Iran based terror plot disrupted

[southsider2k5]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-iran-tied...ory?id=14711933

 

FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a "significant terrorist act in the United States" tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today.

 

The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C.

 

Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the U.S. officials.

 

The stunning allegations come against a backdrop of longstanding tensions between Iran and the United States and Saudi Arabia. In the last year, Saudi Arabia has attempted to build an anti-Iran alliance to push back against perceived aggression by Iran in the region.

 

The State Department has listed Iran as a "state sponsor" of terror since 1984. Officials in Argentina have said Iran was behind an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.

 

Alleged Terror Plotter Claims He Was 'Directed By High-Ranking' Iranian Officials

 

The new case, called Operation Red Coalition, began in May when an Iranian-American from Corpus Christi, Texas, approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, according to counter-terrorism officials.

 

The Iranian-American thought he was dealing with a member of the feared Zetas Mexican drug organization, according to agents.

 

The DEA office in Houston brought in FBI agents as the international terror implications of the case became apparent.

 

The Iranian-American, identified by federal officials as Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, reportedly claimed he was being "directed by high-ranking members of the Iranian government," including a cousin who was "a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform," according to a person briefed on the details of the case. Counter-terrorism officials said they believe the cousin may be part of the special operations unit of the Revolutionary Guard, the Quds force.

 

Arbabsiar and a second man, Gohlam Shakuri, an Iranian official, were named in a five-count criminal complaint filed Tuesday afternoon in federal court in New York. They were charged with conspiracy to kill a foreign official and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, a bomb, among other counts.

 

The complaint also refers to another Iranian official but does not name him.

 

U.S. officials said Arbabsiar met twice in July with the DEA informant in the northern Mexico city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, and negotiated a $1.5 million payment for the assassination of the Saudi ambassador. As a down payment, officials said Arbabsiar wired two payments of $49,960 on Aug. 1 and Aug. 9 to an FBI undercover bank account after he had returned to Iran.

 

Federal agents said the DEA and the FBI recorded a number of meetings and phone calls between the informant and Arbabsiar, some of them from Iran.

 

Officials said Arbabsiar flew from Iran through Frankfurt, Germany, to Mexico City Sept. 28 for a final planning session, but was refused entry to Mexico and put on a plane to New York, where he was arrested.

 

Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen, expressed "utter disregard for collateral damage" in the planned bomb attacks in Washington, according to officials.

 

He also reportedly told the undercover DEA informant that his contacts in the Iranian government could provide "tons of opium" for the Mexican cartels, according to officials who have reviewed the case file.

 

Officials said Arbabsiar is now cooperating with prosecutors and federal agents in New York, where the case has been transferred.

 

Senior Justice Department officials in Washington are reported to still be closely reviewing the specific language to be used in any charging documents.

 

A spokesperson at the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., said she was unaware of the alleged plot.

[Balta1701]

So wait, the attorney general is now saying that factions in the Iranian government were planning a terrorist attack in the us? Isn't that an act of war?

[kapkomet]

So wait, the attorney general is now saying that factions in the Iranian government were planning a terrorist attack in the us? Isn't that an act of war?

 

Not in your world. It's time to negotiate.

[southsider2k5]

Not in your world. It's time to negotiate.

 

Unless they are on Wall Street. Then #occupy.

[Balta1701]

Unless they are on Wall Street. Then #occupy.

Wait...you agree that the financial industry is an enemy of the u.s. Population and declared war against this country? And should be responded to by any means necessary?! I'm game!

[southsider2k5]

Wait...you agree that the financial industry is an enemy of the u.s. Population and declared war against this country? And should be responded to by any means necessary?! I'm game!

 

Not at all, which is why they obviously need to be occupied, unlike those who actually did declare war on us.

[GoSox05]

I think we should just listen to John Bolton on this.

[Rex Kickass]

Not in your world. It's time to negotiate.

 

Well if it was good enough for Reagan....

[BigSqwert]

The “very scary” Iranian Terror plot

The most difficult challenge in writing about the Iranian Terror Plot unveiled yesterday is to take it seriously enough to analyze it. Iranian Muslims in the Quds Force sending marauding bands of Mexican drug cartel assassins onto sacred American soil to commit Terrorism — against Saudi Arabia and possibly Israel — is what Bill Kristol and John Bolton would feverishly dream up while dropping acid and madly cackling at the possibility that they could get someone to believe it. But since the U.S. Government rolled out its Most Serious Officials with Very Serious Faces to make these accusations, many people (therefore) do believe it; after all, U.S. government accusations = Truth. All Serious people know that. And in the ensuing reaction one finds virtually every dynamic typically shaping discussions of Terrorism and U.S. foreign policy.

