Heads In The Sand
Andrew McCarthy over at The Corner points us to this story by Ken Timmerman. This is about as infuriating as it gets. The 9/11 Commission, the former head of the FBI (Louis Freeh), and numerous investigators have all concluded, quite reasonably, that Iran was heavily involved in...no, let me rephrase that...WAS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR the Khobar Towers plot in 1996. (Probably with the assistance of al Qaeda operatives, by the way.) And yet, a magistrate judge in D.C. - with an assist from the State Department - has decided that the families of Iran's victims don't deserve justice.
Timmerman reports, "...State Department attorneys who submitted an amicus curiae brief to the court that supported the position of the Iranian Government, told a reporter they had only done so 'because the Court explicitly asked us to intervene.'"
Why is the State Department writing briefs in support of the Iranian Government?
Just as curious, according to Timmerman, Judge Deborah A. Robinson "asserted that the plaintiffs 'offered no evidence regarding the action of any official, employee or agent' or the Iranian regime, its intelligence ministry (MOIS), or the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, IRGC." [Emphasis Added]
No evidence? Really? I find that hard to believe. All the Plaintiffs, or the judge, or anyone who is even mildly curious about these matters has to do is consult a readily available and widely read book: Ken Pollack's The Persian Puzzle.
As readers of my work know, I disagree with some (a lot) of Pollack's analysis. Notably, he argues that Iran got out of the state-sponsored terrorism game after Khobar Towers. That, I argue, is ridiculous for a number of reasons. Be that as it may, we are in agreement that Iran was behind the Khobar Towers bombing. He discusses the attack throughout The Persian Puzzle and is quite clear that it was an Iranian operation. (See, for example, pages 139-140, 281-286, 289, 292, 298-302, 324-325, 344, 376, and 379.)
Here are several excerpts from Mr. Pollack - who served on President Clinton's NSC from 1995 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2001 as the director of Gulf affairs and prior to that served as a CIA analyst for seven years - on Iran's responsibility for the Khobar Towers bombing:
Matched against the twenty-five years of benefit we derived from our alliance with the shah, we now have suffered through twenty-years of harm produced by that very same friendship. And the harm has had real consequences, as the families of the 240 Marines killed in Beirut in 1983 and the 19 soldiers killed in Khobar Towers attack in 1996 would all attest. ...
On June 25, 1996, just days after the GCC ministerial statement condemning Iranian interference in Bahrain, an enormous truck bomb obliterated half of a building at the Khobar Towers housing complex in eastern Saudi Arabia... A previously unknown group called Saudi Hizballah...was quickly proven to be behind the operation. Eventually the Saudi and American governments were able to establish that this group had been created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard; many of its personnel had been trained in IRGC camps in Iran and the Bekaa Valley, and in 1994 the Pasdaran's al-Quds Forces had directed them to begin planning attacks on Americans in the country...
Pollack goes on to argue that the group held off on attacking American assets until after Newt Gingrich proposed adding $18 million to the "CIA's covert action program to try to overthrow the government of Iran." So, Pollack reasons, Newt's aggression made Iran counterattack. Only after Newt's supposed prognostication was Saudi Hizballah "directed to attack the Khobar Towers complex, which they had first begun to reconnoiter in June 1995. The IRGC then provided them with additional funding, advice, and other forms of support - such as furnishing the explosives and an expert in bomb design from Lebanses Hizballah." [Emphasis Added]
Pollack further explains:
Khobar Towers was Iran's first blow against the United States itself (rather than one of our Middle Eastern allies) since Hizballah and Islamic Jihad had released the last hostages in Lebanon in 1991. Within weeks, the U.S. government had a strong case that Iran was likely behind the attacks, but, as is so often the case, did not have the kind of evidence that would stand up in a court of law. (That evidence was not released to the United States until 1999.)... [Emphasis Added]
He goes on from there. In sum, Pollack's testimony directly contradicts what Judge Robinson argued in dismissing the case against Iran. Iran was behind the attack and the U.S. has had strong enough evidence to convict them of it in a court of law since 1999!
