Salt to taste. EFL:
Iran consistently denies ever having sheltered or hidden Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant and operations ace, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, in the group of al Qaeda leaders present in the country. This assertion is wide of the truth. The Islamic Republic did in fact hide the bespectacled Egyptian medical doctor for close on a year. He was granted sanctuary, a base of operation and finally provided with a safe getaway route – as discovered by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s most reliable exclusive sources.
| If it's their most reliable exclusive sources, I guess we should believe without reservation... |
The Iranians looked after him very well. Last month, as the hunt drew near, they helped Zawahiri stay a step ahead of his pursuers and leave the country by a secret tortuous route.
| Why not just give him a shave and a haircut, drive him up to the Caspian and put him on a boat? Who's going to see? Who's going to be paying real attention? |
DEBKA-Net-Weekly learns that Iranian intelligence agents were personally ordered by Iranian intelligence minister Hojatoleslam Ali Younesi to spirit the wanted terrorist chief, disguised as an Iranian Shiite cleric out of his hiding place and across into Turkey.
| "Here, Ayman! Put this here turban and ayatollah suit on! No one will ever guess! You'll look just like any other traveling holy man..." |
Travelers from Iran are not required to show passports at the Turkish frontier.
| On the other hand, if the Turks happen to be waiting for you, they'll club you into submission on the spot and whisk you away to a dark, damp cell for a long chat with people with magnificent moustachios and truncheons. Better to put on a baseball cap, hire an available chick for the weekend, and drive to Neka... |
An Iranian spy cell buried in Turkey waited for him and conducted him to one of their own safe houses. There he stayed for two or three days before moving on to an unknown destination.
And that is?
Zawahiri is as intent on keeping al Qaeda’s terror campaign alive as of keeping his head down.
| So he goes running around wearing a turban and accompanied by Iranian intel guys with dark glasses and secret decoder rings? |
Our al Qaeda watchers therefore point to his two most likely destinations: The Ferghana Valley, a lawless territory ruled by Al Qaeda that straddles Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and China; or the wild Pankisi Gorge badland on the Chechen-Georgian border. Iranian intelligence would be able to prepare the absconding terrorist mastermind’s welcome in the latter place through its active channels of communication with Chechen rebels and Saudi Al Qaeda fighters focusing on Chechnya and its environs.
| I have my doubts there's a deep involvement by Iran in the Pankisi Gorge... |
At the Pankisi Gorge, Zawahiri would have moved on to his next stop helped by many helping hands in his own movement.
We’ve heard rumors he’s in Iraq.
| I think you're thinking of Zarqawi... |
Some made their escape there in late May, when Tehran plotted the flight of some of the al Qaeda perpetrators of the massive bombings in foreigners’ compounds in Riyadh on May 19. Flouting insistent Saudi and American demands to hand the wanted men over, Iranian intelligence gave them transportation and money to smooth their way as far as the Pankisi Gorge.
Oh, Vlad!
| If that's the way the Iranians really, truly do business, we can start the festivities any time. They don't know their business. Moving a dignitary by disguising him as another dignatary, even one of lesser stature, doesn't make sense. If you were going to move President Bush, for example, you wouldn't disguise him as Pete Rose or even as Monsignor Flaherty. You'd put him in a sweatshirt and a pair of sneaks, maybe hang a cigarette in his mouth, and hand him a Slurpee. The point is, you don't draw attention to yourself, unless you have more ego than brains, in which case you should avoid the intel business and stick with selling rare used Korans... |
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