Assassination plots in Israel recall Iran’s long history of hit attempts on US soil
George Washington University study lays bare the Islamic Republic’s ‘tragicomic’ alliances with criminal gangs to kill dissidents and US officials, including former president Trump
Gianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
In the last week, police in Israel have announced the arrests of at least 15 people suspected of involvement in a series of alleged plots to assassinate scientists or senior officials and collect information for Iran.
The arrests marked the latest in a series of revelations regarding Iranian attempts to recruit locals to spy on and kill Israelis, often for handsome sums of money. They came after the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, warned in late September that Iran was actively trying to recruit Israelis online to carry out targeted killings or pass along intelligence on sensitive information, such as military installations.
For Israelis used to being targeted by Iranian proxies with bombs, rockets and other overt forms of violence, the attempts to recruit spies and assassins is something of a new phenomenon. (Tehran’s alleged campaign also includes attempted killings of the less subtle variety, as evidenced by a Hezbollah drone attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea over the weekend, which the premier blamed on “the agents of Iran.”)
But Iran’s use of assassinations to eliminate foes, whether politicians, diplomats or scientists, is neither new nor far from unique to Israel. Almost since its inception in 1979, the Islamic Republic has attempted to carry out murders of high-profile figures on US soil, according to a recent in-depth study by five researchers at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
The study, titled “Propaganda, Procurement, and Lethal Operations: Iran’s Activities Inside America,” highlights the Islamic Republic’s long history of attempts to kill its enemies in the United States. Peeling back the veil on the Iranian regime’s underground operations in America, the study also highlights Tehran’s procurement of weapons components it is banned from acquiring under international sanctions, and the ideological propaganda it spreads through certain Islamic institutions.
A long history of assassination attempts
Iran is far from the only country to allegedly attempt to carry out assassinations on foreign soil, and has often been on the other side of the rifle scope or detonator. Over a two-year spurt from 2010 to 2012, for instance, at least five Iranian nuclear scientists were blown up. The attacks were widely attributed to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, which is notorious for having killed dozens of Palestinian terrorists across the world since the mid-1950s.
In the US as well, the Central Intelligence Agency has long been accused of attempting to eliminate foreign leaders or supporting assassination attempts, particularly against those with Communist sympathies during the Cold War.
Since 1979, when Iranian Islamists overthrew the CIA-installed Shah and installed a theocratic regime, Tehran has relentlessly pursued its opponents beyond its borders. Targets have included Iranian dissidents in exile, representatives of regional foes and even high-ranking American officials.
One of the earliest such assassinations occurred in 1980, when Iranian operatives commissioned the killing of Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, a former press attaché at the Iranian Embassy in Washington who had remained loyal to the Shah. Tabatabaei was shot dead at his Bethesda, Maryland, home by an American convert to Islam who had been hired by Iran for $5,000. The assassin subsequently found refuge in the Islamic Republic.
A key element of many Iranian assassination plots, both in Israel and the US, has been the willingness to involve underworld criminal figures like hitmen. Lorenzo Vidino, one of the GWU report’s authors, told The Times of Israel the result was “often tragicomic.”
In 2011, Tehran conspired with the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, at a time when tensions between the two regional powers were soaring.
Iran had offered the Mexican gang $1.5 million for the hit, which was supposed to take place through a bomb planted in a Washington restaurant, with the understanding that collateral damage was acceptable. The plot was thwarted by a hired intermediary who turned out to be a federal informant.
A decade later, a member of the Zindashti clan, an Iranian criminal network that reportedly targets dissidents outside the country on behalf of the regime, allegedly contracted Canadian Damion Ryan to assassinate two regime opponents in the US.
Ryan, a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, found an accomplice, and the two men were promised $350,000 for the job (plus $20,000 for travel expenses), according to a federal indictment filed in January over the failed plot.
One of Iran’s most high-profile targets has been Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born American human rights activist based in Brooklyn who gained international recognition during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.
According to the indictment filed in a New York federal court, Iranian officials attempted to lure her abroad in 2018, urging her family to convince her to leave the US, with the intent of abducting her in a third country.
