a visit by the south korean president overshadowed by the unfolding international drama surround i surrounding an alleged iranian terror plot. for the first time, president obama spoke at length about what the united states maintains was a plan to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the united states here in washington, d.c. let s go straight to jessica yellin. jessica, the president was asked about the links to the iranian government. what did he say today? he declined to say the highest levels of the iranian government had knowledge of it. he would not say that the nation s supreme leader or president was aware of it. i don t think the problem here jessica is that i have not been unwilling to negotiate with republicans. i ve shown repeatedly my willingness to work overtime. to try to get them to do something. he had direct links. was paid by and directed by individuals in the iranian government. now, those facts are there for all to see. and we would not be bringing for
for president? no, i m not. so, that creates that little opening that now the bloggers will all say stuff on. could america be ready for another bush in the white house? i mean, look, this is a time to serve. there s no question about it. this is piers morgan tonight. governor, welcome. good to be here. i have to start, we ll come to education soon. but i have to start with last night s republican debate. what are your what s your view generally of these debates? how important are they right now? and what did you think of last night? i didn t see it because i was flying out to san francisco. but this morning, bright and early, i saw what other people thought of the debate. and first, i liked the fact that it was focused on the number one issue in the country. up until now, these debates have really a lot of the questions were really on marginal issues to try to divide the candidates, which is entertaining, i guess. but this gave the candidates a chance to
senior administration official tells me this was international murder for hire. here s what we have been told. two men charged in an alleged plot to assassinate the saudi arabiian ambassador to the united states. both are iranian. one is also a naturalized u.s. citizen, who s in custody and identified as 56-year-old manssor arbabsiar. manssor arbabsiar appeared in a federal courthouse in downtown manhattan this afternoon. he did not enter a plea. according to the complaint that we read, manssor arbabsiar planned for someone to kill the saudi arabian ambassador at one of his favorite restaurants in washington, d.c. he told an informant that mass casualties didn t matter saying if the hundred go with him, exbest metive them. . the plot is a work of intrigue. manssor arbabsiar met with a dea member posing as a member of one of mexico s biggest violent drug cartels. it got them to agree to assassinate the ambassador for $1.5 million. he planned to pursue an attack on the israel
really do. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com we re following new developments in the alleged iranian terror plot to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the united states. among the latest, the u.s. has slapped sanctions on an iranian airline it says provided materials support for the plot. in tehran, the foreign ministry is protesting the allegations to a swiss diplomat in tehran. switzerland represents the two countrie countries. saudi officials are blasting iran over the plot. prince turkey, the former saudi intelligence chief, the former chief in washington warning, i m quoting, someone in iran is going to have to pay the price. we re also digging deeper into the american citizen charged in the case. lisa siylvester has been investigating. the 56-year-old is the man investigators say is at the center of this plot and authorities are describing him as ruthless, unconcerned about killing innocent people, but his closest
held and who was tracking him. the other suspect is a member of iran s revolutionary guard. he s still at large. iran is blasting the united states saying it has no ties to this suspected plot. the spokesman for the iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad, quote, i think the u.s. government is busy fabricating a new scenario and history has shown both the u.s. government and the cia have a lot of experience in fabricating these scenarios and this is just the latest one. i think their goal is to reach the american public. they want to take the public s mind off the serious domestic problems they re facing these days and scare them with fabricated problems outside the country. but in washington, the fbi director robert mueller said this was no fabrication, no joke. he says elements of the iranian government were ready to spend $1.5 million to hire what they believe was a drug cartel hit squad from mexico. this case illustrates that we live in a world where borders and boundarie