Maybe it’s an excuse to attack Iran.
This. The Revolutionary Guard, which is the “political army” of Iran and runs foreign operations such as Hezbollah, benefited greatly (and financially) from Ahmadinejad’s presidency. Ahmadinejad (the civilian leader) and Ayatollah Khameini (the religious leader and legally the supreme leader of Iran) have been engaged in a very public power struggle for months. Picking a fight with the US to score points would not be out of character for Ahmadinejad/the IRGC.
The case, called Operation Red Coalition, began in May when an Iranian-American from Corpus Christi, Texas, approached a US informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, according to counter-terrorism officials.
The LA Times is also reporting this involved a Mexican drug cartel. Somehow that seems like a really stupid place to go if you wanted to do something like this.
Huh, interesting.
Yeah, apparently specifically they approached the Zetas, which aren’t just a Mexican drug cartel, they’re an ex-special forces group that decided there was more money in drug running than in special ops.
Also the Treasury has issued more detail specifically fingering the IRGC:
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1320.aspx
Only a $100K payment for the assassination. Isn’t that basically petty cash to a Mexican drug cartel?
Iranians + Mexican Drug Cartels + Money to assassinate diplomats on US soil? This is some serious red meat. When do we invade?
If we can find an excuse to invade Venezuela we’ll hit the trifecta and, I dunno, win something.
I’m wondering how we can work North Korea into the equation.
The cartels have explicitly avoided kinetic operations north of the border. Why would you jeopardize a billion dollar business for a paltry contract killing?
Nobody gives a shit about North Korea - no oil, and not much of anything else, except some piddly-ass nuclear bomb that wouldn’t blow up a Walmart parking lot.
We’ll win another goddamned multi-billion dollar war if we’re not careful.
Plus shut off food supplies and they’d starve. They usually start posturing when they need more.
But um, I do have to question what the heck the Los Zetas thought they’d get out of it. I’m not even going to TRY to deconstruct what the Iranians were doing.
The articles I have read are not clear, but it appears that the assassin may have contacted an undercover DEA agent posing as a member of the Zetas, not the Zetas themselves. Guessing the Zeta’s motivations may not be relevant.
I would guess the Iranian’s motive to be another ratcheting up on the ‘war on terror.’ The more we overreact, the better it serves their interests.
The Iranians were talking to a DEA informant.
Ah yes, I see. My bad.
Next season on Breaking Bad…
Might be sad that I know exactly what this is referencing…well, at least I have a very good idea as to who this is referencing.
It is what you think it is. I think Obama may have to break some backs and make some people humble.
The most difficult challenge in writing about the Iranian Terror Plot unveiled yesterday is to take it seriously enough to analyze it. Iranian Muslims in the Quds Force sending marauding bands of Mexican drug cartel assassins onto sacred American soil to commit Terrorism — against Saudi Arabia and possibly Israel — is what Bill Kristol and John Bolton would feverishly dream up while dropping acid and madly cackling at the possibility that they could get someone to believe it. But since the U.S. Government rolled out its Most Serious Officials with Very Serious Faces to make these accusations, many people (therefore) do believe it; after all, U.S. government accusations = Truth. All Serious people know that. And in the ensuing reaction one finds virtually every dynamic typically shaping discussions of Terrorism and U.S. foreign policy.
To begin with, this episode continues the FBI’s record-setting undefeated streak of heroically saving us from the plots they enable. From all appearances, this is, at best, yet another spectacular “plot” hatched by some hapless loser with delusions of grandeur but without any means to put it into action except with the able assistance of the FBI, which yet again provided it through its own (paid, criminal) sources posing as Terrorist enablers. The Terrorist Mastermind at the center of the plot is a failed used car salesman in Texas with a history of pedestrian money problems. Dive under your bed. “For the entire operation, the government’s confidential sources were monitored and guided by federal law enforcement agents,” explained U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and “no explosives were actually ever placed anywhere and no one was actually ever in any danger.’”
…
Meanwhile, Joe Biden announced today that the U.S. is “working to unite the world” behind a response to Iran’s “outrageous” actions. So Iran’s supposed involvement in this plot is the ideal weapon for the U.S. to advance its long-standing goals with regard to that country. Maybe that warrants some serious skepticism about whether the U.S. Government’s claims are true? But we all know that only Bad Muslim countries exploit foreign policy exaggerations or fabrications for political gain, and not the United States of America (especially not with Barack Obama, rather than a Republican, in the White House).
What’s most significant is that not even 24 hours have elapsed since these allegations were unveiled. No evidence has been presented of Iran’s involvement. And yet there is no shortage of people — especially in the media — breathlessly talking about all of this as though it’s all clearly true. If the Obama administration decided tomorrow that military action against Iran were warranted in response, is there any doubt that large majorities of Americans — and large majorities of Democrats — would support that? As I said when discussing the Awlaki killing, the truly “scary” aspect of all of this is that the U.S. Government need only point and utter the word “Terrorist” and hordes of citizens will rise up and demand not evidence, but blood.
http://politics.salon.com/2011/10/12/the_very_scary_iranian_terror_plot/singleton/