out front a major terror plot on u.s. soil foiled. a senior administration official tells me this was international murder for hire. here's what we've been told. two men charged in an alleged plot to assassinate the saudi arabian ambassador to the united states. one is a naturalized u.s. citizen in custody and identified as 56-year-old mondaysor ar bab si ar. he appeared in a courthouse this afternoon. he did not enter a plea. according to the complaint that we read, he 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, expletive, them." the plot itself is a work of intrigue. it began this spring when he met in mexico with a d.e.a. informant posing as a member of a violent drug cartel. over the next few months, he got the informant to agree to assassinate the ambassador for a fee o$1.5 million. he also wanted an attack on the -- with help from mexican government, he was arrested at new york's jfk airport on september 29th. he confessed. now,u.s. officials have been talking throughout the day saying that what is perhaps most important here is the direct link that could exist to the iranian government to the highest levels. apparently, his cousin was a big general in the iranian military. essentially a foreign special forces division. it could go to the top of the iranian government. he also gave officials and the fbi a lot of other information. peter king is on the inside of this. he's the chair of the homeland security committee in the house. congressman king, thanks so much for being with us tonight. it is an amazing story no matter how you look at this. when did you learn about it? >> actually, i just learned this morning. the fbi contacted me under the law they dealt with the intelligence committee, i believe the chairman and ranking member of the intelligence committee. i was briefed on it this morning. you're right, this is to me it's really historic in a terrible sense of the word. the iranians are have crossed a red line. if this had been carried out, an act of murder by a foreign government on our soil of a foreign diplomat. this would have been an act of war. this really goes beyond anything that i'm aware of that's happened before. certainly something as flagrant and this notorious and raised this whole, to me, the relationship between the you state and iran. a precipitous level. >> i want to ask you, congressman king, diane feinstein telling kate bolduan a few moments ago, i'm reading off my black ber, it's surmising on her part, before a country goes after an ambassador in a third country like this, that they would have had the acceptance of the government, i don't see how this could be done any other way. what is your information or sense here of how high this does go in the iranian government? >> well, again, i just surmising also. but i also know that chairman rogers, the intelligence committee, he basically has the same as senator feinstein. that's mine as well. you could not have planned something of this magnitude without the very top levels of the iranian government knowing it. the supreme leader or the president. this is such -- again, this violates all international law. basically, you're talking about an act of war. i think we have to -- the united states has to consider taking significant action. i don't think sanctions alone are enough. i think we should consider actually deporting or removing the iranian officials at the u.n., the staff at the u.n. also the iranian intersection in waurg ton. we can't allow this to go without a strong reaction, otherwise we're en encouraging them and others to realize it's open season here in the united states. we can't allow that. >> from the complaint that the government has filed here, that the quote that they have, giving to an informant is "they want the ambassador killed. if a hundred go with him, expletive them." that clearly indicates they were willing to have massivelyian casualties. >> absolutely. it's bad enough to go after any ambassador. but also to run the risk and not care about killing hundreds of americans, innocent people, again, this is an act of war. if it had been carried out. they were plotting an act of war to me. i think we have to avoid. i agree with governor cain. it's one thing when it's international and al qaeda and evil, a government which has an army, an armed forces which has people in charge. for them to take or contemplate and plan an action such as this, we have to have a strong response. >> chairman king, i am april little confused because obviously, sanctions. the u.s. imposed more financial sanctions today. that was a part of what they did. from the statements we have very careful to make a point, there's been no shift in ships or anything in the persian glufl. why is it, given what you're saying that we seem to be explicitly backing off the military side? >> well, i don't want to be getting out in front of the president. i'm saying that i would what action the president wishes to take as commander in chief. i think we should certainly consider some at least signs of military activity by us. you know, movement of troops or carries whatever. something to indicate how seriously we're taking this. as i said, another measure we could take also would be to remove from the country the iranian officials at the u.n. and washington. that would sent send a strong signal. i agree, we should not be, i don't think, automatically saying we're not going to have a military action. everything should be kept on the table when you're talking about a potential attack against the united states. an act of war. >> let me ask you what this means in temps of the next steps here. vis-a-vis iran's nuclear program. it seems at least in terms of the media or discussion to be on the back burner. is this something now that we should