The Newsweek article is from last summer. But it wasn't new material then either and I still find its recent resurgence curious.]



My, but the rhetoric over Iran is heating up this week! Almost simultaneously, two new "Iran is bad, mmmmkay?" stories have come to the fore. Except that there's not much new about them; you could substitute "Iraq" for "Iran" and be transported right back to 2003. This is especially true of the first article. Substitute proper names as needed:

More Evidence of an Iran-Al Qaeda Connection

Just eight months before the September 11 terror attacks, top conspirator Ramzi bin al-Shibh received a four-week visa to Iran and then flew to Tehran—an apparent stop-off point on his way to meet with Al Qaeda chiefs in Afghanistan, according to law-enforcement documents obtained by NEWSWEEK.

German government documents showing the previously undisclosed trip by bin al-Shibh, a captured Al Qaeda operative who played a crucial coordinating role in the 9/11 plot, is the latest evidence that the World Trade Center conspirators frequently used Iran as a safe transit point in their travels to and from Afghanistan.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/13/225559/54
Ah yes, the latest evidence, possibly obtained via torture? Evidence that just happens to implicate our next "axis of evil" villain? Color me skeptical.

... the 9/11 panel will reveal this week that as many as 10 of the so-called “muscle hijackers” traveled through Iran between the fall of 2000 and February 2001. U.S. intelligence officials emphasize they have no evidence that the Iranian government had advance knowledge of the 9/11 plot and, in recent days, an Iranian government spokesman has called "ridiculous" reports that there was any Iranian involvement with Al Qaeda. Still, the trip by bin al-Shibh adds to the picture and, according to some U.S. investigators, raises new questions about whether some Iranian security officials may have been actively assisting Al Qaeda operatives while they were traveling through their country.

The bin al-Shibh evidence is contained in the thousands of pages of documents compiled by Germany's BKA, or Federal Criminal Office, in the course of its investigation into the so-called “Hamburg cell,” one of whose members, Muhammad Atta, became the ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers. Bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni national, was Atta’s roommate in Hamburg and, when he was unable to obtain a visa to enter the United States, became a key coordinator of the plot, relaying instructions between 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Atta, according to the 9/11 commission.

...The German documents show that, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks, German investigators first sought information from the Iranian Embassy in Berlin about bin al-Shibh's travels to their country. The Iranians appear to have cooperated, turning over a copy of a two-page visa application form filled out in bin al-Shibh’s handwriting and an attachment showing his passport photograph. The document shows that on Dec. 20, 2000—during a crucial stage of the 9/11 plot—bin al-Shibh applied for a four-week tourist visa to Iran

Oh! The evidence from Germany...the same place we found "Curveball." Still skeptical.

A German law-enforcement report on the matter concludes that bin al-Shibh’s visa request was approved and that on Jan. 31, 2001, he flew to Iran, landing at Tehran International Report. The report states he likely flew from Amsterdam since banking documents show he withdrew money from there just a few days earlier. The report concludes however that the Germans were unable to learn any more from the Iranians about bin al-Shibh’s activities in Iran and whether he engaged in an “illegal border crossing to Afghanistan—although such a trip was highly likely.

That bin al-Shibh used the trip to cross the border and visit with Al Qaeda chiefs in Afghanistan is highly likely given his indispensable role in the unfolding 9/11 plot, U.S. investigators say.

Oh well, then! As long as it was "likely"...nope, still skeptical.

The final report of the 9-11 Commission reveals troubling new evidence that Tehran was closer to Al Qaeda than Iraq was

"9/11!! Terrorists!!! Islamofascist mushroom clouds!"

Commission sources acknowledge they have been unable to resolve key questions about what precisely the 9/11 plotters did while they transited through Iran and, in particular, whether they were receiving active assistance from Iranian security officials, who appear to have maintained relations with Al Qaeda. But investigators say there is mounting evidence about Al Qaeda-Iranian relationships that appear to have been overlooked by a Bush administration that was far more focused on finding connections between bin Laden’s organization and the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

How ironic it would be if that were true! If it weren't such a deadly serious topic, it'd be as laughable as the next piece of propaganda. This one claims that El Baradei pronounced Iran just months away from possessing nuclear weapons.

IAEA Chairman Muhammad ElBaradei on Monday confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb.

"If Teheran indeed resumes its uranium enrichment in other plants, as threatened, it will take it only several months to produce a bomb," ElBaradei told The Independent, according to Army Radio.

I guess reading comprehension is an early casualty of the military's relaxed standards for recruits. Even out of its original context, Baradei's statement does not confirm anything; "if" is pesky like that. But the disinformation is even more amusing with the background from the Independent for reference:

Although IAEA officials have said it would take at least two years for Natanz [enrichment plant] to become fully operational, Mr ElBaradei believes that once the facility is up and running, the Iranians could be "a few months" away from a nuclear weapon.

...Did he believe the Iranians were building a nuclear weapon? "The jury's out," he said. "It's difficult to read their intention. We're still going through the programme to make sure it's all for peaceful purposes.

"I know they are trying to acquire the full fuel cycle. I know that acquiring the full fuel cycle means that a country is months away from nuclear weapons, and that applies to Iran and everybody else."

Yeah...skeptical