Unlikely Turn for a Suspect in a Terror Plot
\nBy ROBERT F. WORTH and LAURA TILLMAN – Published: October 12, 2011 – NYT<\/p>\n
But Mansour J. Arbabsiar, 56, the man at the center of an alleged Iranian plot to kill a Saudi diplomat in Washington, seems to have been more a stumbling opportunist than a calculating killer. Over the 30-odd years he lived in Texas, he left a string of failed businesses and angry creditors in his wake, and an embittered ex-wife who sought a protective order against him. He was perennially disheveled, friends and acquaintances said, and hopelessly disorganized.<\/p>\n
Mr. Arbabsiar, now in custody in New York, stands accused by federal prosecutors of running a global terrorist plot that stretched from Mexico to Tehran, and that was directed by the Quds Force of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards. Many of his old friends and associates in Texas seemed stunned at the news, not merely because he was not a zealot, but because he seemed too incompetent to pull it off. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis socks would not match,\u201d said Tom Hosseini, a former college roommate and friend. \u201cHe was always losing his keys and his cellphone. He was not capable of carrying out this plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, American officials, who say the plot was endorsed by top Iranian authorities, were exploring why the sophisticated Quds Force might have chosen to rely on so amateurish an agent as Mr. Arbabsiar. …more<\/a><\/p>\n