I just came across this story, which was published in the Sunday Times, the Sunday edition of the Times, London’s pre-eminent newspaper. It describes a rather bizarre scenario in which Al Qaeda in Iraq, with help from Iran, naturally, intends to carry out a large terrorist attack against Britain:
AL-QAEDA leaders in Iraq are planning the first “large-scale” terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran, according to a leaked intelligence report.
Spy chiefs warn that one operative had said he was planning an attack on “a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki” in an attempt to “shake the Roman throne”, a reference to the West.
Well I think it’s given that Al Qaeda in Iraq hasn’t developed any nuclear weapons, nor is their a shred of credible evidence that Iran has either. And, of course, the fact that Al Qaeda, in whatever manifestation, is a Sunni movement and organization which is opposed to the Shi’a sect of Islam followed in Iran, is also another reason to doubt the validity of the reporter’s story. Iran has supported Shi’ite militias and terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, but no one has ever found a serious link between the Iranian regime and any Al Qaeda groups. Nonetheless, this story was featured in a major British newspaper. What evidence does it cite to support the claim of a pending large scale “Hiroshima-Nagasaki” attack?
(cont.)
Apparently, it’s all based on a secret MI-5 report which has been leaked to the Times by unidentified sources
The report, produced earlier this month and seen by The Sunday Times, appears to provide evidence that Al-Qaeda is active in Iran and has ambitions far beyond the improvised attacks it has been waging against British and American soldiers in Iraq.
There is no evidence of a formal relationship between Al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, and the Shi’ite regime of President Mah-moud Ahmadinejad, but experts suggest that Iran’s leaders may be turning a blind eye to the terrorist organisation’s activities.
The intelligence report also makes it clear that senior Al-Qaeda figures in the region have been in recent contact with operatives in Britain.
Note the qualifications above. There’s no evidence of a “formal relationship” between Al Qaeda and Iran, but nonetheless experts say Iran may be “turning a blind eye” to Al Qaeda in Iraq’s activities. That surely suggests — not a whole hell of a lot to me. It’s oure innuendo passed of as intelligence from “informed sources.” It’s a meaningless statement, but a useful one to anyone wishing to tie the actions of Al Qaeda terrorists to Iran’s government. It raises the phantom of an Iranian shadow power behind the scenes, directing and enabling terrorist plots against Britain and other western targets, without producing a single fact that connects Iran to Al Qaeda plans or activities. The sort of thing Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld engaged in
