A former Iranian intelligence officer named Abdolghassem Mesbahi, who helped expose Iranian complicity in a 1994 bombing in Argentina, defected in 1996 with direct knowledge of a plan drawn up by the regime to have proxies collide hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and other targets. It had been originally created to avenge the shooting down of an Iranian Airbus in 1988. He learned that the regime bought a flight simulator for Boeing 757s, 767s and 777s about 18 months before 9/11 for a military base in Tehran, even though Iran possesses no such aircraft. A source of his in Tehran called him shortly before 9/11 to tell him, “Satan on fire,” to indicate that the plan was given the go-ahead.
A second defector named Hamid Reza Zakeri also testifies to Iranian involvement. He says he was a security coordinator for a secret intelligence agency under the control of Supreme Leader Khamenei. Part of his duties was to ensure the security of high-level meetings, including a four-day visit from Ayman al-Zawahiri and 29 other members of Al-Qaeda in January 2001. Top Iranian officials and Imad Mughniyah took part, he claims. Another Revolutionary Guards defector also told Timmerman of this meeting.
On May 4, another meeting was held that included Saad Bin Laden and Khamenei. Zakeri says he was Saad’s driver. Zakeri substantiated his story by showing a top-secret document with the seal of the Supreme Leader’s Intelligence Organization written on May 14. The document referred to the “future plan of al-Qaeda” and discussed an attack on the U.S. It said that “we should be very careful, and very clever, in order not to leave any evidence behind that can impact negatively on us in the future.” It concluded with, “The Leader suggested that we limit our relations with al-Qaeda to only two people, as before (Imad Mugniyeh and Ayman Zawahiri) and not go beyond them and deal only with them.”
Zakeri also has a June 3 memo from his boss that says, “If there is going to be an attack on the American government, we have to ensure we can defend against U.S. retaliation.” The document said the attack was set for September 1. Zakeri says that around this time he visited the “target wall” in the Ministry of Intelligence and Security headquarters where photos of dissidents were posted before they were killed. He saw a nearly five foot high display of the World Trade Center, a model of the White House, a seven foot model of the Pentagon and photos of Camp David and CIA headquarters. A missile aimed at the Pentagon was hanging above with “Death to America” written on it in Arabic.
On July 26, Zakeri walked into the U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan to warn the U.S. of an attack on September 11. According to the story in Timmerman’s book, Zakeri was brushed off by the CIA. Timmerman says Zakeri provided immense details that always checked out and “No matter whether I began at the beginning or asked him to clarify an obscure detail he had mentioned, his story never varied in the many times he told it.” He also saw his diplomatic passport and the original files Zakeri brought with him when he defected.
If Iran was involved in the September 11 attacks, then our worst fears about the intentions of the Iranian regime are true.
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