i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." we're also awaiting a statement by the secretary of state hillary clinton. she's about to make a statement on all of the breaking news. an alleged terror plot to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the united states. the justice department says iranian agents were seeking help from a purported mexican drug cartel to carry out the killing and the fbi and the dea busted the plot wide open. the attorney general of the united states, eric holder, gave details just a little while ago. >> 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 a foreign ambassador here in the united states. mansor arbabsiar, a naturalized citizen who holds an iranian passport and was arrested last month in new york is accused of working with members of an arm of the iranian revolutionary guard corps to devise an international murder-for-hire scheme targeting the saudi arabian ambassador to the united states. according to the complaint filed today in the southern district of new york, he is alleged to have orchestrated a $1.5 million assassination plot with gholam shakuri and other iranian co-conspirators. now, the quds force is a unit of the iranian revolution yaer corps. it is also suspected of sponsoring attacks against the coalition forces in iraq and was designated by the department of treasury in 2007 for providing material support to the taliban and other terrorist organizations. the complaint alleges that this conspiracy was conceived, was sponsored and was directed from iran and constitutes a flagrant violation of u.s. and international law, including a convention that explicitly protects diplomats from being harmed. in addition to holding these individual conspirators accountable for their alleged role in this plot, the united states is committed to holding iran accountable for its actions. the two are charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism among other charges. arbabsiar has been in custody since september the 29th, 2011, while shakuri remains at large. according to the complaint earlier this spring, arbabsiar met with an informant who was posing as an associate of a violent international drug trafficking cartel. the meeting, which took place in may and in mexico, was the first of a series that would result in an international conspiracy by elements of the iranian government to pay the informant $1.5 million to murder the ambassador on united states soil. according to documents that we filed today in court. according to the complaint, those discussions led arbabsiar to facilitate the wiring of $100,000 into a bank account in the united states as a down payment for the attempted assassination. the complaint also states that in the days since the defendant's arrest, he has confessed to his participation in the alleged plot as well as provided other valuable information about elements of the iranian government's role in it. the disruption of this alleged plot marks a significant achievement by our law enforcement and intelligence agencies as well as the close cooperation of our partners in the mexican government. >> attorney general of the united states eric holder. let's go straight to the state department. our foreign affairs correspondent, jill dougherty, begins our coverage this hour. the breaking news we're watching unfolding, jill, beyond the plot that's alleged in this lengthy statement that the justice department read, we're also getting and i want you to clarify other information quoting senior officials suggesting that there was another plot, not included in this set of arraignment, if you will, set of documents targeting not only the saudi ambassador but the israeli ambassador and israeli embassy here in washington as well. that is true? >> right, wolf. how far along they were in that plot is unclear but they were discussing or considering attacking or hitting the saudi ambassador, the saudi embassy here and then also perhaps -- and the israeli embassy or ambassador and also not only here in washington, but in buenos aires, argentina. now, again, this is not specific. it is not apparently in that legal complaint but it was allegedly something that he were discussing. >> and we're also hearing that the secretary of state, hillary clinton, is about to make a statement on this very subject. i know the u.s. is getting involved in dealing with other countries to try to put more pressure on iran, but what do we know about what the secretary is about to say? we're looking at live pictures coming from one of the diplomatic rooms over at the state department. >> well, if i were to make an educated guess, i would say she would want to send a message to other countries, that, number one, this is what happened, that it is outrageous in the view of the united states and that the other countries have to join together with the united states to take action against iran. now, what kind of action? we know that the treasury department is going to be targeting for more sanctions. five individuals who are allegedly tied to this plot. we know, wolf, that there are a lot of sanctions against iran right now, including against individuals, but what they're going to try to do is put the squeeze on individuals who could be connected to the quds force and that is the group, you know very well, that is tied very tightly -- it's military but also paramilitary, it's also tied to the entire economy of iran. so what they want to do is really hurt them, and they really want to get back because this, they say, is extremely serious. >> and i just want to clarify, jill, the reports we're getting is that the saudi embassy would also be targeted and the israeli embassy would be targeted. there was some discussion of that. not necessarily the israeli