Iran Hosting Al Qaeda

This comes as a shock to nobody, except maybe the mainstream media that neglects to report it.

Iran Is Found To Be a Lair of Al Qaeda

WASHINGTON — One of two known Al Qaeda leadership councils meets regularly in eastern Iran, where the American intelligence community believes dozens of senior Al Qaeda leaders have reconstituted a good part of the terror conglomerate's senior leadership structure.

That is a consensus judgment from a final working draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate, titled "The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland," on the organization that attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The estimate, which represents the opinion of America's intelligence agencies, is now finished, and unclassified conclusions will be shared today with the public.

The classified document includes four main sections, examining how Al Qaeda in recent years has increased its capacity to stage another attack on American soil; how the organization has replenished the ranks of its top leaders; nations where Al Qaeda operates, and the status of its training camps and physical infrastructure.

The judgment that Iran has hosted Al Qaeda's senior leadership council is likely to draw some criticism from those outside the government who doubt Iran plays a significant role in bolstering Sunni jihadist terrorism. Iran's Shiite Muslims are considered infidels by the Salafi sect of Sunnis that comprise Al Qaeda.

Read the rest.

Expect to hear plenty of simpering from the left over this report later today, questioning the timing, of course. They refuse to believe Al Qaeda had any presence in Iraq before we toppled Saddam Hussein, and they could see video of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cavorting with Osama bin Laden and they still wouldn't admit what we're dealing with here.

More at Captain's Quarters, Gateway Pundit, Michael Totten, Michelle Malkin, Jules Crittenden.