crying wolf vs. jaded public

U.S. Accuses Iranians of Plotting to Kill Saudi Envoy
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and SCOTT SHANE
Federal authorities said they have foiled a plot by men linked to the Iranian government to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States and to bomb Saudi and Israeli Embassies.


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Margaretleo
NY

I don't believe this for one minute. Why would Iran risk war with the U.S.? This is a lie meant to justify the U.S. or Israel attacking Iran. Once again the American people will be complicit in the commission of a crime.



Voltaire
San Francisco, CA

How utterly convenient that this supposed plot is being revealed at this particular moment. It drives all the other more pressing news items off the front page. No front page articles about the ongoing occupation of Wall Street. No more front page coverage of the increasingly embarassing details coming about about Eric Holder's false testimony about his involvement in the illegal arms shipments to the Mexican drug cartels.

This is "Wag The Dog" all over again. It reeks of desperation.



robert21
brooklyn

I get a creepy feeling that the Industrial Miliary OverLords are seeing the end of The Iraq thing and the Afhganistan Thing coming to an end soon and they need a new source of Income. Let's set the tone for a new war-with Iran!!!

Yes it won't be long before Cantor and Boehner and Limbaugh and CHeney will be calling for Military Action in Tehran. Let them pick up a rifle and go.



Nazir Lunat
Stockton, California

Load of garbage. The Obama regime is looking for excuses based on fabricated lies. Are we expected to believe that the Iranians are so stupid to hatch such a silly plot.
The USA is well known for conceiving conspiracy theories, are we not reminded of the Bush lies that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat. Now we have Holder peddling his lies




Phaedo
Earth

This story is intriguing on several different levels due to the different plot-lines it excites.

Attorney General Holder, the D.E.A., and the FBI are all getting pats on the back from Obama even in light of the publicly disastrous "Fast and Furious" weapons sting operation. Does this administration really think that American citizens have such short-term memory loss?

This entire assassination plot was technically never going to take place. Once the plotters made contact with the undercover D.E.A. agent, posing as the Mexican drug cartel member, the plot was essentially ruined. The first meeting took place sometime in the Spring. This begs several questions: Was there ever any real danger? Was the Iranian gov't really that involved in such an unorganized scheme?
To add confusion to the entire situation, the original plan was to to have the Mexican cartel kidnap the Saudi ambassador. So when did it become an assassination plot, before or after contact was made with the undercover D.E.A. agent?

The story will surely ignite the debate about border control between U.S. and Mexico. And, in the coming days we will hear from many Congress members about the ways in which Obama should "retaliate."

Meanwhile, news stories about true American strife will be brushed aside in favor of talking "terror." Citizens will continue to take opposing sides on issues like abortion, gay marriage, and immigration rather than holding our leaders accountable for job creation, tax reforms, and big business legislation. Our politicians are extremely good at what they do, unfortunately what they do is not always in the best interest for the country itself.




JHinNC
Charlotte NC

Looks to me like somebody's wagging the dog for "Fast and Furious" Eric Holder. How far is the Obama administration willing to go to rehabilitate this mutt's political viability?




Rich
Huntington Beach, CA

If the report is true, then congratulations are in order to our Federal Intelligence Community, for a job well done. Keep-up the good work.



AmatureHistorian
NYC

POTUS needs a war to get reelected.




RDV
Pennsylvania

Ah, the "mobile WMD labs" and "uranium tubes" necessary to justify bombing Iran. I wondered when this was going to be ginned-up.




Jeff North
California

WHEW!! The saudis can breathe a huge sigh of relief. This latest plot will undoubtably distract the Western media as their warlords in Riyadh mow down democracy protestors with impunity.

Remind me again why we even have a saudi embassy in DC??



xx123xx
USA

Boy! There are conspiracy theorists everywhere and for every issue. Even a report like this one gets labelled as a distraction against the Wall Street occupation movement; a political preparation for war with Iran; another business plan of the war industry; and what comes next?

Why can't we just take these news at their face value, and praise the good work that the American Intelligence is doing to protect us, and thank them?

Let's redirect our hostility toward Wall Street, the politicians, the big industry, and express it in other more appropriate fori. Let's enjoy these good news.



IT
Ottawa, Canada

Interesting how the first mention of this story in the New York Times contained this quote.
'... "We will not let other countries use our soil as their battleground," Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said at a press conference in Washington with Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller. ...'
Quite understandable why such a risibly hypocritical statement should be dropped from reporting. After all even in an "exceptional" country insisting that the rest of the world must 'do as we say not as we do' seems gratuitously offensive.



