It was such a like lowrent bad action movie juvenile plot that it was hard to square with the sort of seriousness with which it was presented. I mean, the scheme that they laid out was this. There was a drug cartel, a drug gang in mexico called los zetas, zetas, zetas, and the dea, Drug Enforcement administration, to a certain extent had infiltrated this gang, the zetas. The dea at least had informants working for them who were living and working as members of this gang. But secretly reporting back to the dea what was going on inside the gang which is interesting in terms of a Law Enforcement drama prospect, right . But one day in may of 2011 one of these guys who was secretly working for the dea as an informant inside this drug gang, he made arrangements to talk to his dea handler. And he hold his handler in the dea something that felt like it was like visiting from a different planet, it was a plot from a totally different movie, something that seemed totally off the wall for what was already a pretty dramatic situation. Quote, the case began in may when a Drug Enforcement administration informant with ties to highlevel leaders of loss zetas told agents of a bizarre conversation. He had been approached, he said, by an iranian friend of his aunts in Corpus Christi, texas. The friend had a proposition for him, a proposition to hire the drug cartel to carry out terrorist attacks inside the United States. Wait, what now . Which movie is this . Over the christmas break susan and i went to the Movie Theater to go see little women because were middleaged lesbians, its mandatory. But were in a theater right next to star wars. T so, we saw little star women wars. It was definitely the best iteration of both movies. This is kind of the same thing. This is two different action movies crammed into the same thing. Wait, i thought this was the movie about the infiltration of the drug gang with the secret informants, no, no, its the iranians hiring the drug gang to carry out terrorist attacks in the United States. Yes, both of those movies squashed into one. The guy everybody thinks who is in the drug gang secretly working for the dea as a double agent, he in real life has an aunt in Corpus Christi and his aunt in Corpus Christi has a friend, an iranian guy who i kid you not is used car salesman. Hes 56 years old. His name was mansur. He told everybody to call him jack. He sold hondas and acuras from what apparently was a disorganized car lot in Corpus Christi, texas. He had a couple of minor pops including driving without a license and a check scheme. Literally he was a random used car dealer in texas. Named jack. Had a wife named esperanza. But jack had a friend, this woman in Corpus Christi who it turns out had a nephew who everybody believed was in los zetas, this terrible drug gang. He was secretly a dea agent inside the drug gang and the way he laid it out to his handlers was his aunts friend, this car dealer guy jack, came to him because he thought he was in this drug gang and he tried to hire him to do something absolutely unbelievable. An alleged 1. 5 million plot to assassinate saudi arabias ambassador. A veteran diplomat and King Abdullahs righthand man by blowing him up in an undetermined restaurant. U. S. Officials tell nbc news a secondary plot was to target israels embassy in washington. The accused an iranian born u. S. Citizen was arraigned in manhattan this afternoon. A coconspirator named in the indictment remains at large. But the Administration Says irans government was behind it all. Irans government was behind it all, but it involves in texas car dealer and mexico and a drug what . I mean, this all happened in the fall of 2011, and it hovers somewhere between super scary and almost laughable, right . On the one hand theres this somewhat feckless used car salesman call me jack lives in Corpus Christi, thinks hes making contact with the mexico drug cartel. Hes really making contact with the dea informant inside the Mexican Drug Cartel. And what he tells that guy of all guys is that his cousin is a big deal in the Iranian Military, and his cousin and his colleagues in the Iranian Military have conveyed to jack, the feckless used car salesman, theyll pay good money for him to arrange for an assassination and a few strategic bombings to be carried out on behalf of the nation of iran. And could he please arrange for the Mexican Drug Cartel to do it . In the proposed deal, the drug gang would set off bombs at two foreign embassies in argentina. The embassy of saudi arabia in argentina and the embassy of israel in argentina. They would also bomb the embassy of israel in washington, d. C. , and according to the plot, they would kill with a bomb the saudi ambassador to the United States while he was eating dinner at a restaurant in washington, d. C. So thats what the dea handler for this informant inside los zeta hears from his informant. The dea hears of this proposal from, you know, aunts friend jack. Its like what do you do if your guy whos the double agent inside the dang comes to you and says i have been made an offer. I have been offered this proposal. Its a little bit outside my wheelhouse. I didnt think this is the kind of thing i was here to work on. But with now the blessing of the dea, he basically goes ahead with it, goes back to jack, the used car dealer guy, and says, you know, okay, i got to talk to a few guys, but this seems good. Lets go ahead with it. The u. S. Government totally knows about it. The fbi obviously is brought in. They know about this from the earliest stages because its this dea informant whos been approached with this proposal. Because the fbi is in on it, the u. S. Government knows whats happening here, theyre allowing this plot to go forward but they are monitoring it every step of the way. All the subsequent meetings and calls with this car salesman jack, theyre all recorded. But as outlandish and ridiculous as the plot sounds, as unnecessarily convoluted and bizarre as the plot sounds, it kind of checks out. Each step of it just keeps advancing. The used car salesman guy and the guy whos supposedly in the drug gang, they agree that the price for los zetas to carry out these bombings and assassination will be 1. 