in japan. the japan tourism agency is freeh offering 10,000 free flights to people who will write about their experiences. tourism has reportedly dropped about 50% since the country was ravaged bay earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. that does it for this edition of 360. thank you for watching. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. >> tonight the candidates late out their economic plans and stopped arguing long enough to criticize the president but first breaking news, a terror plot foiled, a saudi ambassador targeted for an assassination in washington, d.c. and we know him, an extraordinary story, too two iranian men are suspected in connection with the plot. one of them a u.s. citizen. let's go "out front".

senior administration official tells me this was international murder for hire. here's what we have been told. two men charged in an alleged plot to assassinate the saudi arabiian ambassador to the united states. both are iranian. one is also a naturalized u.s. citizen, who's in custody and identified as 56-year-old manssor arbabsiar. manssor arbabsiar appeared in a federal courthouse in downtown manhattan this afternoon. he did not enter a plea. according to the complaint that we read, manssor arbabsiar planned for someone to kill the saudi arabian ambassador at one of his favorite restaurants in washington, d.c. he told an informant that mass casualties didn't matter saying "if the hundred go with him, exbest metive them." . the plot is a work of intrigue. manssor arbabsiar met with a dea member posing as a member of one

of mexico's biggest violent drug cartels. it got them to agree to assassinate the ambassador for $1.5 million. he planned to pursue an attack on the israeli embassy in washington. with help from the mexican government, manssor arbabsiar was arrested at new york's jfk airport on september 29th. he confessed. now, u.s. officials have been talking throughout the day saying what is perhaps most important here is the direct link that could exist to the iranian government, to the highest levels. apparently the -- manssor arbabsiar's cousin was a big general in the iranian military an the revolutionary guards, a foreign special forces division. it could go to the top of the iranian government. manssor arbabsiar also gave officials and the fbi a lot of other information. peter king is on the inside of this. he's the chair of the homeland security committee in the house. congressman, thank you for being

with us us tonight. it is an amazing story no matter how you look at it. when did you learn about it? >> i learned about it this morning. the fbi contacted me. under the law they deal with the intelligence committee and i was briefed on it this morning. you are right. this is, to me, historic in a terrible sentence sense of the word. the iranians have crossed a line. if this had been carried out you are talking about an act of murder on foreign soil of a american diplomate. this would have been an act of war. this goes beyond anything that has happened before. it is flagrant and notorious and raised this whole relationship between united states and iran to a precipitous level. >> dianne feinstein said a few moments ago, i'm reading off my blackberry, that it is sur prooiz mizing on her party but before a country would go after an ambassador of another country

in a third country just like this, they would have had the accept dance tans of the government. i don't think how it could be done any other way. what's your sense or information of how high this does go in the iranian government. >> again i'm surmising also but i know chairman roger of the intelligence committee he has the same opinion as senator feinstein and mine as well that you couldn't have planned something of this magnitude without the top levels of the iranian government and knowing the supreme leader, the president. this is such -- again, this violates all international norms, violates international law and basically you are talking about an act of war. i think the united states has to consider taking significant action. i don't think that sanctions alone are enough. i think we should consider actually deporting or removing the iranian officials at the u.n., the staff at the u.n. and iranian intersection here.

because we can't let it go without a strong reaction. otherwise we would encourage iranians and others to realize it is open season in the united states. we can't allow that. >> from the complaint that the government has filed here, the quote they have manssor arbabsiar giving to an inform smant "they want the ambassador killed. if think hundred go with them, expletive them. that clearly indicates they were willing to have mass casualties. >> absolutely. it is bad enough to go after the ambassador, any ambassador. but also to run the risk and not care about killing hundreds of americans, innocent people. this is an act of war if it were carried out and to me they were plotting an ak of war. and i agree with governor cain. it is not officially sanctioned by a government, a government which has an army and armed forces and has people in charge.

for them to take or contemplate and plan an action such as this we have to have a strong response. >> chairman, i'm a little confused. obviously sanctions the u.s. imposed more financial sanctions today. that's part of what they did. from the statements we have, very careful to make a point there's been no shift in military preparedness or shifts in the persian gulf. why is it given what you are saying that we seem to be explicitly backing off the military side? >> well, i'd want to get out in front of the president. i'm saying i would support whatever action the president wishes to take as commander in chief. i think we should consider some, at least signs of military activity by us as movement of troops or carriers, whatever. something to indicate how seriously we are taking this and as i said another measure we could take also would be to remove from the country the

