U.S. puzzling over motivation for alleged assassination plot
By Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr
A day after the United States revealed an alleged Iranian-backed plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S., senior members of the Obama administration's national security apparatus continue to debate what they believe the motivation was for Iranian operatives to engage in the plot according to several US official CNN spoke with at length.
But the search for motivation comes as others question whether such a plot is even in character with the Quds Force behavior.
Determining the motivation may be crucial to learning how high up in the regime the plotting occurred.
"There is a lot of internal discussion related to the 'why' on this," one official said.
Some theories for the alleged attack revolve around the notion that Iran and Saudi Arabia have essentially been engaged in what one official described as a "Middle East cold war" over their differences on everything from Bahrain to Syria.
But another theory gaining some currency is that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards-Quds Force, said to be behind the plot, was perhaps working at the behest of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who is close to the Quds Force. Khamenei is well known to be in a power struggle with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and may have been using the Quds Force to embarrass and discredit the president in the region and on the world stage.
While that is a theory, administration officials Wednesday are stopping short of saying the alleged conspiracy was specifically directed by either Iran’s president or the Supreme Leader.
“We are treating this as a very serious Iranian government sponsored plot,” says one senior administration official. “Our sense is there was institutional sponsorship of this plot."
In the past when the US has criticized Iran’s Quds force for shipping weapons into Afghanistan and Iraq, it has also stopped short of linking those operations directly to the President or the Supreme Leader.
One of the Iranian officials sanctioned by the Treasury Department Tuesday is Qasem Soleimani, the Quds Force commander who is said by US officials to be very involved in all operations and also close to Khamenei.
Several officials said while they were initially surprised to see the alleged perpetrators get involved with drug cartel personnel, they now believe it is simply the Quds Force willingness to adapt and shift techniques from previous operations.
"This is an example of using other methods" when traditional methods fail. They point out that previous Quds attacks in South America and the Middle East show the organization is willing to operate outside their expected parameters and deal with entities the US might not expect.
Officials also said in assessing the seriousness of the plot, they had confirming information from multiple sources, not just the naturalized American arrested by law enforcement.
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
No one will be destroyed for the sake of the Messiah. You who beielve that Yeshua is the one we’re all waiting for, you of all people should know that he allowed HIMSELF to be destroyed for the sake of everyone else.His appearance will not bring death and destruction, it will bring life and abundance. His coming does not demand war and suffering, it is the rescue from those things.This is the message of the All-bountiful, El-Shaddai, finally coming to live with and in his creation.Ruth
one third bush....one third atrocious mid east history of u.s. ...one third money crazed western oil companies raping natural resources of mid east nations...
There is no doubt to the accuracy of this case. Remember, there are multiple nations involved in uncovering this plot including Mexico. There was money transfer involved in the amount of over $100k and more was on the way. The conversations have been recorded along with communications documented which show the money transfer directly out of Iran. This guy was just in year as of recently and most likely he himself is not a radical but he was simply money hungry and had no ethics.. supposedly he has already confessed on his own will and volition and admitted of high levels of Iranian government contact and coordination.. the evidence will come out at trial but there is no doubt in my mind that this is a slam-dunk case and that the Islamic Republic was involved; the question is, how far up the food chain does it go? Remember, this regime murdered dissidents overseas all throughout Europe until the 90's. Just last year, a plot of assassination was unraveled in which they were targeting political scientist/commentator/writer Nourizadeh in Los Angeles/London – this is just the beginning. This regime envisions global jihad through death, havoc, and destruction as accorded by the Hadith and their "hidden imam" ideology. This regime must under no circumstances be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. The funny thing is to watch sadly so-called "experts" trying to find "logic and rationality" behind the actions of the regime. By definition, these religious maniacs don't have any reason or common sense rationality. We cannot judge them based on our level of rationality and humanity. Ironically, it was former CIA/Revolutionary Guards spy Reza Kahlili who months ago wrote and started to speak on the fact that this regime would start to export their terror by potentially hiring Mexican drug cartels as well as South American connections; in addition, he noted the threat of assassinations of diplomats and other high ranking officials of the Saudi government by the Islamic Republic as fatwas has been issued and threats have been targeted against members of the Saudi Royal family; people think this is so "unexpected" but I find it a masterful plot which if it had been successful would have allowed the regime to deny complicity.
i think theyve made the decision to take iraq–so if they can harm links in their opposition theyll give it a shot...
especially for a $50,000 down payment thru an american/iranian...i think iran will chip away thru bombing, kidnappings in iraq to weaken all opposition...they may do this by funding or arming militias in iraq...was this the same quds cmdr that was caught red handed in iraq then (not officially) traded in a swap by bush?
