The Biden administration must come clean over Iran’s assassination plots
Washington ExaminerMar 04
FBI Searches for Iranian Accused of Plotting to Murder Mike Pompeo
The Facts
In an escalation of its manhunt, the FBI field office in Miami on Friday issued a most wanted notice for suspected Iranian intelligence officer Majid Dastjani Farahani, who's accused of planning to kill former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other US officials.
The bureau accuses Farahani — who reportedly speaks Spanish and frequently travels to Venezuela — of acting or purporting to act "for or on behalf of" Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security to draft non-Iranians for surveillance activities in the US.
The Spin
Republican narrative
As Iran continually threatens former US officials who served at great personal sacrifice, it gets more disturbing that the White House has abused the classification system to hide information about such plans from the press and policymakers. The White House values potential deals with Tehran over punishing it for dangerous plots.
Democratic narrative
Trump officials on Iran's hit list have been well-protected since this issue arose. In fact, the Biden administration has allocated millions of dollars annually to counter threats from Iran and ensure these officials' safety — as well as that of Iranian dissidents and journalists living in America. This is a well-coordinated national security operation from the White House.
Nerd narrative
There's a 13% chance that the US and Iran will be primary actors on opposite sides of a war before Jan. 1, 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.