Andy
Palo Alto CA

I simply don't believe it. Smells to me like a neocon pretext to start that war with Iran they've always wanted.

Whose interests are being served? Our military-industrial oligarchs: yes. Our 'ally' Israel: yes. America and its people: no.



Evan
Bronx, NY

It's amusing to see a lot of comments here accusing the administration of using this incident for political purposes. In light of 9/11/2001, I wish the Bush administration had acted as proactively in preventing it, as they did to use it as an excuse to go to war in Iraq. If in fact this plot had been successful, I would bet the very same who are accusing Obama of using this for political purposes would be accusing him of being soft on terrorism.



Greg
Sugar Land, TX

LET ME GUESS . . .

Do they have Weapons of Mass Destruction too ?




Cass
New Jersey

We're supposed to believe this? Why does our government have to trot out Iran as the bad guy? Agree with other posters who've said this takes the spotlight off of the assassination of Awlaki, the OWS protesters, and I would add my own two cents: the upcoming vote on Palestinian statehood. Looks like votes are lining up in favor so the the U.S. of A is going to have to use its veto. Wage the dog indeed.



Christopher Hill
Houston, Texas

This stinks to high heaven. There are so many things wrong with this, I dont know where to begin:

- Does anyone believe that Iranian intelligence would try to use Mexican gangs to carry out their dirty work? Please.
- If you listen closely, the Feds are not alleging the Iran government was involved. "Elements" of the government could mean anything. But they are saying "Iran' enough to bait the press into printing headlines like "Iran terrorist plot foiled".
- Of all the countries in the world for the Iranians to attack a Saudi diplomat, why here? No way!
- Some Fed was already quoted as saying "the plot was foiled before it even became a plot". So, as time goes on, we will learn that there were a few clowns set up for a fall, by our government that needed this play (for whatever reason).




Tyler
NYC

False flag operation!




marc
Florida

Something does not smell right with this story. The Iranians hire drug guys to kill a Saudi in the US? The US-Iranian citizen has a criminal record in the US. Why would a secret operative be getting into trouble with the law? This is not going to turn out as reported. But, with Iraq winding down, we might have to spend a few more million dollars on bombs for Iran (as in, dropped on them.) Drug thugs are a very convenient scapegoat for anyone planning a crime, or trying to divert attention. Stay tuned for this one.



John Hrvatska
NY

All the fabricated evidence the US used to justify its invasion into Iraq has ruined its credibility. How does the world know that this time the US isn't using this to pick a fight everyone knows it wants to have? It could be that the US is telling the truth on this one, but how would you know?



Carlos
Bogota, Colombia

I don't doubt the Quds Force, so involved in proyecting Iranian influence in the Middle East, would be able to imagine something like this. But why would the Iranians do something so stupid, so intrepid and so easily traceable back to them?
Why single out the Saudi Ambassador IN the US, if you could target Saudi interests abroad, in places like Europe or the Middle East far easier and with less risk and higher operational control?
And why use the Mexican drug cartels, an unreliable and completely new "ally" to say the least? Didn't they (the Quds force) make a background check on the DEA agent they were using for the plot?

A bunch of holes in this operation.




Drew
Chapel Hill, NC

Wow, this is one way to distract us from the theft that is going on on Wall Street. They are pushing the Iranian gov. connection really hard. AND, who knew Eric Holder was still around!?! I though he dropped off the map years ago - looks like he was just staying out of site so he would not have to work on the rampant fraud in the financial sector.




Phil Greene
Houston, Texas

So the US is trying to pick another fight. This time it is Iran. Why is this news? I rather like Iran.



in-awe
California

"Mr. Holder said the Mexican government had been instrumental in the investigation."

Very interesting. Proponents of a sealed southern border have produced evidence for years that there are large numbers of Middle Eastern illegal border crossers. I wonder if this will be further proof of the danger of leaving the border fundamentally open. Congress should press Holder for details about this issue.




