Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says

[Ed Jewett]

[TABLE="width: 100%, align: right"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 10, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 20, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"] [/TD]
[TD="class: subheadline_body, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][TABLE="width: 126, align: left"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 50"][TABLE="width: 50, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]

1digg

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[TD="width: 54"][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
CFR's Hart Suggests False Flag Event For Iran War
Tacit warning to Iranian government suggests staged event may be used to ensure "bombs fall on your head"
Infowars.net | September 27 , 2007
Steve Watson

Council on Foreign Relations memberGary Hart , famed for stating that Americans will die en- mass on home soil this century, and for declaring 48 hours after 9/11 that it should be used "to carry out a new world order", has written a scathing letter to the leaders of Iran clearly warning that the U.S. government has a history of staging provocations in order to initiate conflict with other nations and that Iran could be next.Hart references the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898, which led to the Spanish American war, as well as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was ultimately the catalyst for airstrikes on Vietnam.Why does Hart reference these two cases? Because they are both examples of staged managed events that were used to coerce the American public into supporting war.The sinking of the Maine was immediately blamed on the Spanish, with the innovator of yellow journalism William Randolph-Hearst enflaming anti-Spanish sentiment in his papers by definitively claiming that it was a Spanish plot. No reliable evidence was ever produced linking Spain to the event and it is now widely believed that the event was at best a mechanical failure or at worst a false flag operation.Similarly the Gulf of Tonkin incident saw President Johnson accuse North Vietnamese PT boats of attacking strike carries in the gulf, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. Documents and tapes released via the Freedom of Information Act have since shown that Johnson knew that there were no PT boats and no attacks, but still went ahead with lying to the American public on national TV to garner support for escalating the war in Vietnam. Johnson also had the NSA fake intelligence data to make it appear as if the two US ships had been lost.Hart, one of the instigators of the Homeland Security apparatus that has evolved since 9/11, then goes on to state that American people are reluctant to go to war unless provoked and coldly remarks "For historians of American wars the question is whether we provoke provocations."He then mentions the Iraq war and refers to how the public were duped into accepting the invasion via the spectre of 9/11. Hart writes "even in this instance, we were led to believe that the mass murderer of American civilians, Osama bin Laden, was lurking, literally or figuratively, in the vicinity of Baghdad."To those who do not read history Gary Hart's letter makes for a confusing read, but to those who know anything about staged provocations, the intent is clear. Hart is declaring that the elite controlled US government has attacked countries based on false pretenses in the past and will gladly do so again.Hart's declarations carry the same sentiment as those of fellow globalist Zbigniew Brzezinski earlier this year. The Former National Security Advisor and founding member of the elite policy making group the Trilateral Commission implicitly warned a Senate Foreign Relations Committee that an attack on Iran could be launched following a staged provocation in Iraq or a false flag terror attack within the U.S.Brzezinski alluded to the potential for the Bush administration to manufacture a false flag Gulf of Tonkin type incident in describing a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran," which would revolve around "some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a defensive' US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan."Texas Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul has also recently warned that a "Gulf of Tonkin like event" may be used to provoke air strikes on Iran as numerous factors collide to heighten expectations that America may soon be embroiled in its third war in six years.Here is Gary Hart's letter in full:Unsolicited Advice to the Government of IranPresuming that you are not actually ignorant enough to desire war with the United States, you might be well advised to read the history of the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 and the history of the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964.

Having done so, you will surely recognize that Americans are reluctant to go to war unless attacked. Until Pearl Harbor, we were even reluctant to get involved in World War II. For historians of American wars the question is whether we provoke provocations.
Given the unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, you are obviously thinking the rules have changed. Provocation is no longer required to take America to war. But even in this instance, we were led to believe that the mass murderer of American civilians, Osama bin Laden, was lurking, literally or figuratively, in the vicinity of Baghdad.
Given all this, you would probably be well advised to keep your forces, including clandestine forces, as far away from the Iraqi border as you can. You might even consider bringing in some neighbors to verify that you are not shipping arms next door. Tone down the rhetoric on Zionism. You've established your credentials with those in your world who thrive on that.
If it makes you feel powerful to hurl accusations at the American eagle, have at it. Sticks and stones, etc. But, for the next sixteen months or so, you should not only not take provocative actions, you should not seem to be doing so.
For the vast majority of Americans who seek no wider war, in the Middle East or elsewhere, don't tempt fate. Don't give a certain vice president we know the justification he is seeking to attack your country. That is unless you happen to like having bombs fall on your head.

http://www.infowars.com/articles/nwo/cfr...an_war.htm


[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
******

CFR's Hart Suggests False Flag Event For Iran War

Note, SCAN this wonderful definition of False Flag Ops at WIKIPEDIA first.

