US disrupts Iran-tied plot to kill Saudi ambassador to US, bomb embassies

[BOfH]

WASHINGTON -- Two men have been charged in connection with a $1.5 million plot directed by elements of the Iranian government to assassinate Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the US, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

Holder said Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, a naturalized US citizen who holds both Iranian and US passports, was arrested in New York City on Sept. 29 in connection with the plot. Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran's Qods Force, a special operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Gorps, remains at large.


The attorney general said the plot represented a "flagrant violation of US and international law" and added the US was committed to holding Iran accountable.

A senior State Department official told FOX News the US has "increased our sanctions on individuals within the Iranian government who are associated with this plot and Iran's support for terrorism."

Arbabsiar, Shakuri and other Iran-based conspirators allegedly began plotting the assassination in the spring of 2011.

In May, Arbabsiar allegedly met in Mexico with a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant whom he believed was an associate of a drug cartel. According to the criminal complaint, Arbabsiar asked the informant about his knowledge of C-4 explosives and said he was interested in attacking a Saudi embassy.

In subsequent meetings in June and July, the informant told Arbabsiar he would need to use four men to carry out the assassination and requested $1.5 million in payment for the plot. With Shakuri's approval, Arbabsiar later wired $100,000 into a US bank account as a down payment and promised the remainder of the payment would be made following the assassination, the Justice Department said.

During the meetings, when the informant raised the possibility that innocent bystanders could die in the bombing attack aimed at al-Jubeir, Arbabsiar dismissed the concerns as "no big deal."

Arbabsiar allegedly agreed to travel to Mexico as collateral for the final installment of the $1.5 million fee. When he flew to Mexico on or about Sept. 28, he was refused entry and placed on a return flight to his last point of departure, the Justice Department said.

Arbabsiar was arrested by federal agents during a flight layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sept. 29. Several hours after his arrest, he allegedly confessed to participating in the plot.

Arbabsiar told US officials he had been recruited, funded and directed by men he believed were senior officials in Iran's Qods Force. In October, he made phone calls at the direction of US officials to Shakuri, who allegedly confirmed the plot should move forward as quickly as possible.

Arbabsiar and Shakuri are charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism transcending national boundaries, among other charges.

Arbabsiar is scheduled to make his initial appearance Tuesday before a federal court in Manhattan. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on all of the charges.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nationa...neTfEWlVnMlBJO

If Holder's involved there is probably a fish somewhere and a body (or two) under a bus...never let a good crisis go to waste, especially when Iran is involved.

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by BOfH

WASHINGTON -- Entire Post

Hmmmm...............

Big Teddy

[JimP]

wow - what curious timing....and on the day AG Holder is being subpeoned (however the hell you spell it) by Congress.

I'm sure it is pure coincidence.....

[scooter]

Interesting. Bombing the embassy of a nation that is seriously considering bombing your nuclear infrastructure, coupled with the bombing of a second country that is considering giving the first country permission to overfly their terroritory for said attack.... in the capitol of a country you have waged a proxy war against that is allied with the first and second afforementioned countries...

Yup. Sounds like its all well thought out.

[ddoering]

I'm sure some pretty harsh letters are being drafted even as we speak. I'madinnerjacket is probably off the Christmas- ooppppssss, I mean Holiday card list now.

[Utah Bob]

Good Lord, the msm is calling al Quds the "Iranian equivalent of Seal Team Six".

[rdret1]

Originally Posted by ddoering

I'madinnerjacket is probably off the Christmas- ooppppssss, I mean Holiday card list now.

Damn, I am glad I didn't have a cup of coffee near my keyboard!

On a more serious note, I posted an invitation to you all to a new site; anybeat.com, in the comedy zone . One of the threads there is dealing with this and Iranian nuclear capabilities. The problem is, they are mostly libs on the site. I have had some fun poking holes in their bubbles. Here is their version of this thread.

http://www.anybeat.com/#conversation...605d6d7e00017f

[Paslode]

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv..._of_deadly.php

The Long War Journal: Mastermind of deadly raid on American soldiers coordinated plot against Saudi ambassador


Written by Thomas Joscelyn on October 12, 2011 12:02 AM to 1 The Long War Journal


The US Treasury Department has designated five individuals involved in an alleged plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, including Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). Soleimani "oversees the IRGC-QF officers who were involved in this plot," according to Treasury.

Another of the five is Abdul Reza Shahlai, an IRGC-QF officer who planned the Jan. 20, 2007 attack on US soldiers stationed in Karbala, Iraq. That attack left five US soldiers dead and wounded three others.

