COLUMBUS, Ohio — The United States should put a hold on any plans it has for moving against Iran over the alleged plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador.
A federal indictment claims that a Houston resident, an Iranian naturalized as a U.S. citizen, offered $100,000 for the assassination.
The charge is conspiracy to murder. The $100,000 was supposedly supplied to the Iranian-Texan by an Iranian holding a government position.
According to the indictment, the Iranian-Texan was solicited to carry out the murder by a man he thought was a member of a Mexican drug cartel, but who was actually a paid U.S. government informant.
An arrest was made, nothing more was done.
Much of the incriminating information comes from the informant, who had earlier been let off a drug charge for cooperating with the Department of Justice.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are calling on other countries to sanction Iran. They claim that an agency of the Iran government — even if not the top leadership — was behind the plot.
Many analysts find it improbable that Iran would entrust such a task to Mexican drug figures, over which it would have little control.
One possibility is that the Iranian-Texan was interested in selling drugs to be supplied from Iran, rather than in an assassination.
It is conceivable that the Justice Department will produce convincing evidence that an assassination plot was indeed afoot and that Iran was behind it.
Until that happens — either in court, or in a release of evidence out of court — the Department’s version of a plot is too weak to be calling for sanctions.
If the Department’s version were true, it would make out a crime under U.S. law, but only because we consider conspiracy to be a crime. In most countries you need to get to the stage of attempting before you are punishable.
The State Department has been saying that the plot is an international crime.
The relevant international document is the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons.
Both Iran and the United States are parties. The Convention requires states to punish murders of diplomats, including attempts. But the Convention does not mention conspiracy. So the act charged against the Texan-Iranian would not be a crime in many countries and is not a violation at the international level.
The frailty of the indictment has led to speculation of a hidden motive. The U.S. has been leading the charge for tough sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The U.S. call for international action against Iran over the alleged assassination plot could be aimed at further blackening Iran’s eye to make it easier to get sanctions on the nuclear issue.
Israel has been threatening military action against Iran over its nuclear program. Talking tough against Iran wins points for the Democrats with the Israel lobby, whose role could be decisive in the 2012 elections. So the call for action against Iran over the alleged assassination plot could be a favor to Israel.
Outside the Administration calls are being heard for military action against Iran over the alleged assassination plot.
Even if there was an assassination plot, and even if Iran was behind it, military action against Iran would be the wrong move. You can’t attack a country over an incident of this sort.
Military action against Iran would be aggression. Our allies are unlikely to help, as they too would be committing aggression.
Iran’s reaction to a military move would be hard to predict. Iran has the potential for causing us trouble in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Even the sanctions the administration is proposing are not likely to gain much support at this stage. The Obama administration should tone down its rhetoric and wait to see how the evidence develops.
• Quigley is a distinguished professor of law at The Ohio State University and the author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed books on various aspects of the law. Readers may write him at Moritz College Law, 55 West 12th Street, Columbus, Ohio 43210.
Comments (7)
Add commentAh, there it is!
"Israel has been threatening military action against Iran over its nuclear program. Talking tough against Iran wins points for the Democrats with the Israel lobby, whose role could be decisive in the 2012 elections. So the call for action against Iran over the alleged assassination plot could be a favor to Israel."
Why do we let a foreign government have so much influence on our government's decisions?
A Clever Ruse
So we are supposed to believe that a drug addicted car salesman in Texas tried to hire the Zeta's to assassinate the Saudi ambassador and this was all contrived by the Iranian government? This whole story has a stink to it and appears to be a contrived scheme probably by the CIA or some other covert ops. No doubt the military/ industrial complex is itching for another war and scheming to create an incident to entangle us again. No way, the Iranians are not a threat to us or Israel (which has over 3000 nuclear weapons).
We are going to have to deal
We are going to have to deal with Iran sooner or later.They are died in the wool terrorist and support murder and terrorism all over the planet.It's going to happen, it's just a matter of when!
@dingdong
I agree 100% with dingdong.
This 'information' might be fabricated or massaged to make the case for another war with Iran. Since we are pulling out of Iraq, it only makes sense that Halliburton's stock will plunge.
So, Halliburton needs another war to keep stockholders happy.
Dick Cheney was Halliburton's CEO. That says it all right there.
There is profit to be made in war.
Israel bought off American
Israel bought off American politicians. There is money to be made off the over ten billion dollars we send Israel every year to help subsidize their government run National Health Insurance Program that is available to every Israeli from birth to death, but our crooked Washington scumbags refuse to allow us.
Part of that goes directly back to America to the weapons, munitions and military supply and hardware corporations.
Theft and Murder in the name of corporate profits.
Thanks to Junior Bush and his thieving, murdering cronies, they have us in a never ending war where they profit off the backs of innocents.
And they call on Jesus to give them strength
Iran
Bush lied us into Iraq on a everchanging basis of manipulated, obfuscated truth and cherry picked intelligence. We had the CIA equipped and supported Osama Bin Laden in our clutches when Bin Laden family friend, Junior Bush and Cheney yanked us out of Afghanistan and into a country with no ties to 9/11.
The CIA equipped and supplied Saddam Hussein with chemicals he used for chemical attacks against the Kurds and Iranians when Hussein invaded the Iranian oilfields.
I watched Bush when he was making fun of searching for WMDs under the white house furniture.
His family made millions and Cheney made millions off Iraq as well as their conglomerates making double digit billions.
Look up the definition of Colonialism and see how Britain and America has mucked around the Mid East invading and manipulated every country. We've propped up every despot dictator in order for our freebooters and corporations to sell their ware of death and destruction and their fellow neo con cronies who own the oil, energy and mining conglomerates to steal their natural resources and lands, resulting in terrorist attacks against us.
No ethics, morality or legal standing for these thievs and murderers and their bought off politicians who don't care how many people die in order for them to profit. They won't admit that their policies are nothing but theft and murder and results in terrorism by people affected by the policies of theft and murder foisted on them by our government whos yanked around with puppet strings.
To do so, they'll be forced to admit they are guilty of theft and murder and are responsible for the murder of 3,000 Americans on 9/11.
As descendants of the illegal European immigrants who came here, stole the Indigenous resources and lands for colonization and are still doing it, the descendants refuse to admit or acknowledge that their governments policies are theft and murder.