Iran’s Minister of Intelligence has accused the U.S. of fabricating its account of Osama Bin Laden’s death, alleging that Bin Laden had died much earlier from health complications.
Heydar Moslehi told the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) today that Iran is in possession of “accurate information and reliable and significant documents” regarding Bin Laden’s death. He did not expand on the contents of thesaid documents.
Following his three-week dispute with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Moslehi and Ahmadinejad both attended today’s cabinet meeting.
Ahmadinejad had stopped attending cabinet meetings after the Supreme Leader overruled his decision to accept Moslehi’s resignation and reinstated him as intelligence minister.
“If the U.S. military and intelligence have truly arrested or killed Bin Laden,” Moslehi said, “why do they not show him to the world? Why do they dispose of his remains at sea?”
“We are of the opinion that the U.S. and its media dictatorship are trying to overshadow the regional uprisings with such news,” Moslehi said. “Furthermore, they are also trying to resolve internal problems such as their economical woes.”
Last week, the U.S. announced that U.S. Special Forces had located and killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan on the morning of May 2.
Al-Qaeda confirmed the death of its leader in an announcement published on Friday May 6. The announcement also refers to Pakistan as the “place where Sheik Osama was killed” and calls on the people of Pakistan to rise against their leaders.
The U.S. has announced that it will refrain from publishing photographs of Bin Laden’s remains to avoid further violence and threats against the U.S. Washington is assuring the public that DNA tests confirm that the corpse that was dropped into the Sea of Oman did indeed belong to Osama Bin Laden.
U.S. President Barack Obama has called the operation against Bin Laden one of the most important U.S. military missions in history, predicting that Al-Qaeda will soon be defeated now that its leader is dead.
