From the NYT:
But Mansour J. Arbabsiar, 56, the man at the center of an alleged Iranian plot to kill a Saudi diplomat in Washington, seems to have been more a stumbling opportunist than a calculating killer. Over the 30-odd years he lived in Texas, he left a string of failed businesses and angry creditors in his wake, and an embittered ex-wife who sought a protective order against him. He was perennially disheveled, friends and acquaintances said, and hopelessly disorganized.
Mr. Arbabsiar, now in custody in New York, stands accused by federal prosecutors of running a global terrorist plot that stretched from Mexico to Tehran, and that was directed by the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Many of his old friends and associates in Texas seemed stunned at the news, not merely because he was not a zealot, but because he seemed too incompetent to pull it off.
Somebody should ask an economist what we should do about the poor quality of terrorist recruits. Being an economist, he'll probably suggest: more immigration!
This guy reminds me of the mastermind of the sales tax fraud when I was a juror: both were Iranian used car dealers. (Also, here's my review of the British comedy about inbred Pakistani suicide bombers, Four Lions.)
This guy reminds me of the mastermind of the sales tax fraud when I was a juror: both were Iranian used car dealers. (Also, here's my review of the British comedy about inbred Pakistani suicide bombers, Four Lions.)
Posts
62 comments:
Sounds like another plot where the FBI finds some loser willing to go along with whatever ridiculous plan they sell him in the hopes of getting some swag or at least having connected people around who surprisingly place confidence in them. There are good reasons to do it, but the threat being neutralized here wasn't very threatening.
What was this guy's motive though? Was he aiming for America or did he just want the Saudi ambassador? It's no secret that Iranians don't like Arabs (whether you consider them one or not).
Regardless, I fear this may build up to another fruitless war in the middle east.
Did you check out the announcement about the foiled multinational assassination plot, with the official carping about how this shows that we're now in a world where "borders are irrelevant"? Irrelevant, my ass. They're irrelevant because our government wants to make them irrelevant. Just more of that "It's a new world, better bend over and take it" bullshit.They seem to almost delight in making these "There's little we can do" pronouncements on anything related to borders and immigration.
"Sounds like another plot where the FBI finds some loser"
Well the difference here is that the "loser" was (allegedly) actively backed by Iran's government. Look, what percentage of the population in Iran can cut a check for 100k?
What the informant should have done was insist on having at least one meeting with this dude at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City.
Sounds like another plot where the FBI finds some loser willing to go along with whatever ridiculous plan they sell him
yes but the problem is who is behind piling up these ridiculous plans and using it as 'evidence' we need to attack iran.
obama (HA HA HA yeah, obama thought of it) already said he will increase sanctions as a result of this...
It reminds me of the rather Keystone-ish Nazi German covert ops in the US during WWII.
It´s not as if the exile Iranian community in the US is full of people happy to do the bidding of the Supreme Leader. Hence, if the boys in the Revolutionary Guards want to conduct business in the US, they are forced to use tier three operatives, I.e. the Keystone Kopps.
Hearst and LBJ would be embarrassed by this crock of a "bloody shirt" pretext for war. It's up there with yellowcake from Niger.
This plot sounds like it leapt off the keyboard of a third-rate, coke-addled TV writer.
Regardless, I fear this may build up to another fruitless war in the middle east
THey will keep trying if this doesn't work, they'll try something else (who? we all know who AIPAC the NeoCons, whatever other euphemism you'd like to use. )
Obama and Clinton sure moved fast to exploit this incident in order to ratchet up the pressure on Iran. Nice, even ties in a Mexican cartel with the Iranians, although conveniently the hit man just happens to be an informant.
There seems to be a huge behind the scenes pressure to launch an attack on Iran and it appears they are hoping and waiting for some pretext or incident to trigger it. President Hope and Change, over whom many of our youth swooned, apparently is a willing partner in all this. A war with Iran, which is a fairly large country, would suck us all in very deeply. There's no predicting what the outcome might be anymore than the Europeans knew in 1914 what 1918 would look like.
Being an economist he'll say, "Let's assume we have a more competent terrorist".
