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تاريخ التسجيل : 30/05/2010
 |  موضوع: The Daily Mail:U.S. foils astonishing plot by Iranians to assassinate Saudi ambmindador on American soil using a Mexican drug hitman 2011-10-12, 7:56 pm | |
| 1 12:24 PM
Iranians offered $1.5m to fake Mexican cartel for bomb plot
Saudi ambmindador would have been killed in Washington DC restaurant blast
Bombs would later have been set off at Saudi and Israeli embmindies
Down payment of $100,000 allegedly made
Two alleged plotters named as U.S. naturalised citizen Manssor Arbabsiar and Iranian Gholam Shakuri
Key Iranian official who 'coordinated the attack' named asArbabsiar's cousin, Abdul-Reza Shahlai - a terrorist linked to deaths of five U.S. soldiers in Iraq
An extraordinary terrorist plot has
been foiled - which would have seen the Saudi Arabian ambmindador to the
U.S. murdered on American soil.
Agents of the Iranian government
reportedly offered $1.5 million to a Mexican drug cartel to carry out
the assmindination of Adel Al-Jubeir in a busy Washington DC restaurant.
The terror plotters - who also planned to set off blasts at the Saudi and Israeli embmindies in the city - told their Mexican contact they could provide 'tons of opium' to his gang.
But their contact, to whom they
allegedly wired a $100,000 down payment for the killing, was in fact an
undercover U.S. informant.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the 'stranger than fiction' plot 'crosses a line' in Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism and will further isolate the Islamic republic.
Scroll down for video...
Plot: Manssor Arbabsiar (left) is accused of a terror plot to murder Saudi ambmindador Adel Al-Jubeir (right)
Manssor Arbabsiar appearing before US Southern District Court Judge
Michael H. Dolinger and United States mindistant US Attorney Glen Kopp
during his Arraignment at Federal Court in New York today
Appearance: These court sketches show Magistrate Judge Michael
Dolinger (left) presiding over the arraignment of Manssor Arbabsiar
(right) at Manhattan federal court
Two men allegedly working for 'factions of the Iranian government' have been charged with the plot.
Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian pmindport, was arrested at JFK Airport in New York.
Asked about the potential loss of
innocent life in the bombings, he said: 'They want that guy done. If the
hundred go with him, f**k 'em,' court papers reported. He is now said
to be facing life in prison if convicted.
Gholam Shakuri, whom authorities said was a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was also charged but is still at large.
Arbabsiar allegedly offered the $1.5 million bounty to a Mexican drug cartel for help with the assmindination.
A third man named Abdul-Reza Shahlai is also accused of coordinating the alleged plot.
Suspect: Alleged terror plotter Manssor Arbabsiar's home in Round Rock, Texas
Accused: The home of terror plot suspect Manssor Arbabsiar in Round Rock, Texas
Shahlai, an Iranian official who is Arbabsiar's cousin, has previously been accused of plotting an attack in Iraq which killed five U.S. soldiers.
WHO ARE THE SECRETIVE QUDS FORCE?
Iran’s secretive Quds Force is an elite brigade within Iran's revolutionary Guard.
The Guards, with their own navy, air
force and command structure separate from the regular armed forces, are
seen as fiercely loyal to the supreme leader.
Within the Guards, Quds are tasked with 'exporting' the Iranian revolution abroad.
Said to contain 15,000 troops, the
force has been linked to operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, North
Africa and now North America.
In the past, the U.S. has accused
Quds of arming Iraqi militants with deadly bomb-making material,
building up an extensive network in the war-torn country, recruiting
Iraqis and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied
with Washington.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the
plot to kill the Saudi ambassador and bomb embmindies was a flagrant
violation of U.S. and international law and that the U.S. would hold
Iran accountable.
Mr Holder added that the suspects expressed 'utter disregard for collateral damage' in the planned bombings on U.S. soil.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said many lives could have been lost in the plot.
Mrs Clinton added: 'This really, in the
minds of many diplomats and government officials, crosses a line that
Iran needs to be held to account for.'
She said the plot was 'stranger than fiction'.
