The Obama Administration is accusing the Iranian regime of being behind a foiled plot to kill the Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil and to bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies. The Iranians sought to use the Mexican drug cartels as cover, allowing them to wage war while hidden in the shadows. If this is what Iran is willing to do without nuclear weapons, what will the regime do when it gets the bomb?
Manssoor Arbabsiar, a naturalized citizen, was arrested on September 29 at JFK International Airport, which was ironically the target of another terrorist plot in 2007 with strong connections to Iran. A member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Al-Quds Force, the regime’s primary arm for covert operations, was also charged. This second individual, Gholan Shakuri, is in Iran.
Attorney General Eric Holder left no room to doubt the Iranian regime’s role in the terrorist plot. He said the terrorist operation was “conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran” by top officials. He pointed out the “chilling nature of what the Iranian government attempted to do here.”
In the early part of spring, Manssor Arbabsiar was asked by his cousin, a senior Revolutionary Guards official, to recruit a Mexican drug trafficker to kidnap the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. In May, Arbabsiar made contact with someone who he thought was a member of the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico. Thankfully, that person was an informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency. The plot changed from a kidnapping to an assassination. Gholan Shakuri and another Revolutionary Guards official met with Arbabsiar in Iran and approved the bombing of a restaurant where the Saudi ambassador often ate. Had this plot gone through, Americans at the restaurant would have been killed and wounded.
The Iranians agreed to pay the informant $1.5 million, beginning with payments of $100,000 in July and August. Presumably, this would be shared amongst the other Zetas members that would take part in the operation. The Iranians also offered to provide tons of opium for the drug cartel that could be resold on the black market. As the plot progressed, there was discussion about bombing the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington D.C., as well as in Argentina. On October 5, Shakuri became impatient and told Arbabsiar, “just do it quickly, it’s late.”
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