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Nueces County Sheriff
Mansour Arbabsiar is seen in a 2001 booking photo after he was charged for check fraud.
Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET: A Texas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, acknowledging he agreed to hire what he thought was a drug dealer in Mexico last year for $1.5 million to carry out the attack with explosives at a Washington, D.C., restaurant.
Manssor Arbabsiar, 58, entered the plea to two conspiracy charges and a murder-for-hire count in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Judge John F. Keenan repeatedly asked Arbabsiar whether he intended to kill the ambassador. Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen who holds an Iranian passport, said he did.
"I take responsibility for my actions," Arbabsiar said.
Arbabsiar also admitted he agreed to help transfer more than $100,000 through a New York bank to help further the plot.
When Arbabsiar's arrest was announced last year, President Barack Obama's administration accused the Iranian government of being behind the planned assassination of Ambassador Adel al Jubeir in Washington.
The press attache at Iran's mission to the United Nations then called the accusation "baseless."
"Mr. Arbabsiar’s plea today confirms what our investigation had already uncovered: that he plotted to murder the Saudi Ambassador with members of Iran’s elite Qods Force," said FBI Acting Assistant Director Mary Galligan. "The FBI remains ever vigilant toward acts of terror both here and abroad."
Authorities say Arbabsiar earlier admitted his role in a $1.5 million plot to kill the ambassador at a restaurant by setting off explosives.
See the original story at NBCNewYork.com | More from NBCNewYork.com
Sentencing is scheduled Jan. 23. Arbabsiar faces up to 25 years in prison. A trial had been scheduled for January.
Arbabsiar, who lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, for more than a decade, said he went to Mexico last year to meet a man named Junior, "who turned out to be an FBI agent." He said that he and others had agreed to arrange the kidnapping of ambassador Al-Jubeir, but Junior said it would be easier to kill the ambassador.
Arbabsiar has been held without bail since he was arrested Sept. 29, 2011 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was brought into court Wednesday in handcuffs. He spoke English and did not use a translator, despite saying he understood only about half of what he read in English. Bearded and bespectacled, he smiled several times during the proceeding, including in the direction of courtroom artists who were seated in the jury box when he entered court.
Defense lawyers say Arbabsiar suffers from bipolar disorder.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Kim said that if the government had proceeded to trial, it would have presented a jury with secretly recorded conversations between Arbabsiar and a confidential source, along with Arbabsiar's extensive post-arrest statement to authorities and emails and financial records.
Authorities have said they secretly recorded conversations between Arbabsiar and an informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration after Arbabsiar approached the informant in Mexico and asked his knowledge of explosives for a plot to blow up the Saudi embassy in Washington. They said Arbabsiar later offered $1.5 million for the death of the ambassador.
A second person, Gholam Shakuri, was charged in the plot but remains at large in Iran.
The Justice Department said Shakuri is an Iran-based member of Iran’s Qods Force, which is a special operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that is said to sponsor and promote terrorist activities abroad.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “As was originally charged, and as Arbabsiar has now admitted, he was the extended murderous hand of his co-conspirators, officials of the Iranian military based in Iran, who plotted to kill the Saudi Ambassador in the United States and were willing to kill as many bystanders as necessary to do so. Arbabsiar traveled to and from the United States, Mexico and Iran and was in telephone contact with his Iranian confederates while he brokered an audacious plot. The audacity of the plot should not cause doubt, but rather vigilance regarding others like Arbabsiar, who are enlisted as the violent emissaries of plotting foreign officials. This office will continue to pursue the co-conspirators in this plot and others in Iran or elsewhere who try to export murder. Thanks to the great work of the FBI, DEA and the prosecutors in this office, Mr. Arbabsiar must now answer for his conduct.”
Pete Williams is NBC News' justice correspondent. Jonathan Dienst is WNBC's chief investigative correspondent. Shimon Prokupecz is a WNBC investigative producer.
