Witness in Sept. 11 Trial Links Iran With Al Qaeda

A judge delayed his verdict Wednesday in the trial of an alleged accomplice of the Sept. 11 hijackers to consider testimony from a new witness: a former Iranian spy who sources say claims to have evidence that links Iran to Al Qaeda and suggests that Iranian agents had advance knowledge of the terrorist plot.

The last-minute witness adds another twist to the trial of Abdelghani Mzoudi, a Moroccan charged with providing logistical help to the Hamburg-based hijackers who carried out the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The case against Mzoudi faltered last month when the judge released him on bail, ruling that testimony from an unnamed Al Qaeda figure in U.S. custody had cast doubt on whether the accused knew about the hijacking plot in advance.

Now the judge has accepted an urgent request to hear two federal investigators testify about the new evidence today, instead of issuing a verdict as planned. Prosecutors have also asked for a 30-day delay in the trial while they evaluate the new witness’ credibility, said Frauke Katrin Scheuten, a spokeswoman for prosecutors.

“We can’t say just yet how credible the witness is,” Scheuten said.

Sources familiar with the case described the unidentified witness as a former Iranian intelligence agent. Last Thursday, he walked into the Berlin offices of the BKA, Germany’s federal investigative police, saying he had evidence that Lebanon-based Hezbollah and its Iranian intelligence allies had ties to some of the Sept. 11 plotters, sources said.

Like many defectors who emerge from the espionage world with a story to tell, the Iranian offered a mix of seemingly explosive, far-fetched and hard-to-confirm information, said sources who viewed a transcript of his testimony. The Iranian said he fled Iran in July 2001 and attempted to warn U.S. and French intelligence agents about an impending major attack.

In his statement to BKA agents, the ex-spy alleged that Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network assigned Mzoudi to handle logistics and communications for the Sept. 11 plot. Mzoudi spent time in Iran, where he was in contact with Saif Adel, Al Qaeda’s military operations chief, according to the Iranian’s account as described by sources.

Referring to Mzoudi as “the man on trial right now,” the witness alleged that Sept. 11 masterminds entrusted Mzoudi with “sending information to contact persons, because he knew codes very well,” said a source who read the transcript.

The Iranian witness also said he had seen Ziad Samir Jarrah, the Lebanese hijacker believed to have flown the United Airlines jet that crashed in Pennsylvania, at a Hezbollah training camp near Tehran in 1997, the sources said. Hezbollah and its operational chief, Imad Mughniyah, have long been supported by Iran.

Although the witness did not accuse Iran of direct involvement in the Sept. 11 plot, his account -- which detailed Adel’s supposed role overseeing key planning cells in Syria, Germany and Spain -- asserted that Iranian spies had advance knowledge of the attacks, the sources said. The former spy also provided an e-mail, purportedly sent in December by a top Iranian contact in the nation’s intelligence agency, saying that Adel ordered Al Qaeda operatives to kill Mzoudi upon learning of his release on bail, the sources said. It was not clear how the Iranians had that recent information, they added.

The Iranian government denies supporting or harboring Al Qaeda members, who as Sunni Muslims have ideological differences with Hezbollah and Iran, which follow the Shiite branch of Islam. But Western counter-terrorism officials say Adel and other senior Al Qaeda figures have found refuge in Iran since the Sept. 11 attacks. Law enforcement officials say they are concerned by signs that Al Qaeda and Hezbollah have intensified their ties.

The Iranian witness in Germany says he was part of an Iranian security detail at two meetings in the mid-1990s between Mughniyah and Al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman Zawahiri, sources said. The witness said he worked as a spy in the U.S. and Canada before becoming an operative for a unit controlled by Mughniyah, they said.

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Times special correspondent Laabs reported from Hamburg and staff writer Rotella from Paris.