Now it’s starting to get real serious:
Though initially skeptical that top Iranian regime figures were behind a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, U.S. government officials became convinced by the operation’s money trail and now consider it likely that Iran’s supreme leader was aware of the plan.
“This is the kind of operation — the assassination of a diplomat on foreign soil — that would have been vetted at the highest levels of the Iranian government,” said a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive analyses. “We can’t prove that, but we do not think it was a rogue operation in any way.”
And what does Obama do? He sends Susan Rice to give a “strongly worded” message to Iran:
In a reflection of U.S. concern about the incident and its implications, Mr. Obama took the unusual step of authorizing U.S. diplomats to deliver a tough message directly to Iranian representatives. The U.S. doesn’t have formal diplomatic ties with Iran.
“The message said this type of action is outrageous and a clear violation of international law, that the Iranian government has an obligation to hold any individuals associated with this plot accountable, to cease its support for terrorism and to meet its obligations to the international community,” a senior administration official said.
And in response both Khomeini and Achmedanutjob cried….in laughter.
I mean come on; Iran is going to be afraid of the United States after Obama has done his best to ensure we are the laughingstock of the world. Wasn’t it just two years ago that he refused to back those Iranians who took to the street against the corrupt regime? John McCain:
“In the early 2009, after a corrupt election, the people of Tehran took to the streets and they were saying, ‘Obama, Obama, are you with us or are you with them?’ And you know what he said? He said he didn’t want to jeopardize his chances to negotiate with the Islamic government of Iran,” McCain said on “Fox & Friends.”
“That was a huge opportunity that we wasted. I’m telling you, history will judge that action by the president very harshly,” the Republican senator added.
Obama’s administration response to this?
“The president offered to engage with Iran, which is what allowed us to build international unity behind our effort to further sanction and increase pressure [on Iran.]”
Yeeeeeah. Further sanctions and increased pressure on them so much that they are now plotting attacks on our soil.
Way to go guys!
The man didn’t want us to be the “world policeman” anymore so we voluntarily turned over the reins to anyone who wants it and have now become the joke Obama and company has always envisioned us to be.
But now Iran will take us seriously because Susan Rice scolded an Iranian diplomat.
Puhlease.
There is no big stick behind Obama’s back…and Iran knows it.
Analysis: If US Has Proof of Iran Plot, UN Can Be Won Over
Counter-analysis: No they can’t.
Even-more-counter analysis: So why waste our time, and potentially expose anti-terror intel techniques, weakening our defensive posture?
Bonus-counter-analysis: Just to get the UN to go along with more ineffective sanctions, which they won’t by the way.
Bargain-counter-analysis: Which of course is why, this pathetic administration will go groveling to the UN and present all their evidence.
For nothing.
See author page
obama vows to stop all imports of pork to Iran.
I don’t like posting my opinion about Military Interventions ……………..mostly because most people can’t seem to “Get it together” when discussing the issue.
They haven’t “been there.”
But on this issue of Iran, something’s been simmering in my gut for literally about a 3rd of a century. (Since “The Iranian Hostage Crisis”).
See, In 1979 I was 19 years old. I joined the Military in large part because of the failure of Jimmy Carter. I saw real hope with Ron Reagan, who was campaigning on…well, HE SAID to my ROTC group “If Iran does not release those people, I will turn Iran into a parking lot.”
Yes, he really said that.
And history shows when those hostages, after 444 days, were released. LOOK IT UP.
Well, I’ll save you the trouble (Note the liberal SPIN):
February 11, 2009 9:32 PM
(CBS) On Inauguration Day 20 years ago, the first movie actor to become president shared the billing with the release of the American hostages held in Iran.
After more than a year of captivity under the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the 52 Americans taken hostage in the seizing of the U.S. embassy in Tehran were finally freed on January 20, 1981, the same day that Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the nation’s 40th president.
Coincidence? NOT!
So I became a maggot at West Point. Got my Commission as a 2nd Lieutenant. Got promoted to 1st Lt. after volunteering and completing Ranger School at Camp Merrill, Camp Rogers and Camp Rudder. I was assigned (trained) with the 75th Regiment, Liberated Grenada and then went to Lebanon after our barracks were attacked by the the Iranian Quad. (You’ll just have to look that up, but they’re the SAME PEOPLE attached to almost every terror attack in Iraq and Afghanistan since we’ve been over there). I KNOW, because my nephew is today an officer serving in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq.
I can’t release details on any more of that….
