Iran behind alleged terrorist plot, U.S. says
Washington Post / Jason Ukman
11-Oct-2011 (27 comments)

U.S. officials on Tuesday said that they had foiled an elaborate terrorist plot backed by factions of the Iranian government aimed at assassinating the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
At a news conference, Attorney General Eric Holder said two Iranians have been charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism, among other charges.
One of the suspects, an Iranian with U.S. citizenship, was arrested in New York last month; the other, an Iranian, remains at large.
“The criminal complaint unsealed today exposes a deadly plot directed by factions of the Iranian government to assassinate a foreign Ambassador on U.S. soil with explosives,” Holder said in a statement. “Through the diligent and coordinated efforts of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, we were able to disrupt this plot before anyone was harmed.”
The suspects were identified as Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old from Austin, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran’s Quds Force, a paramilitary division of that country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Officials described the details of the plot as chilling, and alleged that Arbabsiar sought to meet with representatives of a Mexican drug cartel to arrange the killing of the Saudi ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir.
“It reads like pages from a Hollywood script,” said FBI Director Robert Mueller, but “the impact would have been very real.”
... >>>

recommended by Shifteh Ansari

Share/Save/Bookmark

 
amirparvizforsecularmonarchy

This helps obama if he uses this Mainstream Media "CNN/BBC Fact"

by amirparvizforsecularmonarchy on

Obama can use this to change his choice of actions on Iran in the up coming campaign to get reelected. He can say talk failed and it gave us this so now I say lets support the most popular opposition group of Iran according to the main stream media "the MeK".

Moral of the story the one thing we can all do is to stop calling them the IRI / Islamists etc. or as the main stream media does branding them as "The Iranian Threat".  They are not Iran and the real victim here s Iran, who's name is being dragged in dirt.

We need to call them "The Hezbollah Party In Iran". All of them, MeK included.  West doesn't want to mention that because it still has dreams of bringing another group of mullahs to power within the current system in iran.

 


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Obama

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

Is up to no good again. 

It could boost his Jewish constituency to vote for him and he may exploit this scandal to that effect for his re election.

Right. He is out to get votes in his faltering reelection. When you got lief long Democrats like me thinking twice about voting for him! The man is in trouble for reelection. I just told off the Democrats on their fund raising. He is desperate and panicking. Result will not be good. Meanwhile Johnathan Turd-ley is out in force trashing him on radio! 


Darius Kadivar

Faramarz Jaan We'll See

by Darius Kadivar on

It's too early to say.

I cannot anticipate the events but I do not see how Obama can truly act given US failure in Rallying the UN on Syria.

It could boost his Jewish constituency to vote for him and he may exploit this scandal to that effect for his re election. 

But other than that this incident could indeed have some major implication in enhancing US and European Sanctions against IRan on the short term. 

But as long as the Russians and Chinese don't rally I don't see how that can lead to regime change.

The Russians and Chinese may well suggest abandoning Syria but they may tell the americans that in exchange to cooperation on the Syrian problem we demand you to ease your stance on the Iranians.

I hope I am wrong cause the more the West pressures the IRI the higher the chances of seeing some form of social discontent inside IRan and maybe another national Upheaval which could seriously threaten the regime. 

Again we need to wait and see how this develops in the days and weeks to come.  


Oon Yaroo

If true, Us should take no prisoner in this case!

by Oon Yaroo on

If true, Us should take no prisoner in this case!

I'd go after the IRR regime, its apparatus, its proxies, its supporters, its cheerleaders, and yes all its free chello kabob loaders on this site, etc.

 


G. Rahmanian

This Is My Take:

by G. Rahmanian on

This is what I think: Had the plot been successful, it could've been used as propaganda to boost the morale of not only IR's forces who would've seen it as a great victory, but also the Saudis opposing the government and other terrorist organizations. It may have, temporarily, caused great chaos in the region as well. IR has also been desperately trying to provoke another war. Regime's militarists and the mullahs wrongly believe by having another war they can continue their rule a few more years longer.


Faramarz

DK

by Faramarz on

I totally disagree.

Obama is very tough and calculating and this is a plot against a close ally's embassy in the heart of the homeland and in an election season. This is not 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, but it is significant. He will act decisively. 

His first step will be to ratchet up the sanctions using the new IAEA findings. But then comes the fireworks. 


Faramarz

Rea

by Faramarz on

With that nice hair, he is going to be very popular in the prison!


Rea

Faramarz

by Rea on

Had a look at your cnn link. 

56 and he hasn't got a single gray hair! He must be a terrorist then, lol.


