Breaking News: Iran-tied Assassination, Bombing Plot Disrupted
by IPT News • Oct 11, 2011
Two men have been charged in what law enforcement officials say was a bombing plot in the United States approved by senior members Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force.
The plot targeted the Saudi ambassador to the United States for assassination and may have included other targets including the Israeli embassy, ABC News reports.
During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the plot's details chilling, saying the suspects didn't care that they could kill dozens of civilians along with their targets.
The principle conspirator, 56-year-old naturalized American citizen Manssor Arbabsiar, repeatedly discussed the plot with what turned out to be a Drug Enforcement Agency informant. In conversations with the informant, who posed as a Mexican drug cartel representative, Arbabsiar mentioned bombing a restaurant where Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir often eats. He also discussed attacking the Saudi embassy.
The informant claimed to be tied to a cartel which "has engaged in numerous acts of violence, including assassinations and murders," a criminal complaint said.
Arbabsiar and Quds Force member Gholam Shakuri are charged with conspiracies to murder a foreign official; to use a weapon of mass destruction; and to commit an act of international terrorism. Four men and $1.5 million were needed to carry out the plot, the informant claimed. Arbabsiar arranged for $100,000 to be wired to an account in New York in August and said the balance would be paid after the Al-Jubeir was killed.
Arbabsiar made it clear he didn't care how the ambassador died, or how many innocent people died with him. "They want that guy done, if the hundred go with him, f*** 'em," he allegedly said. When the informant said he could use a bomb or shoot the ambassador, Arbabsiar said "it doesn't matter … whatever is easy for" you.
Arbabsiar was arrested Thursday at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, but Shakuri, a Quds force member, is at large. Arbabsiar allegedly confessed to law enforcement agents after his arrest, saying "he was recruited, funded and directed 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 use of [the informant] in connection with the plot; as well as payments to [the informant]; the means by which the Ambassador would be killed in the United States and the casualties that would likely result."
Arbabsiar's cousin allegedly is a senior Quds Force official, the complaint said.
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Statement by UANI on Iran's Terrorist Plot Against the U.S.
New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) released the following statement following reports that the U.S. has disrupted a major terrorist plot by Iran to attack U.S. targets.
Said UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace:
We applaud President Obama's administration for disrupting this Iranian IRGC plot inside the United States, and urge President Obama to take further action now. In plotting terrorist attacks on American soil, the Iranian regime has shown that it is at war with the United States. This is a regime that is killing U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, allied with al-Qaeda, illegally pursuing nuclear weapons, and now plotting terrorist attacks in the U.S.
It's past time for US policymakers to acknowledge Iran's war with our nation and adopt appropriate policies and laws, including sanctioning Iran's Central Bank, imposing travel bans and freezing the assets of Iranian officials, and barring companies that do business in Iran from receiving U.S. defense contracts. Only minutes into his presidency, President Obama extended America's hand of peace to Iran, yet Iran has unequivocally rejected that path. The President must now make it clear that Iran will face consequences for its actions, including military retaliation for attacks on Americans.
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United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran should concern every American and be unacceptable to the community of nations. Since 1979 the Iranian regime, most recently under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership, has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the US and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran's development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. In short, the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran is a danger to world peace.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.
The Objectives of United Against a Nuclear Iran
- Inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons, as well as Iran's role as a state sponsor of global terrorism, and a major violator of human rights at home and abroad;
- Heighten awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran poses to the region and the world;
- Mobilize public support, utilize media outreach, and persuade our elected leaders to voice a robust and united American opposition to a nuclear Iran;
- Lay the groundwork for effective US policies in coordination with European and other allies;
- Persuade the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people, and;
- Promote efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political and diplomatic measures.
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