Persique
Minnesota

I cannot believe the nightmare is happening again. Not only I don’t believe this story, I firmly believe that this the same pretext to war as happened with the Iraq’s non-existent WMD allegation which we never found. Our government is destroying our home country by falling prey to foreign propagandists all around and Special Interest Groups.
America must do what is good for America, but what is good for America must not be bad for others as it will eventually come back to haunt us.
Our agitations in Syria, our suppression of Egyptian’s hope of a free and democratic nation, our turning a blind eye to the murderous regime in Bahrain, our support for the hated government in Yemen all lead to only one conclusion and that is preserving Israel’s impunity to literally enslave the Palestinians.
Former President George W. Bush said, “The Israelis have a right to defend themselves.” I agree a hundred percent, but within their own borders set by United Nations in 1948. In Palestine and Syria they are the aggressors and it is the Palestinians and Syrians who have the right to defend their country, homes, and farms by any means available to them against such a bully we support.
We cannot support and continue our daily drone attacks against a concocted and non-existent threat while we are denying food, shelter, healthcare, and education for our own people.
I hope in the upcoming election we have become wise enough NOT to elect politicians who have any sort of ties with lobbyists and Special Interest Groups. We elect our politicians to look after us not some spoiled child who spies on us, steals from us, and demeans our President.




zygote1331
NY

An attack on the US soil to bomb Saudi & Israeli embassies? As noted here this sounds ludicrous. Iran can attack Saudis on the Arabian Peninsula with impunity. Why bring it to the US? The intersection of Iran and Mexican cartels only serves this administration. Hell, now we can invoke two bogey men in one plot! Last point: why is it such an outrage when others wage secretive black ops missions in the US when we do that daily throughout the world? Can anyone smell hypocrisy?



HAIDER ALI
NEW YORK

It seems more fiction than fact. Iranians are the most active agents of the CIA, Mansoor Arbab and Ghulam Shakoor look like on the payroll of the U.S. Treasury Department.
We have seen the fabricated and unsubstantiated news about Libya by the CIA, which caused the massacre of women and children there. For the Republicans it was just a fun, and an act of heroism. Anyhow we can't trust our government anymore.




azarn
Wheaton, IL

If the Iranians really wanted to carry out the plot, they would do it somewhere else where the security is lax. This is another fabricated lie planted by the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to divert attention from the economic problems at home and the military problems in Iraq and Afghanistan.



led33
Montreal

“Iran has no respect for international law.” LOL! This coming from a Saudi diplomat! If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black!



Paul
White Plains, NY

You mean the Iranians are bad enough so that even Holder has finally been forced to recognize that fact? I guess the Obama appeasement policy towards radical Islam didn't work after all.




David
Cambridge, MA

One man is a US citizen, as much an American as any other. Why does the headline say "Iranians" are accused? Is it now the policy of the Times to identify crime suspects in headlines by their ethnicity? I'd like to see that. Or is this a way of making insinuations of government responsibility in the absence of any proof?

Attempts by the US government to play the victim of the Iranian government are comical. Did they overthrow our elected government? Install a murderous secret police regime in our country? Arm Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons to attack us? Shoot down our passenger plane and award the commanding officer a medal? (Well, maybe, but apparently we blame a hapless Libyan!)

If anything, this incident calls to mind the assassination in Washington of the Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier. But that murder was committed by our government's right-wing terrorist allies, so the press didn't make tortured attempts to turn it into a casus belli.



Todd
Paradise Calif

A dollar to a dime that if you follow the money trail that it would lead you to a third party, not Iran itself.



Harlan H.
New York, NY

Hm, I usually think of the Iranian government as misguided, but not stupid. If these allegations are true, they've moved on to stupid and/or suicidal.

Given that, one wonders if this was just a "side project" of a couple of misguided operatives.



Lance
New York City

If actually real, such a plot by a foreign government would be an act of war, no? I'm curious to know the status of such actions under international law.



'MerkaTheBroke-n
Atlanta, GA

Thirteen (13) Saudi nationals flew airplanes into the World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon and almost the Capitol building on 9/11/2001. George W. Bush welcomed the Saudi sheik to his personal ranch house later and kissed his hand to boot. Put that in your crackpipes and smoke it up good warped 'merka!!! Kirk out, beam me up Scottie, this country is warped INSIDE-OUT, UPSIDE-DOWN, BACKWARDS, DIAGONALLY!!!



Morey
Knoxville, TN

What a bunch of nonsense! I thought the State Department was more creative in propeganda than that!!



egf
Houston

Dear Federal Government:
No. It is not okay that you begin building a case to invade another country in order to provide a distraction from what is going on at home. Again. This time we're paying attention and the truth will get out there. Find another way to deal with whatever it is this time.