Shahlai, according to the Treasury Department, "coordinated the plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Adel Al-Jubeir, while he was in the United States and to carry out follow-on attacks against other countries' interests inside the United States and in another country."

Shahlai was previously designated by the Treasury Department in Sept. 2008. At the time, Treasury noted that he was a "deputy commander" in the IRGC-QF and planned "Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) Special Groups attacks against Coalition Forces in Iraq." One of the attacks he "planned" was the 2007 raid in Karbala, a daring and sophisticated operation in which Iranian-trained terrorists posed as American soldiers during an assault on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center. The assault team was reportedly trained in a mock-up of the center that was built in Iran.

In 2009, the Obama administration released two of the Iranian-backed terrorists involved in the Karbala operation. The brothers, Qais and Layith Khazali, were freed even though they were directly implicated in the attack. The release of the Khazalis was said to be part of a reconciliation effort inside Iraq.

However, US military officials told The Long War Journal that the Khazalis' release was really part of a negotiation to free British hostages who had been kidnapped by Iranian proxies. Statements made by an Iraqi spokesman and other press reporting confirmed these suspicions.

In the summer of 2009, prior to Qais Khazali's release but after Layith Khazali's release, two Republican Senators questioned the administration's policy. In a letter to President Obama dated July 1, 2009, Senators Jeff Sessions and Jon Kyl said they were "deeply concerned by recent news reports that suggest your administration may be negotiating directly or indirectly with terrorist organizations for the release of dangerous terrorist detainees." The Senators argued that such negotiations were inconsistent with longstanding US policy, which prohibited negotiations with terrorists.

Qais Khazali was released several months later. The same day Khazali was released, on Dec. 30, 2009, British hostage Peter Moore was freed by Khazali's Iranian-backed network.

Another senior Iranian-backed terrorist who was captured with Qais Khazali, Ali Musa Daqduq, remains in military custody in Iraq. Daqduq, a longtime member of Hezbollah, was tasked with organizing Iranian proxies in Iraq similar to the way Hezbollah operates in Lebanon. The Obama administration is reportedly weighing its options for trying Daqduq.

And Shahlai, who "planned" the Karbala attack, according to Treasury's 2008 designation, has now allegedly plotted other major terrorist attacks. This time Shahlai's plots were intended to be executed on American soil.

In orchestrating the putative plot against the Saudi ambassador, Shahlai relied on his cousin, Manssor Arbabsiar, who was arrested by US officials in September. Arbabsiar also worked with another IRGC-QF officer, Ali Gholan Shakuri, who is Shahlai's "deputy." Shakuri, who was one of the five Iranians designated by the Treasury Department this week, helped arrange funding for the plot and also "met with Arbabsiar several times to discuss the planned assassination and other attacks."

Arbabsiar tried to hire members of a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the assassination plot. Arbabsiar unwittingly contacted a DEA informant who he thought was a member of the cartel, but instead was working for US authorities. The informant helped authorities unravel the IRGC-QF's plans. After Arbabsiar was arrested, authorities had him make several telephone calls to Shakuri, who repeatedly urged Arbabsiar to move forward with the planned attack.

According to the Treasury Department's new designation, "Shahlai approved financial allotments to Arbabsiar to help recruit other individuals for the plot, approving $5 million dollars as payment for all of the operations discussed." $1.5 million was allocated for the plot against the Saudi ambassador, leaving the bulk of the IRGC-QF's funds for the remaining operations.

Press reports offer differing versions of just what these other operations may have entailed, including possible attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies either in the US or abroad.

[Dusty]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/us...s.html?_r=2&hp


WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday sought to reconcile what it said was solid evidence of an Iranian plot to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States with a wave of skepticism from some foreign leaders and outside experts.


Senior American officials themselves were struggling to explain why the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, would orchestrate such a risky attack in so amateurish a manner.

The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, would not go further than to say the plot “clearly involved senior levels of the Quds Force.” But other American officials, armed with evidence such as bank transfers and intercepted telephone calls and with knowledge of how the covert unit operated in the past, said they believed that Iran’s senior leaders were likely complicit in the plot.

“It would be our assessment that this kind of operation would have been discussed at the highest levels of the regime,” said a senior American official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the government’s analysis.

American officials offered no specific evidence linking the plot to Iran’s most senior leaders. But they said it was inconceivable in Iran’s hierarchy that the leader of the shadowy Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, was not directly involved, and that the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was not aware of such a plan.

