U.S. officials among the targets of Iran-linked assassination plots
Washington Post / Joby Warrick
27-May-2012 (8 comments)

In November, the tide of daily cable traffic to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan brought a chilling message for Ambassador Matthew Bryza, then the top U.S. diplomat to the small Central Asian country. A plot to kill Americans had been uncovered, the message read, and embassy officials were on the target list.

The details, scant at first, became clearer as intelligence agencies from both countries stepped up their probe. The plot had two strands, U.S. officials learned, one involving snipers with silencer-equipped rifles and the other a car bomb, apparently intended to kill embassy employees or members of their families.

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Masoud Kazemzadeh

Thank You

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Faramarz jaan.


Roozbeh_Gilani

if they dare, they'll shoot themselves in their feet, badly.

by Roozbeh_Gilani on

Apart from few very early, attacks (e.g. attack on US marine hotel in beirut, and a jewish church in argentina), the fact is that the target of all terrorist activities of the islamist regime outside Iran  has always b been the 'soft targets' presented by iranian opposition figures abroad. e,g, farokhzad (singer), ghasemlou (Kurdish-Iranian politician) , Bakhtiar (politician), etc. And even those terrorst murders were in general executed by client terrorist groups (hizbullah, hamas..) who themselves are now seemk to be  heavily penetrated by western intelligence agencies. Islamist regime's "etelaat ministry" itself, given recent defections & numerous cyber attacks, and attacks inside iran on nuclear figures, is probably more or less is being run ny Mossad & CIA!!!

I think we will be seeing a lot of such news in months to come. I'm afraid, I believe , that a case is being very slowly but surely built for a military attack on Iran.

"Personal business must yield to collective interest."


Faramarz

Masoud Jaan

by Faramarz on

 


If I were to assess why the Regime’s operatives have not been successful in their recent attempts, I would point out the following; the international community is more vigilant since 9/11, the Regime is careful to not get caught with its high level operatives' finger prints all over the crime scene, and the general lack of field experience by the Regime operatives as compared to Hezbollah or al-Qaeda terrorists.

First, a major contributing factor in the Regime’s success in early 80’s and the killings of Mr. Bakhtiar, Mr. Farrokhzad, Mykonos and others has been the lax and in some instances the cooperative attitude of the European governments towards the Islamic Republic at the time. But ever since 9/11 and the bombings at London and Madrid, the European have developed a more vigilant attitude towards foreign terrorists. And also the potential targets of terrorism are a lot more careful and receive police protection immediately. The recent Fatwa on Shahin Najafi and the protection provided by the German police is an example of this.

Secondly, the Regime is very careful in not getting caught red-handed and being able to use plausible deniability. We have seen that in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan where the Regime routinely has provided money, equipment and training (but inside of Iran), and never exposes its operatives outside of Iran’s border. One could argue that the arrests of Iranian operatives by the Israelis in southern Lebanon back in the mid-80’s or the detention of senior level Qods Force members in Irbil by the US forces in 2007 (Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi and Col. Abu Amad Davari) has forced the Regime to keep its high level operatives out of harms way and rely on less-trained amateurs or criminal gangs (Mexican drug cartel, Azeri mafia).

Now, the terrorist activities described in the Washing Post article in 7 countries can be traced back to last spring’s Saudi Arabia’s involvement in putting down Bahraini protests, the assassination of the Basiji guy at Natanz (Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan) in January 2012 and the Stuxnet’s worm infiltrating Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

The fact that the Saudi ambassadors in the US and Egypt, Israeli diplomats in Georgia, India, Thailand and Azerbaijan and the US ambassador in Baku were targeted points to decisions made at the highest levels in Iran, but the people who tried to carry out these acts were not exposed to decision-makers and one can argue that they were poorly trained in bomb making, while they did a reasonable job in identifying targets and performing surveillance.

Finally, like anything else in life, in order to be good at terrorism, not only you need training and equipment, you also need field experience. While Hezbollah and al-Qaeda terrorists have had many years of battle experience in Lebanon and Afghanistan (since the early 80’s), Sepah and Basij’s real battle experience mainly comes from the Iran-Iraq war where not much was happening since the early days of the war in the early 80’s. And that was a more conventional war and not an asymmetric battle field.

Even today’s Regime battle strategy against the west is all about prevention of a confrontation using the threat of missiles and closing the Strait of Hormuz using speed boats and mines.

So to sum it up, they are no good, and up to no good!


Masoud Kazemzadeh

Sassan, You are

by Masoud Kazemzadeh on

Sassan,

You are welcomed.

MK

 

Vildemosejaan,

You r welcome,

Masoud

 

Faramarz jaan,

Why do you think in the past few years, the IRI death squads have been unusually incompetent?  I have some ideas and am thinking to write an article o it.  I have great respect for your analyses and would like to read your thoughts on this (if you have formed any on this subject).

Best,

Masoud

 

 


Faramarz

Desperate Acts by a Desperate Regime

by Faramarz on

Thank you Masoud Khan.

IR Regime's actions have become very predictable and the best part is that they are very amateurish and ineffective.


vildemose

Iran-linked assassination plots

by vildemose on

Thanks for posting, dear MK.  Feeble Act of desperation. 

 

All Oppression Creates a State of War--Simone De Beauvoir


mousa67

now that would be a biiiiiig mistake :)

by mousa67 on

bring it on ahmadinejad joon, i mean it, just bring it on and see what happesns next :)


Sassan1

thx!

by Sassan1 on

thx for the news!