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

[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."