ambassador to the united states himself, is that right? >> wolf, i'm a little unclear. i would say that they were thinking about or considering some type of action against either the embassy or the ambassador himself. now, in this case here in washington, we do know that the allegation is that there was a direct and amazing plot. in fact remember robert mueller just a short time ago described it as almost a hollywood script in terms of how it was supposed to unfold. >> and if you read this document that the justice department released, it says the ambassador was going to be targeted at a popular restaurant here in washington that he liked to attend and it didn't make any difference if a lot of innocent people who were at that restaurant would be killed at the same time. that's the allegation included in the document. >> absolutely. and that they were going to do this by contacting, and they allegedly did, contact a person who was supposed to be, they understood, part or connected to a mexican drug cartel. but in reality was a dea, drug enforcement administration, source, an informant. so that is how it was revealed. that dea then told the fbi and then they went in and stopped the plot. so as we know they have arrested one person, arbabsiar, who was the person who was in the united states. he's a naturalized citizen, holds two passports, iranian and american, he is arrested. but the other person implicated, shakuri is actually in iran and has not been caught. >> he remains at large, as they say. all right, jill, stand by. mike rogers, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, i believe he's been fully briefed on this development. chairman, thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks, wolf. thanks for having me. >> give us your sense. is this a big deal, a modest deal, a little deal, what's going on here? >> well, this is a huge deal. this was briefed to me as chairman and the ranking member back in the middle of the summer as it started to unfold. i agree with the director of the fbi, it seemed a little bit hollywood. it just almost seemed i didn't mean plausible that iran would take this very serious next step and contact somebody they believe had access to the united states, transfer money for the operation to begin to kill the saudi ambassador on u.s. soil here in washington, d.c., and with the discussion of collateral damage not being an issue. meaning civilians could be killed. and you think about -- we have been talking over the last few months about iran being the most aggressive state sponsor of terror in the world, and now stepping it up. i mean they have got more blood on their hands than most of the terror organizations on the state department's terror list, and that's what makes this so serious and it means that we're going to have to take steps to let iran know that we will not tolerate this behavior. >> what does that mean, take steps? the u.s. already has enormous sanctions imposed on iran. what else short of military action is the obama administration supposed to do? >> well, the first interim, i believe, is that we've got to get the iaea, you know, they're certainly cheating on their nuclear weapons program. they have said it themselves, they have given the stiff arm and they think world position with them. i think this clearly shows that they're going to lose that, so we need a more aggressive iaea to put pressure on the developing of their nuclear weapon program. we need the europeans to really step up to the plate, and this is their opportunity. they can no longer stand aside and watch iran take this kind of action, and they know of their past bad behavior. this is a significant line that they have crossed. so i think this is an opportunity for the administration to get the europeans on board and send a very clear message to the chinese and the russians, listen, this isn't about your own regional self-interest, this is about a nation state who has gone and crossed the line, boundary, when they're talking about committing acts of terror, supporting acts of terror in another country like the united states. >> eric holder, the attorney general, robert mueller, the fbi director, they were both very precise in saying elements of the iranian government were involved in going through and plotting this alleged assassination attempt against the saudi ambassador. what does that mean, elements? do you believe, for example, that the highest elements, including the president of iran, mahmoud ahmadinejad, personally authorized the assassination of the saudi ambassador? >> i can't say right now because of the nature of the information and how it was obtained, but i will tell you this. i have a very high degree of confidence that this an iranian government-sanctioned event. >> so mahmoud ahmadinejad knew about it is what you're saying? >> you can imagine something this significant, committing an act of terror on foreign soil, i can say it was an iranian government-sanctioned event. we need to be careful as this unfolds. but, again, as a former fbi agent myself, it's a little shocking to see at the level of the transaction the amount of the money, the quickness of the decisions that were made in order for certain elements of this to fall into place tells us that it is clearly tied to the highest levels of the iranian government. >> and what can you tell us about these other reports we're getting that the israeli embassy here in washington, maybe the saudi and israeli embassies in buenos aires in argentina were also on the iranian alleged hit list? what can you tell bus that? >> well, you can imagine if they're this aggressive. remember, they went to recruit somebody and but for the good fortune happened to be working for the drug enforcement administration at the