Iran and al Qaeda again

Josh Meyer:

U.S. intelligence officials, already focused on Iran's potential for building nuclear weapons, are struggling to solve a more immediate mystery: the murky relationship between the new Tehran leadership and the contingent of al-Qaida terror network leaders residing in the country.

Some officials, citing evidence from highly classified satellite feeds and electronic eavesdropping, believe that the Iranian regime is hosting much of al-Qaida's remaining brain trust and allowing the senior operatives freedom to communicate and help plan the terrorist network's operations.

And they suggest that new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be forging an alliance with al-Qaida operatives as a way to expand Iran's influence or, at minimum, that he is looking the other way as al-Qaida leaders in Iran collaborate with their counterparts elsewhere.

"Iran is becoming more and more radicalized and more willing to turn a blind eye to the al-Qaida presence there," said one U.S. counterterrorism official.

The accusations from U.S. officials about Iranian nuclear ambitions and ties to al-Qaida echo charges that administration figures made about Iraq in the run-up to the U.S. invasion three years ago.

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