Salman Rushdie, an author who endured decades-long death threats from Iran, is now fighting for his life after being stabbed in a stunning incident on Friday.
This has renewed interest in the complex network of claimed assassination schemes that it has allegedly carried out on US soil.
In recent days, US officials claimed to have thwarted an Iranian conspiracy to kill former national security adviser John Bolton.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was purportedly another target of the plot.
Following the US drone attack that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani two years ago, both men as well as Donald Trump had received death threats from Tehran.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, prosecutors announced the indictment of a suspected Iranian agent on federal charges after alleging that the man pursued Masih Alinejad, an Iranian exile and outspoken opponent of the government, at his Brooklyn home while armed with an AK-47.
Since the US attack on Soleimani, who is revered in Iran but was charged with funding terrorism throughout the Middle East, Tehran’s bombastic threats have intensified.
Hadi Matar, who rushed the stage as Rushdie, 75, was preparing to deliver a lecture and stabbed him roughly 15 times in the neck and abdomen, is still being sought by authorities.
On social media, Matar, who was detained on the spot, purportedly professed respect for Solemani and sympathy for Iran.
After the Iranian ayatollah published a “fatwa” in 1988 calling for his assassination, Rushdie spent years in hiding. The author had surgery and was evacuated to a hospital; his current health status is unknown.
Here are a some of the bizarre revelations that have recently been made on the purported Iranian-inspired murder plans.
A Quds Forces official is accused of paying a hitman $300,000 to assassinate John Bolton.
The US Justice Department said on Wednesday that it had thwarted a plan by an Iranian member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to assassinate Bolton.
According to the prosecution, Shahram Poursafi offered $300,000 to carry out the contract killing to unnamed “criminal entities” within the United States.
According to the government, the purported plot was probably hatched in retribution for the US execution of elite Guards commander Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.
The alleged assassin was a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant, thus the conspiracy, which spanned from October 2021 through April of this year, never gained traction.
However, court records reveal that the FBI let the conspiracy to proceed in order to gather details about the operation’s mastermind Poursafi, a member of the IRGC’s special Quds force, and about Iran’s larger objectives.
Poursafi was accused by the Justice department with two charges related to preparing a murder. Poursafi is said to still be in Iran and is suspected of leading the conspiracy using encrypted chat applications.
Bolton said that the purported scheme illustrates Iran’s approach to foreign affairs in an interview with CNN on Thursday.
What’s crucial to comprehend, he said, “is how meticulously the work was done to send me off to the great beyond, and actually the level to which the government of Iran had thought this through and was involved in preparation.”
“I believe it’s pretty evident that Iran is pursuing more than just former government personnel,” he added.
The accusations made against Poursafi are rejected by Iran as false.
According to Nasser Kanani, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, “The US Justice Department has made claims without giving sufficient proof, producing a fresh work of fiction.”
Kanani laughed, saying, “This time they have a scheme including people like Bolton whose political career has collapsed.
The Islamic Republic issues a strong warning against any activity that makes absurd claims in an effort to attack Iranian nationals.
Poursafi is still at large since Iran and the US do not have an extradition agreement. Wednesday saw the issuance of a wanted poster by the FBI.
According to reports, Pompeo was also a target of the Iranian conspiracy, with a $1 million reward on his head.
The DOJ would not reveal who the other target of the conspiracy was, but said that Poursafi was willing to pay $1 million for a second “mission.”
According to Morgan Ortagus, who worked as the State Department’s spokesman under the Trump administration, Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, was the second target.
Though Pompeo has long been the focus of Iranian threats, the Justice Department did not immediately respond with a statement.
According to a National Counter Terrorism Center intelligence assessment from June, Pompeo was one of the individuals Iran had designated as “priority targets” for their oversight of the US drone attack that killed Soleimani when he was visiting Iraq in January 2020.
The intelligence assessment, which is labelled “for official use only” but is declassified, was extensively disseminated throughout the government and to law enforcement agencies around the country, and it was publicly published by Yahoo News.
According to the report, “Tehran has consistently identified former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and former CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie as among its priority targets for retribution.” Since January 2021, “Tehran has publicly expressed a willingness to conduct lethal operations inside the United States.”
According to the assessment, “Iran would likely see the murder or prosecution of a US official it views comparable in rank and stature to Soleimani or culpable for his death as effective punitive acts.”
In order to exact revenge for Soleimani’s murder, the paper says that Iran is “waging a multipronged campaign,” which includes “threats of deadly action, international legal manoeuvring, the issue of Iranian arrest warrants and sanctions.”
The report, which was based on remarks and acts made by the Iranian regime, discusses legal strategies and threats made against individual officials as well as thwarted assassination attempts against US officials.
Iran has openly promised “severe retribution” and made other ominous threats against Trump and other leaders, making no secret of its desire for vengeance.
Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, tweeted an animated film in January that purported to portray a robot ordering a drone attack on President Trump while he was playing golf at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
The video, titled “Revenge is Inevitable,” was submitted as part of a contest to commemorate the passing of Soleimani two years ago.
Threats against an Iranian-American journalist and rights activist led to the indictment of a “Iranian agent.”
This week, authorities said that an accused Iranian spy followed the Brooklyn home of an Iranian-American journalist and rights activist while armed with a loaded AK-47.
According to an FBI agent’s complaint submitted in Manhattan federal court, the defendant, Khalid Mehdiyev, spent two days in late July outside the Brooklyn home of journalist Masih Alinejad and once attempted to unlock the door.
A 23-year-old Mehdiyev’s attorney refused to comment.
Alinejad has criticised Iran’s head-covering regulations and encouraged her tens of millions of social media fans to watch footage of women breaking the rules.
She was the target of a conspiracy to abduct her last year, according to US authorities.
Mehdiyev was charged with having a gun with a destroyed serial number on Thursday. Additionally, the prosecution is requesting that Mehdiyev give up the weapon and the ammo.
Prosecutors accused four Iranians of being intelligence agents last year of planning to kidnap Alinejad.
As the FBI tried to apprehend the individuals as they fled back to Iran, they were identified as Alireza Shahvaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Omid Noori, and Kiya Sadeghi.
Niloufar Bahadorifar, a fifth defendant, was subsequently detained in California on suspicion of providing financial assistance for the scheme but not taking part in the abduction conspiracy.
Officials in Iran refuted the abduction claims and called claims of government complicity “baseless.”
A prosecution complaint states that Mehdiyev admitted ownership of the AK-47 and that he was in Brooklyn “searching for someone” after being detained for running a stop sign.
The allegation said that Mehdiyev subsequently stopped responding to queries and requested legal counsel.
Alinejad, 45, said to CNN that the Iranian dictatorship targets her family because she often expresses her opinions on freedom and women’s rights in Iran, particularly as some women want to do away with the customary headscarf.
To punish me, they first locked up my brother, Alinejad stated. Second, they openly disowned me by bringing my sister into television. Third, urged my mum to take me to Turkey after interrogating her for hours on end.
She said, “Then they arrested all of these ladies and put them all on TV to publicly denounce me.”