Darius Kadivar

Clumsy Obama Russia and China will cut this short

by Darius Kadivar on

This won't go anywhere. The Americans want to tough up the rhetoric because of the Russians and Chinese who have just signed a major Gas deal.  
I think This is merely a proxy foreplay between Obama and Medvedev/ Putin. Note that the latter ( Putin) has just been on a State visit to China to sign an important Gas deal.   I think this incident offers the US a pretext. To what purpose you may ask ? Go figure ... The US has no grand strategy for the Middle East. I think It has nothing to do with Iran per se but rather America's difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Americans have probably realized that leaving the region as promised by 2014 means that the retreat of American influence in the region will be far more prejudicial to the US interests than meets the eye.   Who will fill in the Vacuum ? Russia of course. America cannot afford leaving the Middle East particularly given all the current chaos. Either way this is fishy. Reminds me of the incident with the British Sailors incident in the Persian Gulf. It made a huge headlines for a few weeks and then went quiet Unless the Saudis go crazy and ultimately decide to attack Iran to boost Arab nationalism as a substitute to their own problems so as to avoid revolution. I think the Saudis are merely panicking.


Rea

Sounds rather far fetched

by Rea on

Particularly, if he's a car dealer. ;o)


divaneh

Very Strange

by divaneh on

What would be the gain for Iran?


Faramarz

US Treasury Allegations and Filings

by Faramarz on

 

Here is what the Attorney General Holder Filed today.

 

Arbabsiar met on a number of occasions with senior IRGC-QF officials regarding this plot and acted on behalf of senior Qods Force officials – including his cousin Abdul Reza Shahlai and Shahlai’s deputy Gholam Shakuri – to execute the plot. During one such meeting, a $100,000 payment for the murder of the Saudi ambassador was approved by the IRGC-QF. After this meeting, Arbabsiar arranged for approximately $100,000 to be sent from a non-Iranian foreign bank to the United States, to the account of the person he recruited to carry out the assassination.

Shahlai is an IRGC-QF official who 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 worked through his cousin, Mansour Arbabsiar, who was named in the criminal complaint for conspiring to bring the IRGC-QF’s plot to fruition. 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.

Abdollahi is also a senior IRGC-QF officer who coordinated aspects of this operation. Abdollahi oversees other Qods Force officials – including Shahlai – who were responsible for coordinating and planning this operation.

On or about August 1, 2011, MANSSOR ARBABSIAR, a/k/a “Mansour Arbabsiar,” the defendant, caused an overseas wire transfer of approximately $49,960 to be sent by a foreign entity from a bank located in a foreign country to an FBI undercover bank account (the “UC Bank Account”). Before reaching the UC Bank Account, the funds were transferred through a bank in Manhattan, New York.


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Just a correction

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

Whatever this may be it is the "Islamic Republic of Hizbollah" not Iran. 


Anonymous Observer

Very true GR

by Anonymous Observer on

I think he got the IC gig as part of his "overseas assignment" package.  :-)


Faramarz

Statira

by Faramarz on

Here is his picture on CNN

 

//www.cnn.com/

 

He is married to Martha E  Gurerro (54) since 1991 and before that to Esperanza Maldonado.

There is an auto shop associated with his name at 

 

4843 S Staples St
78411-2609 - Corpus Christi (Nueces)

Tel. 361-992-9888

 

Please note that none of this information has been confirmed.


Anonymous Observer

Faramarz jaan- he was a car dealer? :-))

by Anonymous Observer on

How stereotypically funny! :-)) 


پندارنیک

Now you know......

by پندارنیک on

Someone should've told the IRI not to let the hikers go free...They'll know better next time......


G. Rahmanian

AO:

by G. Rahmanian on

That's a good one! IC deal was his night job.


G. Rahmanian

Yes, it is huge!

by G. Rahmanian on

The regime in Tehran is desperate and will resort to any criminal act just to prove they are capable of harming people in the heart of America. Had they been successful, the IR authorities would have used it as the greatest propaganda ever. IR's threats have always been real. Most probably, there are a few more Ghodsis around the world waiting for orders from Tehran. The only way to deal with this issue is for the international community to help Iranians overthrow the regime.


MM

just two people blowing up two embassies + assasinate? more?

by MM on

the nasty ghods force reaching out.  The other net stories implicate bombing of the Israeli/Saudi embassies.  If blowing two embassies plus assasinations, there are probably gonna be more arrests coming up!


statira

This is a fabricated story

by statira on

to start the war between Iran and Saudi. U.S can't afford another war and Israel is too chicken to go to war with Iran.

Faramarz,

You said his picture is all over the place? Where is it?


Darius Kadivar

Sounds like a Bluff ...

by Darius Kadivar on

I wonder if this is not a way of ambushing Iran over events in Bahrain amongst other things. I don't mind actually but I question the timing ... Sounds fishy !


Darius Kadivar

Video: Barbara Starr talks about Saudi Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir

by Darius Kadivar on


Faramarz

Mansour Arbabsiar

by Faramarz on

He is a 56-yr old married guy from Corpus Christi, Texas. I believe that he has a car shop there. His pictures are all over the place.


Anonymous Observer

The guy was probably a regular commenter on IC!

by Anonymous Observer on

You know, one of the IR supporting, "peace and love" characters who spam the site with diversionary nonsense.

Let's just see which one of our resident "citizens of the world" will drop off the site.  That would be the one.  


Faramarz

This is Huge

by Faramarz on

Thanks Shifteh.

This is a big deal and will have a huge impact.