When that failed, Iranian intelligence kept her under constant surveillance using private investigators, according to the indictment. Tehran flatly denied the allegations.
In 2022, Tehran escalated its efforts by hiring an Azerbaijani hitman in Yonkers, New York, through an Eastern European criminal network known as “Thieves in Law.” The man was found with a loaded AK-47-style assault rifle outside Ms. Alinejad’s house, the indictment charged.
In a celebratory message on X after the attempt came to light, Alinejad wrote: “My adopted country has once again saved me from the murderous regime of my birth country Iran.”
Avenging Soleimani’s killing
Following the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 US drone strike, Iranian officials vowed to avenge the killing by targeting American officials involved in the operation. Targets included then-president Donald Trump, the current Republican nominee for the White House.
US authorities have taken Tehran’s threats against Trump seriously, and have discussed them openly after the former president survived an assassination attempt unrelated to Iran during a rally in July. No Iranian connection has been alleged regarding a second assassination attempt in September.
In August, Asif Raza Merchant, a Pakistani national with ties to Iran, was arrested by the FBI for allegedly planning murders-for-hire against US politicians or officials.
“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a press release following the arrest.
Other officials in Iran’s crosshairs are former Trump national security advisers John Bolton and Robert O’Brien, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, former defense secretary Mark Esper, General Kenneth Frank McKenzie, and former special representative for Iran, Brian Hook.
All of them reportedly required protection by the US Secret Service long after they left their posts.
In 2021, an IRGC member named Shahram Poursafi paid $300,000 to contract Bolton’s killing with a man in the US who, unbeknownst to him, was an undercover government agent. Pompeo was also reportedly on Poursafi’s hit list.
While Iranian authorities have dismissed the allegations as “fiction,” last month the US State Department announced a $20 million reward for information leading to Poursafi’s arrest.
The threats against US officials have apparently not subsided. Last week, the White House said it had been tracking Iranian attempts on Trump for years, warning that there will be “severe consequences” if Tehran attacks any US citizen.
Iran’s procurement and propaganda in the US
Beyond assassination attempts, Iran has been operating covertly in the US to procure military technology and spread its ideology.
According to the GWU report, Iranian-linked networks have long been active in smuggling sensitive goods, such as advanced equipment and technology and software with potential military applications, in violation of US sanctions.
In January 2024, a group of Chinese nationals was charged with smuggling US-made components to Iran using front companies in China, which could be used for UAVs and ballistic missile systems.
The regime also promotes its ideology on US soil, maintaining personal, financial and political links to several mosques and Islamic centers in the US, the GWU report found.
“In the US, it is extremely difficult to shut down an Islamic center that does propaganda for Iran, because of the freedom of speech enshrined in the first amendment, and legislation protecting freedom of religion,” said Vidino. “This is in stark contrast to Europe. For instance, German authorities recently closed down a mosque in Hamburg with ties to Iran.”
Chief among the network of Iran-affiliated entities in the US is the New-York based Alavi Foundation, which owns a skyscraper in Manhattan and manages a multimillion-dollar budget that funds an array of mosques and entities throughout the US.
The Department of Justice attempted in the past to shut down the foundation, and in 2017 a jury found it guilty of violating sanctions on Iran, but was overturned in 2019. The legal battle is still ongoing.
Dearborn, Michigan, home to a large Muslim community, is a particularly important hub of Iran-linked Islamic centers. Others are located in Texas, New York and Maryland.
“They constitute a network that mobilizes whenever something happens. For instance, after the death of [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah, each center in the network organized commemoration ceremonies, or displayed a Hezbollah flag in their statements, or an image of Nasrallah, etcetera,” Vidino said.
Throughout the weekend, several Shia religious centers and preachers within Iran's sphere of influence in the United States have expressed their condolences for the death of Hassan #Nasrallah, #Hezbollah's leader.
— Program On Extremism (@gwupoe) September 30, 2024
“They all move as one, all their messaging is the same. At least, Hamas in the US is a bit smarter, the packaging of each institution is a bit different. When it comes to the Iran-backed centers, they literally copy-pasted from each other,” he said.
The Times of Israel Community.