Warning to Iran suggests a staged event may be used to ensure "bombs fall on your Persian heads"

Steve Watson, Sept 27, 07

Council on Foreign Relations member Gary Hart, famed for stating that Americans will die en- mass on home soil this century, and for declaring 48 hours after 9/11 that it should be used "to carry out a new world order", has written a scathing letter to the leaders of Iran clearly warning that the U.S. government has a history of staging provocations in order to initiate conflict with other nations and that Iran could be next.
Hart references the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898, which led to the Spanish American war, as well as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was ultimately the catalyst for air strikes on Vietnam. Why does Hart reference these two cases? Because they are both examples of staged managed events that were used to coerce the American public into supporting war.
The sinking of the Maine was immediately blamed on the Spanish, with the innovator of yellow journalism William Randolph-Hearst enflaming anti-Spanish sentiment in his papers by definitively claiming that it was a Spanish plot. No reliable evidence was ever produced linking Spain to the event and it is now widely believed that the event was at best a mechanical failure or at worst a false flag operation.
Similarly the Gulf of Tonkin incident saw President Johnson accuse North Vietnamese PT boats of attacking strike carries in the gulf, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. Documents and tapes released via the Freedom of Information Act have since shown that Johnson knew that there were no PT boats and no attacks, but still went ahead with lying to the American public on national TV to garner support for escalating the war in Vietnam. Johnson also had the NSA fake intelligence data to make it appear as if the two US ships had been lost. Hart, one of the instigators of the Homeland Security apparatus that has evolved since 9/11, then goes on to state that American people are reluctant to go to war unless provoked and coldly remarks "For historians of American wars the question is whether we provoke provocations."
He then mentions the Iraq war and refers to how the public was duped into accepting the invasion via the specter of 9/11. Hart writes "even in this instance, we were led to believe that the mass murderer of American civilians, Osama bin Laden, was lurking, literally or figuratively, in the vicinity of Baghdad."
To those who do not read history Gary Hart's letter makes for a confusing read, but to those who know anything about staged provocations, the intent is clear. Hart is declaring that the elite controlled US government has attacked countries based on false pretenses in the past and will gladly do so again.
Hart's declarations carry the same sentiment as those of fellow globalist Zbigniew Brzezinski earlier this year. The Former National Security Advisor and founding member of the elite policy making group the Trilateral Commission implicitly warned a Senate Foreign Relations Committee that an attack on Iran could be launched following a staged provocation in Iraq or a false flag terror attack within the U.S. Brzezinski alluded to the potential for the Bush administration to manufacture a false flag Gulf of Tonkin type incident in describing a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran," which would revolve around "some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a defensive' US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Texas Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul has also recently warned that a "Gulf of Tonkin like event" may be used to provoke air strikes on Iran as numerous factors collide to heighten expectations that America may soon be embroiled in its third war in six years.

Here is Gary Hart's letter in full:

Unsolicited Advice to the Government of Iran

Presuming that you are not actually ignorant enough to desire war with the United States, you might be well advised to read the history of the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 and the history of the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964.
Having done so, you will surely recognize that Americans are reluctant to go to war unless attacked. Until Pearl Harbor, we were even reluctant to get involved in World War II. For historians of American wars the question is whether we provoke provocations.
Given the unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq in 03, you are obviously thinking the rules have changed. Provocation is no longer required to take America to war. But even in this instance, we were led to believe that the mass murderer of American civilians, Osama bin Laden, was lurking, literally or figuratively, in the vicinity of Baghdad.
Given all this, you would probably be well advised to keep your forces, including clandestine forces, as far away from the Iraqi border as you can. You might even consider bringing in some neighbors to verify that you are not shipping arms next door. Tone down the rhetoric on Zionism. You've established your credentials with those in your world who thrive on that.
If it makes you feel powerful to hurl accusations at the American eagle, have at it. Sticks and stones, etc. But, for the next sixteen months or so, you should not only not take provocative actions, you should not seem to be doing so.
For the vast majority of Americans who seek no wider war, in the Middle East or elsewhere, don't tempt fate. Don't give a certain vice president we know the justification he is seeking to attack your country. That is unless you happen to like having bombs fall on your head.

