The Al-Quds force vs the Chihuahua

Jump ball!  pl

http://abcnews.go.com/ad/gmaintroad.html?goback=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FBlotter%2Fus-iran-tied-terror-plot-washington-dc-disrupted%2Fstory%3Fid%3D14711933

Comments

[Colm O' Toole]

That is the largest amount of B.S I've read in a while... what is the US thinking?

What purpose would blowing up the Saudi and Israel embassies in Washington DC serve Iran? If they wanted to hit Israeli and Saudi targets why not do it in a Middle Eastern capital or even Europe with lighter security measures? Why would Iran's Quds force go to all the trouble of infiltrating a cell into Washington DC to blow up the embassies?

[Phoenix287]

An attack on U.S. soil represents too much of a divergence from the Iranian M.O. to believe that the order came from Khamenei (which is where it would have had to have come if they members of the Pasdaran/Qods acting with state sanction). Now the accusation that they were planning to attack the Israeli embassy is being thrown in as well, I would think that the Mossad would have jumped all over this rather than leave it to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

[arbogast]

Officials said Arbabsiar is now cooperating with prosecutors and federal agents in New York, where the case has been transferred.

Now?

If rich Americans would stop snorting cocaine we would have a better country than we now have with agent provocateur tales like this.

Iranians are conspiring with members of the Zeta Mexican drug gang to blow up the Saudi ambassador to the United States in the United States?

The first question one could ask is do the Zeta's routinely use bombs to kill people?

Pull the other one.

[James ben Goy]

The plot & its timing add dimension to Obama's Gulf agenda but little else about this tale makes sense. It sounds more like a scam (ala 'Curveball') than Al-Quds. Obviously pretty easy to push on the open doors at our agencies with this kind of 'intel.' Whatever else can be said about Persians, stupid they are not. They have of late been very careful to do nothing this obvious in their operations in the West.

[Jackie]

I agree with Colm O'Toole. This just makes us sound ridiculous! I remember "commies under every bed" used to spook people, I guess this is the new bogeyman.

[toto]

From the article: "Senior Obama administration officials said the U.S. currently does not have any information indicating that either Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad necessarily knew about the assassination plot and said the U.S. will pursue a path of response that would not include the possibility of an armed conflict with Iran."

I'm thinking of the Litvinenko murder - I doubt Putin ordered it personally, more likely some over-zealous FSB (or "para-FSB") agents plotted the thing with minimal control. Maybe something similar happened there?

[Phoenix287]

I'm in agreement with Toto. It's also strange that none of the news shows are repeating the administration's line on this, they just continue to parade people around saying that the order must have come from the highest levels.

[turcopolier]

Phoenix
pending more info I would give it 50% as agitprop. pl

[J]

Colonel,

'Sumptin' just ain't right with this story.

On another note So the SA embassy's go-to individual, is now their Ambassador. He is one of those who are more familiar with our American society and culture. I heard rumblings from his nation that some thought he was too Americanized for their comfort.

[Pirouz]

Colonel,

By the scant details being provided, I have to say I'm skeptical: the means of contact, the references back to Iran and the outrageousness of the plot, itself.

If I had to guess-- and this is only a guess-- I'd pursue the possibility that this is an MEK operation intended to produce a Zimmermann tehegram (1917) like effect.

[blowback]

Pat - you are far too generous, this is 100% gold-plated BS!

BTW, the supposed target of this alleged assassination has, according to Wikileaks, pressured the US government to assassinate the leaders of the Iranian government. How else can one interpret the phrase "cut off the head of the snake" when referring to Iran?

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1011/Iran-vs.-Saudi-Arabia-In-Wikileaks-targeted-Saudi-ambassador-told-US-to-decapitate-Iranian-snake

[R Whitman]

Was this written by John Le Carre??

[Charlemagne]

(1) What seems "rational" to us isn't necessarily "rational" to these Quds fellows. (2) Pat and others (e.g. at DIA) have pushed back so hard for so long and with such success against the "Iran has nukes" lobby that I'm surprised this Zimmerman Telegram of a news story wasn't pushed forward sooner. (3) I am deeply skeptical of any "rogue elements of an intelligence service are doing this" thesis, based on the lack of historical precedent for this dynamic in the sense usually imputed -- rogue elements (like the anti-Hitler plotters under Canaris in the Abwehr) act against, not for the policy aims of the government -- that's what makes them rogue. (4) While not coming from the ATF this is coming from the same general quarters that brought us the "Fast and Furious" mishegas. (5) I think the alliance between terrorists and criminal underworld elements has been overstated generally, but of course it's true that our government aligned with underworld elements to go after Castro, so it's not impossible that something like this could occur. Just seems like a lot of moving parts, and not the parts you would want to be moving with if you cared about things like, oh, I don't know, operational security? Informants and sting operations in the drug cartels being, you know, not a recent invention. (6) Assuming for the sake of argument that the allegations are all true, I'd keep in mind what CIA's William King Harvey said of the plots against Castro: Assassination (I'm paraphrasing) is a sign of weakness. It means you can't solve the problem by some other means. So if the allegations are true, it does not follow that the Iranian regime is a greater existential threat than we thought it was. It might be the case that they're less of a threat in the sense that should concern us, that the regime is fragile and fraying, and that we would do well to heed the late Lee Atwater's advice about never attacking an enemy is in the process of destroying himself.

