Saturday 13 August 2022 02:37 AM The murder plots on US soil inspired by Tehran trends now
Iranian official Shahram Poursafi is accused of masterminding plots to assassinate John Bolton and Mike Pompeo
Iran's twisted web of alleged murder plots on US soil has come under fresh scrutiny as author Salman Rushdie -- who lived for decades under death threat from Iran -- fights for his life following a shocking stabbing attack on Friday.
In recent days, US authorities said they foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton, in a scheme that reportedly also targeted former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Both men, as well as Donald Trump, had faced death threats from Tehran following the US drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani two years ago.
Meanwhile, on Thursday an alleged Iranian agent was indicted on federal charges after prosecutors said that he armed himself with an AK-47 and stalked the Brooklyn home of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian expatriate and harsh critic of the regime.
Tehran's bombastic threats have reached a fever pitch since the US strike on Soleimani, who is viewed as a martyr in Iran, but was accused of financing terror groups throughout the Middle East.
Authorities are still investigating what motivated Rushdie's attacker Hadi Matar, who stormed onstage as the 75-year-old author was about to give a lecture and stabbed him in the neck and abdomen about 15 times.
However, Matar, who was arrested at the scene, reportedly expressed sympathies for Iran and admiration for Solemani on social media.
Author Salman Rushdie is tended to after he was attacked during a lecture Friday, at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York
Rushdie's attacker Hadi Matar (center) reportedly expressed sympathies for Iran and admiration for Solemani on social media
Rushdie has spent years in hiding after a 'fatwa' calling for his murder was issued by the Iranian ayatollah in 1988. The author was airlifted to a hospital for surgery and his condition is not currently clear.
Here are some of the twisted details to emerge in the alleged Iranian-inspired assassination plots in recent days.
Official from Iran's elite Quds Forces is accused of offering hitman $300,000 to kill John BoltonOn Wednesday the US Justice Department announced it had stifled a plot by a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to kill Bolton.
Prosecutors say that Shahram Poursafi offering unidentified 'criminal elements' inside the United States $300,000 to carry out the contract murder.
The alleged plan was likely set in retaliation for the US killing of top Guards commander Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020, the department said.
The plot, which stretched from October 2021 until April this year, never made headway because the ostensible assassin was an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
But court documents show the FBI let the plotting continue to collect information on mastermind Poursafi, a member of the IRGC's elite Quds force, and on Iran's broader plans.
On Wednesday the US Justice Department announced it had stifled a plot by a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to kill John Bolton
Prosecutors say that Shahram Poursafi offering unidentified 'criminal elements' inside the United States $300,000 to carry out the contract murder of Bolton
Shahram Poursafi allegedly sent the purported hitman these images of money
Poursafi, who is believed to still be in Iran and directed the plot through encrypted messaging apps, was charged by the Justice department with two counts relating to plotting a murder.
In an interview Thursday with CNN, Bolton said the alleged plot reveals Iran's approach to foreign policy.
'What's important to understand is just how detailed the work was to send me off to the great beyond, and really the extent to which the government of Iran had thought this through, was engaged in planning,' he said.
'I think it's very clear that it's not just former government officials that Iran is after,' he said.
Iran denies the allegations against Poursafi, calling them a fabrication.
'The US Justice Department has made allegations without providing valid evidence, creating a new work of fiction,' Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
'This time they have come up with a plot involving individuals like Bolton whose political career has failed,' Kanani scoffed.
'The Islamic Republic warns against any action that targets Iranian citizens by resorting to ridiculous accusations.'
Iran does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and Poursafi remains at large. The FBI on Wednesday released a most-wanted poster.
Pompeo was also reportedly a target of the Iranian plot - with a $1M bounty on his headThe DOJ said that Poursafi was also prepared to pay $1 million for a second 'job,' but did not identify the other target in the plot.
Trump-era Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the second target, according to Morgan