But I KNOW who’s the real Scorpion in that area. And I KNOW who has to go.
I CAN SAY, WITHOUT QUESTION, that if we just took out Iran as a force in the region, well, get a visual of the “Change.”
How? Disrupt their Oil trade? Nope.
They need that cash and would still keep THEIR CUSTOMERS supplied if we extracted their teeth.
World War III? Nope. They don’t have the capacity.
Just take out, using a Blitzkrieg (lightning war) campaign of attacking their computer services and destroying every military site, their warships and their air force. Their Command And Control.
We could do all of that in week if not sooner.
It would undoubtedly lead to political chaos and even perhaps revolt in Iran.
These insects have killed thousands of Americans. Their time is gone.
If Obama had any balls at all, he would take this opportunity to make Iran cease as a threat to US….AND OUR ALLIES.
I just can imagine what Israel is thinking right now.
And how Israel would react to this if it was THEIR Ambassador that was targeted for extermination.
You haven’t hear a PEEP about THAT in the Mainstream Media.
Did you pause to wonder why?
The cluelessness of this administration is astounding.
Not until we get a different person in the White House will Iran have any cause for concern.
A STRONG letter is on the way
Wait until Hillary Rotten Clinton puts in her two cents. She’s a rottweiler with no teeth. What a corrupt and useless administration!
U.S. intel theorizes that no plot to attack America could have happened without Khamenei’s approval.
But there is an alternative theory or two.
One alternative is that some faction within the Quds Force has gone rogue and is now independently ordering operations.
Khamenei’s ability to flush out and discipline rogue operators within his security ranks if the “rogue” theory is true is very good.
If responsibility for this plot goes all the way up the chain within the IRGC, then we’re either on the verge of a military coup in Iran or the plotters are about to be quietly disappeared by Iranian agents for defying the supreme leader’s authority.
And Obama, it seems, helped Khamenei to get to the bottom of a plot and rid himself of revolutionaries.
WHOSE SIDE IS Obama ON????
Already the American end of the plot is said to have been run by a hard drinking apostate materialist who only cared about the money.
Again absolving Iran’s religious regime.
Weird.
This action was inevitable by Iran. We saw the brass of the Iranians years back in kidnapping those British sailors with no consequences. Obama has the same lack of spine as do the Europeans.
What needs to happen is a squeeze onVenezuela, Iran’s only supplier of gasoline. Venezuela is defying the sanctions placed on Iran back in 2010. So far the incompetent Obama regime has failed to deal with Chavez. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/pjm-exclusive-chavez-caught-red-handed-sending-gasoline-to-iran/?singlepage=true Now if the US can not stop Venezuela from shipping gasoline to Iran, then what good are any further sanctions by a feckless US regime? Had the sanctions worked (read enforced), Iran would be on it’s knees by now.
Now some would ask why does this feckless regime continue to allow Citco, a Venezuelan Oil company sell oil to the US? And allow them to sell gasoline in its US gas stations? Oil from Venezuela consists of less than 10% of the foreign oil we import, barring them from importing oil is not going to raise prices in the US given we can get it elsewhere. On the other hand Venezuela will have to sell it’s oil at a discount to ship it out of the Western Hemisphere, cutting into their profits.
The real issue though is regime change. The failure of the Obama regime to take at face value the Iranian belief in the 12 Imam, the Mahdi, causes them to totally underestimate Iran’s commitment to terrorism throughout the world to initiate a world war. We see this by Obama’s feckless response so far in the foiled murder for hire plot against the Saudi ambassador. If you understand Iran’s reasoning for murdering the Saudi ambassador as Obama and Clinton clearly do not, then you realize this is no escalation at all but one more incremental step to inciting world war. The Iranian regime WANTS a US MILITARY RESPONSE, their plan dictated by their belief system requires mass casuality warfare. They want the US to attack them. In doing so, they will rally the other Moslem nations to their side to fight against the US, the only country capable of stopping the Mahdi jihad. The Russians and Chinese will foolishly stand back to let the US take it on the nose with oil embargoes, suicide bombings and suicide air flights using passenger planes. They foolishly think in their pride that because they are business partners with Iran on many deals that they are not on the table of Iranian designs, they are mistaken, they will just be the last ones to go down. Take down the big guy and all the other countries fall into line, even the Chinese and Russians since they being lessor military powers will be no match for suicide terrorist bombings in their respective countries.
