People expecting to find public declarations or documents linking al Qaida to its supporting countries are a bit naive, for they forget that al Qaida is inherently a clandestine organization.

The following letter from the Iranian leadership is illustrative of the elusive nature of the clandestine relationships enjoyed between al Qaida and its patron states.

...Future sessions have been assigned to further discuss the elimination of major obstacles, further implementation and improvements with regards to a higher level of cooperations with Al Qaida Network & Hezbollah towards a specific goal. At the end, with satisfaction and complete support of your work and understanding the importance of your duties, the supreme leader insists, “Be sure, there are no trace of any support for Al Qaida which could have negative and irreversible consequences, and limit it to the present relations with “Moghnie & Al Zarghavi”.

God be with you,
Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri

Head of Supreme Leader Intelligence Office

NOTE: Nouri was President Khatami's nominal opponent in Iran's last election.

This doesn't come as news to me; I have previously posted about the Committee of Three and al Qaida's links to Iran and Hezbollah. None of this was especially controversial in the days of a Democratic admininistration. It's just that with Bush as president, terrorists must be denied out of existence. Or called "extremists," or "insurgents".....

Denial is always a good cover.