Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

[aaron]

Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

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.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in an announcement today that the plan was "conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran" by a faction of the government and called it a "flagrant" violation of U.S. and international law.

more at

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-ira...ry?id=14711933

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Well, they are sitting on OUR oil. We may have to liberate them. We just need a building to come down or something.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

I don't think the story has been properly managed yet, because there is very little if any play on cable news.

[Sutter Cane]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

I don't think the story has been properly managed yet, because there is very little if any play on cable news.

Maybe at 5pm when you posted...

I was off the computer all day so I hadn't heard anything about it. My ipod died, so when I was at the gym tonight I actually watched CNN (which I never do) and they devoted a whole hour of breathless coverage to this. I haven't watched cable news for so long, since I read all my news online, that my skills for picking apart the propaganda have deteriorated. Couldn't tell if was much ado about nothing, or Archduke Ferdinand 2.0. When I got home I checked here for the real story. Still too soon to tell, I guess.

Now that I poke around, I see that the story is on the cnn homepage, but isn't the main one. Same deal on Fox and Huffpo etc.

Cnn had lots of talk about the Mexican cartel involvement angle, too. Maybe they are prepping the public for Iraq AND Mexican invasions? Or just trying to capitalize on the popularity of Breaking Bad?

[KGW]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

And, my d**k reaches to the floor...

[FrankL]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

more at

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-ira...ry?id=14711933

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Well, they are sitting on OUR oil. We may have to liberate them. We just need a building to come down or something.

if this is true, then I wonder why Iran just doesn't file a motion with the UN asking for the US to start war with them.

In other words, the premise sounds very implausible.

[mesyn191]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

Good article with comments from ex CIA guy.

Robert Baer, a former CIA agent with long experience of observing the QF, said: "This stinks to holy hell. The Quds Force are very good. They don't sit down with people they don't know and make a plot. They use proxies and they are professional about it. If Kassim Suleimani was coming after you or me, we would be dead. This is totally uncharacteristic of them."

This plus the "qui bono" factor and lack of ways in which succeeding in the assassination would benefit Iran makes my BS alarm go off.

[BigBagel]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

The reader comments for the NY Times article are a litany of disbelief.

[mooncliff]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middl...py-Wall-Street

Nothing to see here. Look! Look! Over there!

[Ghent12]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

Good article with comments from ex CIA guy.

This plus the "qui bono" factor and lack of ways in which succeeding in the assassination would benefit Iran makes my BS alarm go off.

I agree that it seems implausible that Iran would do what amounts to an act of war on the U.S. to effect the death of a few ambassadors, but it is possible that the QF was trying new tactics due to any number of motivations.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

I'm a big fan of Robert Baer.

He's written a couple of quite good books that have provided me with some insight into the region...much like GRG55's often enlightening posts on the region.

And I would agree that it would appear(from an amateur perspective) that official Iranian culpability in the assassination attempts could be quite detrimental to overall Iranian foreign policy objectives(in my opinion).

But it IS worth noting that Iran's foreign policy tools have included the far more than occasional use of direct and proxy asymmetric/unconventional warfare....as Iran can't compete conventionally/militarily with the US.

This incident in particular I thought was quite serious at the time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karbala...dquarters_raid

There is simply NO WAY this incident could have occurred without considerable and direct Iranian support.

Personally, I think this latest contact is simply one more(many of which that don't make it into the public domain) added to the seemingly perpetual unconventional/asymmetric war that has been fought on and off between US/Iran over the last 3+ decades.

[wayiwalk]

Re: Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

I think an important component of managing a message or providing conflicting news is having a convenient catalogue of potential stories on file to take action on when needed, and then released.

The missles the military sent to the suspected Sudan arms factory in 1998 around the time of the Lewinsky scandal come to mind, the recent capture/kill of Osama bin Laden, and stories like this seem like a situation where there are known targets and opportunities....and when the gov't wants to cause a distraction, well, there it is.

So I'm in the , "this is a real attempt by Iran", but only in the sense that the operative was here, but the presence was well known by those in the gov't who watch for these things.