The FBI stole the plot from Tom Clancy's novel.
OK here it is: IRAN has the largest natural gas pocket in the world. End of story. Motivation exposed.
Embarrassingly bungled lame propaganda. Leave the media misdirection to the neocons, guys.
They think we're so stupid...
i didn't want to sound un patriotic, even though the guy supposedly targeted was saudi, but this story made no sense from the beginning. Seems like obama is trying some of bush old tricks, at least bush did a better job of it..to say iran is involved and immediately impost sanctions and call on the UN to impose sanctions but fall short of blaming the Iranian president or supreme leader and say the probably had no knowledge of it is bizarre...
Who killed the 2 Iranian scientists,answer is Obvious.
Who kidnapped that Iranian Scientist in Saudi Arabia and brought him to Washington that answer is just as Obvious,and my Criminal Government have the audacity to fabricate this up,these people really think that the AMERICAN PEOPLE are brainwashed and Stupid.
Sorry Bro! The world including me in Canada think that american are really gullible, stupid and low IQ
I think the only question here to debate is was this orchestrated with president obama's knowledge or was his fed this story and told to run with it...i hope its not the latter because then i would know believe those who say he turned into bush
Typical CIA trick to cause dissension amongst Islamic countries.
They did the same with Iran and Iraq. The rest of the World is on to it.
Who cares.
One last thought: to quote the late Johnny Cash "U may throw ur rock n hide ur hand, workin the dark against ur fellow man, but as sure as God made black and white, Whats Done In The Dark Will Be Brought To The Light"""
KKK was run by the FBI.
Motivation? Is it obvious? A.G. will shake off the charge of lying to Congress about Fast and Furious, witness will escape his jail time, the whole administration will look heroic, and Obama – our beloved 2 term president in 2012. Win win!!
If Ronald Reagan just took them out after the hostages were released, instead of selling them military spare parts to fund the defeat Daniel Ortega (LOL) we wouldnt have to worry about them, would we?!
None of our leaders are ever going to do what is right for the country. We are overrun with charlatans in government.
Same old LIES,funny how I tend to believe the Iranians more then my own Government.
Already all the JEWS in congress was out,All options are on the table.This tiny little country in the Middle east will one day bring this Country to its knees if we Americans don,t wake up,these people don,t give a flying crap about America,s well being.
This has Israeli and Mossad's finger prints all over it
Trying to figure out the Iranians is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
And exactly what college did you get your Iranian studies degree from? Mainstream News U?
Let me start by saying to all you people out there that the Iranian American community in the US is the most educated and successful minority in this country. There are more Iranian doctors, lawyers and business owners than any other minority in this country and you can Google it if you want. So please, have some respect for the Iranians living in this country. We contribute.
Having said that, let me say now to the conspiracy theorists, the believers and the non-believers, this plan was absolutely brilliant and we should consider ourselves fortunate that they ran into an undercover agent or CI. If this had gone all the way, nobody would have suspected Iran as there would he been so many more important figures sacrificed that the Saudi Ambassador would have been labeled as just another collateral damage and not the main target.
Abby: I am surprised that you wrote that the plan was absolutely brilliant. I admit to having no particular knowledge of such things, but to my inexperienced eye the plan seems clumsy and amateurish. Even apart from the fact that they were exposed. So clumsy and amateurish, may I point out, that many commenters refuse to believe that the Iranian government would get involved with such a sloppy operation.
The reason I say the Iranians were involved is because the other side of the coin is there was a conspiracy theory and somebody actually concocted this whole thing. What was it supposed to accomplish and is this where it was supposed to end? I doubt it. Now it is just a mess and nobody can clean up. Whichever scenario. But we’ll never know the truth.
I agree it was brilliant plan – except counting on finding the killer for this task at Mexican drug cartel. May be he even got to talk directly to them at first place but they gave him out to CIA immideately
REPLY TO
Abby's reply:
Abby
The reason I say the Iranians were involved is because the other side of the coin is there was a conspiracy theory and somebody actually concocted this whole thing. What was it supposed to accomplish and is this where it was supposed to end? I doubt it. Now it is just a mess and nobody can clean up. Whichever scenario. But we’ll never know the truth.