'The idea that they would attempt to go
to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi
ambmindador, nobody could make that up, right?' she said.
Clinton said the scheme 'creates a
potential for international reaction that will further isolate Iran,
that will raise questions about what they're up to, not only in the
United States and Mexico'.
She said both she and President Barack Obama were calling world leaders to inform them of the developments.
'We are actively engaged in a very
concerted diplomatic outreach to many capitals, to the UN in New York,
to not only to explain what happened so we can try to pre-empt any
efforts by Iran to be successful in what would be their denial and their
efforts to try to deflect responsibility but so that we also enlist
more countries in working together against what is becoming a clearer
and clearer threat [from Iran],' Clinton said.
'We want to remindure our friends that the complaints against Iran are well-founded,' she added.
Target: The plot would have also attacked the Israel embmindy, pictured here, in Washington DC
Warning: Hillary Clinton (left) said the plot 'crosses a line' in
Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism and will further isolate the
Islamic republic, whose president is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right)
Attorney General Eric Holder, right, and FBI Director Robert Mueller
announce that two individuals have been charged for their alleged
participation in a plot to murder the Saudi Ambmindador
President Barack Obama, meanwhile,
phoned the Saudi ambmindador to offer support and underline the
solidarity between the two countries.
He is said to have told Adel Al-Jubeir that the plot was a 'flagrant violation' of U.S. and international law.
In addition, at a meeting with his
national security team on Tuesday morning, Mr Obama is said to have
thanked them for their exceptional work in disrupting the plot.
Saudi officials said the government would be expected to 'take measures' after the 'great provocation'.
TIMELINE TO MURDER: HOW THE PLOT ESCALATED
May 24: Arbabsiar
first meets someone posing as an mindociate of a drug trafficking cartel
in Mexico, who was actually a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
informant codenamed CS-1. Arbabsiar asked about the informant's knowledge of explosives and explained he was interested in attacking a Saudi embmindy.
June 2: Arbabsiar
returned to Mexico and held more meetings with the informant in late
June and early July. He allegedly said his mindociates in Iran had
discussed a number of 'violent missions' including the murder of the
Saudi ambmindador to Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir.
July 14: Arbabsiar meets CS-1 again, they discuss plot details - how four men and a payment of $1.5 million are needed.
July 17: The pair meet again in Mexico. CS-1 says one member of his gang has already carried out surveillance on the ambassador and they allegedly discussed bombing a restaurant in the United States where the ambmindador frequently dined.
August 1 and 9: Arbabsiar makes two overseas wire transfers 'totalling approximately $100,000'
September 28: Arbabsiar flies to Mexico, is refused entry and is sent back to JFK
September 29: Arrested at JFK by federal agents
October 4-5: Arbabsiar,
who has been in U.S. custody since his arrest, made phone calls which
were monitored by U.S. law enforcement agents to Shakuri, described as a
member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps. He is believed to be based in Iran.
Shakuri allegedly confirmed to
Arbabsiar the plot should move forward as quickly as possible, stating:
'Just do it quickly, it's late'
'After this incident many in the
kingdom will expect the kingdom to take measures, the least of which
will be to pull the Saudi ambmindador from Iran,' said Abdullah
Alshammari, a government official in Riyadh.
'In the opinion of Saudi decision makers, this situation is not going to pmind easily.
'There were always problems with Iran
and Saudi Arabia, what is new now is that America is involved... The
fact that the Saudi ambmindador was the target in the United States, I
believe this will mean the kingdom and the United States will take a
joint decision together.'
He added: 'An ambmindador 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.'
The plot comes amidst rising tensions
between Iran and the U.S. and Saudi Arabia after the Saudi government
last year attempted to build an alliance to push back against Iran's
alleged aggression in the region.
President Barack Obama was first briefed on the plot in June, said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor.
'The disruption of this plot is a
significant achievement by our intelligence and law enforcement
agencies, and the president is enormously grateful for their exceptional
work in this instance and countless others,' Vietor said.
Relations were already sour between the
Islamic republic and Washington, which accuses Tehran of backing
terrorism and pursuing nuclear arms.