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If he's pleading guilty, one of the terms of the plea deal has to be that we won't turn him over to the Saudis.
Erhm, Why?
He was plotting to kill a Saudi.
I suppose you misread the article.
Yup. The Saudi's would use him for the goat in a game of buzkashi if they could get hold of him.
Gee, I guess all the Republicans were wrong. Trials of terrorists that take place in regular federal court with all of the rights granted to each and every person in the United States can result in a guilty verdict. You really don't have to torture our enemies or hold them indefinitely at a military prison or hold military tribunals. Amazing, huh !
Dirp. Your name says it all.
WOW
My question is,,,,,,,,,, Why is the FBI operating in Mexico.
Why did the FBI do the investigation of the assassination in Libya?
Where did the CIA go? I didn't think the FBI handled international issues.
Should they change their mandate?
Should they be the I B I?
let him row over there in a leaky canoe, im certain the navy can give him a lift say...half way.....
Gee, I suppose the Obama administration will ensure the prosecutors will say he agreed to the plot based upon a "video".
Wait a minute....."President Barack Obama's administration accused the Iranian government of being behind the planned assassination of Ambassador Adel al Jubeir in Washington."
Is this another "Shoot first then aim later" moment for this administration ? First it was "Trayvon Martin could have been my son" then "the video was the cause of the Libyan Consulate attack".
Yep, fits the theme of this administration. Amazing, huh ?
What else is this administration doing and keeping from the American public ?
guess that's more than one question.
He lived in Corpis Christi for more than a decade? Where did he live before that and how did he get to be a citizen? Obama just keeps supporting immigration from the middle east, hmmmmmmm, have the winds changed and who is he standing with?
Quick, someone b!tch slap that idiot and knock that Catapillar off his upper lip :)
Ido, it should read I dont, As in I dont understand many things.
Is this another "Shoot first then aim later" moment for this administration ? First it was "Trayvon Martin could have been my son" then "the video was the cause of the Libyan Consulate attack".
First off there was a co-conspirator or can't you read. Thats person is in Al Quds. Thats not a shoot first comment. Second the Trayvon comment, was a comment of compassion not an indictment. However, information has come out that shoots holes in the fighting over the gun defense statement, as their was no DNA from the victim on the gun.
One only needs to read your comment to see why the US is 17th in the world in education. Time to go get your GED (while you make my fries to go).
First of all, this man has been living in the USA for over TEN years so on WHOSE watch AGAIN was he allowed in the first place and under WHOSE Administration was he caught and will now be going to prison? You figure it out all you neocon "geniuses" that will hate our President just to HATE HIM. FOUR MORE YEARS!!!!!
The US also exports murder.
We must arrest ourselves.
Tweets, that just tells us how ignorant you are. The FBI investigates all crimes against Americans overseas. The CIA never does.
Wasn't this linked to a Mexican cartel who was being hired to actually do the hit? Funny how that was left out of the article..
the article is about 4 paragraphs long. I'm sure it could have been 40 but it was just an update on the status of the defendant. Not sure what the conspiracy alleged here is?
This story stinks really bad. Why would a used car salesman try to recruit Mexican cartel members to kill a Saudi ambassador? To try to implicate Iran AND Mexican drug cartels in an elaborate and non-sensical conspiratorial plot? This has "false flag" written all over it. The Feds must have fudged something on him to make him confess.
Yes we love Iran and Mexican drug cartel. This is all a conspiracy.
Truth is stranger than fiction. Sometimes putting on pants and emerging from the basement is necessary to see the truth. Perhaps you should do those two things now.
Send him to saudi arabia anyway!
25 years????? This model Democratic voter should hang by the neck until dead!
so how many are here right now awaiting orders? Drug dealers in Mexico headed north are not exactly a rarity ya know.
1.5 mil? that should have tipped him off right away. a real cartel drug dealer would have laughed at such a paltry sum. those boys are a hell of allot smarter then the average" Mohammad loving towel-head. They would blow themselves and the target up in a "glorious" jihad in the name of Allah . and the "payment would be less too, just promise the simpleton fanatic some virgins ( afterward's ) and he will head right out with a hard on and a smile.
