Iran Plots to Kill Saudi Ambassador on U.S. Soil?

[Rohirrim]

Breaking News. AG Holder announces we have stopped a plot by Iranians to conspire with a drug cartel in Mexico to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. on U.S. soil.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44861178/ns/us_news-security/#.TpSITRykFDQ

[Rohirrim]

Sounds like they also intended to hit the Israeli embassy in DC.

[alkemical]

War by proxy - sucks when it gets played against "us".

[ghwk]

I wouldn't be spending much time in any of the Iranian govt. offices if I were them.

[ant1999e]

An act of WAR???

[El Guapo]

An act of WAR???

It wouldn't be the first time.

[Rohirrim]

An act of WAR???

That's what is worrying me. This sounds like some serious ****.

[Rohirrim]

The question now is, was this plot for real, or did the DEA undercover officer create it, and then suck in people to play along?

[DomCasual]

That sounds a little ominous.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/11/official-fbi-dea-disrupt-terror-plot-in-u-s-involving-iran/?hpt=hp_t1

Attorney General Eric Holder, when asked how Iran would be held "accountable" in an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said he expected action from the White House, the State Department and Treasury within the next few hours.

[ant1999e]

I'm not trying to hijack but this shows that we really do have a problem on the border.

[alkemical]

Back in '09 @ the earliest reports were coming out that MX was a bigger threat to the US than iraq.


http://www.google.com/search?q=mexico+bigger+threat+than+iraq&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[baja]

The question now is, was this plot for real, or did the DEA undercover officer create it, and then suck in people to play along?

The timing would be perfect for something like this. My money is on a false flag

[ant1999e]

The timing would be perfect for something like this. My money is on a false flag

The dude's been in custody for a while now. Seems to be the real deal this time.
However, it would be convenient for this to come out now to counter all the negative pressure on the Justice Dept.

[Rohirrim]

The timing would be perfect for something like this. My money is on a false flag

It now appears that the contact in the Iranian government actually did forward $100,000 toward the scheme and they have him on tape asking, "Why isn't he dead yet?"

Things are about to get pretty dicy between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

[Smiling Assassin27]

Obama: Man the drones, er, something.

[elsid13]

It doesn't surprise me, it fits the tactics that the Revolution Guard uses and would be seen as insult to the US if the killed the Saudi ambassador here. I expect the seizing of funds and request to the international crimes court at the Hague.

[Smiling Assassin27]

Jimmy Carter didn't respond to an act of war, why would his understudy?


p.s. Has Ron Paul commented yet? What? Our fault? Alrighty, Ron. ROFL!

[Obushma]

The question now is, was this plot for real, or did the DEA undercover officer create it, and then suck in people to play along?

Bingo. Wouldn't be the first time.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Obama: Man the drones, er, something.

Call Ahmadinejad! To the beer summit!

[El Guapo]

I'm not trying to hijack but this shows that we really do have a problem on the border.

We did have a problem. Their people now operate freely here .

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

The timing would be perfect for something like this. My money is on a false flag

Yep.

We know the neocons and the PNAC crowd have had their sights set on Iran for a long time. They have been beating the drum since the smirking chimp's "axis of evil" speech. Hyping Iran's "nuclear threat" hasn't yielded the results they've sought, so perhaps this represents a new strategy.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Jimmy Carter didn't respond to an act of war, why would his understudy?


Whereas your hero Saint Ron's "response" was to provide Iran with stinger missiles.

[ant1999e]

Yep.

We know the neocons and the PNAC crowd have had their sights set on Iran for a long time. They have been beating the drum since the smirking chimp's "axis of evil" speech. Hyping Iran's "nuclear threat" hasn't yielded the results they've sought, so perhaps this represents a new strategy.

Or maybe a convenient distraction from the mess obama has us in right now. I'm sure you won't argue because you're not an obama supporter right?

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Or maybe a convenient distraction from the mess obama has us in right now. I'm sure you won't argue because you're not an obama supporter right?

Could be, but the neocons have had their sights set on Iran long before Obama came down the pike.

[broncocalijohn]

It doesn't surprise me, it fits the tactics that the Revolution Guard uses and would be seen as insult to the US if the killed the Saudi ambassador here. I expect the seizing of funds and request to the international crimes court at the Hague.

Many of the other items against Iran hasnt worked so there better be something with a huge bite into it. I wonder how far this goes into the Iranian government. If it was exucuted or not, this could be an act of war. I am wondering if the top of Iranian leadership gets put away, how many in the country will rejoice and accept the move? This has got to get those anti factions more pissed off now if it is as serious as it seems.

Where is Gaffney? He promised us War with Iran over a year ago. I am sure he will come in and tell us how this whole story is full of BS.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

FBI Account of "Terror Plot" Suggests Sting Operation

WASHINGTON, Oct 13, 2011 (IPS) - While the administration of Barack Obama vows to hold the Iranian government "accountable" for the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, the legal document describing evidence in the case provides multiple indications that it was mainly the result of an FBI "sting" operation.

Although the legal document, called an amended criminal complaint, implicates Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar and his cousin Ali Gholam Shakuri, an officer in the Iranian Quds Force, in a plan to assassinate Saudi Arabian Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, it also suggests that the idea originated with and was strongly pushed by a undercover DEA informant, at the direction of the FBI.

On May 24, when Arbabsiar first met with the DEA informant he thought was part of a Mexican drug cartel, it was not to hire a hit squad to kill the ambassador. Rather, there is reason to believe that the main purpose was to arrange a deal to sell large amounts of opium from Afghanistan.

