State News Agency Speculates Plot Was Effort to Frame Iran.
Adding to the growing intrigue over last week’s DC assassination plot, the Iranian government 
revealed today that Gholam Shakuri, who US officials claimed was a member of the Quds Force, is actually a “key member” of the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MeK), a State Department listed terrorist organization hostile to the Iranian government.
Shakuri was accused of being behind the plot along with the much more widely covered Mansour Arbabsiar, a US citizen and failed used car salesman from Texas who officials speculated was brought into the plot because a history of living in Texas meant he might be able to find Mexican drug cartel leaders to recruit.
Shakuri was charged, but never actually arrested, and the Justice Department insisted that he is “still at large.” Iran appears to have been looking for him for awhile as well, and says he has used forged Iranian passports with the names Ali Shakuri or Gholam-Hussein Shakuri as well.
Iran’s state news agency Mehr speculated that the plot was actually an MeK effort to implicate Iran, and if this is the case it appears to have worked quite well since even though a number of experts have shrugged the plot off as nonsensical US officials continue to rail against Iran and vow revenge.
by Jason Ditz
