This is an up to date model of a narrative first revealed on Nov. 12, 2023. The unique video could be considered right here.
Tensions have been steadily rising between the U.S. and Iran because the Israel-Hamas struggle started. For months, Iranian backed militias attacked U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq, disrupted transport routes within the Red Sea, and in April, the U.S. was half of a giant coalition that intercepted an unprecedented Iranian missile and drone strike on Israel.
But whereas Iranian proxy fighters like Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas are within the headlines, there’s one other kind of proxy Iran deploys, that receives far much less consideration. As we reported in November, Tehran is hiring hitmen world wide in an effort to intimidate, abduct, and assassinate perceived enemies of the regime. And they’re doing it proper right here, on U.S. soil
This video was posted on-line by a channel affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It vows to kill former American authorities officers – together with President Trump – to avenge the 2020 U.S. assassination of the terrorism mastermind Qassem Soleimani.
Threats like this have been deemed credible sufficient that a number of of those officers have been underneath round the clock safety, together with former Defense Secretary Mark Esper; former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – Iran reportedly provided a hitman 1,000,000 {dollars} to kill him; and John Bolton, the previous nationwide safety advisor.
John Bolton: They bargained the value for me could be $300,000, which I’ve to say I discovered insulting.
Lesley Stahl: So what precisely was the plot towards you?
John Bolton: The Revolutionary Guard sought to acquire both my kidnapping or my assassination, in a roundabout way by a Revolutionary Guard’s member, however by searching for a hitman, who would perform the job both within the U.S. or overseas.
60 Minutes
The FBI has an arrest warrant out for this Iranian officer, claiming that he employed the hitman on-line to journey to Washington, nook Bolton in a storage and kill him. But it turned out, fortunate for Bolton, the murderer was an FBI informant.
John Bolton: This was not web chatter. This was a negotiation to homicide an American citizen, a former authorities official.
Lesley Stahl: Is the menace towards you ongoing?
John Bolton: We’ve bought marked Secret Service vehicles that say, “Police. United States Secret Service,” outdoors my house.
We talked to the FBI and a number of other intelligence companies and so they advised us that Iran’s efforts have gotten extra frequent and bolder. And that they typically go after vocal Iranian activists dwelling overseas.
Masih Alinejad: The thought behind assassination plot, behind kidnapping plot is to maintain you silent.
We met one in every of their targets in Brooklyn. Masih Alinejad is a pacesetter within the ladies’s revolt towards the legislation in Iran mandating they put on a headband – or hijab. Forced to flee 14 years in the past, she settled right here in Brooklyn the place she encourages ladies again house to ship her movies of them taking off the hijabs and she or he spreads these photographs on-line to her 10 million or so followers – fueling the protest motion.
Lesley Stahl: So the mullahs started to deal with you. The FBI got here and advised you there was a plot towards you.
Masih Alinejad: There have been, like, six or seven FBI brokers. When they got here to my home, they advised me that, “Your life is at risk.” I used to be like, “Okay, inform me one thing new.” Because we Iranians are used to it. But they really mentioned, “No, this time it is totally different.” They mentioned that “The Iranian regime employed non-public investigator on U.S. soil, to take images of your motion, your each day life, your routine.” And I used to be like, “Wow, so that they’re right here in New York, in Brooklyn?”
Lesley Stahl: The plot was to kidnap you and take you by speedboat to Venezuela?
Masih Alinejad: Hey, it seems like a scary film to you, no?
Lesley Stahl: No. It sounds implausible to me.
Masih Alinejad: You see, it is a actuality for us.
60 Minutes
And a actuality for the FBI, that claims the plan was to get her to Iran to face trial. It was the identical for Jamshid Sharmahd, one other Iranian dissident who lived in Los Angeles for two a long time and created a web site the place folks in Iran might report human rights abuses. In 2020, whereas he was altering planes in Dubai on a enterprise journey, his household observed his cellphone began heading within the incorrect course. His daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, quickly noticed her dad pop up on Iranian TV in a courtroom – wanting petrified.
Gazelle Sharmahd: He’s compelled to confessions about crimes he didn’t commit. The cost that they gave him is “corruption on Earth.” That’s why he bought the demise sentence.
Lesley Stahl: Is it a scenario the place he might truly be executed any day —
Gazelle Sharmahd: Oh sure. They wish to grasp him from a crane in the midst of the town.
The unique plot to kidnap Masih was thwarted, however based on the FBI, a yr later, in 2022, Iran paid this Azerbaijani, dwelling outdoors New York City, $30,000 to purchase a semi-automatic rifle and kill her. He lurked outdoors her house for every week. His plan was to reap the benefits of her friendliness to her neighbors.
Masih Alinejad: He was truly following my life. He knew that I used to be the one providing flowers to strangers.
Lesley Stahl: You provided flowers to strangers?
Masih Alinejad: Yeah. This is me. So he obtained a textual content message from the man inside Iran, saying that “Go and knock the door. Then take her to the yard backyard.” If I had opened the door, I’d have simply given him an enormous smile and mentioned, “Yes, let’s go to my backyard.” And then he needed to simply kill me?
Lesley Stahl: Did he truly knock in your door?
Masih Alinejad: Yes.
