Iranian Assasination Plot in the US.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/11...ran/?hpt=hp_t1

The FBI and the DEA have disrupted a plot involving Iran to commit terrorism inside the United States, a senior U.S. official told CNN Tuesday. The official said the alleged plan was directed by elements of the Iranian government and involved a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States.
...
FBI Director Robert Mueller said the alleged terror plot involving Iran "reads like the pages of a Hollywood script."

[Cain]

Oh shit.

[Freeky]

"Page not found."

[The Rev]

"Page not found."

Ditto.

[Faust]

Just click on the front page, they keep updating the story.


If this was bush there would be troops in Iran already, what are the chances of the war on terror going to resource rich, strategically placed Iran?

[Juana]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/11/justice/iran-saudi-plot/

Washington (CNN) -- U.S. agents have disrupted an Iranian assassination-for-hire scheme targeting Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

Elements of the Iranian government directed the alleged plan, Holder said. A naturalized U.S. citizen holding Iranian and U.S. passports and a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard were directly involved, the FBI said in a statement.

"The U.S. is committed to holding Iran accountable," Holder told reporters.

A spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the alleged plot was "a fabrication."

The Iranian government was awaiting details about the accusations, spokesman Ali Akbar Javanfekr said. He suggested U.S. authorities were attempting to distract American citizens.

"They want to take the public's mind off the serious domestic problems they're facing these days and scare them with fabricated problems outside the country," he said.

The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington issued a statement Tuesday thanking U.S. authorities for stepping in.

"The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the embassy's statement said.

The Saudi ambassador was not the only intended target, U.S. officials said. Suspects also discussed attacking Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington and possibly Buenos Aires, Argentina, a senior U.S. official said.

It is unclear why Iran targeted the Saudi ambassador, the senior U.S. official said, or how widespread knowledge or approval of the plot was within Ahmadinejad's government.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, began planning this spring to kill Saudi Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir, an FBI agent's affidavit released Tuesday alleged.

Charges against them include conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, the affidavit said.

Authorities unraveled the plot with the help of an informant posing as an associate of a Mexican drug cartel, Holder said.

Arbabsiar and the undercover informant allegedly discussed using explosives to kill the ambassador and possibly attacking a crowded restaurant, according to the affidavit.

Arbabsiar also told the informant he wanted to target additional government facilities associated with Saudi Arabia and a second, undisclosed country within and outside of the United States, FBI agent O. Robert Woloszyn's affidavit said.

The alleged plot read "like the pages of a Hollywood script," but the implications were real, FBI Director Robert Mueller said.

"This case illustrates that we live in a world where borders and boundaries are increasingly irrelevant -- a world where individuals from one country sought to conspire with a drug trafficking cartel in another country to assassinate a foreign official on United States soil," he said.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, told reporters Tuesday that the alleged $1.5 million plot was "well-funded and pernicious."

"Details of that murder plot are chilling," he said.

A U.S. official said Tuesday that the United States is likely to respond with additional sanctions against Iran. The United States will also be taking up the issue with the U.N. Security Council and other members of the international community, the official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that additional actions to further isolate the Iranian regime will be considered.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions Tuesday targeting Arbabsiar, Shakuri and three others tied to the alleged plot.

In the affidavit, Woloszyn alleged the case involves a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that is suspected of being involved in a number of foreign operations.

The branch, the Quds Force, is accused by U.S. officials of sponsoring attacks against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, and in October 2007, the Treasury Department designated it as "providing material to the Taliban and other terrorist organizations," the affidavit said.

Often considered regional rivals, the oil-rich Saudi Kingdom has been at odds with its Iranian counterpart.

The country's Sunni leaders have at times discussed directly intervening in Iraq following the U.S. military withdrawal, according to a Council on Foreign Relations report. Iran has largely supported Shiite militias in Iraq.

[The Rev]

Oh shit.

Let's see, we have 50,000 troops in Iraq, and what, 70,000 in Afghanistan now? ANyone willing to make a little wager?

[Cain]

This, from the BBC article, immediately strikes me as suspicious

On 24 May 2011 Mr Arbabsiar made contact with an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency, under the impression that he was an operative of a Mexican drugs cartel.

Over a series of meetings, details emerged of a conspiracy that involved members of the Iranian government to pay $1.5m for the assassination of Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir on US soil.

I'm not saying that is the case here, but lets remember that a lot of "terror plots" were planned entirely in the heads of undercover FBI agents, who then went out of their way to recruit dupes to take part, who could then be paraded around as terrorists later.

"Hey, Mister Unscrupulous Criminal, I am going to tell you details of my top secret, state-sponsored act of assassination on American soil."  Uh, that don't sound likely.

What sounds even less likely are the allegations that this was going to involve a combined attack on the Israeli and Saudi Embassies...not only in the USA, but in Argentina as well.  Because nothing says "covert assassination plot" like planning a random bombing campaign to coincide with it.

[kingyak]

Well, at least it happened when there are massive protests going on all over the country. Nothing to scare the peasants back into their hovels like a nice scary dragon/werewolf/terrorist sighting.

[Freeky]

"Hey, Mister Unscrupulous Criminal, I am going to tell you details of my top secret, state-sponsored act of assassination on American soil."  Uh, that don't sound likely.

That sounds retarded.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

Well, at least it happened when there are massive protests going on all over the country. Nothing to scare the peasants back into their hovels like a nice scary dragon/werewolf/terrorist sighting.

funny I was thinking the same

[Doktor Howl]

CNN is the Fear Network™.  I assume that anything they say is as reliable as Fox or WND.

I'll bow to Cain's assessment of the BBC, should he have time to give it.

[Juana]

I'm a little at a loss why a Mexican cartel would be willing to cooperate with the Iranians for an assassination of a Saudi, come to think of it. Is there something I'm missing here?

[The Rev]

I'm a little at a loss why a Mexican cartel would be willing to cooperate with the Iranians for an assassination of a Saudi, come to think of it. Is there something I'm missing here?

The truth, maybe??? In my bones I think the U.S. has been just itching for a reason to invade Iran, and why would it surprise anyone if they finally had to fabricate that reason?

[Cain]

CNN is the Fear Network™.  I assume that anything they say is as reliable as Fox or WND.

I'll bow to Cain's assessment of the BBC, should he have time to give it.

With the BBC, they wont dress it up, as a rule, but you have to consider their sources.  The BBC got hit very badly over its coverage of the Iraq War and the negative aspects thereof (pointing out Tony Blair was lying led to the BBC being branded the Baghdad Broadcasting Network - hilarious I'm sure you'll agree), and so tend to toe the line more carefully when reporting based on government sources.

Not sensationalist, but in some ways that makes it harder to tell when they're passing along a line of bullshit.