iranian officials at the u.n. and in washington. that would send a strong signal. we should not be, i don't think automatically saying we are not going to have a military option. i think everything should be on the table when you talk about a potential attack against the united states, an act of war. >> let me ask you what this means in terms of the next steps here. iran's nuclear program seems to be on the back burner. is this something we should be more aggressive on? >> again, without going in to open details. people at the high levels of our government are concerned about the iranian nuclear program. this may be would prompt even more so. i believe that we are very concerned about it. and that's really as far as i'll go. we cannot ignore the reality of that. there are people in our government and in other governments that know how serious it is and i'll just

leave it at that. >> thank you very much chairman king. appreciate the time and information. thanks again. >> erin, thank you very much. and now to tom cain who chaired the 9-11 commission aimed at preventing future terror attacks. governor cain, appreciate your taking the time. you heard peter king refer to this as an extraordinary story and it is. almost seems make believe. do the attacks surprise you? >> it totally surprises me, because it is uncharacteristic of the iranians or anybody else. the idea of assassinating somebody using criminal money, drug money from mexico to actually do an assassination in this nation's capital, that's pretty close to an act of war. you don't go to somebody else's capitol and blow up anybody. tremendous risk. >> i wanted to ask about that. eric holder, the attorney general has stopped from fully implicating the highest levels of the iranian government but

others like dianne feinstein are saying she doesn't see any other way it could have happened. if the highest levels of the iranian government were involved, we would have to go with military action, wouldn't we? >> well, we have to find out first what happened. the iranian government is not autonomous. there's a high ayatollah and a leader and a bunch of other people and they are not all together. whether this is done by a faction in the iranian government without the knowledge of the rest of the iranian government, it just seems so strange. they are known as professionals in the intelligence world. we don't like what they do but they are known as professionals and the idea they would attempt something like this. use huge amounts of money brought in from criminal activity in mexico to try to assassinate somebody in the nation's capitol is crazy. it makes no sense to me and i don't understand it. >> let's bring in senator menendez, a member of the

committee on foreign relations to talk about that. thank you for joining us. appreciate talking to you again. let me ask you. peter keen was describing this. if it is at the highest levels as an ak of war. would you agree with that assessment? and if so, does it mean that military action needs to be on the table? >> well, obviously it didn't take place, and this is interseeded. i'm not sure that we are talking about a full engagement or an ak of war but it does allow two 2:00 things that we should do needily, go to the u.n. and get the chinese and others to engage in the full enforcement of the sanctions that u.s. passed against iran and the nuclear weapon desires and secondly it should be mufg our legislation now in the congress so that we can close those loopholes that exist in the sanction legislation and tighten the noose. >> we have worked on that in prior stories, which the loopholes are amazing they do exist. do you think it is possible,

jimmy rubin was bringing in idea up that china, which is the biggest buyer of iranian rude and driving their economy, could this force china to pick between two huge crude oil supplies, saudi arabia and iran and isolate iran? >> i think it is a tremendous opportunity for the united states and the world to create that type of pressure. i think it is a great opportunity for the saudis who were clearly the first instance of who is going to be attack, their ambassador to make that case as well. and i think we have an opportunity to change the dynamic and close those back-door channels that have been open to iran particularly with refined petroleum products they need and their financial institutions as well. >> all right." up front" next, the terror suspect claims his cousin is a big general in the iranian military. iran calls its involvement

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it reads like the pages of a hollywood script. that's how fbi director robert mueller described the plot. but when iran spoke they said just like a movie it is made up and this is the quote cnn received from the iranian government." this is a child's story. from our perspective, this is a fabrication. jamie rubin is former assistant

secretary of state. and francis townsend and former homeland security adviser to president bush is with us. we want to start with the question of whether senior government officials in iran knew what was going on. i know there is some complexity. iran said. >> iran gains nothing and cannot afford an open confrontation with the united states. so the accusation that this alleged plot can be traced directly to the highest levels of iran's government i think deserves a good bit of skepticism. >> what do you think? i iran gains nothing, doesn't go to the top? >> i don't think that one shouldn't be skeptical, the way reza suggested but one should work on the assumption that this high-level forces group that's been responsible for terrorist attacks in iraq against u.s. forces, back against u.s. forces in saudi arabia in 1995, the same group from the irgc, the

