America and Iran

An Iranian bomb plot in America?

A shocking atrocity averted—or maybe not

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Matt Andersson

An American Bombing Plot in Iran?

Over 90% of public and expert responses here and in related MSM reporting the past four days, express disbelief in the official story; suspicion over facts, motivations and goals. Many have linked this event to the generally believed incredulous assertions over Iraq's "WMD" and the false pretext it created for invasion. Many here have voiced cynicism in their government generally, in the media and in their motivations and methods. Overall, a profoundly voiced indictment. Nearly the entire last ten years of the GWOT appears increasingly on trial publicly; tainted, unbelievable, corrupt, nefarious.

Except 911.

Yet but for a handful of comments, the public, if represented by several thousand posts in the NYT, Economist and others can't seem to psychologically confront the government's report on the events of September 11; it appears to have become gospel; sacrosanct; uncorruptably true; irrefutable; obvious; absolute. To sustain doubt a psychological dissonance; to question it, blasphemous, an act of deviancy. The conditioning was deep and effective.

Yet the same special interests and underwriters that brought the world a highly engineered event 10 years ago, are the same crew staging pretextual events today, and directed at the same goal: war, ethno-religious and resource hegemony and civil dominion. Only some of the actors have changed.

The invasion of Iran, control over its vast oil reserves in the Caspian, hegemony over Russia and a complete US-IL transformation of the Middle East (and the US), have always been a fundamental goal stemming directly and centrally from larger pretextual and transformational events activated a decade ago (and before)and codified in the "GWOT."

stands for truth

Here we go again! As the US 2012 Election approaches given the sad state of US economy some thing must be done! And what could be more exciting on American streets than America huffing and puffing. With US House overflowing with diehard right wingers (in tough competition with a burgeoning Tea Party with its call for war and more wars) Mr Obama has to show he is just as tough as good old George W Bush!
With millions needed to win Congressional election every contesting is for sale to such Lobbies as Pro-Israel Lobbies, Gun Lobby, Health Industry lobby and ever present war Industries.
Looking for a desirable target for US power projection? Who could fill that role better than Iran? It has double no triple bonus for Uncle Sam:(1) The ever powerful Israel Lobby who have been pushing during the Bush Presidency to eliminate Iran once for all, (2) Te Saudi Monarchy increasingly nervous feeling their Divine Monarchy slipping under the tide of Arab Spring, (3) and of course the Big Oil Companies who are drooling over the prospects of reaping rich oil profit bonanza if God forbid Mr Obama heeds to the War Mongers!
The spike in oil price will be a welcome boon to these Oil giants. Forget about the global recession it might trigger.

With a docile US Congress Israel has little to worry about those bagfuls of US tax dollars flowing to its coffers. In fact it may offer its services as the only "Un-sinkable war ship" to US war plans on Iran!

The ever compliant US Media will sing praises for our "Only Reliable Ally, Israel" for coming to US Help!

Sounds too fictional? Just think how GWB hoodwinked his folks before he launched an illegal fraudulent war of aggression on Iraq (one of the so called Axis of Evil notoriety).

And how Mr Bush tried to pacify Arabs over Palestine issue? Once USA has done away with Saddam’s Iraq, Israel will feel happy secure and will finally implement the now moribund UN Security Resolution 242.

The rest as we say is history and one thing US likes to do is forget the history!


It is about time America realises and comes to terms with the fact that it is the architect of it's own problems with the Arab world and the Middle East.Back in the 1970's as an engineering student in the U.S.,of the almost 500 students in my class at that time [ brilliant engineers the lot ... well capable of making nuclear weapons given a chance ] almost three quarters of them were from arab countries.It was clear then for example that the U.S. was supporting the repressive Shah of Iran and condoning the opression of Iranian students abroad even in the U.S.It was partly these events which led to the rise of Ayatollah Khomeni and all that has since then followed.Iranians have every reason to be weary of America and it's intentions,and any American who thinks other people will simply forget the support of repressive regimes and believe that Americas intentions are benign is not living in the real world.The problem America has today in the Arab world can be traced back to the 1940/50's and are not predicated on recent events.People do not forget history even though they may sometimes find it difficult to articulate.America knew of Savak and supported their activity.Is anyone who knows of the activity of the Savak seriously expecting Iran/ians to simply forget all this ? Only a few day's ago I was listening to a programme by Christopher Hitchins on the legacy of the use of agent orange in Vietnam and tears came to my eyes.America should not pretend that it is an innocent bystander to world events and that it innocently gets dragged into conflicts in various parts of the world.Iraq for instance is not over yet and will have reverberations in U.S./Arab relationship for decades to come.We should use history as a basis with which to understand,explain and deal with events.