5 million. The guy whos supposedly in the zetas drug gang says he needs some of the money up front and it comes through. Jack, the used car salesman guy, wires about 100,000 in two separate money transfers to this guy who believes is in the los zetas drug gang. The feds are able to follow the source of that money for the transfers and indeed it checks out. They say the account from which those funds originate is in fact linked to iran, linked to the quds force, part of the revolutionary guard in the Iranian Military. Remember jack the used car salesman said he had a cousin who was in the Iranian Military. Turns out he actually does. He in fact has a cousin whos in the quds force in iraq. And the fbi is monitoring him every step of the way as he proceeds with this outlandish plot. And again, it just keeps checking out. Jack, the used car salesman guy, travels to iran where in fact he meets with his cousin who really is in the quds force. He meets with another official in the quds force as well. And he stays in touch with his contact who he thinks is this guy in the mexican drug gang. And the drug gang guy tells him that the zetas are on board with this, but theyre going to need more money up front. Theyre either going to need more money up front or some other form of collateral because they want to make sure they get paid. Jack the used car salesman says, okay, i can do that. The priority here is to get this done and to get it done fast. So, he tells them basically ill be your collateral. Im in iran right now meeting with my cousin, right, and this other guy in the quds force who are directing me to do this. Im going to fly from here to mexico to meet you. You can have me, jack, the used car salesman. You can have me physically as collateral, as proof of our intent to pay. And you can keep me physically until you carry out this assassination and then i will make sure you get wired the rest of the money and at that point you can let me go. And thats how theyre going to proceed. And in fact he does it. The used car salesman guy flies from tehran to mexico city, and of course the u. S. Government is recording all of these communications, following him every step of the way. They give the Mexican Government a heads up this guy is flying in from iran at the u. S. Governments heads up and request the Mexican Government denies the guy entry and says, no, you will not be allowed to enter mexico. You have to go back to where you came from. But look they say weve made it very convenient for you. Were going to fly you back to iran back to iran where you came from but we have to fly you through a route that has a quick layover in new york city. Its just a logistical thing. Its just a quick stop, no worries. Youll be back in tehran in no time. And of course they specifically routed his return trip through jfk airport in new york city because waiting for him on the tarmac at jfk airport in new york city was the fbi. Grabbed him off the plane, arrested him and charged him with serious stuff. Murder for hire, International Terrorism. The guy initially pleads not guilty but soon changes his mind whereupon the Justice Department was able to crow about what he admitted to in this outlandish plot. Quote, in connection with his guilty plea he admitted that he conspired with officials in the Iranian Military who were based in iran to cause the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador while the ambassador was in the United States. He acknowledged that at the direction of these coconspirators, he travelled to mexico on multiple occasions during 2011 in order to arrange the assassination of the ambassador. He also admitted that in connection with this plot he was recruited, funded and directed by men he understood to be senior officials in irans quds force. He said these iranian officials were aware of and approved of the use of his contact from the drug cartel in connection with the plot as well as payments to that person. Also, they approved of the means by which the ambassador would be killed in the United States and the bystander casualties that would result. He said he met several times in iran with a coconspirator and an iranbased member of the quds force as well as another quds force official where he explained the plan was to blow up a restaurant in the United States frequented by the ambassador. He also explained numerous bystanders would be killed. The plan was approved by officials. In conjunction with this criminal case that named member of the quds force whose name i just struggled through there, he was also criminally charged by the u. S. Department of justice. Also in conjunction with this case the u. S. Treasury announced new sanctions on officials from the quds force including the long time leader of the quds force, qasem soleimani, whose name is very familiar to you. He yesterday was killed in the drone strike outside the Baghdad Airport with consequences that remain to be, to put it mildly. Now at the time this bizarre plot was unveiled in 2011 and into 2012 when the guy finally pled guilty, it seemed just as nuts then as it does now. As im