In the complaint, the closest to a semblance of evidence that Arbabsiar sought help during that first meeting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador is the allegation, attributed to the DEA informant, that Arbabsiar said he was "interested in, among other things, attacking an embassy of Saudi Arabia".

Among the "other things" was almost certainly a deal on heroin controlled by officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Three Bloomberg reporters, citing a "federal law enforcement official", wrote that Arbabsiar told the DEA informant he represented Iranians who "controlled drug smuggling and could provide tons of opium".

Because of opium entering Iran from Afghanistan, Iranian authorities hold 85 percent of the world's opium seizures, according to Iran's Fars News Agency. Iranian security personnel, including those in the IRGC and its Quds Force, then have the opportunity to sell the opium to traffickers in the Middle East, Europe and now Mexico.

Mexican drug cartels have begun connecting with Middle Eastern drug traffickers, in many cases stationing operatives in Middle East locations to facilitate heroin production and sales, according to a report last January in Border Beat, an online news service run by University of Arizona journalism students.

But the FBI account of the contacts between Arbabsiar and the DEA informant does not reference any discussions of drugs.

The criminal complaint refers to an unspecified number of meetings between Arbabsiar and the DEA informant in late June and the first two weeks of July.

What transpired in those meetings remains the central mystery surrounding the case.

The official account of the investigation cites the testimony of the informant (referred to in the document as "CS-1") in stating, "Over the course of a series of meetings, ARBABSIAR explained to CS-1 that his associates in Iran had discussed a number of violent missions for CS-1 and CIS-1's purported criminal associates to perform."

The account claims that the mission discussed included murdering the ambassador. But no specific statement proposing or agreeing to the act is attributed to Arbabsiar. "Prior to the July 14 meeting, CS- 1 had reported that he and Arbabsiar had discussed the possibility of attacks on a number of other targets," the account states.

The targets are described as involving "foreign government facilities associated with Saudi Arabia and with another country...located either in or outside the United States", without mentioning any discussion of the Saudi ambassador.

Both that language and the absence of any statement attributed to Arbabsiar imply that the Iranian- American said nothing about assassinating the Saudi ambassador except in response to suggestions by the informant, who was already part of an FBI undercover operation.

The DEA informant, as the FBI account acknowledges in a footnote, had previously been charged with a narcotics offence by a state in the U.S. and had been cooperating in narcotics investigations - apparently posing as a drug cartel operative - in return for dropping the charges. The document is notably silent on whether the conversation was recorded.

A former FBI official familiar with procedures in such cases, who spoke to IPS anonymously, said the FBI would normally have recorded all such conversations touching on the possibility of terrorism.

The absence of quotes from any of those meetings suggests that they do not support the case being made by the FBI and the Obama administration.

The account is quite explicit, on the other hand, that the Jul. 14 and Jul. 17 meetings were recorded at FBI direction. Statements quoted from those transcripts show the DEA informant trying to induce Arbabsiar to indicate agreement to assassinating the Saudi ambassador.

The informant is quoted as saying he would need "at least four guys" and would "take the one point five for the Saudi Arabia". He declared that he "go ahead and work on the Saudi Arabia, get all the information we can".

At one point the informant says, "You just want the, the main guy." And at the end of the meeting, he declares, "[W]e're gonna start doing the guy".

The fact that not a single quote from Arbabsiar shows that he agreed to assassinating the ambassador, much less proposed it, suggests that he was either non-committal or linking the issue to something else, such as the prospect of a major drug deal with the cartel.

Arbabsiar's quotes from a Sep. 2 phone conversation referring to the cartel as "having the number for the safe" and "once you open the door that's it" could refer to a drug transaction that had been discussed, while the FBI account suggest those quotes refer to the assassination and "other projects" with the Iranian group.

At the Jul. 17 meeting, the DEA informant presented a plan to blow up a restaurant to kill the ambassador, with the possible deaths of 100-150 people, eliciting a lack of concern on the part of Arbabsiar about such deaths.

During a visit to Iran in August, Arbabsiar wired two equal payments totalling $100,000 to a bank account in New York. But he was still under the impression that he was about to cash in on a deal with the cartel.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Arbabsiar had told an Iranian-American friend from Corpus Christie, Texas, "I'm going to make good money."

There is also circumstantial evidence that Arbabsiar may have even been brought into the sting operation to help further implicate his cousin Gholam Shakuri in the terrorist plot.

Arbabsiar met with his cousin Shakuri in late September and told him that the cartel was demanding that he, Arbabsiar, go to Mexico personally to guarantee payment. That demand from the DEA was an obvious device by the FBI to get Shakuri and his associates in Tehran to demonstrate their commitment to the assassination.

The FBI account indicates that Shakuri told Arbabsiar that he was responsible for himself if he went to Mexico. That statement would have been a warning sign for Arbabsiar, if he still believed he was dealing with one of the most murderous drug cartels in Mexico, that he would be risking his own life for a group that was no longer taking responsibility for him.

Yet Arbabsiar flew to Mexico as if unconcerned about that risk.

After his arrest on Sep. 29 Arbabsiar waived the right to a lawyer and proceeded to provide a complete confession. A few days later, he placed a phone call to Shakuri which was recorded "at the direction of federal enforcement agents", according to the FBI.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/gareth-porter/38933/fbi-account-of-terror-plot-suggests-sting-operation

[cutthemdown]

Wow Obama's Oct surprises keep coming. Ever notice how many big things happen to cloud everything right before an election? This plot sure sounds stupid but if they really have proof we should probably blow something up.

[alkemical]

Lulz ^^