Abby, you asked "If there was a conspiracy theory and somebody actually concocted this whole thing. What was it supposed to accomplish and is this where it was supposed to end?" Well consider this: It could very well have been to provide the Israeli military with some type of quazy excuse to attack Iran and provided that portion of the U.S. Federal leaders that are Israeli-centric, with a similiar justification for backing them. That's not to suggest who might have concocted this suspected scam. Only time and investigating can possibly answer that question.
Hey folks I've got to hand it to yah, an absolutely amazing variety of comments. The jews did it, no it was the man in the moon, Obama did it – Man you couldn't make this stuff up.
How about this – historically since when have the Shia and the Sunni gotten along? Almost NEVER What is Iran"s hope in Iraq – to destabilize and take over. What's stablizing Iraq – the US with Saudi influence.
How to alienate the Saudi's from the US – maybe kill their ambassador here & help to destabilze US/ Saudi relations.
Well , what do ya think – maybe score one for the Shia? Sounds like a winner to me, if my name were Ahmadinijad, that is.
Taj Faud, I cut and pasted this from a reply I gave to another concerned U.S. citizen:
I'm a 50 something year old native born U.S. citizen, who has watched and listened to our own government officials lie to us over and over again. You can't believe what they say without stringent verification. And this so called Iranian connection makes absolutely no sense. There would be no way for the present Iranian regime to gain from this. If you're thinking they're trying to motivate U.S. haters well, they'll have to claim this action to do that and we both know they'll never do that, not to mention U.S. haters need no further motivation to hate us. If you're thinking they could damage the Saudi leadership by killing a diplomatic figure head?, why that's just plain silly. And what reason would Israel be involve in this plan?, Maybe because they and the Saudis are on the same page?, Don't make me laugh. A more likely senerio would be to give the Israelis cover for when they commit an unprovoked attack against Iran. If you believe they're trying to bring about dis-trust between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia well, if we don't already dis-trust them, we should! It was 90% Saudi nationals that bombed us on 9/11, was it not?
It'ss ALL a SETUP – we lost the DAMN WAR in IRAQ and now we trying to start another one
This was STING operation.
Why would the U.S. government attempt entrap and bait something like this, and then claim to not know what the expected motive for falling victim to a STING operation with specific provocative elements - which is the exact nature of a STING operation.
Just how freaking stupid is the audience for these news reports coming out of the U.S. government via the "free press" supposed to be - could you please provide a "stupidity" indicator for your news reports, so that some of us can make informed decisions to look elsewhere for information that help us restore our democracy - without wasting time listening government propaganda which is readily available - EVERYWHERE?
Well said.
For all you know, the joke may be on the Obama administration. They may be the ones being set up. The guy who claim to know the alleged plotter say that this guy is completely disorganized and it is beyond him to pull anything even remotely close to this. So why would Iranian special force use this guy out of thin air to do their errands. The story does not make sense on so many fronts; that I feel it is some kind of stunt being pulled to make the Obama administration as being fools
yeah... it's called Mossad intervention. they want the United States to pay for more wars... CNN is part of the problem
Ah, yes .... bigotry. Keep your mouth shut if you don't have anything intelligent to say. What else can you blame the Jews for, Adolf?
More, Like JP Morgan paying enough Taxes, Zionists (not all Jews) to "Defend Wall Street"
Sorry .... previous comment directed towards someone else. My bad.
This smells of Wolfowitz and Perl.
Only the fools in Washington who take their instructions from Isareli AIPAC daily can come up with such an incredibly stupid story to divert the attention of the American People from the mess they have created.
This tops all the manufactured BS coming out of the US Capital. A Iranian- American used car dealer living in Texas working with the Mexican Cartel to take out the wimpy Saudi Ambassador in Washington?!!!
God save our Country from these
What an Idiot you are.
wakeywakey
Why is Prousa2 an idiot J.c.? The American Israel Public Affairs Committee does have way too much influence over the U.S. congress and administration, compared to it's contribution to, and sacrifices for this nation. If you are a U.S. citizen, keep in mind that you are and not some Israeli zealot, who's just faking it. Notice how I stick with national destinctions? That's because I have respect and concern for my Jewish-American kith, but Israel is a nation that continues to ride on our backs. And that my friend, is a very different story. We just can't afford it anymore. Not financially, nor in terms of our young people's lives!
You really think the country can be saved?
Even more so than when bush was destroying America, the republicons are even more hell bent on destroying America; because she fell for a Black man? lol
Ok these comments are beyond stupid. Apparently everything that happens to be a terrorist plot somehow becomes a US govt conspiracy theory these days. If the plot is that sinister then they wouldn't bother informing us about it. George W isn't our president any more. Geez....
