Defector links Iran to 9-11
Surprise witness claims attack 'joint venture' between Tehran, al-Qaida
Posted: January 23, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A surprise witness in the trial of a man charged as an accomplice of the Sept.
11 hijackers stunned a German court by claiming the terrorist plot was a "joint
venture" between al-Qaida and the Iranian government.
Hamid Reza Zakeri, who claims to have been a longtime member of the Iranian
intelligence service, also implicated the defendant, a 31-year-old former
Moroccan student named Abdelghani Mzoud, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing
sources familiar with the testimony.
"If the story was true, the consequences would be remarkable," a senior
intelligence official told the Tribune.
The official noted the account, presented to a Hamburg court Wednesday, comes
more than two years after Sept. 11, 2001, and "looks a little bit constructed."
However, Kenneth Timmerman, a senior writer for Insight magazine who
interviewed Zakeri several times last summer, said the man "told a very
credible story."
Iran's Shiite Muslim government denies it has aided al-Qaida, which follows the
Sunni branch of Islam. Iran was one of the three nations designated by
President Bush as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and North Korea.
Timmerman wrote in a July article Zakeri claimed he worked for the Iranians'
"supreme leader," Ayatollah Ali Khameini.
Zakeri said he attended two meetings between senior Iranian and al-Qaida
officials in the months prior to Sept. 11, 2001.
A document purportedly signed by the Iranian intelligence chief, Hojjatoleslam
Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, in May 2001 ordered a strike at this country's "economic
structure, their reputation and their internal peace and security," according
to Timmerman, who said Zakeri gave him a copy.
German federal police were expected to testify yesterday why they believe
Zakeri's testimony is credible.
German prosecutor Kay Nehm introduced Zakeri's testimony in a last-minute move
to get a conviction in what is likely the last trial in Germany of a suspected
9-11 accomplice.
Last year, another Moroccan student, Mounir al-Motassadeq, was sentenced to a
maximum of 15 years in prison for aiding the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Like Motassadeq, Mzoudi admitted knowing some of the hijackers but denied he
knew anything about the plot. Zakeri, according to the German magazine Der
Spiegel, claimed Mzoudi acted as the hijackers' liaison with their al-Qaida
support network.
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