Another Huge Surprise!,

[longfisher]

"Did an elite branch of Iran's military handpick a divorced, 56-year-old Iranian-American used-car salesman from Texas to hire a hitman from a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the ambassador to Saudi Arabia by blowing up a bomb in a crowded restaurant in Washington?

The story is in fact so bad that even The New York Times, not known exactly for its habitual questioning of the official lines of the US government when it comes to warmongering in the Middle East, published a piece about the used car salesman at the centre of the plot in which we learn that he was a rowdy, incompetent fool. According to his friend: "His socks would not match ... He was always losing his keys and his cellphone. He was not capable of carrying out this plan."

But Seapower believes it all like it was the Gosphel.

This sort of crude propoganda make the Tonkin Gulf incident look like the work of absolutely magical liars. It's an unmistakable attempt to taint Iran with a story line that only the dumbest of American (Rebublicans) could swallow. The Europeans are incredulous that such a laughable story is even in our mainstream media and not only on the Onion.com.

But Seapower believes it all like it was the Gosphel.

LF

[seapower]

If the truth be known, I don't trust either. I wasn't born yesterday and have had just enough experience to know that all may not be the way it is "seen". Surprise! That said don't for a moment think that I trust anything "Iran". The same "ideology" that is present today in that country, is the same that was there during Mr Carter's watch. Gotta do talk to my dog, see ya. Frank

[WahooKing]

Looks like Antiwar.com was off the mark on this one..Surprise, Surprise!!!


Iran Says Saudi Plot Defendant Belongs to Exile Group

Iran injected a new twist on Tuesday into the week-old American accusation of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, asserting that one of the defendants really belongs to an outlawed and exiled opposition group.

The defendant, Gholam Shakuri, identified by the Justice Department as an operative of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, is actually a “key member” of the Mujahedeen Khalq, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.

The agency did not explain the group’s possible motive but left the implication that the plot was a bogus scheme meant to frame and ostracize Iran.

It said Mr. Shakuri, who is at large, had last been seen in Washington and in Camp Ashraf, the group’s enclave in Iraq. “The person in question has been traveling to different countries under the names of Ali Shakuri/Gholam Shakuri/Gholam-Hussein Shakuri by using fake passports including forged Iranian passports,” Mehr said.

American officials did not immediately comment on the Mehr report. Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, reiterated the American view in a daily press briefing in Washington that “this was a serious breach of international law and that Iran needs to be held accountable.”

The opposition group itself dismissed the Mehr report as nonsense. Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman, said in an e-mailed response that “this is a well-known tactic that has been used by the mullahs in the past 30 years where they blame their crimes on their opposition for double gains.”

The group, also known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, is regarded by Iran as a violent insurgent organization with a history of assassinations and sabotage aimed at overthrowing the Islamic government that took power in 1979. While the group claims to have renounced violence a decade ago, it is still classified as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department, but not by Britain or the European Union. It maintains a headquarters in Paris.

Mehr said it had learned what it called the new information about Mr. Shakuri from Interpol but was not more specific. Calls and e-mailed queries to Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France, were not immediately returned.

If Mr. Shakuri were in fact a member of the opposition group, it would be an embarrassing turn for the United States, which announced the suspected plot with some fanfare a week ago in a televised news conference by Attorney General Eric. H. Holder Jr., who said American investigators believed high officials in Iran’s government were responsible.

The Justice Department has accused Mr. Shakuri and Mansour J. Arbabsiar, a naturalized Iranian-American citizen from Corpus Christi, Tex., of conspiring to hire assassins from a Mexican drug gang for $1.5 million to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.

American officials have acknowledged the suspected plot sounds hard to believe but asserted they have the evidence to back it up. Saudi Arabia, apparently accepting the accusation as fact, has accused Iran of a “dastardly” scheme, and other American allies say they regard the accusation seriously.

Britain has gone farther than others, announcing on Tuesday it had ordered British banks to impound any assets of the two defendants as well as three other Iranian officials in the Quds Force suspected of running the plot.

Since Mr. Holder’s news conference, Iran has sought to counter the accusation with a mix of verbal counterattacks, accusing the Obama administration of concocting the plot to divert attention from other problems, conspiring with Israel to malign Iran and driving a wedge into Iran’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Iran scholars in the United States have said the suspected plot, while sounding far-fetched and amateurish, is not implausible. Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, said it could reflect an attempt by Iran’s security forces to retaliate for what they view as American-hatched plots carried out within Iran.

“It is suggesting, if true, that they’re trying to meet pressure with pressure,” he said. “From their perspective, the United States is involved in Iran’s internal affairs.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/wo...ile-group.html

[longfisher]

He's a member of MeK, according to the Iranians.