Thus, Judge Robinson and the State Department erred tremendously.
There is much more to this story, but now I am inspired to write a piece about it.
Timmerman reports, "...State Department attorneys who submitted an amicus curiae brief to the court that supported the position of the Iranian Government, told a reporter they had only done so 'because the Court explicitly asked us to intervene.'"
Why is the State Department writing briefs in support of the Iranian Government?
Just as curious, according to Timmerman, Judge Deborah A. Robinson "asserted that the plaintiffs 'offered no evidence regarding the action of any official, employee or agent' or the Iranian regime, its intelligence ministry (MOIS), or the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, IRGC." [Emphasis Added]
No evidence? Really? I find that hard to believe. All the Plaintiffs, or the judge, or anyone who is even mildly curious about these matters has to do is consult a readily available and widely read book: Ken Pollack's The Persian Puzzle.
As readers of my work know, I disagree with some (a lot) of Pollack's analysis. Notably, he argues that Iran got out of the state-sponsored terrorism game after Khobar Towers. That, I argue, is ridiculous for a number of reasons. Be that as it may, we are in agreement that Iran was behind the Khobar Towers bombing. He discusses the attack throughout The Persian Puzzle and is quite clear that it was an Iranian operation. (See, for example, pages 139-140, 281-286, 289, 292, 298-302, 324-325, 344, 376, and 379.)
Here are several excerpts from Mr. Pollack - who served on President Clinton's NSC from 1995 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2001 as the director of Gulf affairs and prior to that served as a CIA analyst for seven years - on Iran's responsibility for the Khobar Towers bombing:
Matched against the twenty-five years of benefit we derived from our alliance with the shah, we now have suffered through twenty-years of harm produced by that very same friendship. And the harm has had real consequences, as the families of the 240 Marines killed in Beirut in 1983 and the 19 soldiers killed in Khobar Towers attack in 1996 would all attest. ...
On June 25, 1996, just days after the GCC ministerial statement condemning Iranian interference in Bahrain, an enormous truck bomb obliterated half of a building at the Khobar Towers housing complex in eastern Saudi Arabia... A previously unknown group called Saudi Hizballah...was quickly proven to be behind the operation. Eventually the Saudi and American governments were able to establish that this group had been created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard; many of its personnel had been trained in IRGC camps in Iran and the Bekaa Valley, and in 1994 the Pasdaran's al-Quds Forces had directed them to begin planning attacks on Americans in the country...
Pollack goes on to argue that the group held off on attacking American assets until after Newt Gingrich proposed adding $18 million to the "CIA's covert action program to try to overthrow the government of Iran." So, Pollack reasons, Newt's aggression made Iran counterattack. Only after Newt's supposed prognostication was Saudi Hizballah "directed to attack the Khobar Towers complex, which they had first begun to reconnoiter in June 1995. The IRGC then provided them with additional funding, advice, and other forms of support - such as furnishing the explosives and an expert in bomb design from Lebanses Hizballah." [Emphasis Added]
Pollack further explains:
Khobar Towers was Iran's first blow against the United States itself (rather than one of our Middle Eastern allies) since Hizballah and Islamic Jihad had released the last hostages in Lebanon in 1991. Within weeks, the U.S. government had a strong case that Iran was likely behind the attacks, but, as is so often the case, did not have the kind of evidence that would stand up in a court of law. (That evidence was not released to the United States until 1999.)... [Emphasis Added]
He goes on from there. In sum, Pollack's testimony directly contradicts what Judge Robinson argued in dismissing the case against Iran. Iran was behind the attack and the U.S. has had strong enough evidence to convict them of it in a court of law since 1999!
Thus, Judge Robinson and the State Department erred tremendously.
There is much more to this story, but now I am inspired to write a piece about it.
posted by Thomas Joscelyn at 6:38 PM
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