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Senior U.S. officials have told TIME that the 9/11 Commission's report will cite evidence suggesting that the 9/11 hijackers had previously passed through Iran  Next week's much anticipated final report by a bipartisan commission on the origins of the 9/11 attacks will contain new evidence of contacts between al-Qaeda and Iran—just weeks after the Administration has come under fire for overstating its claims of contacts between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. A senior U.S. official told TIME that the Commission has uncovered evidence suggesting that between eight and ten of the 14 "muscle" hijackers—that is, those involved in gaining control...

DUBAI, July 15 (AFP) - Hundreds of alleged members of Al-Qaeda, including 18 of its top leaders, and other terror groups are living in Iran, some under tight security, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Thursday. "More than 384 members of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations are present in Iran, including 18 senior leaders of Osama bin Laden`s network," the London-based daily said, citing a senior source in the Iranian presidency. The Saudi-owned newspaper said the terrorist leaders were living under tight protection, some of them in villas in the Namak Abrud region, near the town of Chalous on the Caspian coast,...

Iran in contact with al-Qaeda, says Black ISLAMABAD: US State Department’s ambassador-at-large J Cofer Black has claimed that the Iranian government is in contact with al-Qaeda and that it must expel or extradite all members of the network to the countries of their origin. In an exclusive interview with Geo TV, Black said that our intelligence agencies are aware of the presence of some senior al-Qaeda leaders in Iran who are dangerous. He said that "these al-Qaeda operators are not only a threat to the US but they are also a threat to Pakistan". Black appreciated the role of Pakistan...

Tehran, Dec 28 (ANI): al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were spotted in Iran's Najamabad city two months ago, The News reported on Sunday while quoting a British daily. The daily attributed the story to a source having links with the Revolutionary Guards. The report said: "A man with links to Iran's intelligence services and hard-line Revolutionary Guard Corps (RGC) has told the daily that he saw the al-Qaeda leader in Iran two months ago. He saw him arrive at an RGC guesthouse close to the small town of Najmabad on 23 October." The Al-Qaeda leader,...

US seeks bin Laden here, there and everywhere By Mark Huband and Mohsen Asgari Published: December 26 2003 18:43 | Last Updated: December 26 2003 18:43 Much of the story behind Saddam Hussein's eight months on the run has yet to be made public. But US military and intelligence officials say the Iraqi dictator never wandered far from the banks of the Tigris. Remaining within the Sunni heartland, he scrambled from one farmhouse to the next, sometimes by car or van, sometimes by boat. By contrast, Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist group, appears to have become far...

TEHRAN, Dec 24, (AFP) - Iran has increased security around certain foreign embassies in its capital Tehran, notably those of Switzerland, Britain and Turkey, after receiving threats in the name of the Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda, a Tehran region security official told AFP on Wednesday. "After the blasts in Turkey, we intensified the protective measures around some of the western embassies," said Ali Tala, in charge of security at the Tehran region governor-general's office. A staff member at the Swiss embassy -- which represents US interests in the absence of diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran -- confirmed...

Terror leader Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida "consorts" are in Iran, a respected Islamic leader told WorldNetDaily. According to the source, who requested anonymity, a group of Arabs recently spent time in the desert area shared by Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, claiming the most wanted man in the world is "definitely in Iran." WND has reason to believe the information is credible due to the caliber of the sources. The report comes just as the U.S. government raised the national threat warning from yellow, the midpoint on its five-color scale, to orange due to indicators of potential terror attacks...

A Turkish man has admitted he received $50,000 from an Iranian source and sent it to Turkey to finance last month's suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul, a newspaper said on Saturday. Adnan Ersoz, charged with attempting to change "the constitutional order by force of arms" on Friday, had confirmed that an international terrorist organization had given training and cash to members of a Turkish Islamist group, police said in a statement on Friday. Police did not name the international organization. But a report in Hurriyet newspaper said he told interrogators he had breakfast with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden...

The United States renewed calls for Iran to turn over al-Qaeda operatives on its territory but denied suggestions it might exchange Iraqi-based Iranian opposition figures to Tehran in return for members of Osama bin Laden's terror network. "We believe Iran should turn over all suspected al-Qaeda operatives to the United States or to countries of origin or third countries for further interrogation and trial," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "It's essential that other countries have direct access to information these people may have about past and future al-Qaeda plans," he told reporters. "We acknowledge that Iran has in the...

Jordan's King Abdullah is quietly trying to broker a deal that would lead Tehran to surrender about 70 al Qaeda operatives, including the son of Osama bin Laden, in exchange for U.S. action on the largest Iranian opposition group now based in Iraq, according to U.S. and Middle East officials. Abdullah, who is hoping to revive dialogue between the United States and Iran, discussed prospects with the Bush administration during a private visit to Washington on Thursday and Friday. He visited Tehran earlier this fall, the first visit by a Jordanian leader in a quarter-century, the officials said. Jordanian Foreign...