become more aggressive on? >> again, without going into details, people at various levels of the government, high levels of the government are concerned about the iranian nuclear program. and this maybe would prompt more so. but i believe that we are very concerned about it. that's really as far as i'll go. but i -- we cannot ignore the reality of that. there are the people in our government and in other governments know how serious it is and i'll leave it at that. >> all right. thank you very much, chairman king. we appreciate you're taking the time. giving us all that information. thanks again. >>er rip, thank you very much. >> good to see you, sir. the u.s. citizen arrested says his cousin is a general in the military. iran has said allegations of its involvement is a fabrication. we'll get to the bottom of that and what america can do to retaliate. we'll let you know about the alleged target of the plot, the ambassador at the center. and what defense secretary leon panetta told us about the ongoing threat of homegrown terror. ♪ [ cellphone rings ] cut! [ monica ] i have a small part in a big movie. i thought we'd be on location for 3 days, it's been 3 weeks. so, i used my citi simplicity card to pick up a few things. and i don't have to worry about a late fee. which is good... no! bigger! bigger! [ monica ] ...because i don't think we're going anywhere for a while. [ male announcer ] write your story with the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. get started at citisimplicity.com. robert mueller described the alleged plot cooked up by iran to kill the saudi arabian ambassador to the united states. they say it's made up and this is the quote cnn received from the iranian government. "this is a child's story. from our perspective, this is a fabrication." former assistant secretary of state from the clinton administration joins us now. cnn national security contributor and former adviser to president bush is with us. we want to start with a fundamental question of whether senior government official this is iran knew what was going on. i know there's complexity here. the government says no. iran expert came out front earlier. here's what he said. >> iran gains nothing and certainly can't afford open confrontation with the united states. so the accusation that this alleged plot can be traced directly to the highest levels of iran's government i think deserves a good bit of skepticism. >> what do you think, jamie. doesn't go to the top, iran gains nothing? >> i think one shouldn't be skeptical the way reez a says. this high level special forces group has been responsible for terrorist attacks in iraq against u.s. forces. back against u.s. forces in saudi arabia in 1995. the same group from the irgs, the revolutionary guards wouldn't take such a dramatic step of what peter king called a potential act of war without assuming they had the approval at the top. so i would switch the burden of proof in this case not to be skeptical about it, but to assume the supreme leader would have in some way authorized his people to continue this covert war against saudi arabia through this method and crazy scheme involving the dea informant. >> what about the revolutionary guards, i know the numbers are all over. we've done reports between 30 and 80% of the economy is controlled by them. that's a big range. you can get numbers all over the map. the first thing the u.s. has done, fran, is to come out and increase sanctions. we already had a lot of sanctions. is that the best we can come up with? >> well, i think you also heard secretary clinton in her statement indicate that they're going to the u.n. security council. they've not called an emergency meetings. they're briefing allies and saying they're going to support the u.s. investigation. they'll support the imposition of sanctions. the real question at the security council is russia and china. will the facts of this case be enough to be more aggressive and support sanctions against iran? >> jamie, china is a big problem here. the biggest buyer of iranian crude oil. the foreign currency as well. is this enough to get them on board? >> i any if these set of facts are demonstrated, if additional intelligence is provided to russia and china, they would have to acknowledge that not only is this a state sponsorship of terrorism but against another party, saudi arabia, who both of these countries want to be on the right side of. saudi arabia is the largest provider of oil in the world. this attack is directly on the king's closest adviser, adel al jubeir very close to king abdul a. it will put the countries in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between iran and saudi arabia. my guess is if the saudis are as angry as they should be, they should be able to convince china and russia to do more than they have up to now. >> why do you think, fran, the saudi -- they have put out a brief statement but not with a formal response yet. why the delay, do you think? >> i do think, look, we understand that this was a plot uncovered by the united states. that the saudis have been in the receiving mode, president obama's national security adviser visited king and briefed him on this. they have kept the saudis up to speed on the investigation. for the moment, the saudis are -- to make public the details of the case and begin the international action against them and the saudis. it's typical. it's sort of characteristic of their foreign policy to sit back, see how the coalition is forming and then weigh in one they have a better sense of the support for it. >> it is amazing to force china to pick between saudi arabia and iran would be. incredible if the united states could force that to happen. >> the battle going on publicly, privately, covertly in the