#1
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Looks like mossad (or the DOJ) may be on its way to scoring another foreign policy coup. Going to try for the middle eastern hattrick of war with afghanistan, iraq and iran at the same time. Failed used car salesman hiring a mexican drug cartel to do iran's dirty work - murdering a low level saudi functionary on american soil.

President Barack Obama said Thursday that the U.S. will make sure that Iranian officials are held accountable for "reckless behavior" in what he said was their direct role in an alleged assassination plot against the Saudi Arabian ambassador in the United States.



Here's what steve walt had to say about this farce:

Unless the Obama administration (and in particular, Attorney General Eric Holder), has more smoking gun evidence than they've revealed so far, they are in danger of a diplomatic gaffe on a par with Colin Powell's famous U.N. Security Council briefing about Iraq's supposed WMD programs, a briefing now known to have been a series of fabrications and fairy tales.



Surely america cannot afford to invade iran at this time, but this will no doubt nudge the american public into accepting war at a later date. Got to make an effort at maintaining the state of perpetual war...

#2
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The US military is already stretched to the breaking point, and invading Iran now, tomorrow, or even 5 years from now is not a tenable proposition (even from a purely strategic standpoint).

Regardless of whoever was behind this thing, I doubt anything significant will come of it. A supposed attempted assassination on one low-level Saudi isn't exactly 9/11.
#3
http://bit.ly/1Jzhh7M
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VoxNihili posted:
The US military is already stretched to the breaking point



Is that actually true?

#4
[account deactivated]
#5
tardy on these heaters
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Robert Baer is calling shenanigans for g00n justice:

Robert Baer, who spent over two decades working for the CIA in the Middle East, has warned that the FBI may be “dangerously wrong” in its assessment that Iran is behind an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States.



But speaking on Australian national radio, Baer said that the alleged assassination plan does not appear to be connected with the IRGC or any other part of Iran’s state apparatus. The operation, as outlined by the FBI, does not fit the “modus operandi” of the Iranian security services, said Baer. The latter are “much better than this . They wouldn’t be sending money through an American bank; they wouldn’t be going to the cartels in Mexico to do this. It’s just not the way they work. I’ve followed them for 30 years and they’re much more careful. They always use a proxy between them and the operation, and in this case they didn’t”.



Baer also spoke to the BBC World Service and to The Washington Post, where he is quoted as saying that there is “sloppiness about the case that defies belief”. The former CIA case officer urged the Obama administration to step back, re-examine its case, and avoid “retaliatory attacks a Quds Force base in Tehran , which would lead to a huge escalation”. Instead, he urged Washington to open “direct diplomatic channel with the Iranian regime or risk igniting an uncontrollable war”.



http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/01-843/

#6
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i hope iran comes through on the crazy front
#7
tardy on these heaters
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There's been a lot of diplomatic rows with the Saudis lately and I'm wondering what is up with that.
#8
tardy on these heaters
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Well, Gulf students in Texas area have come up with an important detail about the accused. Apparently, he was an opponent of the Iranian regime. So wait: we have a new important detail. The Iranian government contacted an opponent of the regime to undertake an assassination and bombing plot in the US. So he went and sought the help of drug gangs in Mexico. OK. It is now making more sense.



http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/10/iranian-plot-in-us-more-info.html

#9
[account deactivated]
#10
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saudi arabia gotta use those billions of dollars in weapons every year in some way
#11
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whoa the iranian army has the same motto as the three musketeers
#12
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1488 posted:

VoxNihili posted:
The US military is already stretched to the breaking point

Is that actually true?



They're not desperate for troops like they were a couple years back, but they're still deploying the national guard in places. It's probably technically within the realm of possibility for the US military to engage in another war, but it would be a logistical nightmare and deeply, deeply unpopular.

launching a few cruise missiles or w/e a la libya is completely doable, but would still be A Very Bad Idea, again, on a strategic level in addition to any other ramifications. the last thing US military interests need in the ME is more chaos/uncertainty and "another front;" they can barely handle the wars they already have

#13
Mike Nelson here.
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"iran doesn't normally do crazy things guys"

*record scratch*

img-islam
#14
The Future is Here
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The whole thing smells terrible. The cartel assassin DEA informant/saudi/iran thing makes it look like a domestic intelligence checklist. Either they're getting played or they're doing the playing

At least there can be no wondering why Iran wants a nuclear bomb so bad. Israel is pulled every single gag in its gag bag to try and get the US to okay an attack or to actually go to war. If you pay a republican 50 dollars he'll try to start a war with anyone. Remember the talk about attacking Russia over Georgia attacking South Ossetia and then getting bulldozed?
#15
Mike Nelson here.
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Myfanwy posted:
If you pay a republican 50 dollars he'll try to start a war with anyone.

#16
San Francisco
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Iran is a theocratic terrorist-supporting state led by a legitimately crazy person seeking nuclear weapons. The sooner it is overthrown and replaced with a modern democracy the better.
#17
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lungfish posted:
Iran is a theocratic terrorist-supporting state led by a legitimately crazy person seeking nuclear weapons. The sooner it is overthrown and replaced with a modern democracy the better.


how do you know the ayatollah is crazy, if you dont even know that ahmadinejad isnt in charge, at all

#18
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i hope iran murders
#19
tardy on these heaters
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lungfish posted:
Iran is a theocratic terrorist-supporting state led by a legitimately crazy person seeking nuclear weapons. The sooner it is overthrown and replaced with a modern democracy the better.



None of that is true, and Iranian democracy is moderner than American democracy. In fact the Iranian state is founded on the most recently developed political theories of any other state so it is by definition the most modern state.

#20
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The United States is a secular terrorist-supporting state led by a legitimately crazy person possessing nuclear weapons. The sooner it is overthrown and replaced with a modern democracy the better.
#21
tardy on these heaters
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WASHINGTON, Oct 13, 2011 (IPS) - While the administration of Barack Obama vows to hold the Iranian government "accountable" for the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, the legal document describing evidence in the case provides multiple indications that it was mainly the result of an FBI "sting" operation.



http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105458

#22
[account deactivated]
#23
The Future is Here
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babyfinland posted:

WASHINGTON, Oct 13, 2011 (IPS) - While the administration of Barack Obama vows to hold the Iranian government "accountable" for the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, the legal document describing evidence in the case provides multiple indications that it was mainly the result of an FBI "sting" operation.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105458


That makes a billion times more sense than the original reports. Of course no one is going to see that and everyone is just going to remember it as Iran Attacking Saudi Ambassador USA bad crazy4ever

#24
[account deactivated]
#25
tardy on these heaters
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