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Rumsfeld charges alqaeda iran link { May 20 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2780612http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2780612
Rumsfeld Renews U.S. Charges of Iran-Al Qaeda Link
Tue May 20, 2003 05:30 PM ET
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, brushing off Iranian denials, on Tuesday renewed U.S. allegations that al Qaeda figures were operating inside Iran and pointedly warned against giving safe haven to members of "terrorist" groups.
"Countries that are harboring those terrorist networks and providing a haven for them are behaving as terrorists by so doing," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing.
In the days after last week's bombings in Saudi Arabia, Rumsfeld and White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of allowing members of al Qaeda to operate from its territory. Iran denied the allegations.
"There's no question but that there are al Qaeda in Iran. There's also a good deal of speculation about their role in what took place in Saudi Arabia," Rumsfeld said on Tuesday.
Asked this alleged role, Rumsfeld said: "I know. ... (But) I'm not going to get into it. That's for others to do."
Rumsfeld did not state the nature of the evidence that led him to believe al Qaeda operatives were located inside Iran, nor did he name the al Qaeda members he believed were in Iran.
Rumsfeld did say, "I have no information that people who engaged physically in terrorist acts in Saudi Arabia have since fled to Iran."
Saudi authorities have arrested several suspects they said were linked to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in the aftermath of the coordinated bombings in Riyadh that killed at least 34 people, including eight Americans. The United States has accused al Qaeda of carrying out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said al Qaeda figures in Iran include Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian indicted for conspiracy in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in east Africa. One official also said bin Laden's son Saad, while not considered a top al Qaeda leader, may be in Iran.
The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 1979 when radical Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 hostages for 444 days.
The two countries have held recent talks in Geneva, although Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said "serious and huge" differences remain.
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