DRUGS AND TERROR MIX IN CASE

DEA Informant Plays Star Role As Agency Expands National-Security Portfolio

The informant at the center of an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate
the Saudi Arabian ambassador marks the latest example of how the U.S.
government's war on drugs has expanded into the war on terrorism.

U.S. authorities say the informant was providing information to the
Drug Enforcement Administration office in Houston. They say he began
cooperating after facing drug charges in the U.S.

This past spring, the informant told agents that an Iranian-American
man named Manssor Arbabsiar had asked him to help put together terror
attacks in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to law-enforcement officials.

The U.S. alleges Mr. Arbabsiar, working on directions from Tehran,
sought out a Mexican drug-cartel member to carry out terror attacks
for money. The Iranian side was ready to pay $1.5 million to kill the
ambassador, the U.S. says. Iran has called the allegations baseless.

The terror investigation is now being handled by the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, but it is one of several recent cases where the
DEA, using its underworld connections, has reached far beyond U.S.
borders to investigate, arrest and bring to the U.S. those suspected
of terror conspiracies.

Asa Hutchinson, former DEA head, said there was "a significant amount
of overlap" between drug organizations and terror networks in parts
of the globe, notably Afghanistan. He said the current case was
unusual, because the alleged plot involved an attack inside the U.S.

The U.S. often cultivates drug suspects as informants after an
arrest. The accused person may plead guilty in secret, then agree to
cooperate while sentencing is postponed.

Such informants are highly motivated to deliver useful leads to their
government handlers, because in the federal criminal system,
cooperation is usually the only way to get a big reduction in prison
time. Informants may also get paid for their help.

Those incentives can lead informants to lie. Defense lawyers often
try to use that fact to raise doubts about an informant's
credibility, particularly if he is the main witness against a defendant.

Mr. Arbabsiar, who is being held in New York, hasn't responded in
detail to the charges, which rely heavily on the work of the
informant, who purported to be a Mexican cartel member. Mr.
Arbabsiar's lawyer said he would plead not guilty if indicted.

What did Iran's top officials know about the Washington assassination
plan? Was it just another in a series of half-baked plots by U.S.
radicals led on by the FBI, or a bigger international incident? Evan
Perez has details on The News Hub.

Snapshots of the DEA informant's trade are on display in the 21-page
criminal complaint by the Manhattan U.S. attorney unsealed on
Tuesday. In multiple meetings in Mexico, recorded by federal agents,
the DEA informant allegedly elicited from Mr. Arbabsiar details about
his links to the Iranian government.

In terrorism-related sting operations, the government typically wants
to get the defendant to show he knows his actions would likely kill
people. At a July meeting, the informant repeatedly questioned Mr.
Arbabsiar about whether he realized that bombing a Washington
restaurant where the Saudi ambassador dined could kill up to 150
other people, including senators.

"They want that guy [the ambassador] done, if the hundred go with
him, f"" 'em," Mr. Arbabsiar replied, according to the complaint.

A DEA spokeswoman declined to comment on the case.

Stings built around DEA informants have been successful in helping
the U.S. nab alleged top narcoterrorists and arms traffickers. These
include Haji Juma Khan""alleged to be a major Afghan supplier of
opium and heroin who helped fund the Taliban""and Viktor Bout and
Monzer al Kassar, alleged weapons traffickers who both were ensnared
in separate sting operations that purported to supply weapons to a
Colombian narcoterrorist group.

Mr. Kassar was sentenced to 30 years on terrorism-related charges in
2009. Mr. Bout went on trial this week in federal court in New York;
his lawyers contend he was trying to sell airplanes, not weapons.

DEA informants and an unwitting co-conspirator allegedly tricked Mr.
Khan into traveling to Jakarta, Indonesia, where authorities denied
him entry and turned him over to U.S. authorities, according to the
U.S. charges. Mr. Khan has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Altogether, the DEA's network of sources is estimated to number
several thousand people working with the DEA's 227 domestic and 87
foreign offices.

Terrorists are increasingly turning to the drug trade for funding as
private and state funding declines, said Michael Braun, managing
partner of Spectre Group International and former operations chief at the DEA.

"The fact is that well over half of the designated terror
organizations are now aggressively engaged in one or more aspects of
the drug trade," Mr. Braun said.

Juan Zarate, former White House counterterrorism adviser to President
George W. Bush, said the alleged Iranian plot illustrated the
usefulness of the DEA's "broad, broad informant base, which gives
them a unique platform in disrupting networks of concern to the U.S.
government."