REGION: America has itself to blame for 9/11: Iran

[acmavm]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2004_pg4_11

Saturday, July 24, 2004

<snip>

* Rafsanjani accuses US of nurturing Al Qaeda and Taliban

TEHRAN: One of Iran’s most powerful clerics made a stinging rebuttal on Friday of allegations from the United States that the Islamic republic may have been linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In his weekly Friday sermon, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani also accused the United States of ignoring Iranian warnings of a growing Al Qaeda and Taliban threat before the strikes on New York and Washington.

<snip>

“The big question we have to ask America is, assuming they (the hijackers) passed through Iran, who put them in Afghanistan and who supported them in the first place,” he said. “This is no big secret. Al Qaeda and the Taliban were created and nurtured by America in order to weaken the Islamic Republic of Iran.” During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s, Osama bin Laden’s network of foreign fighters was one of the beneficiaries of CIA and Saudi funds channelled through Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence.

The ISI went on to be one of the key backers of the Taliban, which were also recognised by Saudi Arabia and courted by US firms. Rafsanjani said that during Iranian contacts with US officials, “we said openly that what you created would turn on you and cause trouble for you.”
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[Deja Q]

1. Didn't the US help the Taliban and Mujahedeen to ward off the kommies?

In the mid-80s? During idiot REAGAN's term? (the same Reagan who dismantled alternative energy programs, saying they were 'obsolete'!)

Those evil kommies... :eyes: They were a gaggle of Strawberry Shortcake characters compared to the Taliban... x(