religious sphere between iran and saudi arabia has been going on for a very long time. this, i would argue, is a substantial escalation of that war for influence and power in the greater middle east area. because it's so personal, because it involves the assassination of the close adviser to the king, i think it will change something dramatic and iran will be on the back foot, on the nuclear issue, on the terrorism issue and if, for example, they were to support another attack on the united states forces in iraq through some equipment, i think that would increase now the chances that the united states being forced to respond militarily to iran. >> final word on that. forced to respond militarily. can we? we've got defense cuts, we've got several fronts already. do we have the forces and the ability to do that? the government made it clear, we're not shifting ships. not moving anyone in the persian gulf. if we needed to? >> there's been planning for an eventuality. yes, there will be great challenges but you had would be sure the department of defense over the last decade has made contingency plans. that's right. >> thanks so much. appreciate both of you being with us. jamie, fran. >> great to see you in person. >> still out front, cnn's national security analyst, peter bergen gives us more details about the man at the center of this. the alleged target of the plot. and mexico's role. this is amazing when you read through the documents. this is where it gets like a spy novel. one of the most vicious, dangerous violent cartels in mexico involved. we have that story. ♪ give your customers the added feeling of security a printed statement or receipt provides... ...with mail. it's good for your business. ♪ and even better for your customers. ♪ for safe and secure ways to stay connected, visit usps.com/mail but think about your heart. 2% has over half the saturated fat of whole milk. want to cut back on fat and not compromise on taste? try smart balance fat free milk. it's what you'd expect from the folks at smart balance. now more on the target of the alleged assassination plot. adel al jubeir. we know the ambassador. he graduated from the university of north texas in 1982. he got a masters from georgetown he's not a royal but is a confidant of the saudi king abdullah. he served as ambassador to washington for nearly five years. my impression of him, very pro american. very erudite and casual, especially in contrast with other saudi officials. helpful to journalists and actually for those of you who think of some of the issues like women driving or women's inability to drive there, very pro-woman, understanding of those issues and how big of a p.r. issue they are for saudi arabia. in short, an easy guy to talk to. cnn's national security analyst peter bergen knows him well. what's your impression of the ambassador? >> reporter: well, i think a lot of the things that you said are accurate, erin. i can't claim to know him extremely well. about as well as several hundred other people in washington. he ises a extremely intelligent, well-informed guy who is -- in the united states. probably spent more of his adult life in the united states than any other country at this point. he is very close to king abdullah. in 2005 for the first counterterrorism conference that saudi arabia had. fran was there representing the united states. it was very clear when you attended the conference that adel al jubeir was telling the crown prince at the time who the guests were, what they did, really kind of guiding him through the basically the people attending the conference. one thing, erin, that struck me in the indictment. if you read it, it refers to a restaurant in washington where it was suppose today happen. senators were going to be there, 100 to 150 people killed potentially. i think that corresponds -- i've met ambassadors on a number of occasions in the past. so the universe of restaurants in washington where somebody like this would go routinely and correspond pend to the indictment really does suggest it was cafe milan in georgetown. >> for those, peter, just tuning in, read to them out of the complaint. the words used when talking about killing as you said possibly a hundred casualties from. if the hundred go with him, expletive, them. that was obviously an indication of how little they cared about casualties. can i ask you, peter, why you think the saudi government has not come out with a more detailed or formal response. just the short statement that the ambassador released? >> i mean, that is routine for the saudis. this is often that they aren't -- as fran indicated earlier, if they don't quite know what the right response is or haven't formulated one, this is not a government that is routinely making available statements to journalists. sometimes you'll see something come out of the ministry of the interior, which is the most important ministry in the country in terms of national security. but these are pretty infrequent. this is not a government that is routinely giving press conferences. so they'll bide their time and wait and produce a fuller statement when i think more facts are known. >> you said it diplomatically. to say the least. peter bergen, thank you very much. we appreciate it. again, peter is reporting or sense is that a possible location for the restaurant which was not named in the complaint could have been cafe milano in georgetown. coming up, the former governor of new jersey and the chairman of the 9/11 commission, tom keen, joins us. i'll ask him if he's surprised by this attack and if he expects more in the future. then senator robert menendez. when did he know about the threat and how will it affect america's relationship with rival iran? 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