Iran Affairs is skeptical regarding Iran’s strange alleged plot to conduct a terrorist bombing and assassination on U.S. soil, announced by our Justice Department yesterday:
I’m sure you’ve heard about the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US and bomb the Israeli embassy etc. which was supposedly “directed by factions of the Iranian government” (whatever that means.)
Simple question: Why? Suppose the alleged plot was successful – then what? Apart from risking a major diplomatic incident, what would Iran have to gain from doing any of this? Would Saudi Arabia or Israel simply disappear? Are the Iranians just crazy people who like to blow up places for no real gain?
There have been many such ‘terror plots’ foiled in the US – and the one thing they all had in common was that there was a government informant who was involved and even instigated the plot by recruiting some otherwise hapless and simple-minded “terrorists” and provided them with the tools and financing – including buying them the military boots that were later presented in their trial as evidence of their militancy, as well as the cameras that they used to photograph their intended targets.
How hapless and simple-minded? Remember Jose Padilla who was supposedly going to launch a nuclear “dirty bomb” attack? Did you know he was planning to convert plain uranium ore (i.e. rocks) into enriched uranium … by swinging a bucket of the stuff in a circle over his head? Yes folks, these are the “terrorists.”
Of course the line between informant and agent provocateur is very negligible. Some of you may remember Tommy the Traveler, a government agent who traveled to college campuses across the US and infiltrated student anti-war movements, in order to provoke them into committing acts of violence for which they could be arrested?