READ KINZER's BOOK "OVERTHROW" on the last dozen FALSE FLAG OPS USA did!!! Kinzer's book is the seminal one on the subject. But CIA website seems to admit that such things exist!
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-t...cle10.html

THE ABOVE URL is the CIA WEBSITE but it actually has an article on false flag operations.
ALTERNET has some of the many FALSE FLAG OPS to blacken or tar a nation, accusing it of attack so the fascist liar can start a war http://www.alternet.org/audits/39416/

NOTE: I cannot believe that Gary Hart is dumb enough to a.) be a whistleblower against his own country, b.) wave a phony red muletaat the Persians a smart ole country that is thousands of years old, not 300 like us. Or C.) Believe he could enhance his own career with such a POST. Not to say I don't like it when someone does a STOCKMAN and I partly believe this was for not-so-savvy AMERICANS to read. But a 4th possibility exists: that it's false and Hart never wrote this letter. Because Hart cites the two most obvious examples of a phony baloney false flag op that ever occurred, not including HITLER's dragging out some bodies he'd dressed as Polish soldiers, saying POLAND HAD ATTACKED HIM, enabling him to enter Poland in 1939. Or Kristallnacht which signaled the beginning of all Jews being sent out of Germany to camps.

http://www.luckinlove.com/falseflag.htm

[Peter Lemkin]

While Hart is not perfect [from the viewpoint of most on this Forum], he does no which side of the black op bread the butter is on. He was fully aware of what was really going on in Iran-Contra false-flag op - and was 'done in' politically for that knowledge. Plumlee and others personally informed him on this matter. Shortly after, he fell afoul of a 'honey trap' that made his run for President impossible in prudish Amerika. He got the message, loud and clear. I know this personally, having spoken to his security chief long ago. I even suspect that he believes, as do we, that the major assassinations and false-flag ops were done by the same cabal and power structure as was Iran-Contra. Such a 'dangerous' person could never be let to run for President [in the eyes of those behind such things.....] angryfire

[Magda Hassan]