I am sure there are a number of plots out there just like this one. What I am not at all sure about is why every single one has been penetrated and is thoroughly a sting operation by the time it comes to the execution phase or they ef it up entirely blowing off their own johnson or making bombs that go 'fizzle'?
I understand that some of them are simply stupid but all of them?
And now that we have shown that terrorists;
A: Cannot find their ass with both hands.
B: Apparently cannot tell the difference between an FBI informant and another coreligionist/co-ethnic. And,
C: Are less dangerous to our society than TSA.
Can't we please get rid of the TSA? For cripes' sake how many old ladies need their depends taken off for the world to see? How many children need to be reduced to tears and how many women need to be sexually groped? The TSA hasn't caught a single terrorist and apparently is chock full of thieves, perverts, and morons. Let's start balancing the budget by outsourcing our security to the Israelis. I know that some on this blog have a problem with that but screw it. At least they do a decent job.
"TGGP said...
Sounds like another plot where the FBI finds some loser willing to go along with whatever ridiculous plan they sell him in the hopes of getting some swag or at least having connected people around who surprisingly place confidence in them. There are good reasons to do it, but the threat being neutralized here wasn't very threatening."
That article does indeed make a good case for entrapment. I'm still agin' it, though. It encourages law enforcement to become nothing but suborners and provacateurs.
And still, wouldn't it just be easier to not allow muslims into our country?
I did say Bush II was more like Napoleon than Churchill.
Feds and MSM found the posterboy of Wall Street corruption and he is...
I still think its odd that Congress set up a Department of Homeland Security, to whom Treasury handed over a first rate law enforcement agency (the Secret Service) and yet the lead agency for homeland security cases is... the FBI (which of course is part of DOJ).
Makes a hash of chain of command and its not good that the FBI handles both national security cases (judges understandably give tremendous leeway) and ordinary federal crimes. The shortcuts acceptable on terrorism cases (entrapment, wiretapping without warrants, etc) will inevitably bleed over into other criminal cases as well.
Congress should swap jobs between the Secret Service and FBI. The Secret Service could focus on national security and the FBI could handle all other federal crimes (including counterfeiting, which SS now investigates).
I'm more concerned about the low quality of the spooks today. The guys who set up this false flag operation didn't put much effort into making it believable.
The Quds Force is quite good: Khobar Towers, Beirut Barracks, Buenos Aires, etc. No one was caught, red-handed, no direct comms, and so on.
Rather, this sounds like Iran-Contra. Reagan got caught because he ran it out of the White House with inexperienced people like Ollie North. Instead of professionals. Likely either Ahmadinejad or Khamenie, whichever, used a few non-pros to stage the plot in hopes of starting a War, a war which they would use like Khomeni did in 1979 to line up their opponents against a wall.
This also suggests that the Iranians do not fear the US, which is itself dangerous, given their nuclear ambitions. If they'll do this, without nukes imagine what they'll do with them.
The best response is a real punishing air campaign aimed at barracks, command/control stuff, power stations, water treatment plants, bridges, dams, etc. Make life even more miserable, hit IRGC owned factories, malls, hotels, etc. to make them considerably poorer and weaker. Just to get the point across -- this sort of thing costs big time.
We tried the Lightworker, apology for America tour, it didn't work. Time to break out the old Machiavelli rules.
Kaz -- War is a constant in the ME, because Islam and Muslims are themselves separated. The Saudis and Iranians hate each other, entirely separate from Israel, because they both want to dominate the Gulf and control oil production, since neither has anything but oil going for them.
And ultimately, this puts both in direct conflict (for now) with the US, which needs cheap oil. If we ever get our own production and estimated reserves pan out, that's a different story, we should then PROMOTE endless wars killing production since we'd have the biggest reserves. But that is a long way off.
At first I assumed this was the Tel Aviv Express trotting out the usual "we have to go to war with [insert name here] by tomorrow or life as we know it will end" but looking closer I suspect this is an effort to get some heat off Holder. Urkel was briefed on it last July. I suspect the Justice Dept shelved this one until the Buffoon-in-Chief needed a PR win.