time, they went to contact this person because of their connection to the drug cartel. so during the course of that development, and they believed -- and this is a very, very, very, very, very credible source. the iranians believed through their cutout that they had somebody who had great access, who had access to explosives and firearms and an organization that would allow him to pull it off. so you can imagine the kinds of discussions that may have happened during the course of those meetings that would lead certainly the attorney general and the fbi to publicly state hey, guess what, they had other targets on their list. and we do know, again, that iran is one of the senior and most aggressive state sponsors of terror. they have killed u.s. soldiers, at least been responsible for putting weapons systems into the theater in iraq and we believe in afghanistan that's taken the lives of u.s. soldiers. this is really an intolerable place for them to be. an giving all of those discussions and seeing the operational affirmative action here, if you will, that got this thing going, i can tell you it raised lots of concerns about those targets they talk about, the israeli embassy and other targets outside the united states, to the point where these countries, these ambassadors were brought in and briefed about security precautions they may want to take. >> do you have a good understanding, obviously everybody knows about the enmitty between the israeli regime, but why target saudi arabia. iran is not an arab country but it's a muslim country. the sod ees aaudis is a muslim . was this a long planned out thing or something that just occurred in the last few months. >> the saudis do not want the iranians to get nuclear weapons. they feel that is such a destabilizing event in the middle east that it will cause huge amounts of trouble, so they have been cooperating with the international community to that end, to try to stop iran from actually acquiring nuclear weapons, which is their expressed desire. they have also watched as iran has used syria as a proxy state, hezbollah, that doesn't always have the best intentions to sunni arabs in the middle east, and so you have all of these combinations kind of coming to a head. and because of some differences they have had along the way, and iran is being more emboldened. remember they feel they are successful in iraq by introducing weapon systems that have killed americans and in afghanistan. they feel they have been successful in giving the stiff arm to the international community on their development of nuclear weapons. they feel like they are rising in a pretty chaotic middle east, let alone world, and so they become brazen in their attempt to say we are going to show the world that we can dominate world and influence world affairs not just in the middle east and beyond and all of that i think was coming into play here. i think they believed this was in their interests to have this assassination here in the united states. to them it was a two-fer. you get rid of the saudi ambassador and say, see, we'll strike you anywhere in the world and, b, it embarrasses the united states because it happened on u.s. soil. that was just an added benefit for them. so you can see the way they have been thinking about putting this together and how dangerous it really is. >> one final question, mr. chairman. the use of someone involved in the mexican drug cartel, was that supposed to be what they call a cutout to protect in case it came out the allegation could be the drug cartel was killing the saudi ambassador, not iran, to have a little distance between iran and the assassination? is that your understanding? >> oh, absolutely. this is not something they would have necessarily ever publicly taken credit for, but the right people in their minds would have known about this particular operation. but it was a cutout on a cutout. that's what made this a very sophisticated, and why many argue, and i believe that it had such close ties to the hierarchy of the republican guard and up in their government because it was a very sophisticated event. this is not something that a small group of terrorists could have tried to put together that were rogue inside of iran. this was a very long -- it was deliberate, they were planning all of the contingencies and so they had a cutout on a cutout happening out of mexico city. you can think about how much planning went into this and they were going to use what they saw as a real weakness for the united states, the rise of these drug cartels as a cover, if you will, for their operation. but for the fact that this person was a dea source could have gotten a lot farther before discovered. >> mr. chairman, as you point out and as the fbi director, robert mueller, points out, this could have been a movie thriller, if you will. it's got all that drama, all that intrigue, all that potential. we'll stay in close touch with you. mike rogers, the chairman of the house intelligence committee. thanks very much. >> i was just going to say this was a movie with a happy ending, though. >> i suspect the story is not over with yet. there's more going to come out so let's see what's going to happen in the days and weeks to come. thanks very much. i want to alert our viewers in the united states and around the world, we're awaiting the secretary of state, hillary clinton, she's about to make a statement on what is next as far as u.s. retaliation against iran for this alleged plot. also the suspect, mansesor arbabsiar is expected in court. much more of the breaking news right after this. there's only one bottle left ! i've got to tell susie ! the vending machine on elm is almost empty. i'm on it, boss. new pony ? 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