Two investigative reporters – Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark – have written a book called “The Exile” about how members of terrorist organisation al-Qaeda were hiding in Iran for a decade between 2001 and 2011. They also detailed the links between al-Qaeda and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
They gave details about cleric Mahfouz Ibn al-Waleed fleeing to Iran from Afghanistan after the 11th September attacks in an effort to “lie low”. He was the chair of al-Qaeda’s Shariah committee for several years before the attack in 2001.
The book describes how al-Waleed knew a lot about the political issues in Tehran so dealt with the IRGC instead of the government.
The Guardian published a book review and stated: “With the promise of immunity from al-Qaeda attacks, Iran indicated it was receptive and by March 2002 there was a steady flow of senior al-Qaeda figures and Bin Laden relatives moving into Iran.”
It added: “When pro-government personnel in the ministry of intelligence and security tracked phone calls from the al-Qaeda leaders in Iran to their affiliates left behind in Pakistan and Afghanistan, they started making arrests. The Iranian government even went as far as sending some al-Qaeda members back to their countries of origin. Outmanoeuvred by these decisions, the Revolutionary Guard was left imploring the al-Qaeda leaders not to use their phones.”
The tension between different factions of the Iranian regime meant that no one knew who they could trust.
Some analysts believe that Iran played a role in the 9/11 attacks and say Iran allowed the al-Qaeda terrorists take refuge in the country to get away from the US military operations happening in Afghanistan as a result. It has also been claimed that Iran was used by al-Qaeda as an alternative base after US attacks on Afghan safe havens at the end of 2011.
The IRGC controls a large portion of the Iranian economy and it is almost impossible for any nation to carry out business dealings with Iran without contributing to one of the IRGCs side companies. This means that trade with Iran is equal to trade with terrorists.
The IRGC not only spreads terrorism across the Middle East and funds and trains militias to act on its behalf on other countries, but it also is in charge of the suppression of the people. They have carried out numerous crackdowns and often throw people in jail, arrest them or torture them for the most minor of “infractions”.