The alleged plot to carry out an assassination on U.S. soil would represent, if proven, a significant escalation of a long-running covert struggle between Iran and the West that has included industrial sabotage, terrorist bombings and the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists.Read the rest here.
It also would reflect a radical shift in tactics for a country that usually prefers to leave its dirty work to proxies.
The Obama administration on Tuesday directly accused Iran and its elite Quds Force of backing the alleged attempt to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, using hit men from a Mexican drug gang. The allegation plunged U.S.-Iranian relations into crisis and sent U.S. officials scrambling in search of new punitive measures to impose against a country that has already been hit with multiple rounds of sanctions.
The brazenness of the plot outlined by Justice Department officials struck many current and former U.S. officials as out of character for Iran, which has rarely, if ever, been so bold as to strike targets in America. U.S. officials were similarly surprised last month when an Iranian admiral threatened to send naval ships to patrol off U.S. waters.
This is very serious. I am a moderate isolationist and am uncomfortable with our country’s military adventurism all over the globe. But this is different. If true, a foreign government has sent spies and assassins to our country to murder diplomats and commit terrorist attacks. That must not go unanswered.
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If this is all gospel truth, it only underscores the outright nihilism of our invade the world, invite the world policy. The idea that anybody merits US citizenship who can fill out the correct forms needs serious re-thinking. The idea that we can choose sides in Shia-Sunni conflicts (or Arab-Jew conflicts) and then invite the protagonists from both sides to our shores needs serious re-thinking. Of course, this will not happen; the multicultural credo will never be questioned.
Most likely, this is a few people on the fringe of Iran's sprawling hive of a government and an enthusiastic re-telling by that Old Reliable of governments everywhere, the confidential informant. Or it's a pure false flag op.
In any event, anything to get us closer to war with the next target on Israel's list.
But this is different. If true ... that must not go unanswered.
How different is it, really? No matter how egregious it is, it is still not unconnected to our government's feckless imperialism. By all means, let us "answer" this challenge with a measured and truly appropriate response; but at the same time let us stand down from empire and thus take away the underlying reason for such attacks.
A thought experiment:
If a country wants to assassinate a citizen of another country (whom it regards as an enemy) on the soil of a third country, is it OK to do that as long as they use drone aircraft or Navy SEALs to do it?
Or is it OK if it's the United States and not OK if it is Iran?
I see four possibilities:
1) It is what the US government says it is, and Iran is provoking an international incident, but why? Iran has nothing to gain by doing this, that I can see.
2) The US government is creating/inventing an incident in order to force the Saudis to take military action against Iran. Note that the US wants more military bases in the Gulf, and in particular Saudi Arabia.
3) (a variation of #2): The US government is creating/inventing an incident in order to have an excuse to invade yet another middle eastern country and expand it's global power. Iran has a lot of oil and other resources that the US/corporate elite, etc. would gladly love to have.
4) A fringe group in Iran (with good funding...from where??) has gone rogue and pulled this stunt in hopes of.... destabilizing the Iranian regime...??
our government's feckless imperialism
Is fecklessness a product of not giving a feck, or is my causality reversed?
Anti-Gnostic and Eurasleep beat me to the combox on this one. I will just add the following thoughts:
* Who do the Iranians send to hatch this plot? A dual US-Iranian citizen, more likely to be monitored than just about anyone else.
* This wannabe James Bond contacts the Mexican drug cartels. Not in Mexico (which would actually make sense), but in the USA! Real swift move!
* It gets better! These "master spies" wire their downpayment to a US bank, not to Mexico or some offshore account.
It seems that the "three letter agencies" have a reliable pool of dim-witted, psychiatrically unstable patsies they can goad into some silly stunt every time they want to gin up another war, or another assault on civil liberties.
This reminds me of the "underwear bomber" hoax. The "underwear bomber" was initially REJECTED from the flight he was on, because he did not have a passport. So, what happened? He was ESCORTED onto the plane by Federal agents, where another agent was on board, with a movie camera, to film the whole spectacle. This became the "master excuse" for TSA psychopaths and sexual perverts to molest every airline passenger in North America.
Some time ago, I was a a friend's house, and we discussed this matter. One of his young sons (five and a half years old at the time), asked why American passengers had to go through such indignities. I replied, "It's because some lunatic threatened to blow up his underwear!" He laughed so hard and for so long, that I was afraid he would have an asthma attack.
If a five and a half year old boy (albeit a bright and precocious one) can see through these frauds, I think it is about time we grownups did, too.
This is all political theater. The plots are written at a kindergarten level, and the acting is just awful.
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