Coldfeet
New York

NOT credible. The source (the US government) has a history of fabricating evidence and inventing facts to justify wars with other countries. This can be confirmed through the archives of this newspaper -- cf: Iraq War. Without independent confirmation of all assertions made by the United States government anything Holder says about this affair is meaningless.



KQ
GA

Obama picking a fight with Pakistan over Haqqani.
Now picking a fight with Iran.
"It is the ECONOMY Mr. Obama"
We will see you November 2012



Pancho
Yuma Arizona

They're saying it reads like the script from a Hollywood movie. Yea, a bad movie. Why would Iranians come into the US to plot a murder? Why come to the US to hire assassins from Mexico?

Why not plot the murder from downtown Jerusalem to implicate the Israelis? Why not hire unemployed Americans to make the hit? Why not purchase AK-47's and thousands of rounds,legally, here in the US and do the job themselves? Why not hire Saudi students who are already in the country to make it look like dissident students who hate the Saudi monarchy? Make the students believe they're going to bomb the Israeli Embassy, then have a truck rigged with explosives creash into the Saudi embassy by a hand-picked driver. A few students would have to die in the explosion of course, in order to sell it, but they were never going to graduate from college, anyway.

Hey, maybe I should be writing Hollywood movie scripts!



Cloudy
San Francisco,CA

So the criminals they were supposedly trying to hire were really government agents in disguise? Sounds like another set-up in which one of our alphabet soup agencies tried to entrap Muslims into committing crimes, or at least expressing interest in doing so. And why would Iranians want to attack the Saudis? Aren't they all good pals these days? This has all the earmarks of a distraction hastily arranged for the press. And possibly an excuse to crack down on the current anti-war protest in Washington itself? Maybe that's getting embarrassing?




Mark Lebow
Milwaukee, WI

Does this mean war with Iran, while we're still at war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya?



Emmanuel
New York, NY, USA

How convenient... Just when Holder is under a subpoena for illegal gun running in Mexico. Just when Barry is so down in the polls his chance of being reelected look dim. Just after Russia and China humiliated the US in the UN Security Council last week. Mr Obama is preparing American public opinion for a fake war. A few cruise missiles launch on Iran. Another publicized assassination of an Iranian "nuclear scientist". This President is so fake it's hard to believe anything his administration does. The man who came under limelights three years with the whole world cheering is now a naked emperor. We just hope his desperation at beeing reelected doesn't take this country to the dogs more than it's already! By the way who's the champion of "targeted" assassinations, killing even its own citizens? Isn't it Barack Obama's United States?



Zuricher
New York, NY

I'm trying to understand what Iran would have to gain from perpetrating such an act...and I'm having a hard time thinking of anything. The timing is also suspicious, with the Wall Street protests gaining traction...Does this smell weird to anyone else?



nick
Skien,norway

"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY."

--Goering at the Nuremberg Trials



Winemaster2
GA

This may all be true, but what purpose does it serve to advertise this at this time and place. When all it would accomplish is increase hostilities in the Middle East plus more military hardware sales.



Simon
Tampa

Quite frankly, I don't believe any of this for a second. Why on earth the Iranians bother? They could kill this envoy and many other Saudi envoys in the Middle East so easily. It feels like the Bush era warmongering all over again.




Winston Smith
Mesa, AZ

When in doubt, follow the money and it will lead you to the culprit. First, I find the timing of this here purported incident incredibly interesting. The Saudis (under the US direction and with its weapons) have invaded not only Bahrain but also Yemen where they are slaughtering scores of civilians under Hillary Clinton's watchful eye. Second, as the UN vote on the Palestinian bids nears, Israel finds itself more and more with its back against the wall.

But, of course, I'm Joe Q. Stupid here and I believe what my government via its state media the NYT tell me. Let's go to war! Yeah! Iran got oil besides it will make our Zionist masters sooooooooooo happy!

War, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war!



Concerned Citizen
New York, NY

Now, who can doubt that if McCain had been President this would have meant war with Iran?



Idi Malink
USA

America exhibits quite a bit of hubris after assassinating one of its own citizens without indictment, trial or conviction twelve days ago. It takes excessive pride to extrajudiciously assassinate a citizen and then complain about foreigners plotting to assassinate other foreigners.



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HOW MANY/WHICH OF THE ABOVE COMMENTS WERE MADE BY PEOPLE INSIDE THE SECURITY APPARATUS?