By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Radio frequency modules from a Minnesota manufacturer, after being smuggled into Iran, ended up in improvised explosive devices used against U.S. soldiers on the battlefields of Iraq, federal authorities alleged this week. Authorities in Singapore arrested Wong Yuh Lan (Wong), Lim Yong Nam (Nam), Lim Kow Seng (Seng), and Hia Soo…
By Joby Warrick and and Thomas Erdbrink The Washington Post The straight-out-of-pulp-fiction plot by alleged Iranian operatives to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington was so badly bungled that investigators initially were skeptical that Iran’s government was behind it, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Officials laying out the details of the case owned up to their…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The Justice Department on Tuesday afternoon announced that FBI and DEA agents had foiled a plot linked to the Iranian government to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old Iranian-American, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran’s Qods Force– a unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Could the release by Iran of two American hikers help spur the release of missing retired FBI agent Robert Levinson? Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla) hopes so. Fox News reports that Nelson fired of a letter on Sept. 22 to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to press the issue at…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The wife of Robert Levinson, the ex-FBI agent who went missing from an Iranian island in 2007, posted a letter “To my dear husband Bob” on the Internet on Friday to commemorate their 37th wedding anniversary. The letter from wife Christina noted how painful the whole ordeal has been. The U.S….
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Four family members have been indicted in Miami on charges of attempting to sell 22 F-5 fighter jet engines to Iran for $320,000. Only problem with their plan was that they tried selling the engines to an undercover federal agent, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami said. According to the allegations…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — It’s tough figuring out the truth here. Bloomberg news reports that Iran’s Foreign Ministry claims it has “no trace” of ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in 2007 from an Iranian island. The U.S. has said it believes he was abducted by Iranian agents. If the U.S. has “consistent…
UPDATE: Sec. of State Hillary Clinton issued this statement on Thursday:”As we approach the fourth anniversary of Bob Levinson’s disappearance, we have received recent indications that Bob is being held somewhere in southwest Asia. As the Government of Iran has previously offered its assistance in this matter, we respectfully request the Iranian government to undertake…
