Gold9472
10-08-2008, 05:39 PM
Iran helped US on al-Qaeda after 9/11
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=71651§ionid=351020101
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:29:52 GMT
A former Bush administration official has revealed that Iran helped the US against al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
Hillary Mann Leverett, a former US official, said Tuesday that Tehran provided the White House - through the UN secretary-general - with the copies of nearly 300 passports belonging to suspect terrorists who had entered Iran from Afghanistan.
"They thought they had been helpful on al-Qaeda, and they were," Leverett told the Associated Press, adding that Tehran sought broader relations with Washington in the aftermath of the 9/11.
Tehran says it is open to relations with Washington if ties do not undermine its national interests. The Bush administration, meanwhile, says any negotiations with Iran would require the country to suspend its nuclear program.
President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address in January 2002, branded Iran as an active member of the 'axis of evil', claiming that Tehran sponsors terrorism.
While there is no evidence that would support Bush's allegation, the latest revelation by Leverett is likely to mount international concern about Bush's quest in the 'war on terror'.
Leverett confirmed that suspected al-Qaeda operatives were not given refuge in Iran.
"(Iran's role) isn't something that is talked about," Leverett said in a forum at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan policy institute.
Another senior Bush official, James F. Dobbins, has also acknowledged that Iran was 'comprehensively helpful' in working to overthrow the Taliban.
Dobbins, who was the chief negotiator for the White House on Afghanistan in late 2001, said in a separate interview with AP that Iran made clear at the time that it would welcome broader cooperation with the US, but the Bush administration was not interested.
Leverett and her husband, Flynt Leverett, advised the next US administration to seek a 'grand bargain' with Iran to settle all major differences.
"The next president needs to reorient US policy toward Iran as fundamentally as President Nixon did with China in the 1970s," said Flynt Leverett, who was a former career CIA analyst and a former National Security Council official.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=71651§ionid=351020101
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:29:52 GMT
A former Bush administration official has revealed that Iran helped the US against al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
Hillary Mann Leverett, a former US official, said Tuesday that Tehran provided the White House - through the UN secretary-general - with the copies of nearly 300 passports belonging to suspect terrorists who had entered Iran from Afghanistan.
"They thought they had been helpful on al-Qaeda, and they were," Leverett told the Associated Press, adding that Tehran sought broader relations with Washington in the aftermath of the 9/11.
Tehran says it is open to relations with Washington if ties do not undermine its national interests. The Bush administration, meanwhile, says any negotiations with Iran would require the country to suspend its nuclear program.
President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address in January 2002, branded Iran as an active member of the 'axis of evil', claiming that Tehran sponsors terrorism.
While there is no evidence that would support Bush's allegation, the latest revelation by Leverett is likely to mount international concern about Bush's quest in the 'war on terror'.
Leverett confirmed that suspected al-Qaeda operatives were not given refuge in Iran.
"(Iran's role) isn't something that is talked about," Leverett said in a forum at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan policy institute.
Another senior Bush official, James F. Dobbins, has also acknowledged that Iran was 'comprehensively helpful' in working to overthrow the Taliban.
Dobbins, who was the chief negotiator for the White House on Afghanistan in late 2001, said in a separate interview with AP that Iran made clear at the time that it would welcome broader cooperation with the US, but the Bush administration was not interested.
Leverett and her husband, Flynt Leverett, advised the next US administration to seek a 'grand bargain' with Iran to settle all major differences.
"The next president needs to reorient US policy toward Iran as fundamentally as President Nixon did with China in the 1970s," said Flynt Leverett, who was a former career CIA analyst and a former National Security Council official.