August 3, 2006 — A son of Osama bin Laden has gone from Iran to Lebanon with the mission to organize terror attacks against Israel, it was reported yesterday.Saad bin Laden, 27, one of the terror mastermind’s eldest sons, was released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard last Friday, according to the German daily Die Welt. “From the Lebanese border, he has the task of building Islamist terror cells and preparing them to fight with Hezbollah,” the paper said, quoting intelligence sources.

“Apparently, Tehran is counting on recruiting Lebanese refugees in Syria for the fight against Israel, using bin Laden’s help,” it added.

The young bin Laden was supposedly under house arrest in Iran.

In 2004, Iranian former foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said the country had jailed about a dozen al Qaeda suspects and would put them on trial. Among them were bin Laden and Saif al-Adel, the terror network’s security chief.

Up until this latest move, intelligence officials believed that Saad, who speaks fluent English, was part of a small cadre running al Qaeda from Iran.

“Our general view is Iran certainly does have a few al Qaeda-related figures,” said a counter-terrorism official when asked about the Die Welt report. “The general perception is Iran keeps these people as a bargaining chip.”

According to that official, Shiite Muslim Iran is not sympathetic to members of the Sunni-dominated al Qaeda but “they protect them as long as they think they can make use of them.”

nypost.com

Oh okay…

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