recounting to you all these years later and it seems nuts, wait. Its the iranian government, this elite military force using some guy in the quds forces cousin whos a used car dealer to contact a drug cartel, and the drug cartel is going to take money from the Iranian Military through the used car dealer to blow up all these embassies and kill an ambassador in a busy d. C. Restaurant and theres going to be bystanders and that kind of highrisk operation theyre pulling off through these guys from the guy they cant tell is a dea informant. Really . The secretary of state at the time, named hillary rod m clinton, told the Associated Press in an interview about this plot and criminal charges, quote, nobody could make that up, right . The fbi director at the time, you may recognize him. You saw him there at the press Conference Announcing these charges. He said at the press Conference Announcing these charges, that, yes, this seems like the plot of a hollywood movie. National security reporters at the New York Times who were covering the story put a sort of finer point on that analysis by saying this didnt just seem like a hollywood movie, it specifically seemed like a Quinton Tarantino movie, its that over the top. And experts on iran, on the capability of the quds force and International Terrorism they didnt know what to make of this plot that seemed both dangerous and preposterous. Reporters kept getting things on the record this was extreme and very odd but also very sloppily. Experts describing his a highrisk, lowyield maneuver. Quote, it is sensational, it is odd. And if it is true it is very provocative on irans part. One expert calling it simply baffling baffling that irans quds force would actually be involved with a plot this baroque and ridiculous. But do you know what . In modern history, in the last decade this is what weve got in terms of our american concrete nuts and bolts understanding about whether the quds force in iran more broadly had actually developed the ambition and any capability to project force in the United States in that kind of a way, to carry out assassinations inside the United States and bombings inside the United States to benefit the government of iran. And of course that plot as laid out in that criminal case as surreal as it was anything else, but now that recent history suddenly is the closest thing weve got to an answer to what is now a very pressing question that is on the minds of millions of americans tonight which is what are irans capabilities . What kind of force can iran project if they do want to inflict maximum damage on americans, if they want to incur maximum fear and terror among americans, if they want to exact maximum revenge from the United States and its people for the u. S. Military killing the head of quds force with the drone strike in iraq reportedly ordered by the president. I mean, the quds force is taken very seriously for a reason. They stood up hezbollah and lebanon and hamas and various militia forces and military forces that have kept syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad in power in syria all of these years despite all the odds stacked against him. They stood at the muddy army that was such a fearsome and deadly Shiite Militia adversary for u. S. Troops fighting in the iraq war for years. Lebanon, syria, iraq, afghanistan, yemen. Iran has exerted incredible influence and control in military reach beyond its borders through irregular warfare, through training, through the provision of weapons and terrorism and political influence. Over the course of decades in some cases all masterminded through the quds force which was run for the last 20 plus years by Qassem Soleimani, the man who was just killed by u. S. Forces yesterday. And so now of course the iranian government is vowing revenge in the most dramatic possible terms. And everybody in the world is expecting that they mean that. And against that incredibly serious and sobering International Track record that we know in terms of the way iran has been able to project force and terror around the world particularly using the capabilities of the quds force which soleimani led until yesterday, i mean the actual evidence that weve got of their past effort to mount a plot here in the United States really is this ridiculous tarantinoesque plot where the code name for the assassination was chevrolet because they figured him being a used car salesman hed be talking about chevrolets, never mind he sold acuras. And the guy blissfully accepting his diversion to jfk airport so he could be arrested on the tarmac because every step of the way hes being watched and recorded and it was all on tape and all being watched from the beginning. And from that very first instance where he made that First Contact and got arrested, it was just a matter of months and the fbi was in on it every single step of the way. I mean, the bad news from this history is that weve got evidence from within the past ten years of what appears to have been an effort by iran using quds force operators to try to kill people and blow up embassies and mount a high level political assassination in the United States of america, in our capital city. Thats the bad news. The good news about it is that that was their freaking idea, which was ridiculous. So how do we square our realistic sense of the types of threats we have now invited with this action that has now been taken by the u. S. Government . How do we understand that just as civilian americans and what a war with iran might look like and what that means for us and our country . I mean, we can understand some of the risks and some of the things that might happen in