Iran’s leaders marshaled a furious formal rejection Wednesday of the American accusations, calling the case a cynical fabrication meant to vilify Iran and distract Americans from their severe economic problems. A senior member of Iran’s Parliament, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said he had “no doubt this is a new American-Zionist plot to divert the public opinion from the crisis Obama is grappling with.”

United States officials said they were exploring several theories why the Quds Force, which supplies and trains insurgents around the world, would plot an attack in Washington against a close adviser to the Saudi king, relying on an Iranian-American used-car salesman from Texas who, they said, thought he was hiring assassins from a Mexican drug gang.

The officials said the plot might indicate a shift to a more combative Iranian foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia and the United States. The United States has brought international pressure on Iran’s nuclear program, and Iran and Saudi Arabia have long waged proxy battles for influence in the Muslim world.

“The Iranians watch the Saudis roll tanks in Bahrain, and they see a key ally in Syria going down, so they step up the Quds Force,” one senior administration official said. He referred to Saudi military assistance to the Sunni monarchy of Bahrain, whose majority population shares the Shia Islam of Iran.

Iran has many trusted networks in the Middle East and has often used the Lebanese militants of Hezbollah as a proxy. But it has far fewer agents in the United States, which might have forced it to look to a far riskier proxy for the plot, officials said.

Snip

[PedOncoDoc]

How soon until Obama apologizes to Iran for this one?

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by PedOncoDoc

How soon until Obama apologizes to Iran for this one?

In situations such as this, Dem presidents don't apologize; they bomb aspirin factories.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Dusty

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/us...s.html?_r=2&hp


WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday sought to reconcile what it said was solid evidence of an Iranian plot to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States with a wave of skepticism from some foreign leaders and outside experts.


Senior American officials themselves were struggling to explain why the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, would orchestrate such a risky attack in so amateurish a manner.

The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, would not go further than to say the plot “clearly involved senior levels of the Quds Force.” But other American officials, armed with evidence such as bank transfers and intercepted telephone calls and with knowledge of how the covert unit operated in the past, said they believed that Iran’s senior leaders were likely complicit in the plot.

“It would be our assessment that this kind of operation would have been discussed at the highest levels of the regime,” said a senior American official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the government’s analysis.

American officials offered no specific evidence linking the plot to Iran’s most senior leaders. But they said it was inconceivable in Iran’s hierarchy that the leader of the shadowy Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, was not directly involved, and that the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was not aware of such a plan.

Iran’s leaders marshaled a furious formal rejection Wednesday of the American accusations, calling the case a cynical fabrication meant to vilify Iran and distract Americans from their severe economic problems. A senior member of Iran’s Parliament, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said he had “no doubt this is a new American-Zionist plot to divert the public opinion from the crisis Obama is grappling with.”

United States officials said they were exploring several theories why the Quds Force, which supplies and trains insurgents around the world, would plot an attack in Washington against a close adviser to the Saudi king, relying on an Iranian-American used-car salesman from Texas who, they said, thought he was hiring assassins from a Mexican drug gang.

The officials said the plot might indicate a shift to a more combative Iranian foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia and the United States. The United States has brought international pressure on Iran’s nuclear program, and Iran and Saudi Arabia have long waged proxy battles for influence in the Muslim world.

“The Iranians watch the Saudis roll tanks in Bahrain, and they see a key ally in Syria going down, so they step up the Quds Force,” one senior administration official said. He referred to Saudi military assistance to the Sunni monarchy of Bahrain, whose majority population shares the Shia Islam of Iran.

Iran has many trusted networks in the Middle East and has often used the Lebanese militants of Hezbollah as a proxy. But it has far fewer agents in the United States, which might have forced it to look to a far riskier proxy for the plot, officials said.

Snip

Exactly.

I think once the Administration thinks this through, they will decide that it is an excellent time for military threats, if not action, against the Iranians.

TR

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by JimP

wow - what curious timing....and on the day AG Holder is being subpoened (however the hell you spell it) by Congress.

I'm sure it is pure coincidence.....

Caught that press conference while recuperating in the lounger; Holder had a Fast & Furious question put to him after his wonderful "Ain't We All Great" event and, just for an instant, it looked like the reporter had driven a finishing nail right into his forehead. That was the end of the Q&A.

[Utah Bob]

Originally Posted by PedOncoDoc

How soon until Obama apologizes to Iran for this one?

He only apologizes for things other people have done.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Exactly.

I think once the Administration thinks this through, they will decide that it is an excellent time for military threats, if not action, against the Iranians.

TR

I think they are going to scare the Iranians by consulting with our allies and keeping all options on the table.