before they take hold. we will continue to find those who seek to do us harm whether they attempt to strike overseas or here at home, whether it s a conspiracy to kill a foreign official on u.s. soil, a terrorist attack on united states citizens, or street crimes in our communities. now let me turn it over to lisa monica. i want to echo the remarks of the attorney general and others here today in thanking those involved in this operation. this is a significant milestone and achievement in our national security efforts. as you have heard, the facts as alleged today and in today s criminal complaint shed light on an assassination plot that was conceived and sponsored by elements of the iranian government. thanks to a coordinated law enforcement effort, we were able to penetrate and thwart the plot before it could result in harm to the
was working in many connection with the iranian government or that he was simply claiming that? reporter: they believe that he has a cousin in the iran, they believe that that cousin is a member of the iranian revolutionary guards. they, the man traveled to iran earlier this year. the fbi says that they have recorded phone calls back to the united states that suggest, that give the details of this plot. um, it is, you know, the details are just coming out as we speak, but again, they re going to lay all of this out at the top of the hour when attorney general eric holder addresses a press conference from the justice department. megyn: jennifer, my understanding from the initial reports is that he is now cooperating with our federal government which could lead to more arrests. reporter: well, that s true. the question is, how broad was the plot and did it involve other u.s. citizens. um, but, again, they believe this man is connected to the iranian revolutionary guard in
embassy has very good security, it s set way back off the street, but the saudi embassy is extremely vulnerable, particularly to a vehicle bomb. so this is and there probably would have been very high collateral casualties there. so this is a very, very serious plot and it could have been of a very serious magnitude in terms of the damage and casualties. so the fact that it has been preempted is extremely important right now. megyn: and neil, let me stand you by as we listen to the attorney general. good afternoon. today, the department of justice is announcing charges against two people who allegedly attempted to carry out a deadly plot that was directed by factions of the iranian government to assassinate an ambassador here in the united states. monsoue arab-siar who holds an iranian passport and was arrested last month in new york is accused of working with members of the arm of the iranian revolutionary
three main and major targets, not just saudis and israelis, but americans as well, and apparently, according to the indictment, we will be told that rain-siar, a naturalized u.s. citizen, keep in mind, expressed and i quote, utter disregard for the collateral damage at the planned that the planned bomb attacks in washington would cause. i want to get live to jennifer griffin with the news. reporter: megyn, we have a few more details about how this plot came about. back in july, this informant, this naturalized iranian-born american citizen, met with an fbi informant, he thought that he was meeting with a member of the mexican during cartel in renosa, a city on the mexican side of the border across from mccallum, texas and that s where they started hammering out the details. he flew, then, between july and september 28th, he flew to iran, he was in iran, he managed to have two wire transfers of money to what
warranted, as the facts dictated. we have been at this matter for a number of months, and the attorneys in the u.s. attorney s office, southern district of new york, our colleagues in the national security division, worked on this matter irrespective of other things going on. at what point was the saudi government brought in? i m not exactly sure when they were notified, but they have been notified, and they will be reacting as well. in a public fashion, very soon. are there other countries that are in danger or threatened? with regard to this conspiracy, i think one has to be concerned about the chilling baich of what the iranian government attempted to do here, and one of the things that our state department will be doing will be getting in touch with other of our allies and nations around the world to make them aware of exactly what it is that was thwarted here today.