NPR interview with Richard Clarke on "really strange" alleged Iranian terror plot

[Poll_Blind]

From http://www.npr.org/2011/10/11/141246679/richard-clarke-discusses-alleged-assassination-plot">NPR transcript (full transcript and audio at the link):

RAZ: Given that these alleged Iranian agents were attempting to work with Mexican drug cartels to fund or to carry out these attacks, is this a shift?

CLARKE: Well, if it's true, it is a shift. The thing that has bothered everybody in the government about this case when they first look at it is that it doesn't strike any of the intelligence or law enforcement officials as the way that they would assume that Iran would go about it. The Iranians are very professional and to hire some Mexican drug gang so indirectly through a cutout, unless they thought perhaps no one could figure out who was behind it because of the way in which they hired the killers. This is a really strange plot.

RAZ: Iran has been tied to proxy agents Hezbollah Hamas. How - what are the quality of their intelligence operatives? Could they actually carry out an attack like this themselves?

CLARKE: Well, you would have thought so. The Iranian Quds Force and intelligence people are among the best in the world and they've proven that over and over again. You can understand, however, that if you're gonna do something as provocative as this, you want some deniability and some cutouts. But those never last for long. It's truly strange.

Related:
AP: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jyvY79gm5v3X5ZA5m7F2FRjS14Qw?docId=d264e9378a44488ca944e010c32a9ede">US officials: Iranian plot serious but amateurish

U.S. officials say the alleged plot against the Saudi ambassador was unusually amateurish for Iran's foreign action unit, the Quds Force. By the U.S. account, the force's agent turned to a woman he met while working as a used car dealer to find a Mexican drug dealer-assassin, and he wound up with an informant instead.

Be sure not to miss the underlined bit. That's right. You read that correctly.

Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/12/iran-mexico-drug-informant-hitman?newsfeed=true">Iran's alleged Mexican hitman was US drugs informant

The Iranian plot the US government says aimed to murder Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington allegedly fell down because a member of the Mexican Zeta drug cartel hired to carry out the job for $1.5m was actually a US informant.

Reuters: http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/10/12/idINIndia-59855620111012">Questions abound over Iran "plot" to kill Saudi envoy

(Reuters) - You couldn't make it up -- or could you?

U.S. allegations that an Iranian spy outfit attempted to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington in a convoluted plot involving a U.S. informant posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel seem bizarre to say the least.

--snip--

U.S. evidence rests mainly on Arbabsiar's alleged confession that he had acted for men he thought were top Quds officials.

Yet questions abound over the putative plot, not least the classic ones of motive and means. Many analysts are sceptical.

And, posted on DU today:
This from the Rude Pundit: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2103631">The Rude Pundit - The Super-Scary Iranian Assassination Plot: The FBI's Truman Show (hat tip to meegbear)
And Gleen Greenwald: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2104702">The “very scary” Iranian Terror plot (hat tip to TomClash)


And what's a story like this without the DrumBeat?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5izqvEEb_zXzfjHZK-Zm2Y3Zu-TDQ?docId=4c14deb686974e0ebebaa847a7ddcdf8">A top Senate Dem says Iran plot may be act of war



Bumpity-bumpity-BUMP!

PB

[sixmile]

1. Kick

Thanks for posting

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Think we have here a "Wag the Dog" weapon of mass distraction from #OWS?

TERRA! TERRA! TERRA! AIIIEEEE! CHUPACABRA!

[Kolesar]

8. Uh, no ... eom

[Lorien]

17. Yep, I'd say so.

Obviously it won't work.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Today's color coded Terror Alert level is 'Harlequin'

[Poll_Blind]

7. There is something at once hilarious and deeply disturbing about that!

:rofl:

PB

[SteveM]

4. On the other hand, there is "Fast & Furious" (not the movie).

[Schema Thing]

14. yep, great example of a government doing something "improbable"

[SteveM]

21. So improbable that CBS canned Sharyl Atkkisson, the reporter on "Fast."

[blindpig]

5. Pretty fucking improbable.

But hey, it's a twofer, double the evil, oh, scary!

[joeybee12]

6. This is how the FBI spends our tax money...amazing...knr

[KG]

9. i'm very skeptical about anything the US gov't says about iran.

[chill_wind]

10. Marcy Wheeler

@emptywheel

"I'm gonna give a prize to the first Senator who claims they were targeted in their fictional restaurant. My money's on Lindsey."

:spray:

(She's been just totally destroying this on twitter today.)

[Poll_Blind]

13. "And this is the egg salad sandwich I would have been eating when they got me!"

PB

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Here is your answer

It was a plot from somebody in the Iranian government. It was not done by the president or the main faction at al quuds and yes it was amateurish.

Rogue elements, or Clark knows this...probe.

[fishbulb703]

12. This is to cover up the Fast and Furious scandal. nt

[AzDar]

19. Right? Just as the Pukes in the House are preparing to grill Holder; some

were even calling for his resignation, and now that's gone all quiet.

[Skidmore]

15. I trust the CIA and the FBI just about as far as I can throw them.

Sometimes I wonder how much of the BS in this world is the work of overactive paranoid intelligence types in different nations who believe that they are hired to be James Bond. Like a bad B movie in grainy black and white.

[RagAss]

16. Clark is right again...to me it sounds like a really bad pulp fiction novel....

written by an author with a heroin habit.

[Poll_Blind]

18. .

:kick:

PB

[AikidoSoul]

20. This is possibly a trumped up incident to distract the public

from the demonstrations. Take the camera off the protesters and put them on this topic.

It's an old game. Hopefully it won't work this time.