Back in August BooMan noted along with Ron Suskind that a certain reporter at the UK Telegraph was rather consistently on the receiving end of CIA disinformation.
Ron Suskind has a new book coming out that reveals, among other things, that the White House authorized the CIA to backdate a forged memo from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein that purported to show that lead-hijacker Mohammed Atta was trained in Iraq in the summer of 2001.” The memo was created by the CIA and leaked to Con Coughlin of the UK Telegraph, who dutifully wrote it up on December 14, 2003, the same day that Saddam Hussein was ‘pulled from a spiderhole’ near Tikrit.
Which causes me to be more than a little suspicious of what I read in the Telegraph today.
In Monday’s edition, that same reporter has a story in the Telegraph asserting that “western security officials” have intercepted a letter from al-Qaeda to the “leadership of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards,” thanking them “for providing assistance to al-Qaeda to set up its terrorist network in Yemen.”
This is occurring at the same time as Iran and Yemen are trying to forge closer ties.
BooMan, in August:
White House Approved Forged Iraqi Memo
by BooMan
Tue Aug 5th, 2008 at 10:42:09 AM EST
Ron Suskind has a new book coming out that reveals, among other things, that the White House authorized the CIA to backdate a forged memo from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein that purported to show that lead-hijacker Mohammed Atta was trained in Iraq in the summer of 2001. The memo was created by the CIA and leaked to Con Coughlin of the UK Telegraph, who dutifully wrote it up on December 14, 2003, the same day that Saddam Hussein was ‘pulled from a spiderhole’ near Tikrit.
Steven D and I have known for many years that Con Coughlin, Executive Foreign Editor of the UK Telegraph, is an American intelligence asset. As recently as January 2007, Steven nailed Coughlin in his article: Oh My God! North Korea is Helping Iran Get Nukes!. [Aside: please take the time to scroll down to Steven’s section on Con Coughlin’s Track Record]. As early as June 2005 I wrote an article about William Safire’s incestuous relationship with the UK Telegraph and the Office of the Vice-President: William Safire Worked for Military Intelligence.
Here is the Telegraph story, in tomorrow’s edition:
Iran receives al Qaeda praise for role in terrorist attacks
Fresh links between Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and al-Qaeda have been uncovered following interception of a letter from the terrorist leadership that hails Tehran’s support for a recent attack on the American embassy in Yemen, which killed 16 people.
By Con Coughlin
Last Updated: 11:17PM GMT 23 Nov 2008Delivery of the letter exposed the rising role of Saad bin Laden, son of the al-Qaeda leader, Osama as an intermediary between the organisation and Iran. Saad bin Laden has been living in Iran since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, apparently under house arrest.
The letter, which was signed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second in command, was written after the American embassy in Yemen was attacked by simultaneous suicide car bombs in September.
Western security officials said the missive thanked the leadership of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for providing assistance to al-Qaeda to set up its terrorist network in Yemen, which has suffered ten al-Qaeda-related terror attacks in the past year, including two bomb attacks against the American embassy.
And here is a story about Yemen and Iran’s current attempts to increase ties, in Saba Net — Yemen News Agency.
Yemen, Iran, OIC in talks
[21 November 2008]SANA’A, Nov. 21 (Saba) – Foreign minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi has met with the Iranian president’s envoy Mhadi Mustaphawi, head of the Organization of Islamic Culture and Communications.
The two discussed aspects of cooperation between Yemen and Iran as well as means to boost this cooperation.
They highlighted the distinguished Yemeni-Iranian relationship, stressing the importance of boosting the Islamic work through the Organization of the Islamic Conference and international circles.
All of which makes me wonder if someone in the Pentagon is acting to disrupt relations between Iran and Yemen. An effort to continue destablization in the Middle East in the waning weeks of the Bush presidency, just as President-Elect Obama is about to take office.
This is speculation on my part, but it makes me think of efforts by Cheney that we have seen in recent weeks to lock in and even increase radical Bush/Cheney policies while they still have time. Of course, in the big scheme of things, this letter is no doubt no big deal; and if it is a fake, Yemen will see it as transparent even faster than I did. Still it is an interesting thing to note.