Her house safety digital camera truly caught him on her porch attempting to get in. Eventually he took off however was pulled over for operating a cease signal. That’s when the police discovered this in his automotive. He’s been in custody awaiting trial ever since.
But here is what’s fascinating: neither he nor two different males the prosecutors say have been employed for the job have been Iranian. Like him, they have been Eastern European and, as is turning into a trademark of Iran’s shadow struggle, they have been criminals.
Masih Alinejad: They have been all from prison syndicate. This is what the Islamic Republic is de facto good at, like, utilizing drug sellers, utilizing criminals to do their soiled job on the Western soil.
Lesley Stahl: Well, and possibly have deniability.
Masih Alinejad: Exactly.
Lesley Stahl: “We did not do it.”
Masih Alinejad: That’s the purpose.
Lesley Stahl: So why do they use proxies?
Matt Jukes: To have someone who will not be being tracked by intelligence or safety companies for this.
60 Minutes
Matt Jukes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing in Britain, says this isn’t simply an American downside. In the U.Okay., they’ve foiled 15 Iranian kidnapping and assassination makes an attempt since final yr.
Matt Jukes: I’ve been concerned in nationwide safety policing for over 20 years. What we have seen within the final 18 months is an actual acceleration.
Lesley Stahl: We have been advised that plenty of these prison gangs rent different prison gangs, after which possibly a 3rd group.
Matt Jukes: I believe we’re all the time gonna see this collaboration between prison organizations. We know that this won’t all the time be a direct line from a state group to a menace to a possible kidnapping.
This recording was given to us by a international intelligence company. It exhibits how Iran recruits criminals:
Man on recording (translation): I obtained a name from the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard.
This is an Iranian smuggler from Urmia, a city close to the Turkish border. He reveals to the international brokers that he was approached by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard with a deal: they will flip a blind eye to his smuggling if he helps them.
Man on recording (translation): Their request was that I discover individuals who might work for them. What sort of work? “Anything. Like: catching somebody for us to allow them to be overwhelmed up or gotten rid of.”
This surveillance video exhibits him recruiting a fellow smuggler for the duty: the person in white is Mansour Rasouli, an alleged drug vendor. He agreed to rearrange assassinations all through Europe for the Iranian authorities – for cash. But a number of weeks later, Rasouli was kidnapped at evening and interrogated in a automotive, reportedly by Israeli intelligence. They extracted this cellphone confession, the place Rasouli admits he was paid $150,000 upfront and promised 1,000,000 {dollars} if he killed three folks for the Iranians:
Rasouli confession tape (translation): One is an Israeli on the embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. Another one is an American normal in Germany. And one is a journalist in France.
The French goal was recognized as thinker Bernard Henri Levy, a vocal critic of the regime in Tehran. The id of the American normal stays a thriller. The plot to kill the three was prevented. But in recent times, Iranian dissidents have been efficiently kidnapped and smuggled to Iran. Several have been executed.
Lesley Stahl: They’ve succeeded in Europe. They have not succeeded within the United States, despite the fact that we all know there are targets –
John Bolton: Right.
Lesley Stahl: So many American officers and others are being focused. Why is it not an even bigger challenge?
John Bolton: Look I believe the concentrating on of American residents by a hostile international authorities could be very near an act of struggle.
Lesley Stahl: What would occur in the event that they succeeded in assassinating somebody such as you, a widely known former official?
John Bolton: Well, I would not like to seek out out for myself or for the nation, however why are we sitting right here, quietly speaking about this when they’re, in impact, saying they’re gonna commit acts of struggle towards American residents on American soil?
Lesley Stahl: Does the truth that Iran feels emboldened to come back after our residents — does that imply we have misplaced our deterrence?
John Bolton: Well, I believe we’ve misplaced deterrence. And I believe this additionally goes to an unwillingness on the a part of the administration to confront the Ayatollahs in a manner that they perceive.
Masih Alinejad: They can problem U.S. authorities on U.S. soil with none punishment. Then what is the motive to stop–
Lesley Stahl: Well, there are sanctions towards them.
60 Minutes
Masih Alinejad: Sanction will not be enough. Sanction will not be—serving to —
Lesley Stahl: What do need us to do? Drop a bomb?
Masih Alinejad: No. Look, while you negotiate with the killers, you are empowering them.
The Biden administration did not reply to our requests for an interview. When Masih Alinejad was referred to as to testify earlier than Congress about Iran in September, she mentioned that except the administration’s coverage modifications, her life will proceed to be at risk.
Masih Alinejad: I imagine that when I’m not within the highlight, when media like you aren’t being attentive to me, lastly they are going to come after me.
While she now has the liberty to talk her thoughts in America, she doesn’t have the liberty to dwell the place she needs. Masih and her household have had to enter hiding, underneath FBI safety.
Masih Alinejad: It’s like: Wow, the federal government from my very own nation attempting to kill me, however my adopted nation attempting to guard me. You should be an Iranian to outlive assassination plot, to grasp that, the way it feels to outlive in America and to have the platform and to criticize the U.S. government–
Lesley Stahl: You’re tearing up. Tell me why you are tearing up.
Masih Alinejad: Because folks in my nation get killed for criticizing. Get shot in head for the crime of criticizing.
Produced by Shachar Bar-On. Associate producer, Jinsol Jung. Broadcast affiliate, Wren Woodson. Edited by Michael Mongulla.
