Was the infiltration of the Secret Service part of an Iranian plot to kill John Bolton?
Iran’s attempts to avenge the killing of Qassem Soleimani are another inconvenient truth for the Biden administration’s nuclear negotiators
Recently released court filings and press reports suggest that the two men apprehended for impersonating federal agents last week in Washington, D.C., might have been part of an Iranian assassination team whose mission was to kill former high-ranking U.S. officials. Yet even as the Biden administration became aware of a possible Iranian plot to kill Americans on American soil—an act of war—White House aides continued to negotiate the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal while seeking to accommodate the clerical regime’s thirst for revenge against former Trump administration officials: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hook, and National Security Advisor John Bolton.
According to media reports, the two men, Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali, are U.S. citizens. The latter told witnesses he had connections to Pakistani intelligence, and early reports from The New York Times, NBC, Associated Press, and other news sources seemed to make a point of not mentioning any possible link to Iran, despite at least one of the men having visas to visit that country.
Unsurprisingly, both men are now being actively investigated for possible ties to Iranian spy services, according to CBS News. Ali reportedly visited Iran twice in recent years.
Clearly, the two men enjoyed the financial and logistical support of a well-funded organization that supplied them with arms, electronic devices, and cash, which they used to infiltrate and compromise U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The nature of Taherzadeh and Ali’s activities in Washington, D.C., is certainly suggestive of an intention to infiltrate the U.S. Secret Service. Starting in February 2020, according to the affadavit filed in support of the arrest warrants, they worked out of a building in the southeast quadrant of Washington, D.C., in the fashionable Navy Yard district that is home to federal agents, congressional aides, and other government employees. Falsely representing themselves as agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the two men provided Secret Service agents—including agents connected to President Joe Biden’s security detail—as well as a DHS employee with rent-free apartments each worth more than $40,000 per year. According to the April 5th arrest warrant, they provided Secret Service agents with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat-screen television, a generator, and what they said were “official government vehicles.” They also proposed buying an assault rifle for a Secret Service agent assigned to First Lady Jill Biden.
It seems odd that these actions barely raised the suspicions of the numerous federal agents living in the building.
