Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Andrew McCabe: If you think Iran is done retaliating, think again
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/09/andrew-mccabe-oped-iran-soleimani/
By Andrew McCabe
Jan. 9, 2020 at 4:17 p.m. EST.
I am glad Qasem Soleimani is dead.
Iran’s measured response to the general’s killing has many people believing the worst of this crisis has passed. Should we be relieved? By limiting its response to U.S. military targets, Iran sent a powerful message to its own people that Soleimani’s killing would not go unavenged. Tehran managed to accomplish this without escalating a military conflict with the United States.
However, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials would be well-advised to remember that Iran’s most provocative actions have often been asymmetric attacks conducted through proxy forces and terrorist elements. It is those deniable, civilian-focused attacks we should be looking for as this situation unfolds. As a counterterrorism leader for the FBI, it was my job to figure out how events abroad would impact us here. And I am afraid the saga of Soleimani is far from over.
For many years, it was the prevailing opinion of most Iran watchers that staging an attack inside the United States was a red line that Iran dared not cross. We assumed Tehran’s well-founded fear of an overwhelming U.S. response was enough to keep its terrorist plots focused on less capable adversaries.
In 2011, those assumptions were shattered. With the help of an outstanding Drug Enforcement Administration source, the FBI learned that members of the elite Quds Force (then headed by Soleimani), conspired with a dual U.S./Iranian citizen named Mansour Arbabsiar to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. Directing and funding the plot from Iran, Quds Force operatives instructed Arbabsiar to murder the ambassador by setting off a bomb inside a popular Washington restaurant. During a telephone call recorded after Arbabsiar’s arrest, the Quds Force operatives instructed him to “just do it quickly, it’s late.” In 2013, Arbabsiar was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the plot. To this day, his Quds Force handler, Gholam Shakuri, remains an indicted fugitive.
</snip>
By Andrew McCabe
Jan. 9, 2020 at 4:17 p.m. EST.
I am glad Qasem Soleimani is dead.
Iran’s measured response to the general’s killing has many people believing the worst of this crisis has passed. Should we be relieved? By limiting its response to U.S. military targets, Iran sent a powerful message to its own people that Soleimani’s killing would not go unavenged. Tehran managed to accomplish this without escalating a military conflict with the United States.
However, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials would be well-advised to remember that Iran’s most provocative actions have often been asymmetric attacks conducted through proxy forces and terrorist elements. It is those deniable, civilian-focused attacks we should be looking for as this situation unfolds. As a counterterrorism leader for the FBI, it was my job to figure out how events abroad would impact us here. And I am afraid the saga of Soleimani is far from over.
For many years, it was the prevailing opinion of most Iran watchers that staging an attack inside the United States was a red line that Iran dared not cross. We assumed Tehran’s well-founded fear of an overwhelming U.S. response was enough to keep its terrorist plots focused on less capable adversaries.
In 2011, those assumptions were shattered. With the help of an outstanding Drug Enforcement Administration source, the FBI learned that members of the elite Quds Force (then headed by Soleimani), conspired with a dual U.S./Iranian citizen named Mansour Arbabsiar to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. Directing and funding the plot from Iran, Quds Force operatives instructed Arbabsiar to murder the ambassador by setting off a bomb inside a popular Washington restaurant. During a telephone call recorded after Arbabsiar’s arrest, the Quds Force operatives instructed him to “just do it quickly, it’s late.” In 2013, Arbabsiar was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the plot. To this day, his Quds Force handler, Gholam Shakuri, remains an indicted fugitive.
</snip>
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
tRump properties in the near future. 
...I mean, NatSec team on crack. 
Assassinations of US Officials while in Nation Y by Nation X is A-OK nice and legal, as long as they've "killed hundreds" of Nation X's citizens.
Has to be at least a 100, though! 
