Reuters: Oct. 11 - An Iranian in custody has confessed to an alleged $1.5 million assassination plot to kill the Saudi ambassador of the United States and provided information about involvement by factions of the Iranian government, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tells a news conference.
Photo: Iranian President Ahmadinejad, said "Who, me?. No way!"We've all seen the
.... [Itanian News]
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attacks come two days after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar dispatched their armed forces to crisis-hit Bahrain to quash anti-government protests in the tiny Persian Gulf state.
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[Ms Dragon calls the reports of Oman troops being sent as erroneous. I suspect we probably sent ROP & 'Observers' from ISS]
So the report today from the US Attorney General that the Feds had busted 'factions of the Iranian Government' funding a terrorist plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador (and countless innocents) on US soil, well, that was always going to be a big deal.
Anyway it plays - Iranian Gov did plan it (and how tremendously stupid to do it and then to get caught!), or bits did it (more likely), or it's a cunning Mossad/CIA conspiracy (it won't be the FBI. They're cops), or heck, even a cunning Saudi Intel black op - there are no 'uninteresting' explanations.
But the Saudis are gonna be pissed off in a big way if it was Iranian. EG, here just now on Reuters.
Saudi to 'take measures' in response to Iran-Americans arrested for plot to blow-up top adviser and security confident to King.
(Reuters) - The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be expected to 'take measures' by its people after U.S. authorities broke up a plot by two men linked to the Iranian government to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States.
"After this incident many in the kingdom will expect the kingdom to take measures, the least of which will be to pull the Saudi ambassador from Iran," said Abdullah Alshammari, a government official in Riyadh. "In the opinion of Saudi decision makers, this situation is not going to pass easily."
Saudi Arabia mistrusts Shi'ite power Iran, and together with the United States accuses Tehran of backing terrorism and pursuing nuclear arms.
"There were always problems with Iran and Saudi Arabia, what is new now is that America is involved... The fact that the Saudi ambassador was the target in the United States, I believe this will mean the kingdom and the United States will take a joint decision together," Alshammari said. "An ambassador of the level of Adel Al-Jubeir, who was an adviser to the royal court, that is a great provocation for Saudi Arabia and therefore we expect that the kingdom will take steps in this matter."
Hmmm. 'Take steps' sounds potentially ominous.
At least the USA will allow a trial and some evidence in public court. So Iran (and Saudi...) can always see what the evidence is I guess. That would NOT happen in Iran or Saudi, bastions of press freedom that they are.
Oman didn't send troops into Bahrain* but Saudi sure did.
ReplyDeleteMany innocent civilians not even protesting including female GIRL students were targeted for harassment just because they were shia.
*I am Sunni writing this, because my religion doesn't tolerate persecutions based on nationalistic goals. If I didn't add that I am Sunni, people would just dismiss my comments offhand*
If Iran did try this killing, Saudi would be right to consider it an act of war.
ReplyDeleteThis could make Saudi try to get nuclear weapons too and make things very tense in the Gulf.
Haven't been up to date with your blog for ages Dragon but its great reading your thoughts on these matters.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting how the story pops up just a week (or so) after the small demonstrations in Saudi, like a perfect way to draw their attention to the outside enemy they wanted to target. Don't get me wrong, the Iranians can do very nasty things but they are not THIS stupid! And why would they want to kill the Saudi ambassador? "Because they are just evil" does not make for a strong argument.
Anyway I am very excited to see what comes out of this.
Keep up the great work
Anon, " Saudi try to get nuclear weapons too"? Too? How do you know Iran has them to start with. It's just a smear campaign, the UN did not see anything when they visited the reactors.
ReplyDeleteOmani Princess, a7ayeesh. Oh and an Omani girl was one of those beaten up, until our ministers intervened.
this story stinks to high heaven. What utter bullshit.
ReplyDeleteIt's very much their style so wouldn't surprise me - being meaningless and self-defeating is normally a good guide to an Iranian policy's being true. God help those people, really...led by fools.
ReplyDeleteAs for "taking steps", I imagine that will involve "getting cross", "asking for advice" (in private) and adding a few shifts to the monitoring teams in charge of keeping an eye on Qatif. Scary (not).
What's hilarious about this is that nobody knew about the "plot", nobody knew that so-and-so had (allegedly) been on the IRGC(QF) payroll for years, and that therefore nobody had been monitoring him. He blew it when by pure coincidence the guy he approached to take the business was an undercover agent. Crappy luck for the bad guys, very good luck for the Feds...
Hopefully they'll blow each other up. Solves a couple of problems.
ReplyDeleteThe question is not whether Iranian Agents did this or not, it is obvious that they did not. Iran has nothing to gain from this scheme. Even if they did, the Iranian regime knows how to assassinate if they want. They have 50 years of experience, trained by CIA during Shah time and much experience getting rid of internal and external dissent during the past 31 years. No professional spy agency uses a drunk car salesman as an agent!
ReplyDeleteThe question that should be asked is: Who will gain from this? Just to name a few: Obama Administration, Saudis, Israelis and MEK Organization.
He blew it when by pure coincidence the guy he approached to take the business was an undercover agent
ReplyDeleteCool addicting games