[steve]

Too many instances where the FBI has foiled FBI instigated terrorist "plots" for me to take this DEA investigation as accurate without a dump truck load of salt.

[RLKirtley]

Checks today's date. No it's not April 1st. Shakes head.

[chimneyswift]

Glad others here think this is horsefeathers. The tell, I imagine, will be whether the "consequenses" are something we already wanted to do.

Also, I am reminded very much of Panetta's recent trip to Israel and the Col's very pointed question, "What's he really doing there?"

[blowback]

John Le Carre wouldn't produce such a fantastical confection, I suggest it was written by Hans Christian Andersen

[Fred]

Israel and their beloved neocon servants have been looking for a casus belli against Iran for at least a couple of years and this seems to be the latest and most unlikely. Knowing that the bombing is just an excuse away the Iranians are really going to do something this stupid - and in Washington D. C. of all places? The only thing even less likely is any of those millionaires running for office investing some of their own money on a real business in Detroit (or any other US city for that matter).

[robt willmann]

The FBI director, Robert Mueller, is quoted in the ABC article as saying, "Though it reads like the pages of a Hollywood script...."

That's quite an admission by Mr. Mueller, since it obviously is a script.

How sad to see an elegant and beautiful woman like Diane Sawyer presenting such blatant propaganda, along with the obligatory visual of goose-stepping Iranian soldiers. Another clue is that the story is peddled by Brian Ross, the ABC "investigative stenographer".

When the video showed the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) saying that the confidential source noted that there could be 100 or 150 people in a "fictional restaurant" where the requested bombing would take place, that was the icing on the cake.

At trial, the defendant should call Ahmed Chalabi as an expert witness to testify that the restaurant is not the only part of the tale that is fictional. After all, Mr. Chalabi will say, the Iranians now have influence in Iraq they did not have before, and they did not have to commit any violence in the U.S. in order to accomplish that. He will further testify that the Persian culture has been around quite a bit longer than 235 years, and they would not embarrass themselves with such a ham-handed "conspiracy" as was concocted here.

The Mexican Zetas are going to not only bomb a "fictional restaurant" in the U.S., but do "followup attacks" on the the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Washington D.C. as part of the "plan"?

The script writers should have researched their Zetas a little better; the Iranians surely would have.

[Mark Logan]

WAG time!

Somebody has to be the skunk at this picnic, might as well be me.

The report by Holder is the truth as they see it. They have live perps and interviews and multiple agents involved. Conspiracy? I don't think so.

I recall some guys running around in speed boats dropping crates in front our our naval vessels in the Strait awhile back. Loose cannons in there? You betcha!

Motive: They like our War on Terror. It bankrupts us in many ways, and we seem to be losing interest. These idiots, and if they trusted Mexican drug cartels, they indisputably ARE idiots, thought we would blame it on Al Qaeda. Abandon Afghanistan? How could we now? Israeli embassy + a Saudi...

That's it. Ducking and covering...

[Green Zone Cafe]

Makes no sense to me. The allegation of Quds Force involvement is based on the confession of this one guy? I like the MEK idea, but you'd think the suspect's links to MEK could be found out. Yeah, found out and hidden, I suppose.

The hype of the story is scary. It shows that something is in motion. We poor citizens will have to wait for what is dealt to us.

[markfromireland]

I am reminded strongly, very strongly, of Colin Powell spouting one pack of lies after the other. Why doesn't the Obama administration both invite him and George John Tenet back to give lessons in how it's done? They'd fit right in and we'd be spared the embarrassment of reading this slipshod mendacious garbage. Invite Blair and Alastair Campbell back to give the advanced classes - the ones on how to "sex up" lies.

[turcopolier]

markfromireland

I see that Turki feisal told someone in London that the Iranians must be responsible. What do you make of that?

BTW, my Lang and Fay ancestors came from Louth and Meath respecively around 1820. They were freeholders. they sold whatever it was that they owned (land or leases) and went to St. Lawrence County, NY where they bought land and resumed farming. Any great sociological or Irish history truthe there? pl

[Anna-Marina]

Henry Francis Grady, “ who has been called “America’s top diplomatic soldier for a critical period of the Cold War” ...wrote about the Zionist lobby and its damaging effect on US national interests: “I have had a good deal of experience with lobbies but this group started where those of my experience had ended….. I have headed a number of government missions but in no other have I ever experienced so much disloyalty…”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/11/the-real-story-of-how-israel-was-created/

[The beaver]

This was my line of thought about Panetta's visit and then I saw this piece from Richard Silverstein on his blog this morning:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/10/11/yediot-bibi-did-shalit-deal-because-he-has-something-bigger-prepared-for-iran/

If you read today’s news of our exposure of an alleged Iranian terror plot and the clear exaggeration the Justice Department is offering to explain the conspirators, their goals, and the means they attempted to use to achieve them, I think it reads like the U.S. and Israel preparing the world for an attack on Iran. Before they do, they need to ratchet up pressure, intensify the demonization campaign. They need to make Iran look the part of the villain before they strike. Read Muhammad Sahimi’s further reporting on the alleged plot here.