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Iran's Terror Plot a Sobering Wake-Up Call
(Wall Street Journal) Editorial - The Department of Justice has charged that "factions of the Iranian government" plotted to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. by blowing him up inside a Washington, D.C., restaurant. Had it succeeded, this would have constituted an act of terror by the Islamic Republic of Iran on U.S. soil, and arguably an act of war. At a July 17 planning meeting in Mexico, an undercover U.S. agent suggested to one of the two central figures in the plot, Manssor Arbabsiar, that the assassination would cause mass casualties. Arbabsiar replied: "They [the Iranians] want that guy done; if the hundred go with him, f**k 'em." The Justice Department also makes clear that this effort in Iran extended beyond these two men, referring several times to their "Iran-based co-conspirators." One of the charges brought by the U.S. against the two men is "conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism transcending national boundaries." That aptly describes what seems to occupy much of the Iranian government's waking hours.