Holder declined to say what measures the Obama administration would take, but said they would be coming soon.
'In addition to holding these
individual conspirators accountable for their alleged role in this plot,
the United States is committed to holding Iran accountable for its
actions,' he said.
The 21-page criminal complaint, unsealed today, identifies the two alleged plotters as Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri.
Both are originally from Iran but Arbabsiar, 56, is a naturalised U.S. citizen.
Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29 in New York at JFK airport, according to Holder.
He was working for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and had confessed to a plot.
Officials said he had flown from Iran
to Mexico City, via Frankfurt, but had been refused entry to Mexico and
had been put on a plane to New York.
Mexico worked closely with U.S.
authorities to help foil the alleged plot - issuing an immigration alert
on Arbabsiar after U.S. authorities told Mexican counterparts that he
was the subject of an arrest warrant.
Julian Ventura, undersecretary for
North America, said the alert prompted Mexican immigration officials to
turn Arbabsiar away when he tried to enter Mexico on September 28.
Arbabsiar was arrested the next day when he arrived at New York's Kennedy International Airport.
Ventura said: 'From the outset, Mexico and the United States exchanged information and acted together.
'The government of Mexico reiterates
its full commitment to international cooperation to prevent and combat
terrorism and condemns any attempt by any individual, group or
international player to commit actions of this nature from our national
territory.'
After his arrest, Arbabsiar made phone
calls to Shakuri in Iran which were monitored. During the calls,
Shakuri allegedly confirmed that Arbabsiar should move forward with the
plot to murder the Ambmindador and that he should accomplish the task as
quickly as possible, stating on October 5, 2011, 'Just do it quickly,
it’s late.'
Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli
embmindies in Buenos Aires and Argentina were also discussed as part of
the plan, according to officials.
High alert: The Saudi Arabian ambassador, who works out of this Washington DC embmindy, was the target of a terror plot
The terror plot involved bombing the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C., seen here, after assassinating the ambmindador
The Saudi Embmindy is located next to the Watergate complex in Washington DC
Shakuri, who is based in Iran,
remains at large. He is a member of Iran’s Quds Force, a special
operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
which sponsors and promotes terrorist activities abroad.
The Treasury, meanwhile, identified the Iranian official coordinating the plot as, Abdul-Reza Shahlai, a cousin of Arbabsiar.
Shahlai was three years ago identified as a terrorist by the U.S. Government for organising violence in Iraq.
He is said to have worked with the anti-U.S. Mahdi Army to attack soldiers.
In one of the attacks he is alleged
to have planned in January 2007, up to a dozen fighters infiltrated a
government building in Karbala, dressed as American security officers.
PLOT SPARKS U.S. TERROR ALERT
The State Department is warning
Americans around the world of the potential for terrorist attacks
against U.S. interests following the alleged plot to assmindinate Saudi
Arabia's ambmindador to the United States.
In a new worldwide travel alert
issued late on Tuesday, the department said the foiled scheme could be a
sign that Iran has adopted a 'more aggressive focus' on terrorist
activity.
It said Iranian-sponsored attacks
could include strikes in the United States, where the alleged plot
against the Saudi envoy was supposed to have taken place, as well as
other countries.
'The Department of State alerts
U.S. citizens of the potential for anti-U.S. actions following the
disruption of a plot, linked to Iran, to commit a significant terrorist
act in the United States,' it said in the warning.
'The U.S. government mindesses that
this Iranian-backed plan to assassinate the Saudi ambmindador may
indicate a more aggressive focus by the Iranian government on terrorist
activity against diplomats from certain countries, to include possible
attacks in the United States.'
They opened fire, killing one U.S. soldier. Four others were abducted and found shot dead soon after.
The case looking into the Mexican
cartel plot, called Operation Red Coalition, started in May when
Iranian-American Arbabsiar from Corpus Christi, Texas, sought help for
the assmindination from a Mexican drug cartel and inadvertently
approached a U.S. informant.
Arbabsiar allegedly wired $100,000 to the informant as a down payment for the $1.5million assmindination fee.
