Sunday, 22 December 2024
Sunday, 22 December 2024
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has said the Iranian regime tried to kill four American citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, the then commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, who was killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.
The Quds Force is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that specialises in unconventional warfare and military intelligence.
The DoJ on November 8 charged three men – Farhad Shakeri, 51; Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York – with murder-for-hire and related charges.
Of the three, Shakeri was asked to carry out Trump’s assassination, according to the DoJ. Rivera and Loadholt have been arrested; Shakeri remains at large.
A DoJ press statement on November 8 said that it had “charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump”.
The alleged Iranian asset is Shakeri.
The DoJ statement added: “We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime.”
FBI director Christopher Wray was quoted as saying: “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organization — has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on US soil.”
Shakeri, Rivera, and Loadholt have all been charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money laundering conspiracy. For these three charges, there is a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison in total.
What is the IRGC?
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is an elite Iranian military and counterintelligence agency under the authority of Iran's Supreme Leader. It is composed of ground, naval, and air forces, as well as other components such as an internal militia.
Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first Supreme Leader from 1979 until his death in 1989, had established the IRGC as a military branch In the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution in May 1979.
According to a BBC report from 2019, the IRGC “is estimated to have more than 150,000 active personnel, boasts its own ground forces, navy and air force, and oversees Iran's strategic weapons, including its ballistic missiles”.
In April 2019, when Donald Trump was the President, the US State Department had designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Who is Farhad Shakeri?
Shakeri is an Afghan national who immigrated to the US as a child. He was deported in 2008, after serving a 14-year prison sentence for a robbery.
Per the DoJ, Shakeri used a network of criminal associates he met in prison to supply the IRGC with operatives to conduct surveillance and assassinations of their targets.
It was at Shakeri’s instruction that Loadholt and Rivera spent months surveilling a US citizen of Iranian origin residing in the United States. This US citizen has been referred to as Victim-1 by the DoJ.
According to statements made by Shakeri in recorded interviews with US law-enforcement agents, the IRGC had tasked Shakeri with “providing a plan to kill President-elect Donald J. Trump” on October 7, 2024.
According to the DoJ, he also stated he was tasked with surveilling two Jewish American citizens in New York City and was offered $500,000 by an IRGC official for the murder of either victim.
He was also tasked with targeting Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka, according to the DoJ.
He has also been charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
What were Farhad Shakeri’s tasks?
According to the DoJ, Shakeri participated in “voluntary telephonic interviews with FBI agents” on or around September 30, October 8, October 17, October 28, and November 7, 2024.
The IRGC, the DoJ said, had assigned Shakeri four victims – referred to as Victim-1, Victim-2, Victim-3 and Victim-4 in the DoJ statement.
Victim-1 is described as “an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime” whom Iran tried to kidnap and murder.
Shakeri promised Rivera and Loadholt $100,000 to locate and murder Victim-1, per the DoJ.
Shakeri described Victim-2 and Victim-3 as Jewish business people living in New York City. The IRGC allegedly provided Shakeri with photos of the victims from their social media accounts, and they were believed to be supporters of Israel.
Shakeri was offered $500,000 for the murder of Victim-2 and Victim-3, per the DoJ.
Victim-4 is Trump. In mid-to-late September 2024, Shakeri was asked “to put aside his other efforts” and “focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating Donald J. Trump,” according to the DoJ.
Per the DoJ, from his interaction with the IRGC, Shakeri understood that the “IRGC previously had spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder Victim-4 and was willing to continue spending a lot of money in its attempt to procure Victim-4's assassination.”
On or about October 7, 2024, IRGC asked Shakeri to come up with a plan to kill Donald Trump “within seven days”.
But the IRGC was also prepared to postpone Trump’s assassination after the Presidential elections in case Shakeri was unable to “put forth a plan within that time frame”.
Per what the Department of Justice has gained, the IRGC did not expect Trump to win the Presidential elections and thought “it would be easier to assassinate Victim-4” after November 5.
The spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, dismissed the American allegations as completely baseless and rejected. Similar accusations have been made in the past, which the Islamic Republic of Iran has firmly denied and proven false, he said.
