Iran makes war against us and everyone else

If there is one bright spot in the Administration's record, it is counter-terrorism. The Justice Department apparently scored another big success: foiling an act of war by Iran against the United States, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Mexico. From the New York Times:

The United States on Tuesday accused Iranian officials of plotting to murder Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States in a bizarre scheme involving an Iranian-American used-car salesman who believed he was hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.

The alleged plot also included plans to pay the cartel, Los Zetas, to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina, according to a law enforcement official.

The plotters also discussed a side deal between the Quds Force, part of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Los Zetas to funnel tons of opium from the Middle East to Mexico, the official said. The plans never progressed, though, because the two suspects — the Iranian-American and an Iranian Quds Force officer — unwittingly were dealing with an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.

If this is real it is something new. Iran has been at war with the United States for decades but it has always fought that war indirectly, in places like Iraq, and by means of proxies like Hezbollah and al Qaeda. Involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in terrorist operations within the United States, that is extremely brazen and it takes the conflict to the next level.

I can offer two explanations. One is that Iran perceives the U.S. to be economically, strategically, and psychologically weak and all but incapable of any serious response. That may be right. The better one comes from Charles Krauthammer. He thinks that this is meant to show that Iran can conduct covert operations within the United States. When they get a nuke, as sooner or later they will, they will then have a credible threat that might keep the U.S. from ever daring to invade. That is what grand strategy looks like.

Iran might be the single most serious threat to the security of the U.S. and its allies. This looks like a genuine act of war. If we don't take it seriously now, there will be Hell to pay later. I predict we will not take it seriously.

Comments

[jhm47]

Seems like the timing of this is suspicious. The subpoenas of Holder and the justice department officials were to be issued today, and it was totally pre-empted by this plot. Just a coincidence??? I think not!

[Donald Pay]

We're at war with Iran, and the traitorous funders of the Tea Party and other conservative causes are paying off the Iranian government to do business there!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-02/koch-brothers-flout-law-getting-richer-with-secret-iran-sales.html

And let's not forget Dick Cheney's efforts to obtain business for Halliburton with Iran.

Apparently this is a war the Republicans have decided will be won by appeasement.

[Dave]

We make it easy for terrorists to become citizens while we focus on deporting poor immigrants from Mexico. Iranians can easily get citizenship by assylum while Mexicans can't.

[Spo101]

I don’t believe IT. The timing is suspect because I don’t trust Republicans, especially when it comes to terrorist activities. These silver spoons use the terrorist threat like a tool to divert public attention away from how f***ed up they are. Either that or those arms dealing Saudis need an infusion of cash from more conflict. In any case big oil is playing the US government for fools again.

This Iranian assassination plot took the headlines away from the fact Republicans (and Conservative Democrats who are no better than Republicans) voted down the jobs bill in the Senate. How any American worker can vote for Republicans is beyond my understanding. The Republican Party and the Bush Crime Family sold out the American PEOPLE for a very few vain, greed stricken, power mad trust fund babies.

I like what Newt Gingrich said at the debate last night about how Americans should focus on the politicians and their policy decisions. I’d like to look back to the 90’s when Newt, Tom Delay, Phil Gramm, ect laid the groundwork for the economic collapse. Hidden expatriate clauses, legislation that made it easy for corporations to move our jobs to Asia. A curse upon all who are still stupid enough to fall for the Republican Party pitiful bs… See jinnbad.blogspot.com for the message.

[Spo101]

I don’t believe IT. The timing is suspect because I don’t trust Republicans, especially when it comes to terrorist activities. These silver spoons use the terrorist threat like a tool to divert public attention away from how f***ed up they are. Either that or those arms dealing Saudis need an infusion of cash from more conflict. In any case big oil is playing the US government for fools again.

This Iranian assassination plot took the headlines away from the fact Republicans (and Conservative Democrats who are no better than Republicans) voted down the jobs bill in the Senate. How any American worker can vote for Republicans is beyond my understanding. The Republican Party and the Bush Crime Family sold out the American PEOPLE for a very few vain, greed stricken, power mad trust fund babies.

I like what Newt Gingrich said at the debate last night about how Americans should focus on the politicians and their policy decisions. I’d like to look back to the 90’s when Newt, Tom Delay, Phil Gramm, ect laid the groundwork for the economic collapse. Hidden expatriate clauses, legislation that made it easy for corporations to move our jobs to Asia. A curse upon all who are still stupid enough to fall for the Republican Party pitiful bs… See jinnbad.blogspot.com for the message.

