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In a little-noticed ruling on Nov. 28, a Washington, DC district
court found that both Iran and Sudan were culpable for al Qaeda's 1998
embassy bombings. As is typical in cases dealing with state sponsorship
of terrorism, neither Iran nor Sudan answered the plaintiffs'
accusations. But in a 45-page decision, Judge John D. Bates issued a
default judgment.

The court found that the "government of the Islamic Republic of
Iran...has a long history of providing material aid and support to
terrorist organizations including al Qaeda," which "claimed
responsibility for the August 7, 1998 embassy bombings."

Judge Bates continued [citations omitted, emphasis added]:

Iran had been the preeminent state sponsor of terrorism
against United States interests for decades. Throughout the 1990s - at
least - Iran regarded al Qaeda as a useful tool to destabilize U.S.
interests. As discussed in detail below, the government of Iran
aided, abetted and conspired with Hezbollah, Osama bin Laden, and al
Qaeda to launch large-scale bombing attacks against the United States by
utilizing the sophisticated delivery mechanism of powerful suicide
truck bombs. Hezbollah, a terrorist organization based
principally in Lebanon, had utilized this type of bomb in the
devastating 1983 attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in
Beirut, ... >>>