Update below.

Much  has been said  already about laughable accusations  made by US Attorney General Eric Holder the other day of Iran’s government being behind the alleged terror plot by previously convicted for some sort of petty fraud and already arrested Mansour Arbabsiar and Quds Brigade associate Gholam Shakuri in Iran.

Robert Baer, CIA veteran, known by his interesting books about America’s now tragic enmeshment in Saudi Arabia’s (Sleeping With the Devil) and Iran’s gloomy (The Devil We Know) businesses, and who has been portrayed by George Clooney in Stephen Gaghan’s gorgeous political thriller Syriana of 2005, has warned the Obama administration yesterday that they are on the wrong track with possibly dangerous consequences.  The absolutely irrational plot (killing the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US Adel al-Jubair in a restaurant in Washington DC involving a Mexican drug cartel) is way too bizarre to suit as casus belli, something one does not assume Obama really wants at the moment.

An assassination of a foreign diplomat on American ground with possibly numerous further casualties: why should Iran’s government would seek that? How the hell would it be possible to put the blame on Al Qaeda?

As to Robert Baer, given his decade-long profound experiences all kinds of in Middle Eastern matters his appraisals turned out to be utterly wrong every now and then. In July he had predicted that Israel would likely attack Iranian nuclear facilities in September in order to distract from Mahmoud Abbas’ appeal at the UN General Assembly for a vote for unilateral Palestinian State. In the end, Obama managed that there was no longer need for it.

Anyway, Obama may be well-advised (by Baer) to immediately backpedal.

Update. Thanks to Professor Cole for linking to the ABC Australia interview with Baer and, in particular, this.