 

To begin with, this episode continues the FBI’s record-setting undefeated streak of heroically saving us from the plots they enable. From all appearances, this is, at best, yet another spectacular “plot” hatched by some hapless loser with delusions of grandeur but without any means to put it into action except with the able assistance of the FBI, which yet again provided it through its own (paid, criminal) sources posing as Terrorist enablers. The Terrorist Mastermind at the center of the plot is a failed used car salesman in Texas with a history of pedestrian money problems. Dive under your bed. “For the entire operation, the government’s confidential sources were monitored and guided by federal law enforcement agents,” explained U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and “no explosives were actually ever placed anywhere and no one was actually ever in any danger.’”

 

But no matter. The U.S. Government and its mindless followers in the pundit and think-tank “expert” class have seized on this ludicrous plot with astonishing speed to all but turn it into a hysterical declaration of war against Evil, Hitlerian Iran. “The US attorney-general Eric Holder said Iran would be ‘held to account’ over what he described as a flagrant abuse of international law,” and “the US says military action remains on the table,” though “it is at present seeking instead to work through diplomatic and financial means to further isolate Iran.” Hillary Clinton thundered that this “crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for.” The CIA’s spokesman at The Washington Post, David Ignatius, quoted an anonymous White House official as saying the plot “appeared to have been authorized by senior levels of the Quds Force.” Meanwhile, the State Department has issued a Travel Alert which warns American citizens that this plot “may indicate a more aggressive focus by the Iranian Government on terrorist activity against diplomats from certain countries, to include possible attacks in the United States.”

 

In case that’s not enough to frighten you — and, really, how could it not be? — some Very Serious Experts are very, very afraid and want you to know how Serious this all is. Within moments of Holder’s news conference, National Security Expert Robert Chesney – without a molecule of critical thought in his brain — announced that this “remarkable development” was “very scary.” Very, very scary. Chesney then printed large blocks of the DOJ’s Press Release to prove it. Self-proclaimed “counter-terrorism expert” Daveed Gartenstein-Ross tapped into his vast expertise to explain: ”Holder weighing in on the plot’s connection to Iran means the administration is deadly serious about it.” Progressive think-tank expert and Atlantic writer Steve Clemons decreed that if the DOJ’s accusations are true, then ”the US has reached a point where it must take action” and “this is time for a significant strategic response to the Iran challenge in the Middle East and globally,” which “could involve military.”

 

Rest of the article

Edited October 12, 2011 by BigSqwert

[StrangeSox]

I was wondering if it was another "FBI foils its own plot" situation.

[Jenksismyhero]

"Some rogue terrorist in the mountains of Afghanistan wants to hijack multiple commercial jets on the same day and run them into the World Trade Center? HA! What kind of weed are you smoking? That could NEVER happen!"

[StrangeSox]

"Some rogue terrorist in the mountains of Afghanistan wants to hijack multiple commercial jets on the same day and run them into the World Trade Center? HA! What kind of weed are you smoking? That could NEVER happen!"

 

Many of these foiled "plots" have been FBI concoctions from the start where they create a plan to recruit suspected radicals to supposedly carry out these complicated attacks, but drive the operation the entire time. The people they get are entirely reliant on FBI support and don't have any real capacity to carry out an attack.

 

I'm not saying its entrapment or anything quite like that, but I stopped trusting these FBI "busts" years ago. If they ran the program from start to finish, then they didn't actually prevent an attack. It'd be different if the infiltrated an actual plot and stopped it, but they don't.

[NorthSideSox72]

Many of these foiled "plots" have been FBI concoctions from the start where they create a plan to recruit suspected radicals to supposedly carry out these complicated attacks, but drive the operation the entire time. The people they get are entirely reliant on FBI support and don't have any real capacity to carry out an attack.

 

I'm not saying its entrapment or anything quite like that, but I stopped trusting these FBI "busts" years ago. If they ran the program from start to finish, then they didn't actually prevent an attack. It'd be different if the infiltrated an actual plot and stopped it, but they don't.

1. What you described in bold, IS entrapment.

 

2. What you described in bold is not remotely what has been happening in the cases I have seen, including this one.

 

Now, you can debate if you want how likely this schmo was to succeed, but the reality is he wanted to, and tried to get help, and may have gotten that help had he not been intercepted.

 

How much this was "driven" from Iran also seems fuzzy, but the case was apparently strong enough for the Saudis to happily take it and run with it.

 

[StrangeSox]

That is what's happened numerous times. You've got a guy or a group that's radical and would *like* to do something, but have no real plan, no organization, no support, no real ability to follow through on anything. The FBI provides support start-to-finish. At no point is anyone or anything actually in danger.

 

Maybe I'm not saying it very clearly because I don't see these situations as clear entrapment, but the reality is that these FBI busts are never foiling actual, organized, supplied plots with any real chance of occurring, let alone succeeding.

[Milkman delivers]

But given enough time, these guys MAY have gotten other supporters.

[NorthSideSox72]

That is what's happened numerous times. You've got a guy or a group that's radical and would *like* to do something, but have no real plan, no organization, no support, no real ability to follow through on anything. The FBI provides support start-to-finish. At no point is anyone or anything actually in danger.