I wonder what fraction of this story is bullshit, and what fraction is reality. Was he actually working for the Iranian government? Was he working for someone else and thought he was working for the Iranian government? Was he just working for the little voices in his head?
I have no faith that we will get the truth from the feds, and little more that we will get it from the MSM. (They will report the truth if its not too complicated, doesnt step on too many advertisers' or corporate parents' toes, is sufficiently patriotic, etc.). This sounds like a bullshit plot to me. I suspect he was very lucky to propose this idea to a DEA agent--I'm given to understand that Mexican drug lords have relatively little tolerance for being fed a line of bullshit by some small-time conman, and even less for being invited to get into an open war with the US. This clown will spend the rest of his life in prison, but at least he will be alive, and he wont spend his last few days wishing the narcos would hurry up and finish him off.
This is looks like another setup like the underwear bomber who was reported by several passengers to have been escorted onto the plane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines_Flight_253#Pre-boarding_event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAtK7FFDukQ
The underwear bomber reversed his defense strategy and plead guilty in some sort of deal at the last minute this week. The Sudanese teen planed to call passengers to testify they witnessed him being escorted onto the plane without a passport by a "well dressed man" who overrode the rules and ticket agent and got the bomber the flight.
At least the FBI has the foresight to pick another hopeless loser to entrap. These low-IQ idiots are thankfully bound to just repeat their life of personal failures.
The admin is wildly exaggerating this latest patsy to displace the peak of bad press they are getting over their Fast and Furious gun running scheme. A DOJ project to illegally distribute US guns across the boarder to the Mexican Sinoloa Drug Cartel that killed a couple of American Agents and several hundred Mexicans.
This guy reminds me of the mastermind of the sales tax fraud when I was a juror: both were Iranian used car dealers
Hey, you're forgetting that this is iSteve, where we already know the punchline: The used car dealers were [with one notable exception] actually SMARTER than the jurors:
The defense put on the stand the defendant's siblings to talk about how he was "just a simple man" who, back in Iran, had merely graduated from high school. (That, by the way, would make him above average among Los Angeles Unified School District students)...
The vote was 11-1 for acquittal from the beginning and it stayed that way to the end three days later when a hung jury was declared...
Why did 11 jurors vote to acquit?
First, dullness. Many didn't have the mental capability to synthesize into a coherent narrative of cause and effect the pointillist data that emerges over the protracted course of a trial...
Second, laziness. Nobody else saw it as his or her duty to figure out what the story was...
This smells like an inside job and by inside job I mean FBI/CIA etc. Why have some bumbling Iranian used car salesman hire a CIA owned Mexican Drug Cartel to assassinate a Saudi. What would Iran gain? What? What would those that want war with Iran gain - a whole lot.
Did he obtain a gun from the ATF at least?
"Over the 30-odd years he lived in Texas, he left a string of failed businesses and angry creditors in his wake... He was perennially disheveled, friends and acquaintances said, and hopelessly disorganized."
Well, I'll be... I thought I was reading about Dubya.
I guess both sides are evenly matched in this regard. We just have more money.
@TGGP
I'm sure you've heard these before:
Q: "How do you spot the FBI informant at a Klan meeting?"
A: "He's the only one who can afford to pay the dues."
Q: "How do you spot the FBI informant at a militia meeting?"
A: "He's the only one who can get his hands on real dynamite."
I see that Robert Baer, the former CIA op who is skeptical of the validity of this plot, is the same Robert Baer who wrote, "The Devil We Know," a pragmatic look at Iran and how to deal with it. Iran would like to control the Shia part of Saudi Arabia, which has most of the oil, but their policy is more like the US policy toward Russia toward the end of the cold war--contain and engage, but do not provoke.
A war with Iran, which is a fairly large country, would suck us all in very deeply. There's no predicting what the outcome might be
You sound like Edward Luttwak ca. 1991.
perennially disheveled
Most of the millionaires here in Marin look that way, too.
Dirty shirt terrorist?
But if he'd been working on the behest of Netanhayu to get rid of Isael's enemies, he woulda been given a key to the white house.
Btw, Israel did send a bunch of assassins into Iran.
