We don't need a war with Iran
Share with others:
I am delighted if quick work on the part of the FBI prevented the Saudi Arabian ambassador from being assassinated in Washington. Nonetheless, the report of the incident, coinciding with Department of Defense budget concerns and President Barack Obama's political woes, makes me wonder if the Obama administration isn't laying the groundwork with the American public for a war with Iran.
It would have been a disaster if someone had killed Saudi Ambassador Adel A. al-Jubeir in Washington, particularly if the assassination had taken place in a public place frequented by Washington politicians, lobbyists and other public figures. Host governments are required to assure the safety of foreign diplomats on their soil.
It would be impossible to argue that Iran's al-Quds force would not have the motive and some potential to carry out such an attack. But the tough part about sharing the conviction of al-Quds involvement held by Mr. Obama, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and members of Congress who have seen the intelligence underlying the case as presented in public is the alleged role of Mexican drug gang assassins. The idea that al-Quds approached to carry out the hit Mexican gang members who were on the payroll of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration does stretch the imagination.
It could be true, but it sounds crazy. Al-Quds doesn't have any agents of its own in the United States? That is hard to imagine. Yet Al-Quds has enough contacts among the different Mexican drug gangs to find a reliable assassin? In the event the potential assassins they may have found were not reliable -- they were being paid by the U.S. government. (I always have trouble accepting coincidences.)
It will be interesting to see whether Mr. Holder and the Department of Justice will be able to obtain convictions in open court, or whether they will content themselves with holding the accused in prison forever, without due process of law, in effect putting the accused in indefinite detention. The justification would be that the information used to arrest and accuse the detainee is far too sensitive for the tender eyes of the public to see and hear in a trial.
First Published October 19, 2011 12:00 am
