brief - Iran 911 Case

investigators concluded the operation was undertaken on ―‗direct orders from seniorIranian government leaders‘‖ and that the bombers had been trained and funded by theIRGC in Lebanon‘s Bekaa Valley. FBI Director Louis Freeh stated, ―‗[w]e later learnedthat senior members of the Iranian government, including Ministry of Defense, Ministryof Intelligence and Security and the Spiritual Leader‘s office had selected Khobar as theirtarget and commissioned the Saudi Hezbollah to carry out the operation.‘‖ Ex. 6, Lopez-Tefft Affid. 162. Based in part on the testimony of Freeh and his deputy Dale Watsonthat IRGC Qods Force commander General Ahmed Vahidi coordinated the KhobarTowers attack (as well as expert testimony of Dr. Patrick Clawson and Dr. Bruce Tefft,both of whom are expert witnesses in this case), a U.S. district court held that Iran wasfactually and legally responsible for the Khobar Towers bombing. Heiser v. IslamicRepublic of Iran, 466 F.Supp.2d 229 (D.D.C. 2006). The 9/11 Commission alsoexamined classified CIA documents establishing that Vahidi planned the Khobar Towersattack with Ahmad al Mugassil, a Saudi-born al Qaeda operative. 9/11 REPORT, p. 60, n.48. 58 See Ex. 2, Timmerman 2nd Affid. 85-86.Al Qaeda itself was also involved in the planning and preparations for the KhobarTowers bombing. Osama bin Laden tried to facilitate a shipment of explosives to SaudiArabia, and, on the day of the operation, bin Laden was, according to NSA intercepts,58 This conclusion was recently corroborated by Reza Khalili, a CIA agent who penetrated the IRGC fornearly a decade. According to Khalili, then IRGC-Qods Force General Vahidi was a key operator inIran‘s relationship to al Qaeda, and he met regularly with al Qaeda deputy Ayman al Zawahiri. Ex. 2,Timmerman 2nd Affid. 85-87. Vahidi, now defense minister of Iran, was indicted by Argentina forthe AMIA bombings, and was the subject of one of the INTERPOL Red Notices, which have never beenhonored by Tehran. See Ex. 10, Adamson Affid. 21-33, and pp. 60-61, supra. Vahidi would play amajor role in facilitating the evacuation of al Qaeda operatives from Afghanistan after the U.S.-ledinvasion in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. See infra at pp. 80, 90.64