Thomas Joscelyn has just published an essay titled “Iran’s Proxy War Against America” (pdf). The paper relies on open-source information and arrives at a number of interesting conclusions, including this one:
In fact, contrary to widespread opinion, Iran has been a vital ally for bin Laden’s international terrorist organization. The evidence is overwhelming.
Joscelyn traces this operational relationship back to 1998, when al Qaeda attacked the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya:
While there remains some uncertainty concerning the attack on Khobar Towers, Iran’s and Hezbollah’s involvement in al-Qaeda’s most successful attack prior to 9/11 is clear. According to al-Qaeda’s own terrorists, Hezbollah trained the al-Qaeda operatives responsible for the August 7, 1998, U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. There is even evidence that Iran provided al-Qaeda with a large amount of explosives used in the attack. Today, Iran continues to harbor some of the terrorists responsible.
And on the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Joscelyn points to evidence of Iran’s complicity in al Qaeda’s attacks on the World Trade Center:
The most disturbing evidence tying Iran to al-Qaeda are reports that suggest possible cooperation on the September 11 attacks. Longtime CIA field operative Bob Baer, who had tracked Mugniyah for more than a decade, immediately suspected that Iran’s master terrorist had played a role. Two years after Baer first published his suspicions, the 9/11 Commission uncovered evidence of Mugniyah’s and Iran’s complicity. Shortly before the Commission’s final report was to be published, the Commission’s staff unearthed a cache of documents demonstrating that Hezbollah and Iran had facilitated the hijackers’ travels. The Commission left the matter open for further investigation, but more than three years later no such inquiry has been launched.
Go read the whole thing.