Car sales man, drunk....he's a patsy. Just doesn't add up.
now now folks , i say we lend this schmuck a hand. he was after all just meeting with drug dealers before everyone got all carried away. so lets just help him out just like he was back in Iran and make certain he get's stoned.
I love Islam. So much love and joy comes from it. God is great.
The hijackers in the September 11 attacks were 19 men affiliated with al-Qaeda, and 15 of the 19 were citizens of Saudi Arabia.
There is something really wrong with this story...If Iran was Involved, they would not do it with a bipolar individual...And much less this guy....! The false flags like this help place the blame on a country that has not gone to war in 100 years. The Zealous Isralies in the White house and the Isreali government will do anything to have the USA start a WAR on their behalf....And kill our Boys!!! If they do that it will be the biggest Mistake and they will lose The entire Middle East including Saudi Arabia., IRaq, Afganistan, and Pakistan will all revolt and then WHAT...? WWIII......game over!
There you go again with your Iran loving, Pakistan loving Israel hating attitude of a real muslim extremist. "Iran has not gone to war in 100 years" skips your leftist memory of 1979 attack on US, and here is an Iranian assasin and you are attacking Israel? was Israel even in the picture or that is just your dilludional and hateful mind at work?
to bad he didnt kill the ambassador since he believes in beating women and children..he shouldnt even be allowed in the united states for his abuse of women....why do are we even friends with these animals? hopefully someone takes these women abuser out
They should have let him kill him.he is our enemy.
I don't think anyone should kill anyone else but I think they should sneak him out of the back door of the court house.
If we re not going to kill him, ( we re not ), send him to the SUPERMAX..
I rather get the Death penalty
Another muslim killer on the loose... we need to stop letting these guys into our country... period.
Isn't anyone glad that these plots are actually being uncovered before they happen? Just sayin'... Kinda nice when they get caught BEFORE instead of after.
I am. It is nice and they are doing a great job.
Jail?! Why should my taxes go to support this scumbag? I say execute him, and send the body back to the Iranian Qods Force. I'm sure they'll get the 'hint'.
it would be nice if the government was this worked up over the US ambassador to syria's murder
I agree wholeheartedly, ban. I don't mean to sound 'conspiracy theory', but it does seem as if something is being hidden from the American people. Something isn't sitting right with me on this one. Four requests for additional security, all denied, and NO ONE knows anything about it?? Yeah, right....
Go figure, a mentally disabled person "contacts" an undercover FBI agent in order to carry out a terrorist attack. Too bad the American people are too stupid to see a pattern.
You're absolutely right. It all leads back to Reagan. From trickle down economics and wage disparity to the defunding of mental health facilities. Forty years later it's all coming together. In a few more decades we'll have no healthy middle class. Just the one percent and a bunch of menial laborers, with paranoid delusions.
thought this was a sting operation?
Wow.. A WHOLE lot of racist bigots on here.. Is there anybody here that DOESN"T sound like they frequently thow around terms like "Camel Jockey", Towel-head", "Spic" "Kike", "Gook", "Nip", "Beaner" or any OTHER derogatory names, or think this is a "Big Government cover-up"?
I'm feeling a little left out here. Don't forget "Paddy" and "Mick".
Can anyone tell me why these supposedly derogatory references to my Celtic heritage don't bother me, but when someone mistakenly calls me a "honky", it pisses me off, so I immediately correct them and refer them to the above noted, more appropriate, epithets?
Evidence of how screwed up this country really is. You get 25 years for threatening a Saudi. You get 4 weekends of community service if you threaten another American. Pathetic.
We continue to brand anyone American.There once was america
Wow, impressive work by the FBI, how many plots from unfriendly nations and terrorist organizations, or just lone crazy people do they foil? These people deserve a lot of respect.