Thread: Saudis say Iran must 'pay the price' for alleged plot as US

Saudis say Iran must 'pay the price' for alleged plot as US resists retaliation

Ewen MacAskill and Saeed Kamali Dehghan
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 October 2011 14.40 EDT

VIDEO: Hillary Clinton on the alleged Iranian assassination plot: US must send strong message
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2 ... plot-video

Saudis say Iran must 'pay the price' for alleged plot as US resists retaliation

Tehran denies it was behind plot to kill Saudi ambassador and says US is using it to divert attention from problems at home

Saudi Arabia has issued a menacing Â*warning to Iran that it will have to pay a price for the alleged plot to hire a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate its ambassador in Washington.

The threat from the Saudis came as the Obama administration described the alleged plot as a "dangerous escalation" in the region.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said "clearly the plotting happened at senior levels of the Quds force [Iranian special forces]" but the administration resisted calls from within the US, mainly from the conservative right, to retaliate against Iran with military action.

On Wednesday night Carney said Barack Obama spoke to King Abdullah, the Saudi king, about the alleged plot and both agreed it was "a flagrant violation of international law".

Iran denied it was behind the alleged plot, with officials accusing Washington of fabricating the story to divide Sunni Muslims, the dominant group in Saudi, and Shia Muslims, the dominant group in Iran.

They claimed Barack Obama was using the story to divert attention from the Occupy Wall Street protests.

The US justice department said on Tuesday two men had been charged with a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, with a bomb explosion at one of his favourite restaurants.

One of the men, Manssor Arbabsiar, an American-Iranian, is alleged to have sought the help of a Mexican drug cartel, Zetas, to provide explosives and carry out the attack. The other man is, according to the US, in Iran.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's former ambassador to Washington and former head of the Saudi intelligence service, told a London conference: "The burden of proof and the amount of evidence in the case is overwhelming and clearly shows official Iranian responsibility for this.
"This is unacceptable. Somebody in Iran will have to pay the price."

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have long been strained, exacerbated this year by Saudi sending forces into neighbouring Bahrain to help put down protesters, many of them Shia Muslims.

In spite of increased tension between Saudi and Iran as a result of the episode, the alleged plot is being met with scepticism within the diplomatic community, as well as from foreign affairs analysts specialising in Iran. Many said the plot was amateurish and questioned what Iran would gain from such an outrage.

A former western diplomat with an intimate knowledge of Iranian affairs said: "I don't believe Iran's regime was behind the plot. If we assume it was Iran's plot, then it would seem like a group of professional gangsters hiring a careless agent for their most important project. It's impossible."

Fresh details emerged yesterday about the man at the centre of the affair. Arbabsiar, 56, appeared in court in New York on Tuesday. He is allegedly linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the paramilitary group closely entwined with the Iranian leadership. He does not fit the usual profile of an Iranian agent, who tend to be professional. Arbabsiar is a car salesman in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, said she and a team of experts were briefing individual members of the security council on the plot. One of the main pieces of evidence is $100,000 (£63,000) transferred to the US, allegedly from Iran, as a downpayment for the assassination attempt.

The vice-president, Joe Biden, in an ABC television interview, said Iran would be held accountable and all options, including military, remained on the table. But the administration is focused on a diplomatic effort to persuade its allies to impose tougher economic sanctions on Iran.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, described the alleged plot as a "reckless act". The state department issued a three-month worldwide travel alert for American citizens.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said the US accusations were baseless. "Such worn-out approaches are … part of the special scenarios staged and pursued by the enemies of Islam and the region to sow discord among Muslims," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

Fars also quoted Alaoddin Boroujerdi, the head of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, saying: "Today the United States is witnessing a popular uprising called Wall Street protests, which have targeted the hostile policies of that country's statesmen. Thus, Americans are seeking to derail the public opinion from the Wall Street uprising."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oc ... di-warning

The Saudis, like Mexico and many other foreign countries hostile to the existence of the United States, play this country like an old violin.

What better ploy could Barack Obama play than to start a war with Iran to save his communist presidency?

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"I summon my blue-eyed slaves anytime it pleases me. I command the Americans to send me their bravest soldiers to die for me. Anytime I clap my hands a stupid genie called the American ambassador appears to do my bidding. When the Americans die in my service their bodies are frozen in metal boxes by the US Embassy and American airplanes carry them away, as if they never existed. Truly, America is my favorite slave." King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz, Jeddeh 1993 (from Michael, via email)

The above quote is from 1993. The following article is from November 2, 2007:



(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia could have helped the United States prevent al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington if American officials had consulted Saudi authorities in a "credible" way, the kingdom's former ambassador said in a documentary aired Thursday.

The comments by Prince Bandar bin Sultan are similar to the remarks this week by Saudi King Abdullah that suggested Britain could have prevented the July 2005 train bombings in London if it had heeded warnings from Riyadh.

Speaking to the Arabic satellite network Al-Arabiya on Thursday, Bandar -- now Abdullah's national security adviser -- said Saudi intelligence was "actively following" most of the September 11, 2001, plotters "with precision."

"If U.S. security authorities had engaged their Saudi counterparts in a serious and credible manner, in my opinion, we would have avoided what happened," he said.

Bandar was the Saudi ambassador to Washington for nearly 22 years before he was replaced in 2005. A knowledgeable U.S. official told CNN that Bandar's comments should be taken "with a grain of salt."

On Monday, Abdullah told the BBC that Saudi Arabia had sent warnings to British authorities before the London subway bombings that killed 52 people -- the city's bloodiest day since World War II.

"We have sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain," Abdullah said. "But unfortunately, no action was taken, and it may have been able to avert the tragedy."

The September 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. All but four of the suicide hijackers who carried out the plot were Saudi nationals, and after the attacks, the kingdom was widely criticized for having tolerated Islamic militancy.

The Saudis have called the criticism unfair, pointing out that al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden's original grievance was against the country's ruling family, which invited U.S. troops into the kingdom after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
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A string of attacks on Western compounds, oil installations and Saudi institutions between 2003 and 2006 were blamed on al Qaeda's followers.

And Saudi officials say that since 9/11, they have taken steps to ensure charitable donations do not fall into the hands of al Qaeda.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/ ... index.html

quote(What better ploy could Barack Obama play than to start a war with Iran to save his communist presidency?)quote

With this administration anything is possible.

Originally Posted by oldguy

quote(What better ploy could Barack Obama play than to start a war with Iran to save his communist presidency?)quote

With this administration anything is possible.

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SMOKESCREEN ? >> Iranian Plot to Kill Ambassador

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-252447.html

Maybe you can't make this stuff up but it sure can be twisted around to start a war the vast majority of Americans don't want. And it was only a few months ago Hillary was pushing for a trillion dollar war in Libya. That didn't pan out. But maybe we'll have to pay for the reconstruction?

I think Saudi should fight Iran it was their guy that they wanted to kill, not ours.

I find it odd that people who don't like firearms,nor the military are so anxious to go to war,but then perhaps it's money that attracts them to the blood and after all they or their children aren't required to fight.

Originally Posted by oldguy

I find it odd that people who don't like firearms,nor the military are so anxious to go to war,but then perhaps it's money that attracts them to the blood and after all they or their children aren't required to fight.

Me too.Bush started a war in Iraq with AMERICAN BLOOD based on lies.He didnt have to go to war in Veitnam.Ive always heard go to war young man as long as my son dont.Bidens son went 2 times,Palins son went.

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Iranian terror plot proves America must secure its borders

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-252466.html