Perhaps it's the first salvo at Iran from the USA … a pretext … a context … a raison d'être …

Iran cannot be appeased … they must be stopped … NO NUCLEAR IRAN … NO WAY

That's the deal … everything else is … pretext … context … raison d'être


This is all about one thing, and one thing only. Creating yet another new premise for war against Iran.

Wake up White House. We have enough wars already. Start caring about the American people and their unemployment, homelessness, Healthcare and future.


First occupy all the countries surrounding Iran - Iraq, Afghanistan and an orderless ally in Pakistan. Makes it easy for annihilating Iran.

Joey the Reader

You've got to respect the previous administration (George "Dubya"), at least they put a great effort to come up with a falsified evidence to invade Iraq, such as graphs and charts, good quality prints from FedEx Kinko's, but this administration came up with a short narrative by an FBI official. I mean I wonna see some juicy and colorful Power Point presentations, graphs, charts, bells and whistles, you know. I want to be impressed by this falsified evidence.

Ultimately, this will not get too far, I do not think the UN Security Council will allow NATO (US) to invade Iran based on these alegations.


Why would Iran attack any Saudi or US interest when they know that The US and Israel and their Saudi, Sunni sidekicks are desperate for any excuse to attack them.
If they did attack a Saudi ambassador, why in the most terrorism uptight, martial law implemented real estate on the planet? An ambassador could much more easily be attacked elsewhere.
Why attack an ambassador at all, who makes no policy and would be replaced within weeks. If they were purely into shock and terror and claiming responsibility then why hide behind a Mexican drug cartel?
Why choose such an ‘asset’ with little trade craft or finesse, up to their eyes in American informants, probably run by the CIA, e.g. recently sold weapons directly by the Justice Dept.
Why do you think money was wired to an FBI bank? A) because the FBI had to facilitate part of this plan for it to take place.
Do you think that the Revolutionary Guard, which every day, is up against CIA, NSA, Mossad, US Defence intelligence would
i) Believe it was remotely in their interests to plot this fantasy.
ii) If they did, would execute it like half wits with maximum chance of discovery and failure?
This hilarious low grade comedy script involves a Texan ex-used car salesman who after 12 days of “interrogation” “confessed” that his brother in law is in the revolutionary guard and was aware of the plot. He fell in with a Mexican drug cartel assassin (as you do, when you search for Assassins in the classifieds) who, it just so happened was a DEA informant.
I predict that the plot will play out as yet another entrapment case, with no weapons, money or anything else that could actually be used in a crime, traceable to the defendant.
The other guy will never be found or “die” in a drone attack and will never be proved (or disproved) to be in the Revolutionary guard.
Their MO is to set people up for these “crimes” coaching low lifes, criminals or the mentally challenged and then solve the cases that would never have existed without them. This has been the pattern in almost all “anti-terrorist” operations in the US since 9/11. It wont matter that there is no proof offered that any Iranian officials were involved because the goal is already achieved with the media swirl of Hillary and Obama and King Abdulla and Cameron strutting their call for strong action. Meanwhile they (pick your western or zionist hit squad) preemptively assassinate Tehran faculty members in broad daylight in front of their children. Where was the call for righteous revenge then? I am no current Iran admin. fan but the one -sided orwellian untruths that are propagated against them, and with the palestinians utterly disgust me. I sincerely hope that when the IDF planes go in, with US support, through Saudi airspace, that they get their asses kicked.


Point 1: It is about time Obama spent more time concerning himself with the financial terrorists in Wall Street. There is absolutely no doubt what they have been up to, and not one has been pursued let alone sent to jail.

