US Terror Plot Foiled: White House to Take Action Against Iran?
Iran has been accused of plotting to assassinate a Saudi diplomat on U.S. soil today. Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir, who has been serving as ambassador since 2007, was targeted in a bomb attack plan by Iranian terrorists. The terrorists also conspired to bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington DC.
Earlier, Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in a news conference that a plot by "factions of the Iranian government" to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States has been foiled.
He said the suspect is accused in a $1.5 million “international murder-for-hire” plot against the Saudi envoy to the U.S. and said the alleged plot was “conceived, sponsored and directed from Iran.”
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Two men, identified as Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri have been charged with planning to assassinate the ambassador and to attack the embassies, according to court documents filed by the Justice Department. One of the men is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Arbabsiar is said to have “confessed” to his role in the alleged plot, says Holder.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said in the news conference that many lives could have been lost in the plot to kill the ambassador, with bomb attacks planned for the U.S. capital, according to USA Today.
Holder said the White House, State Department and Department of the Treasury will be taking further action in as little as a few hours, reports USA Today.
According to ABC News, the case, called Operation Red Coalition, began in May when Iranian-American Arbabsiar from Corpus Christi, Texas, approached an undercover DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel in the plot.
Arbabsiar thought he was dealing with a member of the Zetas Mexican drug organization.
According to ABC News, Arbabsiar made the contact, claiming he was being "directed by high-ranking members of the Iranian government," including a cousin who was "a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform."
Meetings and phone calls between the informant and Arbabsiar were recorded by the DEA and FBI, according to ABC news, which ultimately led to the foiling of the plot.
The DEA informant was given $50,000 as down-payment of a $1.5 million assassination fee by Arbabsiar.
They have now been charged with conspiracy to kill a foreign official and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, a bomb, among other counts.
