NEW YORK - CBS television said on Saturday it would air an interview with an Iranian intelligence service defector on Sunday who claims the bombing of a Pan Am aircraft over Scotland was masterminded by Iran and not Libya.

The defector, now in protective custody in Turkey, told the "60 Minutes" current affairs program airing on Sunday that he had documental proof Tehran was behind the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, CBS said in a news release.

A spokesman for program said the Iranian, who had been in a refugee camp in Turkey, was checked out with senior administration officials in Washington and was now being de-briefed by CIA officials.

CBS said in a statement its reporting team "got access just a few days ago to an Iranian defector -- now in protective custody in Turkey -- who claims to be Ahmad Behbahani, the man who coordinated all of Iran's overseas acts of terrorism for at least the past decade.

"Among the things he told '60 Minutes' was that it was not the Libyans but the Iranians who masterminded and financed the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. He says he has documents that can prove it."

[Earlier, on May 24, 2000 The Counter-terrorism Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran had announced Beladi-Behbahani’s presence in Turkey.

[The NCR committee revealed that "as the then President Rafsanjani’s liaison with the Intelligence Ministry and also had detailed information about the Lockerbie bombing.

[The statement had disclosed other details regarding Behbahani's terrorist activities, including those against the Iranian dissidents abroad.]
 

Mujahideen Says Iran Attacks Base in Iraq, Reuters, June 4

BAGHDAD - The armed Iranian opposition group Mujahideen Khalq said on Sunday that Iranian government agents had attacked one of its camps in Iraq.

A statement by the Mujahideen received by Reuters in Baghdad said that Iranian "terrorists" had fired three rockets at its Homayoun base in the suburbs of Amarah, 360 km (220 miles) south of Baghdad, early on Sunday.

"None of the rockets landed inside the base and no (Mujahideen) fighter was harmed in the attack," the statement said.

The attack was the 95th reported since 1993, it added.
 

Congress Panel Faults U.S. Effort on Iran And Khobar Towers Bombing, The New York Times, June 4

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration has not done enough to press Iran for cooperation in the investigation of a 1996 bombing that killed 19 American servicemen, despite evidence of Iranian involvement, a bipartisan commission on terrorism has concluded.

In a report to be released on Monday, the National Commission on Terrorism concludes that the administration has done little to mount an international campaign to put diplomatic pressure on Iran to cooperate in the investigation into the bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia.

The commission, created by Congress, recommends that the United States make no any further concessions to Iran… until Tehran cooperates fully in the investigation and ends its support for terrorism….

Last year, President Clinton sent a letter to the Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, asking for help in the Khobar Towers probe, and senior American officials publicly acknowledged that they had evidence of Iranian involvement in the bombing.

But the commission concluded that the administration had not acted aggressively enough on the case at a time when it was also seeking a diplomatic opening with Tehran.

It argues that Iran remains the "clearest case" of a state sponsor of anti-American terrorism as an element of its government's policy….
 

Khamenei Urges Hard Line against Israel, Reuters, June 3

TEHRAN - Ali Khamenei urged Palestinians not to compromise with Israel in a speech on Saturday commemorating the death of his predecessor, Khomeini.

"What has occurred in Lebanon can happen again, this time in Palestine," Khamenei said amid chants of 'Down with Israel' from the crowd, marking the 11th anniversary of Khomeini's death.

Officials from all factions came to the mausoleum to pay homage to the late imam, the driving force behind the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah.

Khatami sat next to former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The speaker of the new parliament, Mehdi Karrubi, elected on a reformist ticket, was shown on state television sitting next to the arch-conservative former judiciary chief Mohammad Yazdi, another key ally of Khamenei.

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