IRGC implicated in 9/11, according to class-action case in New York Federal Court

(Updated 1:30AM GMT, Thursday, September 10)

Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) who has become an opponent of the regime, told the Voice of America's Newstalk program on Wednesday evening that a class-action suit filed before New York Federal Court Judge George Daniels contends that the IRGC was implicated in the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Sazegara is a regular guest on the Newstalk show on Wednesday nights. Speaking by satellite from New York, he said that he was in the city to testify before the court as an Iran expert. The call-action suit has been filed by six family members of victims of the 9/11 tragedy and comes after years of independent investigation by the lawyers involved in the successful class-action suit against cigarette manufacturers. It alleges that the IRGC had been in contact with Al-Qaeda since the mid-1990s and aided and abetted the operation that brought down the Twin Towers and killed thousands.

Sazegara, currently the head of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, said that even he had been astonished by the documents in the independent investigation and that he had been given permission by the court to reveal the news, which has not been reported in any other media outlet thus far.

Alireza Nourizadeh, the other regular guest on the show and the director of the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, said, 'I have no doubt that there is a close relationship between the Islamic Republic -- the IRGC and its intelligence branch -- and part of Al-Qaeda, particularly Al-Zawahiri's wing.'

The full program can be viewed on Windows Media Player or Real Player.

The following is a transcript of the section in which Sazegara speaks about the case against the IRGC and Nourizadeh provides additional information. It begins at the 10:30 mark.

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
Mr. Sazegara, greetings to you in New York. 

Mohsen Sazegara:
I also send my greetings to you, Mr. Nourizadeh, and all the dear viewers.

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
You've gone to New York just before the anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11. Is this a private visit?

Mohsen Sazegara: 
It has to do with a sensitive issue. A group of prominent lawyers who, several years ago, won a case against cigarette makers who will have to pay billions of dollars to thirty states over a 20-year period... these lawyers have represented six family members of 9/11 victims since 2002. They carried out an investigation which was completed recently, after seven years. They filed a suit before New York Federal Judge George W. Daniels, who decided that the evidence was sufficient for the case to be pursued. According to this case... I'm in a daze over it... the Iranian regime, more exactly the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was in contact with Al-Qaeda from the mid-1990s, and this contact was maintained after September 11. I'm considered an expert on Iran and, in this capacity, the judge wants to question me. But I have to say that I never personally imagined such evidence...that the IRGC not only provided logistical and financial help to Al-Qaeda, but that it engaged in broad cooperation with it. I can't judge this matter, of course, at this time. The American judicial system is independent, and once the trial begins in two or three weeks, the judge will be able to pass a verdict. But the strange thing is that the 9/11 commission report, that was subsequently published as a book, mentions a third country without naming it on pages 240 and 241 and says that eight of the 12 perpetrators of 9/11 traveled to that country. If the judge rules that that third country was Iran, then we must expect there to be a clamor in the US. The Bush administration will be put under question, because we must accept that the American intelligence services possibly knew that the IRGC and the Iranian regime were involved in some way and that nothing was said because they didn't want to enter a conflict with Iran or attack the country. I personally can't make any judgment now, but I can say one thing. The IRGC, with complete irresponsibility and lack of wisdom, as if it owned the country, has become such a leviathan, and has imperiled the future of a nation and country. It has taken and is still taking such dangerous action. It just boggles the mind.

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
Has news of this trial and case been reported, at least in the New York media?

Mohsen Sazegara: 
Not yet. I obtained permission from the lawyers and the litigants to talk about this issue, because I believe that the Iranian nation has the priority to hear this news. I'm sure that once the case opens -- and I jotted down the number, 02CV00305 -- it will become the top headline throughout the world.

Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
When will the case be opened?


Mohsen Sazegara: 
I'm not sure, but I think that within two to three weeks the judge will be ready to summon both sides.


Host Jamshid Chalangi: 
Let's hear what information Mr. Nourizadeh has on this issue before returning to the topic of the program, the recent arrests.

Alireza Nourizadeh: 
I wrote three articles after 9/11. Two of them were quoted by Western newspapers. I also had several interviews with American television channels, including public television. The information that I had, which was published broadly in Asharq Alawsat, was that, from 1994 when Al-Qaeda bought those farms in Sudan, General Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who worked for the IRGC's intelligence services, brought Hezbollah fighters and terrorists from Egypt and the Maghreb to Sudan for training. Zolghadr and other IRGC officials developed close relations with Bin Laden and in particular Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri over there. After 9/11 and the US attack on Afghanistan, Al-Zawahiri's wife, mother, brother, and sister came to Iran. They were in Iran for a long time and some of them returned to Egypt afterward. Bin Laden's son was in Iran for a long time, as was [Al-Qaeda spokesman] Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. So were many Al-Qaeda leaders. I always said, after the blow that Al-Qaeda received it couldn't fly or sail from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iraq. The only way was through Iran. The Islamic Republic allowed them to go into Iraq, kept some for future transactions, and extradited a few miserable wretches from Yemen, Jordan, and the Maghreb to their homelands for concessions from those countries. I have no doubt that there is a close relationship between the Islamic Republic -- the IRGC and its intelligence branch -- and part of Al-Qaeda, particularly Al-Zawahiri's wing. [Afghan warlord Gulbuddin] Hekmatyar's son-in-law came to Iran twice to buy dialysis machines for Bin Laden and shipped them to Afghanistan with the help of the IRGC. Yes, I hope that the disgusting offenses of the regime come to light, one by one.


End of transcript at the 19:30 mark.