Seriously you start out admonishing consipiracy theories and then you finish with the Bush comment. Do you even hear yourself?
I think the response was not critical of Bush, but of the tendency of everyone to blame him for everything that happened during the 8 years he was in office.
Well even if this is fake or just trying to onfucus us , so they will try something new a new way of attacking us from the back using cartels drug lords that hate the security at samea as iran , and live in other countrys special latin america i think thats preatty smart, we have to stay foucus on whats going on is compleate out of control , wow this people are using big money drug lords and big money irans goverment its is like whatchin the exorcist alone in the dark , let us pray for world peace and love , like i will say lets seat all of us in a big world leaders round table and talk abt this , we all love money baby and there is some evil people out there like we havnt imagen ok good bless,
Another incredibly amateurish terror plot manufactured by Israeli AIPAC in Washingtion and handed over to morons who are iin charge of running this country who take their marching orders from AIPAC. If Iran wanted to do such a stupid thing why would they pick the stupid Saudi Ambassador to US and why would they use Mexican Drug Cartel for a hit..this script is so poorly written that a we can all smell its nasty smell from afar
Oooooh. See, I thought this article was supposed to be about America's motivation problem.
....like why I'm looking at CNN vs. doing my homework. No motivation.
"U.S. puzzling over motivation"
BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL JEWS, THERE ARE FOOLISH AMERICAN CHRISTIANS.
upol
BEHIND EVERY SMART COMMENT, THERE IS FOOLISH UPOL
How was his comment "smart"?
Ah, yes .... bigotry. Keep your mouth shut if you don't have anything intelligent to say. What else can you blame the Jews for, Adolf?
This is all about putting pressure on China, Russia and Iraq. The U.S. and our so called Nobel Peace Prize winner are all about starting another military conflict with the MSM backing them up. More BS on top of more BS.
The obvious reason behind this plot, is to create spurn Saudi's against the US.
If we wanted to really scare these vermin. we could send crop spraying planes over Tehran with soap and warm water, followed by an air barrage of deodorant. That would scare the bigeezez out of them for sure.
Oh c'mon. Persians do not have a smell, I think you mistaking heavy curry using cultures like Pakistani and Indians.
I blame the 8 years of the Bush Administration. And Wall Street.
I blame your mom
You're mom went to college
I meant mike's mom -sorry
Mike-your mom went to college
Motivation? How about a nice diversion from the "Fast and Furious" criminal investigation?
The timing is convenient.
If you remember the Iran Navy trying to brag that they are going to sail to American waters? For their base such a move would prove their ability to compete with the super powers on a global scale and not just locally in the Middle East. They are trying to show that they are a power to be respected. Trying to push the US into a stupid move would just over joy the Iranian leadership.
I am not surprised they would try such a stunt on American soil. What I am surprised about is that they got caught so easily. Not to take anything away from American intelligence but those Quds folks have been real good at getting other people to do their dirty work. But that is on their home turf in Middle East. Here they had to rely on groups they had no control nor deep familiarity with. Basically the used car salesman out-sourced his assignment and screwed the pooch.
ANY anti US comments are from our enemies. Just look at the syntax and the message..........they are Paki, Iran, ISI, China, or any of the above.
So, why do you think they are our enemies, or more precisely, why are we viewed as the enemy to them? You like to make comments, and you don't like to followup on them, do you?
I am not the enemy of the U.S. As a matter of fact I am a retired 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper and I don't believe this story one bit. It is obvious that the U.S. Israel and Saudi Arabia are the only countries to benefit from this entire BS story. The question should be asked Why?
War/threats/plots/suspicion all benefit the defense industry. Defense industry boom results in more jobs. More jobs means re-election.
BA, I am not sure about your comment that "it is obvious that the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia are the only countries to benefit ..." It's not obvious to me. Rather, if the Iranian government was behind this foolish plot, the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia may feel compelled to react harshly, and the situation may get away from the U.S. and those other two nations. A conspiracy theorist might argue that this is an Israeli plot designed to get U.S. and Saudi support for an attack on Iran, but I don't buy that. Unlike you, I don't think that anything about this mess is obvious. I think it's real damned strange and impossible for us Americans to figure out, at this point.
I think the anti comments are from India where they steal are jobs and come to the US in droves to steal more
Trex, sweetheart- you are delusional. And I am not Paki, Irani, or any of your other bogeymen. I am not an enemy of America. But YOU sir are full of shite.