The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com Former Iran assassin says alleged plot 'makes no sense' Dawud Salahuddin, an American fugitive in Tehran who carried out 1980 hitnear Washington, argues that Iran would not try to kill the Saudi ambassadorto the US for fear of provoking war. By Scott Peterson, Staff writerposted October 14, 2011 at 1:52 pm EDT ISTANBUL, TURKEYIn Tehran, an unexpected source is expressing doubt about the assassinationplot laid out by US officials, alleging that Iran was behind plans to killthe top Saudi Arabian diplomat in Washington and blow up embassies. Dawud Salahuddin, an American fugitive who in 1980 was the last ? and only ?US citizen known to have killed on behalf of Iran's revolutionary regime, onUS soil, says the plot borders on the unbelievable. Both strategically and operationally, in terms of Iran's worldview and itsway of doing business, the information made public so far about theassassination plot does not add up, says Mr. Salahuddin, a black Americanconvert to Islam, who was born David Theodore Belfield. "For all the noise that comes out of this country, the Iranians know fullwell they are no military match for the Americans; they know that betterthan they know their names," says Salahuddin, who spoke to the Monitor bytelephone from his home west of Tehran. "So the notion that [the Iranians]are going to bring that down on them, that just makes no sense at all." Iran assassination plot: Four attacks that have been blamed on Iran "Why would the Iranians blow up embassies in Washington DC? The last thingthe Iranians want is a war with the Americans," he adds. "This regime:They're interested in staying in power." A 1980 assassinationThat was also the case not long after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, whenSalahuddin was recruited to assassinate Ali Akbar Tabatabai, a vocal criticof the fledgling religious regime. Dressed as a mailman when he approached Mr. Tabatabai's residence inBethesda, Maryland, on July 22, 1980, Salahuddin killed the former Shah-erapress attach? by firing three bullets into his abdomen. The homicide report described the shooting as a "political assassination,"and stated that the victim had founded a group "whose goal was the overthrowof the present regime in Iran." Salahuddin fled to Iran via Canada and Europe, and ever since has livedunhappily as a fugitive, mostly in Tehran. He fought with the mujahideenagainst the Soviets in Afghanistan, has worked as journalist and editor, andeven played a role in the 2001 Mohsen Makhmalbaf film "Kandahar." He has a host of contacts throughout Iran's regime and its intelligenceservices, but is often very critical of the Islamic Republic and theunfulfilled promises of its revolution. Salahuddin's time in Iran ? he speaks Farsi and is married to an Iranian ?has given him particular insight into the workings of the regime. He haskept a close eye on world events, especially politics in his native UnitedStates. Salahuddin has in years past been contacted by US authorities, for avariety of reasons. For him, the alleged assassination plot detailed by US officials this weekportrays an unlikely Keystone Kops scenario that has been blown out ofproportion by Washington as an election campaign gets underway. President Barack Obama on Thursday slammed Iran's "dangerous and recklessbehavior," and demanded "accountability" from Iran for any officials"engaging in this kind of activity." US diplomatic missions around the world have been tasked with trying toconvince their host governments to further isolate and pressure Iran, withspecial attention paid to Russia, China, and Turkey ? all of which have beenreluctant to add to four sets of UN sanctions already imposed upon Iran. 'Too many action movies growing up'The US case centers around an Iranian-American from Corpus Christi, Texas,called Mansour Arbabsiar, and at least three members of the Quds Force, theelite branch of the Revolutionary Guard that handles covert operationsabroad ? apparently identified through intercepted communications and Mr.Arbabsiar?s confession. News reports from Corpus Christi indicate that Arbabsiar is an unlikelyIranian 007, with his taste for whiskey and absent-minded demeanor. "Do you think the Quds Force would choose a guy like that? I don't thinkso," says Salahuddin. "There is no real credible link between the guy andthe government. ... I think he probably binged on too many action movieswhen he was growing up." Arbabsiar "said he is the cousin of a famous general," but also conversed onopen phone lines. The transfer of $100,000 to a US account, allegedly as adown payment to Mexican Zetas drug cartel hit men for the killing of theSaudi diplomat, is also strange, notes Salahuddin, because "every" Iranianknows that any transfer over $10,000 is reported. "There is nothing in this guy's background that would prepare him foranything like that," says Salahuddin. "I mean, murder is something ? youhave to feel pretty intensely about something, in order to try that one. Buthere's a guy who, for all practical purposes, all he was interested in wasmaking a living." >From black power to Islamic revolutionSalahuddin was a student of the black power movement of the 1960s and 1970s,and was deeply affected by racial violence and the slayings of Martin LutherKing, Jr. and Malcolm X. He told The New Yorker in 2002 the he had been an?angry and alienated? black American: ?I was primed for violence, and Ithought about cratering the White House a quarter century before Al Qaedadid. It would be accurate to say that my biggest aspiration was to bringAmerica to its knees, but I didn?t know how.? Salahuddin respected the ideals of Islam as colorblind, as well as thestated aims of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolution. "I began reading the Koran when I was actually in university, at HowardUniversity campus," recalled Salahuddin in a 2006 documentary called"American Fugitive." "I'd read the Bible, too, I'd been in church, catechismstudies. But when I began to read the Koran it made sense to me. ... Fromthat time on, I was hooked." In the film, Salahuddin discusses the assassination he committed, and weighsit up against the Islamic injunction against killing anyone ? much less afellow Muslim believer. But operationally, he says the 1980 murder offers little relevant experiencewhen compared to the alleged Iranian plot today, because "everything haschanged since then." For one thing, since then Iranian hit squads have assassinated scores ofregime opponents, across Europe and Iraq, in the 1980s and early 1990s. Somewere spectacular hits, but none in recent years. Several attempts in the US that Salahuddin was aware of failed; after hissuccessful hit, he says, "everyone else [in the US] went underground for 10years, and started wearing bulletproof vests." 'Iranians killing Iranians'"When you speak about Iranian terrorism, you speak about Iranians killingIranians, you don't hear about Iranians blowing up an entire restaurant justto get one Saudi, or an Israeli embassy," notes Salahuddin. "Those are actsof war." He says he has been surprised by the immediate and tough response from Mr.Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who have ramped up theirrhetoric for more sanctions, as some US lawmakers have called for moreserious action. "It's incredible. It makes me think, for all the so-called intelligence inthe American administration, they have absolutely no imagination... theythink that Iran is such an easy scapegoat," says Salahuddin. "The only beneficiaries in a scenario like this, which I believe isabsolutely false, are the Americans and the Israelis," adds Salahuddin. "Itseems to me that the administration is playing to the public, instead ofplaying to reality. Because this notion is unreality, that the Iranians aregoing to be doing this kind of thing."