Point 2: My memory is long enough to remember that the US has sent various assassination hit-squads into foreign countries - most recently Yemen and Pakistan.

Point 3: There has been a relentless campaign to demonize Iran at every opportunity, real or imaginary. This story stinks of the same b.s. as the build-up to the invasion of Iraq.


@ Reluctant Polluter:

Iran's got an idiotic president whose rants ought to embarrass his nation. But it is the US who has invaded with hundreds of thousands of troops on basically cooked-up "WMD" pretext. It is the US who maintains Guantanamo. And it is the US whose drones kill citizens and foreigners alike beyond its own borders.

The two cannot even be compared. I sincerely hope the US will learn humility -- before we burn ourselves out with our arrogance and recklessness. Yes, I am American.


AS Iranian I cant believe this stupid pattern belongs to Iranian government. If you search the terrorist attacks of regime at France and Germany you can understand the complexity of those plans and no Iranian people involved.
There are some Iranian anti-regime groups that like do this. Such as Mojahedin( that had important role to reveal nuclear plans of regime and also they are very professional in terrorist attacks because of their military nature.

Reluctant Polluter

@ guest-iwmneem:

"And why the prejudice? Because of America's pattern of behavior as described above."

How about Iran's pattern of behavior?

You don't answer the question really. Of the two predjudices, you just choose the anti-American one. Good on you.


I do not quite understand all the skeptisism about the incident. Yes, the accusations against Iraq were never proven, but that was a completely different administration number one, and we have arrested and charged someone with the crime. Not to mention that the source of all of the info was an undercover agent. Although the credibility of the U.S. has certainly been in question over ther past 10 years it is no reason to be overlook a serious threat. The attempted bombing should be looked at as an attempt of terrorism on U.S. soil and just be dealt with accordingly.


American and Iranian relations are obviously hostile, and have been for some time. Whether the United States is using this supposed terrorist plot as an excuse to slap more sanctions on Iran is yet to be seen. Even if the United States has done things like this in the past to other countries, it is no excuse to allow these kinds of plots to go unpunished. However, I definitely do not see any kind of military action taking place, as there is no way that would win the support of the American public. Iran has been a thorn in not only America's side for many years, but a thorn in the world's side as well. I wouldn't be surprised if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had a part in this, but that will be very hard to prove. At worst I think this just further destroys any chance of progress diplomatically with Iran in the near future.


That a nation which assassinates citizens and foreigners alike with its drones (among other tools) beyond its borders can decry Iran for its supposed "act of war" is the epitome of arrogance and shameless hypocrisy! Yes, Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, this means you.

Not condoning Iran, but America needs to mend its own behavior.


Joseph Vissarionovich wrote, "It seems fashionable to assign all kinds of conspiracy to America whilst denying any evidence that its enemies conspire against it, surely this is just prejudice".

The Economist article asked many good questions -- questions that American investigators should have ascertained -- before the American political leadership turned this into a public shouting match with Iran!

And why the prejudice? Because of America's pattern of behavior as described above. Remember Iraqi WMD and its "imminent" nuclear armament capability and why the world needed to act immediately and all that? Should have investigated first, instead of beating the war drums. Thousands of young American men and women would still be alive today!

Yes, US needs to get to the bottom of this. But patience, persistence -- and humility -- will go a long way.

Joe the Reader

Here is the official FBI indictment - a document 20 pages in length, detailing all evidence and parts of interrogations -

"The primary evidence linking the Iranian government to the planned attempt on al-Jubeir's life is the words of Arbabsair, who told U.S. law enforcement agents after his arrest that he had been recruited and directed by men he understood were senior Quds Force officials."


This story seems to have way to many loose ends. If Iran were going to do something on American soil provoking the US military to destroy them, it would not be a simple restaurant bomb aimed at a Saudi Arabian ambassador through a poorly crafted plan using a Mexican gang member. Iran has to be smarter than that, knowing the trail would come right back to them through their thin smoke screen. I would assume if Iran were going to get America's attention is would be a full out attack with something more penetrating than a restaurant bomb.



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