Family member trying to get ahead by unauthorized political terror activity? Perhaps the Iranians need to torture the alleged conspirator in their own country to find out. I mean this whole thing is so non-sensical.
Re: Motive - Why not take the Iranians at their word? America is the "Great Satan," a bastion of immorality, the #1 target of the Islamic world. Iran has waged (a very well-documented) war against the U.S. for decades. The U.S. leadership has consistently failed to acknowledge this fact.
Yes Dan Edge, the Iranians have waged (a very well-documented) war against the U.S. for decades. In their own locale!! And you can't deny the last seven U.S. administration's meddling in that region. You also cannot deny that our so called foreign for the middle-east, has been a disaster, of that same period of time. Maybe we should just get out of the way and let them work it out. It should would save this broke nation a lot of cash and young service memebers lives!
this is just payback for Iran holding the hikers
No, this was held until Iran released the hostages.
One things for sure, oil speculators will use this to increase the price per barrel...hey, wait, could that be the reason?
Yep, manufactured charges, just like the government made against Jose Padilla, to scare everyone to pass the Patriot Act. The government doesn’t have to prove that something happened, but just that people agree that something should happen in the future. The crime charged in this case was to do something in the future. So when you’re dealing with a charge like that, the government’s not going to be required to produce evidence as expected normally.
teabagger, or the anti US voice
Huh? Make some sense, dude
Didnt they just say the suspect was cooperating?? Couldnt we just ask him why Iran did it?
You think he had any first hand knowledge of what was going on? He knew as much about this operation as a bag-clerk at Wal-Mart knows about their balance sheet.
Yea right. We know everything about this case except motivation.
yeah, he's cooperating thanks to the amazing water board!! It works wonders for getting these sub-human vermin to spill their guts.
Ummm ..yeah. waterboarding an American citizen does wonders for the prosecutor's case. And Next Iran will be waterboarding hikers.
Maybe it is a Saudi plot to drive internal attention to external issues and also increase the possibility of a war between iran and USA which helps them greatly. I am saying they have the motive but Iran does not
Saudis are NOT that stupid............They KNOW that the FALLOUT CLOUD will travel over them.
I am not sure because they are really stupid. Who else by 60 billion arms? Maybe they want to actually start a war Who knows? They are Saddam's brothers and as mad as he is
preposterous and silly claims , clearly an entrapment case blown up to discredit Iran
and..........
The tape recordings of the suspect in question should clear up whether it was entrapment pretty easily. I can't see the DOJ/DEA etc going public if it was completely fabricated and/or true entrapment.
My thing is I don't really see a clear motive on either side at this point but even if I believed the US govt would concoct the story out of thin air it wouldn't make sense how and when they went about doing so. If it's to scare the public it doesn't make sense, if it was to get support for Patiot Act type provisions it doesn't make sense. I suppose it couldv'e been done to get support for sanctions but that support already exists from everyone accpept those who wouldn't automatically assume it was fabricated by the US. But I'm sorry an assasination attempt at the Saudi ambassador is not exactlywhat makes sense if it were just propoganda from the US govt.
My guess is that it was more personal than we are led to believe and that a high ranking member of the Iranian govt/Quds/Rev Guard had a serious dislike of the ambassador himself (as well as Saudia Arabia but that is a given) and it was more about personal revenge than international politics.
Remember the "Iraq bought yellow cake from Niger" fiction story my friend. You still have people working in and leading up those agencies and people lie!
They are puzzled why any government would assassinate an individual in a foreign country they are not at war with WITHOUT using a drone to do so...
This is probably just another manufactured terror plot our Govt is so fond of creating.
Any anti US comment is from our enemies, in Iran, Paki and essp.ISI.
The anti US comments are from dirty smelly indians their propaganda machine RAW
Why is Prousa2 an idiot Trex? The American Israel Public Affairs Committee does have way too much influence over the U.S. congress and administration, compared to it's contribution to, and sacrifices for this nation. If you are a U.S. citizen, keep in mind that you are and not some Israeli zealot, who's just faking it. Notice how I stick with national destinctions? That's because I have respect and concern for my Jewish-American kith, but Israel is a nation that continues to ride on our backs. And that my friend, is a very different story. We just can't afford it anymore. Not financially, nor in terms of our young people's lives!
Trex,
Please excuse previous reply from wakeywakey. It was suppose to be a reply to J.c. Don't know how it got attached to your comment.