[Ed Jewett]

"... Today, a Pakistani Intelligence official told the Pakistani Urdu-language daily that the Mossad gave Mansour Arbabsiar fake id papers only three months ago.Mansour Arbabsiar is accused of plotting to kill the Saudi Ambassador and his arrest has caused a furry of calls to bomb Iran from the usual war hawks on Capital Hill.
"The person who is accused in this case had received fake ID documents from the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, three months ago," the Pakistani Urdu-language daily, Nation, quoted the official as saying on the condition of anonymity, report Press TV....."

http://theintelhub.com/2011/10/17/pakist...ke-papers/

[Ed Jewett]

"... Washington's political equation was abruptly disturbed when a top ISI official revealed that the man involved in the alleged assassination plot of the Saudi envoy Adel al-Jubeir had received forged documents from Mossad.


"The accused man [Mansour Arbabsiar] received fake ID documents from Mossad three months ago," the Pakistani Urdu-language Ummat Daily quoted the Inter-Services Intelligence officer as saying on condition of anonymity.


According to the Pakistani intelligence expert, the man in question was slated to carry out an operation codenamed Foss Fling for the notorious Israeli intelligence agency.


In parallel with this appalling revelation, The Independent ran a story about Adam Werritty, an unofficial "chief of staff" to British Defense Minister Liam Fox, his best man and former flat mate who accompanied him on a number of official visits and virtually made all his decisions and even held top level meetings. Things went wrong though when it became manifest that he had in February arranged a meeting between Fox and senior Mossad operatives at a security conference taking place in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, where they discussed effective plans to overthrow the 'Iranian regime'. Werritty was said to have regularly met Iranian anti-government groups, Israeli operatives and right-wing US groups with an overwhelming interest in destabilizing President Ahmadinejad and overthrowing the Islamic government.


According to the report, Werritty had travelled to Iran on several occasions and held secret meetings with opposition groups with the express intention of expediting the fall of the Islamic government in Iran. Interestingly, MI6 was informed of his connections and debriefed him after he returned from overseas trips.


Werritty was financially backed by murky sources such as Bicom, an Israeli advocacy organization based in the UK. Bicom which stands for Britain Israel Communications Research Center is in fact a front organization based in London tasked with security and intelligence activities as well as promotion of Zionism. Apart from garnering support for the Zionist regime among Britons, the office also serves as a bridge between Mossad and MI6. The CEO of the office, Lorna Fitzsimons, a former MP, is noted for her constant support for the Zionists. She used to be a member of the campaign group, Labor Friends of Israel (LFI). It is basically a lobby group promoting Zionism within the British Labor Party in particular and in Britain, in general. And Werritty is an influential member of the organization and a highly regarded agent for Mossad.


These postulations aside, there has recently emerged an interesting piece of information about a second person held on suspicion of involvement in the alleged plot. The information reveals a man named Gholam Hussein Shakouri who is closely connected with the fabricated prime suspect. Shakouri, who is a cousin of Mansour Arbabsiar, is reportedly a member of the MKO, a notorious terrorist organization now based at the Ashraf camp in Iraq and strongly supported by the US government although the organization has been widely designated as a terrorist organization.


The loosely-structured assassination plot is part of an extensive espionage and sabotage network supported and co-funded by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and CIA.


The marriage of the pernicious intelligence agencies e.g. Mossad, CIA and MI6 in trying to sabotage and cripple the Islamic government indicates a diligently wrought out plan over many years and one which has been heavily funded.


In the final analysis, what seemed at first to be a simplistic effort by the US to corner Iran into political isolation has begun to branch out into ramifications of Kafkaesque proportions."