The time table I believe has been advanced by the realization of the Iranians that Obama is not going to get re-elected, this foiled murder attempt now confirms what they believe about Obama being feckless and unable to properly respond to their actions. The Iranians know under a Republican US President that Iran’s plans of world domination would be seriously jeopardized and quite possibly lead to their own extermination. They are counting on the US not using nuclear weapons under Obama when they use their dirty bombs on US soil, not so with a GOP president. The Iranians already have a delivery system for their nukes, it’s called the cargo hold of an Air Bus A-380. It is well documented the US is not ready for an EMP airbust attack which could be delivered by the Air Bus A-380 over New York, Washington DC, Chicago and LA. Such an attack would cripple the US manufacturing base and electrical system. This will in turn cripple the financial system of the US and Europe. If you have done any reading on the EMP subject, it would take more than a year to get the electrical grid back on line in various places of the country. In the meantime, literally millions of Americans would die from lack of medication such as insulin for diabetes, etc. since most of the transportation system will grind to a halt. There is only a one to three month supply in storage depending on the medication. You see, the Iranians don’t have to fight a land war or naval battle or aerial battle to bring the US to it’s knees long enough to entrench themselves in the Middle East. Once the US is out of the way (btw – Israel will be dispatched at the same time as the US for propaganda purposes to get all Moslems to back Iran), then comes Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the rest of the Middle East in short order. From this position of power locking up virtually MOST of the world’s oil supply the Europeans will immediately capitulate, then comes the rest of the Eastern Hemisphere.
The plan is in motion, only a feckless Obama makes it possible.
Our response must be to arm the Kurdish rebels (promise them a Kurdistan carved out of northern Iran) and other dissident groups within Iran. We must cut the head off the snake with an assassination program targeting every Mullah in the ruling council. Hunt down and kill off every one of the Quds and also the religious police. Unless you stamp out the source and power pushing the Mahdi belief system, they like the communists will be forever attempting to dominate the world, killing millions during the process.
Please note the skeptism of many that the Iranians actually did plot to murder the Saudi ambassador: http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/no-one-buying-iranian-terror-allegations
Either many people truly don’t understand what Iran is planning OR this might be a case where a desparate Obama needs to pick a war under the rubic the voter won’t replace a sitting president during active hostilies? Someone has a game a foot, but who?
@dscott:
The outcome is the same either way.
If there was a plot, and this is announced, and Iran is threatened with retaliation, and nothing is actually done (and of course nothing will be), the Administration and by extension the country look weak and stupid.
If there was no plot, the Administration and by extension the country look weak and stupid.
As the Left so often said about Bush: I question the timing. They need a distraction and this is just one of several. In this case Holder gets his press conference at the expense of the nation’s credibility. And the weaker we look, the more things the other side will actually try, for real.
Several parts of the letter WERE WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS. or maybe not.
IF Iran is behind this conveniently leaked distraction the questions remain DID the Muslim Brotherhood
that Obama and his ilk have brought into the Administration Give aid and comfort to the enemy? Was Eric Holder involved whispering ,perhaps to the Iranian -suggesting targets– and operatives? I mean if Iran came up with this giggle gas induced plot They sure are up on curent events. Using an agent of the
Mexican Drug Cartels to remove a Saudi Target-here in the US — would they be using some of the many missing guns DOJ, ATF, and others allowed cross the Border to give Obama grounds to infringe on our second Amendment rights even more? Popcorn with extra butter please.
I discussed this with a military intel person yesterday. They believe the Iranians did initiate this operation. The unofficial analyzis was that our military believes that Iran thinks the US President is a Paper Tiger. Middle-eastern countries respect power. They do not respect harsh talk by a political appointee to the UN.
I agree with Nostradamus. My hesitation is that my son will go to war again. They should take we old folks instead. If our government had not alienated the rest of the world, we could shut down the Iranian banks. Can you imagine someone trying to pay for a tanker of oil with $100 bills? We also should send in a few UAVs. When the people rise up, we should support them this time.
Randy — T’anks —Many T’anks . Obummer has done much to create that image as paper tiger. Fortunately we still have a Military trained to do what our Military has done since 1775 Make the other poor SOB replace their dead and fix their broken stuff. question remains did the Muslim Brotherhood– or Eric Holder give them aid or comfort in preparing this plan? Ah– maybe they just been using the internet and have the edge as it seems everybody understands English–better than we understand others.
I listened to obummer talk about iran and I was astounded at the passive and alarming missuse of language.
words mean things there are definitional meanings to words and he used language completely inappropriate to what comes as close to an act of war. he used language you use with a 5 year old being sent to time out.
really this guy is not a capable c.i.c.
