FBI & DEA Thwart Iranian Plot to Kill the Saudi Ambassador to the US, In America

Breaking:

The official said the alleged plan was directed by elements of the Iranian government and involved a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

In Pre-Obama years, this would be an act of war, and the reply would be serious punitive airstrikes against Iranian military and government sites.

Now, it'll just be soft-pedaled.

I Don't Really Question the Timing: There are some cynical remarks flying, like this is Eric Holder's new operation, "Forget Fast and Furious."

This is a variation of the I Question The Timing! claim that the left made 63 million times under Bush. The left's claim was that virtually every Bush anti-terrorism arrest was "timed" for political impact.

Well, that's dumb to begin with. It's a kneejerk method of denigrating an actual success, isn't it?

But if someone is going to make the I Question the Timing claim, he really must, as a first thing, establish that the particular timing of the announcement is especially good, and would be better than other plausible windows for the event to be "timed" to coincide in.

An assassination bust, I trust, is generally "timed" to occur when the police think they have enough evidence to make a case (but they are hurried along by the prospect of the attempt occurring sooner than they expect, or the suspects catching on that they're being followed and therefore fleeing).

But let's say there's some wiggle-room here -- you could let the surveillance proceed for a couple more weeks, then make the arrests near November. Or maybe you could have cut the surveillance short a few weeks, and made the arrests mid-September.

I'm not really sure that either of these timing-windows is "better" for Holder and Obama with regard to Fast and Furious. As the case is still not getting the media coverage it deserves, perhaps the best "timing" would have been next month-- maybe by next month, the media would have stopped protecting Obama and started reporting on the case more.

I really don't see any evidence for the "timing" of this announcement being especially good for Holder. Last month, such an announcement would have helped him. Next month, it also would have helped him.

In December, it would have helped him.

In all possible universes, this would "help" him, because busting up an Iranian assassination plot is inherently a good thing.

I think the whole "I Question the Timing" kneejerk reaction is a way of avoiding the obvious -- this is good for Holder -- by way of making some half-considered charge of political gamesmanship.

This is a good thing for Holder. Does it mean he shouldn't be removed from office? Of course not. It's just doing his job.

And besides, Holder had nothing to do with this. What, was he one of the investigators? Of course not.

Holder's sin is attempting to grab up credit he hasn't earned. Eric Holder had about 1% more involvement with these arrests than me.

Like Obama, charging to that microphone to announce that he personally plugged bin Ladin.

But timing? Meh. When would a major foreign assassination plot bust be poorly timed?

I Question The Convenient In/Out of the Loopiness: Why is that Eric Holder knows absolutely nothing about covert operations that end in disaster, but is presenting himself as a details guy in a covert operation that ended successfully?

Kind of convenient that he's involved in the successes, but cannot for the life of him even remember the mere existence of operations gone awry.

posted by Ace at 02:25 PM

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