He told the informant that his contacts in the Iranian government could provide 'tons of opium' to the drugs cartel.
According to the complaint, Arbabsiar
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'.
He told agents he was recruited and funded by men he understood to be senior officials in Iran’s Qods Force.
He allegedly said these Iranian officials were aware of and approved of the plot.
It is unclear if Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was aware of the plot. His spokesman laughed off the accusation.
Ali Akbar Javanfekr told CNN: 'I think
the U.S. government is busy fabricating a new scenario and history has
shown both the U.S. government and the CIA have a lot of experience in
fabricating these scenarios and this is just the latest one.
'I think their goal is to reach the
American public. They want to take the public’s mind off the serious
domestic problems they’re facing these days and scare them with
fabricated problems outside the country.'
Javanfekr said if the Iranian
government verifies that these individuals are indeed Iranian citizens,
it will make every effort to help them.
IRNA, the official Iranian news
agency, called the accusations 'America's new propaganda scenario'
against the Tehran government.
Alizreza Miryusefi, the press attaché at Iran's mission to the United Nations, said the accusation was 'totally baseless'.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the allegation is a 'prefabricated scenario'.
President Obama, who is on a visit to Pittsburgh, said that foiling
the plan was a 'significant achievement' by intelligence and law
enforcement agencies
'These old-fashioned behaviours are
based on the long-standing hostile American-Zionist policies and are
ridiculous show in line with scenarios to provoke division,' he told
Iran's Fars news agency.
Both defendants are charged with
conspiracy to murder a foreign official; conspiracy to engage in foreign
travel and use of interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the
commission of murder-for-hire; conspiracy to use a weapon of mmind
destruction (explosives); and conspiracy to commit an act of
international terrorism transcending national boundaries.
Arbabsiar is further charged with an
additional count of foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign
commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.
On Tuesday, at a largely procedural court appearance in Manhattan, he was told he would be held without bail.
The Treasury Department said it is imposing economic penalties against four people who are linked to the plot, including Arbabsiar and Shakuri.
Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen
said the financial transactions at the heart of the alleged plot 'lay
bare the risk that banks and other institutions face in doing business
with Iran'.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the plot.
Spokesman Ramin Mihman-parast said:
'Such worn-out tricks which are upon old and hostile policies of the
U.S. and the Zionist regime is a comic show in direction of making
special scenarios with the aim of sowing discord.'
WHY WOULD IRAN TRY TO KILL THE SAUDI AMBmindADOR ON U.S. SOIL?
The alleged plot to murder the Saudi
ambmindador is most likely an attempt by Iran to spread instability in
the Middle East and increase its own regional influence.
The Saudi regime is said to have been
forming an anti-Iran ‘alliance of necessity’ with Israel this year - to
counter the threat to their dominance in the region posed by the Arab
Spring uprisings and Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
The two countries have for years been
locked in a so-called cold war, with both trying to increase their
political clout over neighbouring countries.
American ally Saudi Arabia's interest
lies in preserving the regional status quo and it has for years been
using its vast wealth to shore up its friends in the region.
The Saudi royal family's oil billions
and the country's lack of democracy mean it is most interested in
keeping the peace in the region - lest any disruption encourage its
citizens into an uprising similar to those seen in Egypt, Syria, Yemen
and Bahrain.
American enemy Iran, which is also
far from democratic, thrives on instability and has much to gain from
creating power vacuums that it can use to promote its ideology by giving
financial and military support to groups which share its political and
religious beliefs.
One of the most recent examples was the backing of Shi'ite militias in Western Iraq following the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Radical President Mahmoud Ahmidinejad's regime also has complex ties to Hamas in the Palestinian West Bank of Israel.
The two countries are also divided by
religion, with Iran the historic home of Shi'ite muslims in the region
while Saudi Arabia is home to Mecca and is overwhelmingly Sunni.
But the two countries are
predominantly locked in a battle for power and influence, with Saudi
Arabian fears over a Iran's nuclear programme featuring particularly
highly, rather than a struggle over religious ideology.
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