 

Maybe I'm not saying it very clearly because I don't see these situations as clear entrapment, but the reality is that these FBI busts are never foiling actual, organized, supplied plots with any real chance of occurring, let alone succeeding.

All the cases of inside busts like this that I have seen so far, are not what you describe. I really don't see how you can think these guys don't have "any real chance" at it. You make it seem like some guy goes on a blog and says "boy, I sure would like it if Americans went up in flames", then the FBI swoops in, recruits, plans, pays, equips, sets up, then arrests. That just isn't true.

 

What happened in this case, and others similarly, is someone actively went looking for help or info on how to hatch a plot... a federal informant pokes at them a bit to see how serious they are... if they really are, THEN the FBI acts as a "helper" might, with the suspect still doing the pushing of the issue, until a point where they have the suspect dead to rights.

 

Do you really not see the very large different between those scenarios?

 

And by the way, bear in mind, this guy wasn't even found by the FBI, it was the DEA who happened across the situation. You really think the DEA was out looking to create false terrorism plots? Come on.

 

[southsider2k5]

They were too busy arming Mexican cartels to worry about that stuff...

[StrangeSox]

What happened in this case, and others similarly, is someone actively went looking for help or info on how to hatch a plot... a federal informant pokes at them a bit to see how serious they are... if they really are, THEN the FBI acts as a "helper" might, with the suspect still doing the pushing of the issue, until a point where they have the suspect dead to rights.

 

Do you really not see the very large different between those scenarios?

 

No, because this:

the FBI swoops in, recruits, plans, pays, equips, sets up, then arrests.

is what has happened numerous times.

 

At no point is there an actual, real plot capable inflicting harm on anyone. I'm not saying they're setting people up; my problem with this is portraying the arrest as the FBI actually "foiling" a plot. Without the FBI's help, there is no plot.

 

A google search of "FBI foils own plot" turns up plenty of examples of this exact scenario happening:

http://politics.salon.com/2010/11/28/fbi_8/

Edited October 13, 2011 by StrangeSox

[NorthSideSox72]

No, because this:

 

is what has happened numerous times.

 

At no point is there an actual, real plot capable inflicting harm on anyone. I'm not saying they're setting people up; my problem with this is portraying the arrest as the FBI actually "foiling" a plot. Without the FBI's help, there is no plot.

 

A google search of "FBI foils own plot" turns up plenty of examples of this exact scenario happening:

http://politics.salon.com/2010/11/28/fbi_8/

I just completely disagree with your characterization. There clearly was a plot that this guy himself suggested. Was the plot completely formed and ready? Not in this case, no. So what?

 

[StrangeSox]

I just completely disagree with your characterization. There clearly was a plot that this guy himself suggested. Was the plot completely formed and ready? Not in this case, no. So what?

Well, again, with this case I don't have a problem with what the FBI did, I have a problem with the media portrayal of "DANGEROUS IRANIAN TERROR PLOT FOILED!!!"

[NorthSideSox72]

Well, again, with this case I don't have a problem with what the FBI did, I have a problem with the media portrayal of "DANGEROUS IRANIAN TERROR PLOT FOILED!!!"

And there I agree to an extent... no doubt about it, the media loves to blow these things up beyond their actual impact.

 

[StrangeSox]

And there I agree to an extent... no doubt about it, the media loves to blow these things up beyond their actual impact.

 

Let's not pretend that the FBI doesn't love this either.

[southsider2k5]

I just completely disagree with your characterization. There clearly was a plot that this guy himself suggested. Was the plot completely formed and ready? Not in this case, no. So what?

 

There is also the assumption being made that if the FBI hadn't have caught this early, there never would have been a advancement of the plot or attack. If they are actively trying to set up an attack, I don't think that is a fair assumption. If the FBI doesn't supply them, you can't just assume no one else would.

[Milkman delivers]

There is also the assumption being made that if the FBI hadn't have caught this early, there never would have been a advancement of the plot or attack. If they are actively trying to set up an attack, I don't think that is a fair assumption. If the FBI doesn't supply them, you can't just assume no one else would.

 

That's what I was saying.

[StrangeSox]

 

His nickname was Scarface, the legacy of a brutal knife attack on a dark Houston street three decades ago that left his left cheek permanently marred. Friends and neighbors in Texas said that he could be gruff and intimidating, and that he often stood outside his house at night smoking and talking on his cellphone in a language they did not understand.

 

“

His socks would not match,” said Tom Hosseini, a former college roommate and friend. “He was always losing his keys and his cellphone. He was not capable of carrying out this plan.”

 

 

Others were less charitable, saying he was hopelessly unreliable. Sam Ragsdale, who runs his own wholesale car business in Corpus Christi, had one word for Mr. Arbabsiar: “Worthless.”