Apparently some people haven’t yet figured out that the Obama administration has a tendency to back up its words with actions. You’d think they would have figured this out by now, having so often raised hell when any such actions have been taken.
“sanctions”…. ooooooo, I’m so scared! Yeah. That worked well with Saddam, who just used terrorist groups as his underground smuggling avenues.
Like how much biz do we do with Iran anyway? And does anyone really believe the rest of the int’l community won’t continue to do so? Or that the UNSC will actually vote to impose sanctions on one of their brethren?
@Greg the Obama Fluffer:
He only follows through on things that damage the United States.
Consider:
Plan under which energy rates will necessarily skyrocket.
Working on gun control under the radar.
Redistribute the wealth.
vs.
Impotent handwringing over Iranian crackdown on protestors.
In this case, he will do nothing but talk.
@Wm T Sherman, #17:
I think it’s likely that we’ll push for stronger sanctions against the Iranian government out in the open, while gradually increasing support for anti-government, pro-democratic forces behind the scenes. Syria and Iran both have internal fault lines that render their governments vulnerable. Enemies are most effectively dealt with by focusing persistently on their weak points–not through direct, full-scale engagement with them on their own terms.
Apparently, Greg, one needs to expound on exactly how toothless the threat’s from this POTUS are… and how foolish and ill-informed some journalists are, such as Paul Richter and Christi Parson at the LA Times.
To reiterate why Curt notes this evokes laughter from the int’l community, one need only examine the history of, and increasing sanctions on Iran since the days of Reagan, Clinton and Bush the younger. i.e.
More at the Iran Primer at the United States Institute of Peace site.
Yeah… big effect three decades of ever increasing sanctions have had. But Obama’s bit of beefing up already existing sanctions is gonna be the winner, right Greg?
What a joke….
Considering the the EU – who increased their sanctions last year – does more business with Iran, do you think that Obama would actually prohibit trade with EU nations because they continue to do business with Iran? You’re dreaming…
Oh yes, it may be worthy of note that O’butthead is johnny come lately to the Bank Markazi, since 90 Senators of both stripes were demanding such added, and toothless, sanctions back in August.
How embarrassing… not only late to the party, but not even his own idea.
Greg is trying to earn his pay. He has an infant to feed, named Greg.
The Bush administration screwed up big time when they rejected Mohammad Khatami’s 2003 efforts to ramp down U.S./Iranian tension. Total silence on the right. Now they’re yapping because a foiled assassination plot can’t be turned into–what? What, exactly, do you think Obama should be doing at this point? Do you want to invade somebody? Bomb somebody? Do you want a president who will beat his chest with one cowboy-booted foot up on a hay bale?
My general thought about republicans these days is that if they don’t have something intelligent, specific, and constructive to suggest, maybe they’d do the country a service by just shutting the hell up. The President works for the people. He actually has a job to do. It’s difficult, how well he does it matters, and the republicans generally aren’t helping.
Don’t hear you whining about O’butthead sending 100 US boots on the ground to Uganda, Greg…. So it’s in our national security interests to send troops to Uganda, and ignore Iran?
INRE Khatami… haven’t figured out that the power of negotiations doesn’t lie with an Iranian president yet? Did you see Khomeni frothing at the bit for negotiations?
Even more an absurd suggestion since Khatami, in such high disfavor with the population concerned about Iran’s economic status would easily be replaced with Ahmadinejad, then the Tehran mayor, in just a few years. Might as well be negotiating with Fidel, on his way out of this mortal life, for the future of US-Cuban relations.
The Iranians make ‘offers’ all the time. The offers are meaningless and are meant to (1) buy time and (2) throw some red meat to useful idiots in the West.
Wm T, I seem to remember UBL and the Taliban offering to “negotiate” and requested a cease file… all so the now dead robed one could escape into Tora Bora.
It seems we have no shortage of useful idiots in which to exploit, eh?
Don’t for get obama won the nobel peace prize, For what, you say? for nothing, it was a fix. George soros fixed it. obama has made us the laughing stock of the world. this creep is worse than carter and carter was a major f–u–c–k up!
Obama sent the wrong Rice. He should have sent Condoleezza Rice.
Most commenters on FA and most other Americans seem to think that Obama wants to DEFEND the USA but is lousy at it. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if he is working with Iran to overthrow the USA. Think of all he has and hasn’t done since he became president and ask yourself if a president wanted to maintain the USA as it is, would he be doing what he does?