And Obama recently ordered an American citizen killed without due process.
Economist? It depends.
A Keynesian would say Iranian government should have spent more money on this guy.
A Miltonian would say the terrorist needed more market incentives.
We wake up to Morning Edition in my household. The NPR hosts were wetting their pants when the story first broke. You'd have thought the Revolutionary Guard was marching on the Lower East Side.
The Saudis and Iranians hate each other, entirely separate from Israel, because they both want to dominate the Gulf and control oil production, since neither has anything but oil going for them.
Neocons and the establishment generally like to portray Iran has a hopelessly backward place, but it's clear that it has a much more eugenic culture than the contemporary US does. And it's starting to show:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20291-iran-is-top-of-the-world-in-science-growth.html
It is difficult to over-state the threat to the dominant US/Neocon zeitgeist of an Islamic state that, like Iran, understands human husbandry as well as a typical backwoods farmer—which means much better than the US/Neocons understand human husbandry—which then turns that primitive understanding into an explosion of engineering graduates (100,000 in 1979 to 2,000,000 in 2006) by maintaining a 2:1 female to male ratio in its engineering schools in profound contrast to the US where prime females are crammed into the harems of New York City and Hollywood. Rewarding your best engineers with harems of high quality females is not just eugenic—it is highly effective if you are playing technological catch-up with your strategic enemies. US/Neocons cannot give up their de facto harems of captive nubile coeds, corporate concubines and shiksas without losing control of the populations from which those females have been drawn—and just as importantly—they cannot tolerate a strategic enemy bringing them face to face with the fact of this cornerstone of their power over those populations.
If there is anything that will make the US/Neocons irrational enough to suffer both a failure of judgment and loss of control of their dogs of war—this is it. Not oil. Peak oil will merely be the esoteric story they tell themselves to rationalize their irrational judgment and consequent behavior toward Iran—with their exoteric slogans continuing with the standard sophistries about “liberal democracy”.
Hence the priority of Iran in US/Neocon hysteria.
US/Neocons want to believe Iran is the culprit behind anything remotely justifying a response. Moreover, by toying with nuclear technology, Iran is playing right into this hysteria.
One word. Sectarianism.
OT but a classic follow-up on your post last week about George Kaiser, the Tulsa billionaire philanthropist:
Barack Obama's other billionaire: How George Kaiser turned Oklahoma into his personal tax haven
If this website was run differently, say if it was a daily aggregation of HBD-related news called the Sailer Report, then this is the kind of story that would have a siren.
Everyone in Iran understands the lesson of Khomeni:
1. The US won't do anything, really, that is terrible. They invaded our Embassy and held our diplomats hostage. Carter dithered, and Reagan eventually sent arms and bibles.
Iran has NEVER EVER paid any significant price for: the Embassy take-over, Khobar Towers, or Beirut. Or according to Mike Mullen the outgoing JCS, killing soldiers and marines in Iraq AND Afghanistan. Nothing.
Iran has no reason to fear the US, even under a Republican like Bush, and far less under the Lightworker.
2. Khomeni WON big time, by using conflict with the US to shoot his political enemies.
Iran gets the best of both worlds -- conflict with no real comeback (not even killing our guys in BOTH Iraq and Afghanistan) and using that to destroy political enemies.
Look at what Obama is doing (I agree, its get the heat off Holder). He's proposing ... travel sanctions and more bank restrictions. Wow, that will really show them!
My problem with Steve here is selection bias. I could just as easily cite: Khobar Towers, 9/11, Beirut, Buenos Aires, London 7/7, 7/21, Madrid, Nairobi, Tanzania, the Cole, as plots where terrorists DID kill a lot of people. So far the US has been lucky, betting on luck is not a good idea. All these guys need is pro-training and operations.
Baer is an idiot. Mullen says Iran is killing US soldiers. That's hardly disengagement. No one is afraid of the US anymore, they've got the public and leadership pegged. We're sitting ducks, whenever a semi-competent intel service targets us (Pakistan, Iran, etc.)
@Whiskey
Hmm.. Possibly but I'm not completely buying it.
