So why break it now? To divert attention from his spiraling scandals and plummeting fortunes?
“Iranians charged in U.S. over assassination plot,” by Jeremy Pelofsky and Basil Katz for Reuters, October 11:
(Reuters) – U.S. authorities broke up a plot by two men linked to the Iranian government to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said one of two men charged in the plot, both originally from Iran, had been arrested and confessed.
The other, who was still at large, was described in the criminal complaint as being a member of the elite Quds Force, which is part of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“High-up (Iranian) officials in those agencies … were responsible for this plot,” Holder told a news conference. “I think one has to be concerned about the chilling nature of what the Iranian government attempted to do here,” he said.
Two men were charged in a U.S. court. Gholam Shakuri was described in the criminal complaint as a member of the Quds Force and is believed to be in Iran.
U.S. authorities arrested the other man, Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and holds an Iranian passport, at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on September 29.
The target of the plot was Saudi ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir, according to the criminal complaint. […]
Officials said that the Saudi ambassador, Adel Al-Jubeir, was never in danger. President Barack Obama was briefed in June about the alleged plot and through a spokesman expressed gratitude for it being disrupted.
The assassination plot began to unfold in May 2011 when Arbabsiar approached an individual in Mexico to help, but that individual turned out to be an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The confidential source, who was not identified, immediately tipped law enforcement agents, according to the criminal complaint. Arbabsiar paid $100,000 to the informant in July and August for the plot, a down payment on the $1.5 million requested.
Shakuri approved the plan to kill the ambassador during telephone conversations with Arbabsiar, the complaint said….