<p>Two key suspects in last month's suicide bombings in Istanbul met with and took instructions from Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, newspapers reported Tuesday, a day after the government made its strongest statement linking the attackers to al-Qaida.</p> <p>Main suspects Habib Aktas and Azad Ekinci met with bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, several times, Hurriyet newspaper reported, quoting the testimony from another suspect. The two Turks are suspected of planning the Nov. 15 suicide bombings of two synagogues and of the British Consulate and a British bank five days later.</p>

Holding the line in Afghanistan Christian Science Monitor By Mansoor Ijaz and Malalai Wassil November 25, 2003 edition /NEW YORK – With Iraq's reconstruction mired in Al Qaeda's well-planned guerrilla warfare, and Taliban remnants resurgent throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, there seems scant room in US policyplanning these days to focus on long-term strategies aimed at stabilizing countries ravaged by radicalism. But by not doing so, US policymakers are showing signs of forgetting the reasons Osama bin Laden's legions were willing to strike out and die for their cause. While the terrorist challenge will not easily fade, as multiple, indiscriminate terrorist...

Iran Rejects U.S. Demand to Extradite al-Qaida Operatives The Associated Press/ The Jerusalem Post October 28, 2003/TEHRAN -- Iran rejected a U.S. demand to hand over senior al-Qaida operatives in its custody, Tuesday, saying the terror suspects would stand trial in Iranian courts, state-run radio reported. A day earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted that senior al-Qaida operatives held by Iran should be turned over to their countries of origin or to the United States for interrogation and trial. "Al-Qaida operatives currently in (our) custody have committed crimes in Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted...

Iran gives names of al-Qaeda captives to UN Financial Times By Mark Huband, Security Correspondent, in London Published: October 25 2003 5:00 | Iran has for the first time revealed the names and number of alleged members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network that it is holding, after giving a list of 240 names to the United Nations Security Council, a senior Iranian official revealed yesterday. The list was given to the Security Council's al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee on Wednesday, a UN spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. Iran has been accused by US officials of harbouring al-Qaeda members and allowing them to...

Al Qaeda's New Base The Weekly Standard ^ | 11/03/03 | Jeffrey Bell Osama bin Laden's men are operating in Eastern Iran. What are we doing about it? AT A TIME when even nuances of Iraq reconstruction policy become flashpoints for bureaucratic infighting, causing competing leaks to spring from almost every precinct of the administration's foreign policy apparatus, the most consequential policy struggle of all is playing out in virtual silence. That is the debate over what to do about the fact that, for the first time since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, major elements of...

Iran: We've Deported al-Qaida Suspects CHRIS BRUMMITT Associated Press PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia - Iran has deported many al-Qaida suspects but will not extradite any to the United States despite requests to do so, President Mohammad Khatami said Friday at a summit of Islamic nations. The Bush administration has urged Iran to hand over several alleged senior members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. American officials believe Tehran has the suspects in custody after they fled to Iran from neighboring Afghanistan when a U.S.-led coalition ousted the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001. President Khatami did not say how many al-Qaida...

Iranian Force Has Long Ties to Al Qaeda; Terrorism Support Group Operates Independently of Iran's Elected Leaders By Dana Priest and Douglas Farah Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, October 14, 2003; Page A17 The elite Iranian force believed to be protecting Saad bin Laden and two dozen al Qaeda leaders is one of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' five branches, and has been given the mission of "exporting the Islamic revolution" by training, arming and collaborating with foreign terrorist groups -- even those who do not share Iran's fundamentalist Shiite brand of Islam. The Jerusalem Force, also known as the...

NEWSWEEK: Roughly 300 Qaeda-Linked Kurdish Militants Are Holed Up in Iranian Border Towns; Training New Recruits for Raids Into Iraq Press Release NEW YORK, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. and Kurdish security officials tell Newsweek that roughly 300 militants of al Qaeda-linked Kurdish group, Ansar Al-Islam, are holed up in small Iranian towns along the border with Iraq. The group seems to be recruiting new members in Baramawa, a Kurdish refugee camp inside Iran, reports Special Correspondent Babak Dehghanpisheh in the October 13 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, October 6). (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20031005/NYSU003 ) For 18 months Ansar had waged...

Iran rejects US extradition plea over al-Qaeda By Guy Dinmore at the UN Financial Times Published: September 25 2003 1:29 | Last Updated: September 25 2003 1:29 Iran announced on Wednesday that it would soon put on trial suspected al-Qaeda activists, rejecting US demands that they be extradited to their home countries. Kamal Kharrazi, the Iranian foreign minister, told a conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York that the suspects in detention had been accused of committing crimes inside Iran "so they have to be tried in our country". Iran has previously extradited suspected al-Qaeda...

Memo shows Iraq, Iran tried to contact bin Laden September 12, 2003 The Washington Times Eli J. Lake The Taliban claimed in a 1997 meeting with U.S. officials that it had blocked attempts by both Iraq and Iran to contact Osama bin Laden, according to a previously confidential State Department memo made public yesterday. The memo says that the assistant secretary of state, Karl Inderfurth, was told on Dec. 7, 1997, by the Taliban's acting minister of mines and industry, Armad Jan, that his government "had stopped allowing [bin Laden] to give public interviews and had frustrated Iranian and Iraqi...