[TCMSOLS]

No one likes to be taken as a mug, all just puppets in the Ayatollahs game. They draw the US into Afghanistan with 9/11, into Iraq with false intelligence from Iraq Iranian sleepers. Now an insurgency in Mexico. Bombing blamed on the cartels. When and if we decide that there is a need to go into Mexico it will be due to threat assessments, Mexico is not yet a failed state, it still has a functioning central government and security forces. The cartels have not bought the war inside the US. If the cartels want a war with the US, they do not need Iran's help in starting it.

[duggersd]

"If we don't take it seriously now, there will be Hell to pay later. I predict we will not take it seriously." This is being taken seriously. I just read in the Argus that Hillary Clinton "would use the case to leverage with other countries that have been reluctant to apply harsh sanctions or penalties against Iran". That ought to put them in their place. President Clinton would have at least bombed an aspirin factory.

[Donald Pay]

Duggersd: "President Clinton would have at least bombed an aspirin factory." You mean the one owned by the Koch Brothers?

[duggersd]

Who cares who owns it? He bombed it. BTW, http://www.mega.nu/ampp/khartoumbomb.html I do not believe Salah Idris is a Koch brother. You really need to go on to something else.
My point is if this is true this needs to have a real response. The tepid response offered by Hillary Clinton does not meet it.

[Jon S.]

Donald,

You'll have to note that Bloomberg is now lawyering up on that story on the Kochs because it seems that their most prominent claims cannot withstand scrutiny:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/10/bloomberg-responds-sort-of.php

Bloomberg News, it seems, failed to note that Koch Industries never broke the law, when they did find employees engaging in shady behavior those employees were promptly fired, that there is nothing the Koch Industries did do regarding Iran that dozens of American companies (including GE) weren't/aren't doing (legally), but now Koch has gone beyond the law and doesn't even do business in Iran via foreign subsidiaries.

What do you suggest Donald? Something other than appeasement? Bombing? Invasion? Assassination?

[Jimi]

Dave,

"We make it easy for terrorists to become citizens while we focus on deporting poor immigrants from Mexico. Iranians can easily get citizenship by assylum while Mexicans can't."

First of all, you may want to touch up on the factual data, since it totally shoots your comment out of the water, but second, there is a diffrence between our beef with the Iranian government and it's citizens. You may want to read up on it.

Also, isn't it hypocritical for someone of your world view to assume that Persians are terrorists? See if you can understand how this sentence displays the absolute riduclousness of your comment.

"The United States honors the right of asylum of individuals as specified by international and federal law. A specified number of legally defined refugees, who apply for asylum either overseas or after arriving in the U.S., are admitted annually."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States

[Donald Pay]

Bloomberg is lawyering up? Uh, I think you've got it backward. Koch lawyered up in an attempt to intimidate those who tell the truth about this company's behavior.

[duggersd]

Spo101:
I am beginning to think you may have a point. The more I hear about this and how amateurish it was done the more I wonder about whether it is something that has been staged. Not that this administration would stoop so low.

[Brad]

To b : Guess he talked to Dennis Ross? My scpoiuisn exactly though I suppose it could have been one of many others. Thank you for citing this Broder article. I think it's especially useful for non-American readers to see what American readers are subjected to every day. And Broder is far from extreme. The lunatic (but influential) fringe in this country is to be found more on radio and Fox TV, which can reach even those Americans who are unable to read, or who can but find it too exhausting to do so commentators like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and on and on, who not only convince their listeners and viewers but, as best I can tell, really believe what they say, which makes them even more convincing. Writers like Broder do their part, of course, by tossing red meat to the others anonymously-sourced quotations such as the one you cite. The others cite it, add that it came from a respected columnist at the respectable Washington Post, toss in a bit of their own imagination, and then count on their audience to add still more imagination until the final picture of Iran is an ugly and scary one indeed.

[Paloma]

Eric thanks for the link to the Antwerp aoirprt happening. It reminded me that an tour group that I had hoped to join, would be returning from Tehran by way of Europe in the midst of the volcanic cloud disruptions. I'm wondering how the group has fared. I imagined group members scrambling to extend their visas in Iran; I had that experience (my visa was 6 hours short so my tour organizer insisted I apply for an extension, a process that took about 14 hours. I thought is was silly what's the worst that could happen if my visa expired prematurely Iran would throw me out of the country!) I had those thoughts in mind as I watched the Tehran University students discuss Obama's NowRooz messages to Iran. Flynt mentioned forthrightly that the perception of Iran amongst Americans is quite negative. Yet, as one of the students said, American tourists in Iran have always been treated very well, and that was certainly my experience. But the Tehran students seemed to project a cooling in their assessment of Americans. I wonder if I will experience the same degree of welcome and friendliness toward Americans the next time I visit Iran, for the astonishing thing that Obama has accomplished is to give Iranians reason to think as unfavorably towards Americans as he allows propagandists in the US to poison Americans' perceptions of Iran. Heckuva job, Obama.