If you don't know, the MeK is a terrorist organization that focuses on overthrowing the government of Iran.

Since you, like me, are fond of reading antiwar.com here's a excerpt of one of today's articles which, if read for comprehension, suggests that the whole damned thing was a false flag operation. Although the intent is debatable and perhaps unknowable, it's result was to precipitate a confrontation between the U.S. and Iran at about the same time the Israelis would love to get the Palestinian's seeking statehood out of the news.

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/10/18/i...le-mek-member/

Also on this topic from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/wo..._r=1&ref=world

Here's an insightful excerpt from the second article:

"If Mr. Shakuri were in fact a member of the opposition group, it would be an embarrassing turn for the United States, which announced the suspected plot with some fanfare a week ago in a televised news conference by Attorney General Eric. H. Holder Jr., who said American investigators believed high officials in Iran’s government were responsible."

I think it's going to be extremely funny to watch the Obama Adminstration explain its bungling and bumbling on this one if it turns out the be a false flag operation as they've basically threatened everything short of outright war due to this, and "all options on the table" could even be interpreted as that too.

If the U.S. wasn't directly involved in this at the level of the White House there are innumerable other actors who are Iran hawks who could have pulled off this stunt. And, it would be a win win for them either way. The American public takes up lies without much skepticism and they never pay attention to the refutation of the lies that don't appear on Page 1 of the newspaper. So, the hawks get the intended effect, they ramp up pro-war sentiments. So, they win whether the scheme is explosed or not and as a bonus, if it gets exposed, it makes Obama look like the fool he really is.

Pretty good strategy, really.

But most importantly, don't you guys ever develop any skepticism over what the damned government tells you (Tonkin Gulf Incident, Soviet Nuke Capabilities, Major War Crimes in Serbia, Monica, WMDs, etc., etc., etc.). This was portrayed as one of the most dastardly plots of modern time and much sabre rattling is being done about it. If it turns out not to have been initiated by Iran at all, won't you be ashamed?

Nope, you're too accepting of the lies and too dishonorable to admit you were deceived, perhaps deceived into another war of inestimable consequences.

LF

[WahooKing]

Nope, I don't read antiwar.com...Just your cut and paste from that site...Which you seem to take as gospel...I'm more inclined to believe the good ole USA's government before I believe the Iranian government...
How about yourself? I thought you had love for US government and her system that you defend so adamantly ...


Funny how the Iranians have seen the evidence and are hardly blaming the US government for a fabricated plot...Now, they seem to be putting the blame on MeK...And if i might add, MeK was quick to denounce any wrong doing and/or involvement in the plot.

Here is what the US is saying about the lack of evidence against MeK...Sounds like the Iranian news report was "pure fiction"

U.S. Denies Iran Claims That Saudi Plot Defendant Belongs to Exile Group
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/wo...ile-group.html

There is one theory I'm more inclined to believe on the opposite end of your thinking....The plot was real...As you know, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have been in a huge power struggle as of late...ex: Ahmadinejad's money embezzlement scandal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...14K_story.html

Iran’s supreme leader says Ahmadinejad’s job may be scrapped
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/5...ident.html.csp


And the plot was used by Ayatollah or Ahmadinejad to further embarrass one or the other on the Worlds stage...And to gain internal power

Possible Motive?

[longfisher]

Nope, I don't read antiwar.com...Just your cut and paste from that site...Which you seem to take as gospel...I'm more inclined to believe the good ole USA's government before I believe the Iranian government...
How about yourself? I thought you had love for US government and her system that you defend so adamantly ...

So, you still don't get it.

I didn't say I believe the Iranian government. I said I didn't believe the U.S. government. There's a distinction there, isn't there.

I despise the U.S. government in every one of it's presidential administrative incarnations. I despise them because they serve the elites and they crap on the middle class and lower class. It's an entirely feudal system and it doesn't make any difference whatsoever which of the two major parties is in power. They both serve the financial elites and prey on the common man.

And, they lie...all the time...while pretending not to.

I've never defended the U.S. government. Mostly, I attack it and for good reason (Trimped up Spanish American War, Trumped up Mexican American war, Tonkin Gulf Incident, CIA's "mistaken" measure of USSR Missile Strength that put us into a three decades long arms race, mass graves in Serbia that never materialized, Iraq's WMDs, Monica, etc. etc. etc.).

What I defend is the Constitution. Not the corrupt crap that now claims it.

LF

[seapower]

Do you get it now? Frank

[WahooKing]

Do you get it now? Frank

What I can't get is that damn kids song out of my head...you know the one that goes "The wheels on the bus go round and round"