Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in the US.

The following announcement is worrying but not greatly surprising. What is surprising is the strange, ignorant, and irrelevant comments that were added to this announcement. [I omit them here.] RLC

US accuses Iran of plotting to kill Saudi ambassador in Washington

By Daniel Strauss - 10/11/11 02:25 PM ET

The U.S. government charged two men with planning to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S in a bomb plot sponsored by elements of the Iranian government and carried out by members of a Mexican drug cartel.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the two individuals, Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, were charged with planning to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir.

“The criminal complaint unsealed today exposes a deadly plot directed by factions of the Iranian government to assassinate a foreign Ambassador on U.S. soil with explosives,” Holder said. “Through the diligent and coordinated efforts of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, we were able to disrupt this plot before anyone was harmed."
The two were allegedly planning to kill the ambassador with explosives, according to the Department of Justice. Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested Sept. 29 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, and is being held without bail. Shakuri, who U.S. officials believe to be a member of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, remains at large, the department said.
Flanked by FBI Director Robert Mueller, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, Holder said that the two alleged plotters met in Mexico with a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confidential source who has posed as an associate of a violent international drug trafficking cartel.
The DEA informant in Mexico was to be paid $1.5 million for the assassination plot, the criminal complaint alleges.
According to the complaint, Arbabsiar, Shakuri and their Iranian co-conspirators had been plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador since spring.
The complaint also says that Arbabsiar met with a DEA informant on May 24 in Mexico to discuss using explosives for the assassination. The source said that he was familiar with C-4 explosives. Arbabsiar reportedly said that the assassination had to happen, regardless of the number of casualties.
When the DEA source noted that others could be killed by the bomb, including U.S. senators, Arbabsiar allegedly dismissed these concerns as “no big deal,” according to the Justice Department.
"They want that guy [the Ambassador] done [killed], if the hundred go with him f**k ‘em," Arbabsiar said according to the complaint.
. . .
—This story was last updated at 4:09 p.m.
For the rest click on the title above.
Read the complaint below:

Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/186765-holder-announces-two-charged-in-plot-to-assissinate-us-ambassador-to-saudi-arabia

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A major source of the American debt problem

Notable Concerns

"Not one has taken responsibility for the biggest foreign policy disaster in U.S. history." Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rica, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith.
The crash of September 2008 brought the largest bankruptcies in world history, pushing more than 30 million people into unemployment and bringing many countries to the edge of insolvency. AlJazeera 10/15/11
GE, America's largest corporation, paid no taxes last year even though it made 5.1 billion dollars profit in the country [and even more outside the country] [source: same as below]
In 2009 the richest 5% held 63.5% of American wealth; the bottom 80% controlled 12.8%. [source: same as below]
Between 2000 and 2007 the richest 10% in America benefited from all of the average growth in the period. In the post WW II period the top 10% benefited from only one third of the growth, the bottom 90% benefiting from the rest of the growth. [Economic Policy Institute, cited by Bob Herbert, NYT 3/26/11]
In 2010 a "premier" investment bank paid each of its 26,000 employees an average of $370,000. [Bill Gross Pimco Investment Outlook Feb, 2011.]
In 2005, one-quarter of the corporations in America making a trillion dolars in revenue paid no taxes.
The 833% Medical Insurance Ripoff: Medicare charges 3% for service; the health insurance companies in Missouri charge 25% for services
The richest 1 percent of Americans have more net worth than the bottom 90 percent.
The richest 1 percent of Americans receive more income than the bottom 50%. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/dec/10/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-viral-speech-says-top-1$ >