AP: Intelligence Sees Terrorists in Iran

Mounting evidence gathered over several years has U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies increasingly convinced that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran. Their existence in the Islamic republic poses an ongoing problem to top Bush administration officials, who have warned Middle Eastern countries against providing shelter or other aid to terrorists.
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U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies also have evidence stretching back to the late 1990s that indicates Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil remains in hiding in Iran. He is wanted as one of the masterminds of the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans.

Where is this evidence then? Where’s the basis of this story other than the leakings from unnamed sources? And how about this:

U.S. intelligence this week has been checking some reports, still uncorroborated as of Friday, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader of the Iraqi insurgency, may have dipped into Iran, officials said.

Uncorroborated as of Friday but still worth telling the press about. Who repeated it unquestioningly. But connections are forming. Iraq. Al-Qaida. Iran. Al-Qaida. Any day now, expect Bush to make an announcement from the Denis Leary playbook:

I think we should take Iraq and Iran and combine them into one country and call it Irate.

When are these stupid bastards going to learn? Isn’t this where we came in, for Christs sake? Isn’t journalists taking intelligence handed down from on high, at face value and without question what got us into trouble the last time?

I’m not questioning whether Iran is and has been a sponsor of terrorism. It’s got the track record in the past. But Jesus, haven’t journalists learned anything in the last three years? Hello? Do the words Weapons of Mass Destruction ring a bell? Does nobody remember a certain Prime Minister and his assurances:

The intelligence picture they paint is one accumulated over the past four years. It is extensive, detailed and authoritative.

Or what about stories of premature Kuwaiti babies being murdered by invading Iraqi soldiers?

In the week when Watergate has been in the news again, the journalists who have swallowed this hook, line and sinker without a “but…” or a “wait a minute…” ought to be fucking ashamed of themselves.