OPINION:
Hiding in Iran is a U.S.-deported Afghan national who is a historical footnote in the “never-ending war” versus Tehran “can never have nuclear weapons” debate dominating American politics.
His name is Farhad Shakeri. In 2023-2024, and maybe still today, he conspired with the ayatollah’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to kill President Trump. In an odd twist, he debriefed the plot by phone from Tehran to the FBI, which subsequently charged him.
Part of the U.S. justification for helping Israel destroy Iran’s nuclear bomb infrastructure, perhaps spurring an uprising against the mullahs’ harsh dictatorship, is that Iran conspires to kill Americans.
The topic arose Wednesday during superstar podcaster Tucker Carlson’s testy debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Mr. Carlson has urged Mr. Trump to refrain from aiding Israel’s Operation Rising Lion. Mr. Trump ignored that advice Saturday with a historic B-2 mission to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities.
Mr. Cruz advocates for regime change on the grounds that Iranians deserve better than fanatical Islamic leaders who hang gays and beat up noncompliant women.
Mr. Carlson has experienced an Iran conversion. At one time, he advocated for Iran’s destruction to save the world from the “Death to America” Islamic cult.
In the showdown with Mr. Cruz, however, he questioned U.S. support for Israeli bombing while heaping scorn on the Israel lobby in the U.S.
“You’re asking, ‘Why are the Jews controlling our foreign policy?’ That’s what you just asked,” Mr. Cruz told Mr. Carlson.
“Oh, I’m an antisemite now?” Mr. Carlson shot back. “Rather than be honorable enough to say it right to my face, you are, in a sleazy, feline way, implying it.”
The discussion then turned to assassinations. Mr. Carlson is dumbfounded that anyone, in this case, Mr. Cruz, would say Iran is trying to kill Mr. Trump.
“If there’s evidence that Iran paid hit men to kill Donald Trump and is currently doing that, where’s that. … I’ve never heard that before,” Mr. Carlson said, according to a transcript. “OK, where’s the evidence? Who are these people? Why haven’t they been arrested?”
He continued, according to the New York Post: “I’ve never heard evidence that there are hit men in the United States trying to kill Trump right now. We should have a nationwide dragnet on this and we should attack Iran immediately.”
In fact, the FBI last year acquired arrest warrants for two associates of Mr. Shakeri for plotting to kill critics of Iran in America. In addition, according to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the IRGC gave Mr. Shakeri the specific mission to kill candidate Trump, and then President-elect Trump.
We can assume Iran is still looking for ways to kill Mr. Trump. In past years, the motive was Mr. Trump’s order to assassinate Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who headed the IRGC Quds Force. Soleimani oversaw mass murder, particularly in Syria, and directed the attacks that killed hundreds of American troops in Iraq. In 2020, the U.S. killed him in a drone strike at the airport in Baghdad, where he traveled to plan the killings of even more Americans.
On Nov. 8, the Justice Department made it clear that Mr. Shakeri’s job was to hire hit men to target Mr. Trump.
“Shakeri Was Tasked by Iranian Regime With Surveilling and Plotting to Assassinate President-Elect Donald J. Trump,” the Justice Department press release headline read.
The FBI apparently collected his phone number in wiretaps of his hired guns, whom he had met in American prisons. Mr. Shakeri spoke voluntarily with agents five times from Sept. 30 to Nov. 7.
The FBI makes clear that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is and has been in the murder business abroad.
According to the complaint filed in Manhattan: “The Government of Iran, and particularly the IRGC and its external operations force, the IRGC-Quds Force (‘IRGC-QF’), has a history of targeting individuals that the Government of Iran perceives as enemies, including dissidents living outside Iran and political adversaries. … The IRGC has been directly involved in terrorist plotting; its support for terrorism is foundational and institutional, and it has killed U.S. citizens.”
From there, the criminal complaint talks about the regime’s obsession with killing Mr. Trump, or “Victim 4.”
“In approximately mid-to-late September 2024, IRGC Official [unnamed] asked Shakeri to put aside his other efforts on behalf of the IRGC and focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” the same complaint reads, in part. “Shakeri indicated to IRGC Official-I that this would cost a ‘huge’ amount of money. In response, an IRGC official said that ‘we have already spent a lot of money … the money’s not an issue,’ which Shakeri understood to mean that the IRGC previously had spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder [Trump] and was willing to continue spending a lot of money in its attempt to procure ‘Victim 4’ assassination.”
Mr. Shakeri told of a meeting on Oct. 7 with the same IRGC official who thought Mr. Trump would lose the election.
“IRGC Official-I directed Shakeri to provide a plan within seven days to kill Victim-4,” the complaint continues. “If Shakeri was unable to put forth a plan within that time frame, IRGC Official-I continued, the IRGC would pause its plan to kill Victim-4 until after the U.S. Presidential elections, because IRGC Official-I assessed that Victim-4 would lose the election and, afterward, it would be easier to assassinate Victim-4.”
The FBI agent filing the criminal complaint vouched for Mr. Shakeri’s Trump narration.
“Shakeri’s statements appear to be truthful, including, among others, his statements regarding the IRGC’s targeting of Victim-I and Victim-4 and the IRGC’s willingness to pay large sums of money to accomplish its deadly goals.”
The complaint appears to vindicate Mr. Cruz’s assertion to Mr. Carlson that Iran is in the international murder business.
Mr. Trump campaigned with Mr. Carlson, whom the MAGA movement views as a big asset. However, as he did in his since-patched-up rift with Elon Musk, he unleashed on Mr. Carlson.
“Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, ‘IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!’” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
