he is committed to staying with the president through re-election and predicts mr. obama will win. learning new details about the terror plot aimed at killing the saudi ambassador to the u.s. one man has confessed to his role in the plot. and the fbi is looking for a second man. abc s steven portnoy has the latest. reporter: according to a filing in federal court, the plan to assassinate adel al-juebier. saudi ambassador to the u.s. the plan was conceived from iran. reporter: the iranians wanted to kill the ambassador while dining at a capitol hill restaurant by exploding a bomb. when the confidential source noted there could be 100 or 150 people in a fictional restaurant where the requested bombing would take place the lead defendant said no problem and no big deal. reporter: officials said 56-year-old manssor arbabsiar an iranian born american citizen met with a man he thought was a leader of a mexican drug cartel
from the international community will also be considered. federal authorities say 56-year-old manssor arbabsiar, naturalized u.s. citizen with u.s. and iranian passport was arrested at jfk airport in new york september 29 with gholam shakuri a member of the iran s elite force that is unit of the revolutionary guard corps. they are charged with conspiracy to murder saudi ambassador to the u.s. conspiracy to use weapon of mass destruction, exexplosives and conspiracy to commit international terrorism. among other charges. he appeared briefly in the magistrate s court and did not issue a plea. only affirmed the truth of his sworn statement thus far. another hearing is set for october 25. according to the justice department, arbabsiar sought to recruit as a designated hit man someone he believed was a member of the drug cartel but it was undercover dea agent as
it was pretty obvious at that point he was not going to endorse rick perry. this wasn t as big of a surprise. he came out and said to rick perry yesterday, you have to repudiate the minister that called mormonism a cult. and rick perry would do the same thing. this is not the only story. extremely disturbing news came across yesterday morning. americans across the globe are on alert now with the warning of potential terrorist attacks. this comes as the state department says they ve exposed an iranian plot to assassinate this man here, saudi arabia s u.s. ambassador, adel al-jubeir. this man, iranian-born american, manssor arbabsiar, appeared in new york federal court on tuesday. now, he and another man, gohlam shakuri are charged with conspiring to pay a mexican drug cartel to carry out the man. shakuri, unfortunately, still at large. iran calling the story right now a fabrication. can we factor? a drug cartel? that s exactly the deal.
but in fact he was a government informant. arbabsiar apparently went to iran where officials claim he wired two payments totaling nearly $100,000 as a down payment for the $1.5 million he agreed to pay for the murder-for-hire. officials say the plan also included follow-up attacks on the saudi and israeli embassies in washington. we will be consulting with our friends and partners around the world about how we can send a very strong message that this kind of action which violates international norms must be ended. reporter: abc news, washington. the scary part about this, too, is if the attack had been carried out in d.c., in the crowded restaurant, that really would, some think, provoked military action between us and iran.
iran must be held accountable for its actions. reporter: a short time ago, the house speaker put pressure swearly on the white house squarely on the white house, megyn, to respond to the iranian plot. i think this plot is, it s a very serious breach of international behavior. and i would hope that our administration would hold the iranian government, and hold their feet to the fire. reporter: the criminal complaint against 56-year-old manssor arbabsiar, he was arrested on september 29th, criminal complaint really reads like a b movie. there s coded language that included chevrolet for the assassination of the ambassador and a second suspect, a member of iran s quds force is believed to be hiding in iran.