-- Ismail Salami is an Iranian author and political analyst. A prolific writer, he has written numerous books and articles on the Middle East. His articles have been translated into a number of languages.




http://www.presstv.ir/detail/205139.html

[Ed Jewett]

No matter how many times the Zionist enablers claim "this was real" (count them yourself), it doesn't mean that it was.

[Ed Jewett]

U.S. Officials Peddle False Intel to Support Terror Plot Claims

By Gareth Porter

October 17, 2011 "Information Clearing House" -- - - Officials of the Barack Obama administration have aggressively leaked information supposedly based on classified intelligence in recent days to bolster its allegation that two higher- ranking officials from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were involved in a plot to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington, D.C.

The media stories generated by the leaks helped divert press attention from the fact that there is no verifiable evidence of any official Iranian involvement in the alleged assassination plan, contrary to the broad claim being made by the administration.

But the information about the two Iranian officials leaked to NBC News, the Washington Post and Reuters was unambiguously false and misleading, as confirmed by official documents in one case and a former senior intelligence and counterterrorism official in the other.

The main target of the official leaks was Abdul Reza Shahlai, who was identified publicly by the Obama administration as a "deputy commander in the Quds Force" of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Shahlai had long been regarded by U.S. officials as a key figure in the Quds Force's relationship to Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in Iraq.

The primary objective of the FBI sting operation involving Iranian- American Manssor Arbabsiar and a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant that was started last June now appears to have been to use Arbabsiar to implicate Shahlai in a terror plot.

U.S. officials had learned from the DEA informant that Arbabsiar claimed that Shahlai was his cousin.

In September 2008, the Treasury Department designated Shahlai as an individual "providing financial, material and technical support for acts of violence that threaten the peace and stability of Iraq" and thus subject to specific financial sanctions. The announcement said Shahlai had provided "material support" to the Mahdi Army in 2006 and that he had "planned the Jan. 20, 2007 attack" by Mahdi Army "Special Groups" on U.S. troops at the Provincial Coordination Center in Karbala, Iraq.

Arbabsiar's confession claims that Shahlai approached him in early spring 2011 and asked him to find "someone in the narcotics business" to kidnap the Saudi ambassador to the United States, according to the FBI account. Arbabsiar implicates Shahlai in providing him with thousands of dollars for his expenses.

But Arbabsiar's charge against Shahlai was self-interested. Arbabsiar had become the cornerstone of the administration's case against Shahlai in order to obtain leniency on charges against him.

There is no indication in the FBI account of the investigation that there is any independent evidence to support Arbabsiar's claim of Shahlai's involvement in a plan to kill the ambassador.

The Obama administration planted stories suggesting that Shahlai had a terrorist past, and that it was therefore credible that he could be part of an assassination plot.

Laying the foundation for press stories on the theme, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it was sanctioning Shahlai, along with Arbabsiar and three other Quds Force officials, including the head of the organisation, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, for being "connected to" the assassination plot.

But Michael Issikof of NBC News reported the same day that Shahlai "had previously been accused of plotting a highly sophisticated attack that killed five U.S. soldiers in Iraq, according to U.S. government officials and documents made public Tuesday afternoon".

Isikoff, who is called "National Investigative Correspondent" at NBC News, reported that the Treasury Department had designated Shahlai as a "terrorist" in 2008, despite the fact that the Treasury announcement of the designation had not used the term "terrorist".

On Saturday, the Washington Post published a report closely paralleling the Issikof story but going even further in claiming documentary proof of Shahlai's responsibility for the January 2007 attack in Karbala. Post reporter Peter Finn wrote that Shahlai "was known as the guiding hand behind an elite militia of the cleric Moqtada al Sadr", which had carried out an attack on U.S. troops in Karbala in January 2007.

Finn cited the fact that the Treasury Department named Shahlai as the "final approving and coordinating authority" for training Sadr's militiamen in Iran. That fact would not in itself be evidence of involvement in a specific attack on U.S. forces. On the contrary, it would suggest that he was not involved in operational aspects of the Mahdi Army in Iraq.

Finn then referred to a "22-page memo that detailed preparations for the operation and tied it to the Quds Force…." But he didn't refer to any evidence that Shahlai personally had anything to do with the operation.

In fact, U.S. officials acknowledged in the months after the Karbala attack that they had found no evidence of any Iranian involvement in the operation.

