Pompeo is right about Iran and Al Qaeda—and the American Left continues to be in denial

Recently, outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo forcefully drove home a fact that has been apparent for decades: Iran is in league with Al Qaeda.

In a speech at the National Press Club, Secretary Pompeo said, “Al Qaeda has a new home base. It is the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, bin Laden’s wicked creation is poised to gain strength and capabilities. They are partners in terrorism, partners in hate.”

Leftists have quickly jumped up to deny Pompeo’s assertions. Colin P. Clarke, for example, used tired old doublespeak, telling the New York Times that the relationship between Al Qaeda and Iran was “complicated,” whatever that means. And then Clarke pointed out that there were ideological differences between Iran and Al Qaeda.

This is hardly a revelation. But it hasn’t proven relevant when it comes to Iran’s relations with other terrorist organizations.

It is true that Iran is Shia and Al Qaeda is a Salafi Sunni organization, and these two sects of Islam are in many ways opposed to one another. But according to each of their fiqhs, or schools, of Sharia (the controlling doctrine of Islam) both sects have the same view when it comes to waging Jihad against non-Muslims to advance Islam.

Conflicting ideology has not been a deterrent for Iran supporting Jihadist terrorism before. For decades, Iran has been the primary sponsor of HAMAS, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood Jihadist terrorist organization which seeks to replace Israel with an Islamic State ruled by Sharia.

The relationship between Iran and Al Qaeda has been documented for years, yet for some reason many naïve Western observers continue to insist that Shia Iran and Salafi Sunni Al Qaeda would never cooperate with one another.

The latest evidence of the relationship came when Al Qaeda’s number 2 leader, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was shot and killed in Tehran, Iran by two Israeli agents riding by on a motorcycle on 7 August of last year.

It is very significant that Al Qaeda’s number 2 commander was evidently living and operating freely and openly in Iran.

Al-Masri was reportedly in the protective custody of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military and intelligence organization that facilitates Tehran’s support for and sponsorship of Jihadist terrorism around the globe.

This suggests a close relationship and very probably joint training and operational collaboration.

The Left in America in particular has long been in denial about Iran’s long-standing ties to Al Qaeda, insisting that the two entities were arch enemies. That denial goes back over a decade.

In 2008, Obama campaign adviser Merrill McPeak was quoted as saying that “Iran is a big enemy of Al Qaeda.” That statement was ignorant then and it’s ignorant today.

When McPeak made that statement I wrote a column for National Review detailing Iran’s support for Al Qaeda. It started with direct quotes from the 9/11 Commission Report which are just as relevant today as they were then:

‐ In late 1991 or early 1992, in meetings held in Sudan, Iran agreed to train al-Qaeda operatives. Not long afterwards, al-Qaeda terrorists traveled to Iran and received training in explosives. Subsequent to this, al-Qaeda terrorists also traveled to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, where they received training from Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

‐Once Osama Bin Laden moved from Sudan to Afghanistan and established terrorist training camps there, Iran facilitated the transit of jihadists to al-Qaeda training camps via Iran. Among other things, Iran did not stamp their passports when they passed through Iran on their way to Afghanistan. This made it impossible for countries to know when someone had attended a training camp in Afghanistan because there was no record. This policy particularly benefited Saudi members of al-Qaeda, and the Commission reported that 8 to 10 of the Saudi 9-11 hijackers had transited through Iran.

‐The Commission said that intelligence reports indicated continued contacts between al-Qaeda and Iranian officials after Bin Laden had moved back to Afghanistan and it recommended that the U.S. government further investigate the ties between al-Qaeda and Iran.

The available evidence suggests that America’s two most dangerous Jihadist enemies—Iran and Al Qaeda–are in league with each other and America will soon be saddled with an ignorant and naïve commander in chief with a track record of letting those enemies grow strong and threaten us.

Mike Pompeo by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0