Israel has gone into Iran and assassinated top nuclear scientists, and since these guys like to pin Israel on us, isn't that by proxy our doing as well? Also we are drone bombing Pakistan it's not like the Pakistanis are getting a free deal here.
I can definitely see how it seems like we've let Iran go unabated for such a long time, but lets take a look at this wiki here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_%E2%80%93_United_States_relations
Scroll down to the conflicts themselves. I mean our whole relationship with Iran seems to be very unapologetic. We didn't apologize for the CIA installment of a government in Iran, nor the 1988 flight 655 incident, or the 1988 attack.
But it has been a few decades since we actually did something so maybe you're on to something here.
This fish story is so patently perposterous it reads like it's been written by a hack writer for the TV show "24".
* Why would Iran suddenly begin to assinate Saudi high officials out of the blue? It makes no strategic sense for Iran to do so and runs counter to their behavior of late.
* Why would Iran attempt their first major assination of a top Saudi official within the US when there are so many easier targets so much closer to their base of operations in the Persian Gulf?
* Why would Iran pick a dissolute loser with no obvious or immediate training or connection to special services to mastermind the highly sensitive plot?
* Why would Iran bring a stranger into the plot, much less the purported boogyman "mexical drug cartel" informant with no working history with given that assination of high ranking foriegn officials on US soil have never been done by said cartels?
* If there was any truth to Iran assisinating high ranking officials on US soil discovered months ago, why was it sat upon until Fast and Furious purgery revelations this week?
* Why is there no proof or evidence save for a purported $100k that appeared from somewhere? Given the series of massive lies and false flags about the Iraq invasion, progress in Afganistan, Libya, the underwear bomber, Bank bailouts by the Fed, Fast and Furious, illegal immigration, etc - why would anyone believe such a far fetched story without overwhelming evidence?
Whiskey
...Baer is an idiot. Mullen says Iran is killing US soldiers.
You linked to an op-ed by Elliot Abrams. You should scroll down and read what commentators this of this propagandist like:
Jeff
It is ironic that CNN chose to illustrate this article with a photo of a casket carrying the body of a dead US serviceman who was the victim of a war launched by the US on Israel'ls behalf and orchestrated by Abrams' neocon buddies, Perle, Feith, Libby, and Wolfowitz, or "the JINSA crowd," as Colin Powell ruefully reflected, none of whom ever served a day in the US military. And now the same group has been trying to take out another of Israel's allies, no matter what the cost in American or Iranian lies. It is a shame to see this kind of war propaganda on the CNN blog.
"That's hardly disengagement. No one is afraid of the US anymore, they've got the public and leadership pegged. We're sitting ducks, whenever a semi-competent intel service targets us (Pakistan, Iran, etc.)"
Mostly we just need to stay home and attend to security within our own borders.
There's really nothing to fear either way. The Muslims aren't going to take us over; we'd make some tough decisions, finally, if we got attacked seriously for the second time.
Nothing's going to happen quickly, in other words. I'd work on a propaganda campaign not related to waging war if I were you. What we were is no more: what we'll become will happen in fits n starts.
Amazing how destructive lower education standards combined with minor league debauchery can be. We're a bunch of kids who never had real parents and old folks looking in the mirror denying that that's them with the grey hair and wrinkles.
OT but Thomas Sowell on Holder:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=354309
Hey, the Obama song
the new obama song. composed by an Italian-American and a Jewish guy. sung by imperials
I'll bet the unsuccessful Iranian used-car-dealer whom the Ayatollahs picked to organize their terrorist attack on the Saudi Ambassador in Washington D.C. was codenamed "Curveball"...
As for our good friend "Whiskey," I hope he doesn't actually drink too much of his namesake beverage. It could reduce the eventual resale value of his liver and kidneys...
whiskey said, "Iran has NEVER EVER paid any significant price for:..."
I guess you could say they prepaid when the US overthrew their government and installed the Shah. They also paid a price on Iran Air 655.
Great post title. I completely agree and have nothing to add.
If I was president, I'll make Whiskey my secretary of defense. Really, I will!
