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.If true, this is marks and incredible escalation of antagonism on Iran's behalf. The murder of a foreign ambassador on a third nation's soil violates every protocol of international diplomacy every established. The logic behind this, if I may speculate, does make some sense. It's no secret that the Saudis view Iran as their enemy (and the feeling is mutual). It's also not much of a reach to say that the Saudis are our best allies in the effort to contain Iranian influence in the Middle East at the moment, and I am sure that we cooperate significantly on sharing intelligence. So if Iran wanted to strike out at Saudi Arabia, they'd do it on a third nation's soil, and the US fits the bill. It is also not without precedent. In 1976, Orlando Letelier, a political refugee from Pinochet's Chile, was assassinated using a car bomb in DC. (The State Department was about to send a letter to several fascist South American regimes to warn them against conducting assassinations on US soil, as the CIA already knew that Uruguay wated to target then-Rep. Ed Koch. Henry Kissinger told them not to send it. Letelier was killed less than a week later.)
This detail also strikes me as accurate:
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.If the Iranians were going to do this, they would be smart enough to act through a non-uniformed source, providing themselves with some level of deniability. But if I hesitate to take this at face value, it is because the FBI and DEA had acquired a habit of waving money around to see if anyone will say they want to commit terrorism. However, if true, we are entering a new, even darker and more serious, phase in our dealings with Iran.
No comments:
Post a Comment