The day before Attorney General was subpoenaed about what he knew about the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Agency's ''Fast and Furious'' operation to get weapons to Mexico's largest drug cartel, the U.S. government announced that the Iranians planned to kill a Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil.
And they said - you guessed it - that it was DOJ and DEA who broke up the plot. But no one is buying it ... not even the pro-war mainstream media.
The New York Times notes in a post entitled ''U.S. Challenged to Explain Accusations of Iran Plot in the Face of Skepticism'':
The Obama administration on Wednesday sought to reconcile what it said was solid evidence of an Iranian plot to murder Saudi Arabias ambassador to the United States with a wave of puzzlement and skepticism from some foreign leaders and outside experts.
Senior American officials themselves were struggling to explain why the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, would orchestrate such a risky attack in so amateurish a manner.
American officials offered no specific evidence linking the plot to Irans most senior leaders.
Mr. Zarate and senior American officials said the assassination plan did not have the hallmarks of a Quds operation. ''It was very extreme and very odd, but it was also very sloppy,'' Mr. Zarate said. ''If you look at what they have done historically, they can put operatives on their targets and execute. They usually dont outsource, but keep things inside a trusted network.''
One problem for President Obama and his administration is that since American intelligence claims about Iraqs illicit weapons proved false in 2003, assertions by the United States about its adversaries have routinely faced skepticism from other countries.
''Of course, that is in peoples heads. Everyone is extremely skeptical about U.S. intelligence revelations,'' said Volker Perthes, an Iran expert who is the director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.
CNN notes the growing skepticism about the allegations.
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer says that an FBI insider told him the dubious terror plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador which has been blamed on Iran was likely manufactured by the Obama administration, because no information about the plot even exists within FBI channels:
No One Is Buying Iranian Terror Allegations
And they said - you guessed it - that it was DOJ and DEA who broke up the plot. But no one is buying it ... not even the pro-war mainstream media.
The New York Times notes in a post entitled ''U.S. Challenged to Explain Accusations of Iran Plot in the Face of Skepticism'':
The Obama administration on Wednesday sought to reconcile what it said was solid evidence of an Iranian plot to murder Saudi Arabias ambassador to the United States with a wave of puzzlement and skepticism from some foreign leaders and outside experts.
Senior American officials themselves were struggling to explain why the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, would orchestrate such a risky attack in so amateurish a manner.
American officials offered no specific evidence linking the plot to Irans most senior leaders.
Mr. Zarate and senior American officials said the assassination plan did not have the hallmarks of a Quds operation. ''It was very extreme and very odd, but it was also very sloppy,'' Mr. Zarate said. ''If you look at what they have done historically, they can put operatives on their targets and execute. They usually dont outsource, but keep things inside a trusted network.''
One problem for President Obama and his administration is that since American intelligence claims about Iraqs illicit weapons proved false in 2003, assertions by the United States about its adversaries have routinely faced skepticism from other countries.
''Of course, that is in peoples heads. Everyone is extremely skeptical about U.S. intelligence revelations,'' said Volker Perthes, an Iran expert who is the director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.
CNN notes the growing skepticism about the allegations.
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer says that an FBI insider told him the dubious terror plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador which has been blamed on Iran was likely manufactured by the Obama administration, because no information about the plot even exists within FBI channels:
No One Is Buying Iranian Terror Allegations