Its also hard to get good FBI help:
"Neighbors, however, said it had been years since Arbabsiar lived in the stucco house he once shared with his wife on a suburban cul-de-sac. They said it appeared as many as 10 people were living in the house, and lately there had been some signs of suspicious activity: When residents looked for available Wi-Fi networks, names like "FBI Van 1” would pop up.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Suspect-painted-as-inept-2215035.php#ixzz1ajaE1u9C
@Anonymous 11:23
I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but I'll clarify for the people who may take it seriously.
That's a fairly common prank, it can easily be done by anyone semi-competent with computers. You can name your network anything (like anything, there's nothing stopping you; no fighting words though, or the police will come to your neighborhood scouring for the person responsible).
Anyways
The FBI isn't that inept to name their network 'FBI van', and also have it publicly visible.
Let me demonstrate to you how simple it is to change your network name.
1) Type in your local gateway ip in your browser address bar. Depends on the router/modem, common ones are 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.254, etc.. just check your network details
2) Type in your username/password (factory settings are admin/admin or something, check your specific router for details)
3) Explore around in the settings until you stumble upon network name (SSID).
Have fun freaking out your gullible/technologically impaired neighbors. Or whatever you want to change your name to.
This so called plot is obviously a false false operation.
It's is probably a political stunt designed to get Jewish donors and media moguls back in the Obama camp.
The FBI isn't that inept to name their network 'FBI van',
depends if AA has reached the IT department. I had an AA "tech" hire who (seriously)could not configure a linksys consumer router.
NYRB says Fannie and Freddie are innocent
Ugh, sabril and Whiskey cheering for Israel and the neocons again. how predictable
Iran Plot
Used car salesman terrorist?
This would be too ridiculous even for a movie. I don't believe Iran was involved, this is so clearly a set up. I don't even think this could be called a "plot". Assassinating anyone was merely talked about and appears to have been the FBI informant's idea, not the failed used car salesman/would be drug smuggler.
I don't really need to explain why the Obama administration would set someone up like this, it's too obvious. But it makes no sense for Iran to do something so provocative; if this was for real it was almost guaranteed to fail. A failed Iranian-American used car salesman and some Mexican thugs, yeah, perfect combo for an assassination plot!
The new elite
It's is probably a political stunt designed to get Jewish donors and media moguls back in the Obama camp.
I think this is it. It is a ploy, not to attack Iran, but to avoid attacking Iran. The combo of the insatiable blood lust to attack Iran in some quarters and Obama's weakness for Jewish billionaire money is a recipe for absolute disaster. Obama gives them a gift they cannot possibly refuse, but it is a poisoned gift. Now, nobody can attack Iran until after the next Presidential election (though there will lots of fruitless talk about sanctions), when Obama won't need the Jewish money.
Dragon is the new octopus or Dragtopus
Why should we believe anything this government issues press releases on?
Merely ask, cui bono? Who benefits?
Plans for attacking Iran have been part of neocon PowerPoint presentations for at least 10 years.
Call this latest nonsensical story a pre-false-flag. There will be more small events like this one...so that on the day when the BIG false-flag event hits (in summer 2012?) everyone will "just know" whom to whoop for war against. Why, against Iran, of course!
Interesting that the same neocons who engineered this entrapment, and who apparently believed so deeply in the existence of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, which would put a "mushroom cloud" over Chicago, according to Condi Rice - now shrug their shoulders in response to credible reports that 20,000 surface-to-air missiles went "missing" after NATO invaded and destroyed Libya at their behest (using an Arab Street rent-a-mob for cover).
Don't believe anything the government makes a point of telling you.
The new elite
Dragon is the new octopus or Dragtopus
Why are you linking to that? It looks like yet another lame neocon/neoliberal magazine. We have enough of those already.
I'v been thinking about this and the idea of used car salesman, Mexican drug cartels and Saudi diplomats seems a bit uh... Hollywood?
I'm so sick of everyone. I find it hugely disappointing that the terrorist types are largely D and F students which would be the case of course; who else would buy into the cause let alone die or go to prison for it? Still, that some of the bozos I have to live with might get rubbed out in an instant, not the worst case scenario by far...
Post a Comment