Home>News Center>World
         
 

US exploring possible Iran-9/11 link
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-20 08:37

U.S. President Bush said Monday the United States is exploring whether Iran had any role in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a scenario discounted by the CIA.

"We're digging into the facts to see if there was one," Bush said in an Oval Office photo opportunity. Bush noted that acting CIA Director John McLaughlin has said that there was no direct connection between Iran and Sept. 11.

"We will continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved," Bush said. "I have long expressed my concerns about Iran. After all it's a totalitarian society where people are not allowed to exercise their rights as human beings."

"As to direct connections with Sept. 11, we're digging into the facts to determine if there was one," said the president, who has branded Iran as part of an "axis of evil" along with North Korea and prewar Iraq when it was ruled by Saddam Hussein.

Bush accused Iran of harboring al-Qaida leadership, seeking a nuclear weapons program and financing terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.

McLaughlin said on Sunday that the CIA has known for some time that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers were able to pass through Iran. But he said there is no evidence the government in Tehran supported this. Nothing suggests an official connection between Iran and the 2001 hijackings, he said.



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

AFC official apologizes for tirade

 

   
 

Intense flood strain builds up

 

   
 

Green policies vital for healthy development

 

   
 

100 foreign banks now offer RMB services

 

   
 

Safety of Chinese abroad on work agenda

 

   
 

EU may lift imports bans

 

   
  US exploring possible Iran-9/11 link
   
  Miner in Guinea digs up 182-carat diamond
   
  9 killed in truck bomb blast in Baghdad
   
  Big quake to strike Sydney? Scientists wonder
   
  Bomb kills senior Hizbollah member in Beirut
   
  Militants sack, burn Palestinian offices
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Iran: Some 9/11 plotters may have transited through
   
9/11: Full story told at last
   
9/11 panel: One jet might have been stopped
   
Radio record paints chilling 9/11 picture
  News Talk  
  Will Saddam Hussein get a fair trial?  
Advertisement