Talking with reporters about the memo on Apr. 26, 2007, several weeks after it had been captured, Gen. David Petraeus conceded that it did not show that any Iranian official was linked to the planning of the Karbala operation. When a journalist asked him whether there was evidence of Iranian involvement in the Karbala operation, Petraeus responded, "No. No. No… [W]e do not have a direct link to Iran involvement in that particular case."

In a news briefing in Baghdad Jul. 2, 2007, Gen. Kevin Bergner confirmed that the attack in Karbala had been authorised by the Iraqi chief of the militia in question, Kais Khazali, not by any Iranian official.

Col. Michael X. Garrett, who had been commander of the U.S. Fourth Brigade combat team in Karbala, confirmed to this writer in December 2008 that the Karbala attack "was definitely an inside job".

Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, is on the list of those Iranian officials "linked" to the alleged terror plot, because he "oversees the IRGC-QF officers who were involved in this plot" , as the Treasury Department announcement explained. But a Reuters story on Friday reported a claim of U.S. intelligence that two wire transfers totaling 100,000 dollars at the behest of Arbabsiar to a bank account controlled by the FBI implicates Soleimani in the assassination plot.

"While details are still classified," wrote Mark Hosenball and Caren Bohan, "one official said the wire transfers apparently had some kind of hallmark indicating they were personally approved" by Soleimani.

But the suggestion that forensic examination of the wire transfers could somehow show who had approved them is misleading. The wire transfers were from two separate non-Iranian banks in a foreign country, according to the FBI's account. It would be impossible to deduce who approved the transfer by looking at the documents.

"I have no idea what such a 'hallmark' could be," said Paul Pillar, a former head of the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center who was also National Intelligence Officer for the Middle East until his retirement in 2005.

Pillar told IPS that the "hallmark" notion "pops up frequently in commentary after actual terrorist attacks,", but the concept is usually invoked "along the lines of 'the method used in this attack had the hallmark of group such and such'."

That "hallmark" idea "assumes exclusive ownership of a method of attack which does not really exist," said Pillar. "I expect the same could be said of methods of transferring money."

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in 2006.
This item was first posted at IPS

[Ed Jewett]

'Saudi envoy plot suspect is MKO man' --Second suspect in alleged plot to assassinate Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington is one of the senior members of the MKO, an anti-Iranian terrorist group 17 Oct 2011 Interpol has gained information about the second suspect in the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States indicating that he is a key member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO). A source told the Mehr news agency on Monday that Interpol has learned that Gholam-Hossein Shakouri, aka Ali Shakouri and Gholam Shakouri, the second suspect in the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington, is one of the senior members of the MKO, which is an anti-Iranian terrorist group. Shakouri has travelled to numerous countries with many fake identity documents, including forged Iranian passports, and he was last seen in Washington and at Camp Ashraf, where MKO members are based, the source added.
'Saudi envoy plot suspect is MKO man'

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/205177.html

[Ed Jewett]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKYnuMfiS...r_embedded (9:32)

Uploaded by TheRealNews on Oct 15, 2011
Pt2 Gareth Porter: Critical two weeks missing from FBI account. Watch pt1 at: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3...

[Ed Jewett]

October 29-30, 2011 -- Iranian government letter to the United States


WMR has obtained a news release from the Iranian government concerning a letter Tehran has sent to the United States concerning the terrorism charges leveled against an Iranian national and a dual Iranian-U.S. citizen.


"In a letter to the United States government, the Iranian government has called on the United States to officially apologize for making baseless accusations against Iran. A diplomatic source said that, in response to the recent American accusations that the United States has a responsibility to apologize to the government of Iran and to the Iranian citizens it has accused. Iran also called on the United States to pay compensation for the physical and psychological damages caused to these people. This source added that Iran, in its letter, stated that the 'scenario' advanced by the United States is based on dishonest information. Behavior that runs against international law imposes heavy costs, both material and spiritual, on innocent people in countries throughout the world, including the American people.


This has become a standard procedure for American officials. A clear example of that is the attack on Iraq, which was also based on dishonest information. According to this source, in its response to the United States government Iran stressed that the results of its 'scenario-making' there is that, after killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and imposing thousands of billions of dollars of expenditures and damages on the American people, the United States has been forced to withdraw ompletely from Iraq, in helpless defeat."


http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20111029