MAKING AN ASSAD OF HIMSELF? (via ef brown)

Iran Again (David Warren, May 28, 2003)

It is now emerging from intelligence sources that the reason the U.S. was able to give Saudi Arabia the heads-up it ignored on the terror bombings in Riyadh, is because the CIA had been intercepting communications between Al Qaeda operatives in Arabia and Iran. The hits themselves helped to clarify co-ordinates; and there is thus little doubt remaining in American minds that Iran is sheltering senior Al Qaeda leaders. The ayatollahs are most likely trying to integrate surviving Al Qaeda resources with those of Hizbullah, their own main horse in terror international.

I read some hint of that into the strange remarks made by the Syrian President (Syria is Iran's closest ally), to the effect that Al Qaeda no longer exists. He spoke rhetorically, as if Al Qaeda had been a figment of George Bush's paranoid imagination all along; but Bashir Assad, who is not very intelligent, has a track record for unconsciously spilling beans.

The whole thing is interesting, but that point about Assad's odd comments especially so. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2003 3:11 PM