| Clearly a busy time for jihadis -- yesterday that little Bangladeshi lad was arrested for teaming up with the FBI to blow up the Federal Reserve building in New York. (No, of course he didn't know they were Federales -- he was evil, not stupid!) |
[An Nahar] Former car salesman Manssor Arbabsiar pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring with the Iranian military to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States in a plot as lurid as any airport thriller.Appearing at the New York federal court where he had been due to stand trial in January, the Iranian-American entered a surprise guilty plea. He faces up to 25 years in prison at his sentencing, which was set for January 23.
Judge John Keenan asked Arbabsiar: "Is it true that about the spring of 2011 up until the fall of 2011 that you and your co-conspirators ... who were officials in the Iranian military, that you agreed to cause the liquidation of the Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
n ambassador to the United States?"
"Yes," he replied, pleading guilty to three counts.
Arbabsiar was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
in September last year at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, triggering a major legal and diplomatic drama between Washington and Tehran, amid already tense relations.
He was charged along with co-defendant Gholam Shakuri, a senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, who is on the lam.
They tried to hire a Mexican drug pusher for $1.5 million, first to kidnap the Saudi envoy, then, in a change of plan, to blow him up in a restaurant he frequented in Washington, Arbabsiar said.
He had arranged for $100,000 to be wired to the United States as a down payment, not realizing that the supposed assassin he recruited was in fact working for the U.S. authorities.
"In Mexico we hired a person called 'Junior' who turned out to be an FBI agent," Arbabsiar said in court, although officials say "Junior" was in fact a Drug Enforcement Administration informant, not from the FBI.
A frail looking man with a grey beard and a huge scar across one cheek, Arbabsiar was brought in and out of the courtroom in handcuffs and kept under close watch while he sat at a table with his lawyers.
The former Texas car salesman, who has a gray beard and wore a dark blue prison smock and orange undershirt, seemed nervous and stumbled repeatedly in his answers during the plea procedure.
Asked his age, he looked confused and said, "58, I think."
When Keenan pressured him to confirm clearly that he'd intended to murder the Saudi diplomat, Arbabsiar finally said: "No. Yes, yes."
Throughout, Arbabsiar alternated between casting worried looks around the courtroom and repeatedly smiling, including at the agents seated alongside the prosecutors.
In the run-up to what would have been the trial, the defendant underwent a psychological evaluation. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
defense lawyer Sabrina Shroff told the court Wednesday that nothing had been found to hold up the plea.
"We know of nothing that would address any issue," she said.
| Ay Pee adds: |
| Which does not mean he didn't do it, and is certainly something that can be handled by prison psychiatrists. |