(Ynet News) Ronen Bergman - In U.S. National Security Agency headquarters at Fort Meade are tens of thousands of conversation records pertaining to ties between Iran's intelligence service and al-Qaeda from the 1990s to the eve of the 9/11 attacks, including 75 intelligence documents characterized as critical to understanding the relationship between Tehran and al-Qaeda. Ellen Saracini is the widow of pilot Victor Saracini, the captain of the Boeing jet that took off from Boston aboard United Flight 175, which was crashed into the southern twin tower. She approached attorney Thomas Mellon, who specializes in lawsuits against large corporations. They drafted a huge lawsuit, recently submitted to the Manhattan District Court, that charges that the responsibility for the 9/11 attacks lies not only with al-Qaeda, but also with Iran and Hizbullah. In the 1990s, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian jihadist who became al-Qaeda's chief strategist, Bin Laden's deputy and successor, sent many of his men to train in Iranian camps, mostly under the guidance of Lebanese Hizbullah members led by Imad Mughniyah. The current trial includes testimony by then-FBI Director Louis Freeh, who asserts that the attack was an Iranian initiative carried out by Hizbullah in conjunction with al-Qaeda. Senior CIA officials said that the NSA possesses intercepted Bin Laden conversations that prove a direct link to the attack. The material gathered for the trial includes testimonies by three Iranian intelligence establishment defectors. Witness X testifies about Iran's advance knowledge of the plan to crash passenger airliners into strategic targets in Washington and New York. He testifies that he was present at training facilities for Sunni terrorists in Iran. Witness Y testifies about Imad Mughniyah's personal involvement in training the September 11 hijackers and the shelter granted by Iran to al-Qaeda's men after the attacks. Witness Z says he was present in meetings in Tehran involving senior al-Qaeda men, local intelligence officials and Mughniyah's men in the months before the 9/11 attacks.
2011-09-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive