Justice Department announces new arrests in plot to kill New York-based journalist

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Fri Jan 27, 2023, 01:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: CNN Politics

CNN — The Justice Department announced new arrests Friday in a plot to kill a New York-based journalist and human rights activist who is critical of the Iranian government. The three men charged, who are allegedly part of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran, are facing murder-for-hire and money laundering charges for plotting to kill journalist Masih Alinejad.

All three of the defendants, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday, are currently in custody. “Today’s indictment exposes a dangerous menace to national security – a double threat posed by a vicious transnational crime group operating from what it thought was the safe haven of a rogue nation. That rogue nation is the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at a news conference unveiling the charges.

Alinejad vowed to continue her activism in a video statement released Friday shortly after the department announced the charges: “Let me make it clear: I’m not scared for my life.” “I’m going to continue giving voice to brave Iranian leaders, women, men, inside Iran who are trying to save the rest of the world from one of the most dangerous virus(es), which is called Islamic Republic,” she said. “If we don’t take a strong action right now, we will face these terrorists on US soil more and more.”

One of the three men had been arrested this past summer in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Alinejad lives. At the time, he was charged with possessing a firearm after police found in the back seat of his vehicle a suitcase containing a “Norinco AK-47-style assault rifle … loaded with a round in the chamber and a magazine attached, along with a separate second magazine, and a total of approximately 66 rounds of ammunition,” according to a complaint.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/27/politics/justice-department-masih-alinejad/index.html

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Full headline: Justice Department announces new arrests in plot to kill New York-based journalist directed from Iran

Article updated.

Original article -

CNN — The Justice Department announced new arrests Friday in a plot to kill a New York-based journalist and human rights activist who is critical of the Iranian government.

The three men charged, who are allegedly part of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran, are facing murder-for-hire and money laundering charges for plotting to kill journalist Masih Alinejad.

All three of the defendants, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday, are currently in custody.


This story is breaking and will be updated.

[hlthe2b]

1. I saw some of the press conference and was stricken by how this case is being handled

while the opposite, for Khashoggi. Yes, the latter it is more a purview of the WH and State Department, but still.

[Igel]

2. Why?

One was against a US citizen inside the US. One wasn't on US soil.

Territoriality matters greatly. My local county courthouse can't extend authority over what a specific CPR citizen did to a single Uighur CPR citizen in the PCR.

National law and international treaty matter.

[hlthe2b]

3. WHY? Nothing has been done about Khashoggi--in fact he has been made into an

enemy by RWers and most recently former SOS/CIA Director Pompous Pompeio. He was a US resident with US citizen children and yet no attempt to even coordinate an investigation with Turkey's police occurred. And yes, the FBI COULD have requested to participate in an investigation with the Turks--even on embassy soil. Trump didn't give a damn and neither, apparently, did anyone else who could have interjected.

By contrast, this case involving the Iranian targeting of another US journalist has been proactive, expedient, competent, and by the book. All of which is, of course reassuring, but the comparison is devastating.

Can you not see how horrible the contrast is?

[reACTIONary]

4. What do you expect to be done? Should the State Dept....

... request Saudi Arabia extradite Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud? That ain't going to happen.

[hlthe2b]

5. I expected AT THE TIME for a full investigation involving the Turks and our

own investigators to have occurred--something that Erdogan-- of all people-- offered up at the time, but when rebuffed by Trump, continued his own investigation with Turkish forces. Our FBI does joint investigations overseas with national law enforcement all the time under the direction of our State Department and the country's approval. Trump chose not to do ANYTHING. And, yes, I would have expected action to be taken against S. Arabia--for a state-sponsored assassination of this type--whether a halt to arms sales or other escalating sanctions. TRUMP DID NOTHING and you, apparently are fine with that?

Do you also agree with Pompous Pompeio's dismissive quote that "Khashoggi as ‘activist’ whose murder was overblown by media"?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/24/pompeo-khashoggi-saudi-arabia-murder/

OMG. How are you or any DUer just okay with that?

[reACTIONary]

6. No one is OK with that...

... but nothing like what happened with the three who threatened Alinejad is going to happen. For more or less obvious reasons.

[hlthe2b]

7. Thus the CONTRAST between the two--the entire point of my original post.

[ancianita]

8. It's not a fair contrast. The DOJ has NO jurisdiction over crimes committed abroad. Not

even of a US citizen. That's the jurisdiction of the US State Department and the US Treasury.

The US Treasury Sanctioned 17 Individuals for Their Roles in the Killing of Jamal Khashoggi

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm547


The DOJ has all three would-be killers in custody, arrested on US soil. So while the jurisdiction is the difference, it's still not a fair to contrast of how our enforcement was/is handled, as if one was handled better than the other.

[hlthe2b]

9. Honest to gawd, ancianita, I acknowledged that FULLY,. I am bemoaning that very fact.

I was fully forthright about that. I simply stated my anguish at the contrast and the helplessness we as Americans SHOULD feel, the horror we as Americans SHOULD feel, and the empathy that I ACTUALLY DO HAVE for Khashoggi's family and colleagues at WAPO because of that inexcusable contrast between an effectively conducted case and one that was merely looked upon as a political inconvenience. How can this not bother YOU too? Well, I am sickened and distraught at the contrast. You should be too.

Had you read what I actually wrote, which seems clear that you did not, had we had then a President and State Department that actually CARED when it happened, the FBI (part of DOJ, in case you need that pointed out) CAN and FREQUENTLY does get INVITED in to participate when they ask. Had State Dept. and Trump even bothered to press for that with Erdogan--who had seemed considerably more concerned about what happened than they were--it is quite likely they could have received that invitation. There is more than a century of precedence for this. From my prior post that you apparently missed:

When asked what I expected in post #5:

I expected AT THE TIME for a full investigation involving the Turks and our

own investigators to have occurred--something that Erdogan-- of all people-- offered up at the time, but when rebuffed by Trump, continued his own investigation with Turkish forces. Our FBI does joint investigations overseas with national law enforcement all the time under the direction of our State Department and the country's approval. Trump chose not to do ANYTHING. And, yes, I would have expected action to be taken against S. Arabia--for a state-sponsored assassination of this type--whether a halt to arms sales or other escalating sanctions. TRUMP DID NOTHING and you, apparently are fine with that?

If you respond again, please don't totally ignore what I actually wrote and said. You should afford the respect to fellow DUers of actually reading prior posts and comments rather than creating an argument that ignores that.

[ancianita]

10. Okay. Thanks. We're straight. I just wanted to keep the responsibility where it properly belongs,

even across administrations, and not impugn the current DOJ. Now that I read your post #5, I get your meaning.

Thanks for the clarification about the contrast in administrations.

No conflict intended, hIthe2b, and no personal judgment intended, either.

We good?

[hlthe2b]

11. Yup. Thanks, ancianita