File this under “not the best news ever”: An Iraqi militia commander, part of an Iranian-backed terrorist group called the Kataib Hezbollah, is on his way to the United States, having been arrested in Turkey. This goblin will be facing charges of plotting to attack targets, mostly Jewish targets, in the United States.
A commander of an Iraqi militia has been charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the United States, including a synagogue in New York, and carrying out attacks in Europe as part of a broader campaign of retaliation by Iran since the war began in February.
A criminal complaint unsealed on Friday accused the commander, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, of planning at least 20 attacks in Europe and Canada since late February. Mr. al-Saadi was detained in Turkey sometime recently and handed over to U.S. authorities, Mr. al-Saadi’s lawyer said in federal court in Manhattan on Friday.
Mr. al-Saadi, according to the complaint, is a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia that is a proxy for Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp and has helped Tehran project power across the region, including through attacks on American forces and diplomatic targets.
Mr. al-Saadi may well have been finding that support from Iran was drying up somewhat in recent weeks, which may explain some of his intent, although the disassembly of his mentor, General Qassim Suleimani, by American explosives, may have made him maladjusted as well.
The complaint says that Mr. al-Saadi planned to kill Americans and Jews in Los Angeles and that he had started planning an attack on a synagogue in New York City. As a leader of Kataib Hezbollah, Mr. al-Saadi worked with Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the head of Iran’s security machinery, according to the complaint. The U.S. military killed Mr. Suleimani in a strike in 2020.
Mr. al-Saadi is one of the highest level figures tied to Iran known to have been arrested by the United States since the war began. For years, and during the current conflict, the United States and Israel have focused on killing Iranian officials.
It’s a good bust, but while it’s always good to see one of these goblins behind bars, there are some cautionary notes in all this.
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First, this guy, while picked up in Turkey, may well already have contacts among Iranian nationals in the United States. Islamic militia commanders are notorious for leading from behind; they rarely, if ever, put themselves in harm’s way. They tend to organize a few useful idiots to actually carry out attacks.
Second, there may well be plenty of such useful idiots already here. During the Biden administration, hundreds of Iranian nationals entered the country illegally and were allowed to remain, and those are just the ones that we know about.
Third and finally, there may well be those among the increasingly violent American nutcase left who may also be willing to serve as said useful idiots, a role at which they have more than ample experience.
We caught one. That’s good. But there are more. This is the conflict, not of weeks, but of generations, and this goblin, this Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, is just one face of an enemy with a million faces.
Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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