revolutionary guards, wouldn't take such a dramatic step of what peter kean called a potential act of war without assuming they had the approval at the top. i would switch the burden of proof in this case, not to be skeptical about it, but to assume that the supreme leader would have in some way authorized his people to continue this covert war against saudi arabia through this method of crazy scheme involving the dea informant. >> what about the irdc, the revolutionary guards the numbers are all over. we have done reports, 30 to 80% of the economy is controlled by them. you can get numbers all over the map. it is a big range. the first thing the u.s. has done is to increase sanctions, which we already had a lot of sanctions. is that the best we can come up with? >> i think you heard secretary clinton in her statement indicate that they are going to

go though the u.n. security council. they have not yet called an emergency meeting. they have begun to brief allies. the british have come out and said they will support the u.s. investigation and support the imposition of sanctions but the real question is russia and china. will this be enough? will the facts of this case push them to be more aggressive and support sanctions against iran. >> jamie, i know china is a big problem, the biggest buyer of iranian crude oil and the foreign currency as well. is this enough to get them on board? >> i think if these set of facts are demonstrated, if additional intelligence is provided to russia and china, they would have to acknowledge that not only is this a state sponsorship of terrorism but against another party saudi arabia who both of these countries want to be on the right side of. saudi arabia is the largest provider of oil in the world. this attack is directly on the

kings closest adviser al jabbar and close to abdullah. i think it will put these countries in an uncomfortable position of having to choose between iran and saudi arabia. my guess is if the awe studies are as angry as they should be that they should be able to convince china and russia to do more than they have up to now. >> why do you think, fran, the saudis -- they have put out a brief statement but not a formal response yet. why the delay do you think? >> i do think -- well, look, we understand this was a plot uncovered by the united states. the saudis have been in the receiving mode. tom donilon briefed the king on this and they kept them up to speed on the investigation but for the moment the saudis are con toent let the united states make public the details of the case and sbe gin international action against them. it is characteric of their foreign policy to sit back, see how the coalition is forming and then weigh in once they have a

better sense of the support for it. >> it is amazing, as you point out to force china to pick between saudi arabia and iran would be incredible if the united states could force that to happen. >> look, the battle that is going on publicly, privately, covertly, in the religious sphere between iran and saudi arabia has been going on for a very long time, and this, i would argue, is a substantial escalation of that war for influence and power in the greater middle east area. because it's so personal, because it involves the assassination of the close adviser to the king, i think it will change something dramatic and iran will now be on the back foot on the nuclear issue, on the terrorism issue and if, for example, they were to support another attack on the united states forces in iraq through some equipment, i think that would increase now the chances that the united states being forced to respond to iran

militarily. >> can we? we have defense cuts and several fronts already. do we have the force and ability to do that. the government made it clear we are not shipping ships or moving anyone in thing. they are trying to take military off the table but if we needed to. >> there's been contingency planning for such an eventuality. there will be great challenges to military intervention in iran but you can be sure the department of defense has made contingency plans. >> thank you so much. jamie, fran great to see you both in person. still "up front," peter bergen gives us more details about the man at the center of this, adel al-jubeir, the man at the center of the plot. and one of the most vicious, dangerous violent cartels in mexico involved. we have that story. ♪

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more on the target of the alleged say sas nation plot, adel al-jubeir. he graduated from the university of north texas fx in 1982. he got his masters from georgetown. he's not a royal but he is a close confidant of king abdullah and served as ambassador to washington for near flooif years. my impression of him, very pro-american, very air diet,

very likable, very casual, especially in contrast with other saudi officials, helpful to journalist and for those who think of saudi arabia and think of the issues like women driving or women's inability to drive there, very pro-woman, understanding of those issues and how big of a pr issue they are for saudi arabia. in short, an easy guy to talk to. cnn's national security analyst peter bergen knows him extremely well. what's your impression of the ambassador? >> i think a lot of the things that you said are accurate, erin. i can't claim to know him extremely well. i know him as well as several hundred other people in washington. i have had dinner with him in washington and at his house in riyadh. he is an extremely intelligent, well informed and a guy that knows the united states very well, studied in the united states and spent more adult life in the united states than any other country except saudi arabia at this point. he is very close to king

abdullah. he was close to crown prince abdullah. he assumed the monarchy when i visited for the first counterterrorism conference had. fran town send was representing the united states. it was clear that adel al-jubeir was telling crown prince about dull what who the guests were and what they did, guiding him through the basically the people attending the conference. 1:00 one thing, erin that struck me in the indictment, which if you read refers to a restaurant in washington where the attack was supposed to happen. senators were going to be there, 100, 150 people killed potentially. that corresponds to georgetown, where have met ambassador adel al-jubeir on a number of occasions in the past. the universal restaurants in washington where somebody like this would go routinely and they correspond to the indictment

really does suggest it is cafe milano in georgetown. >> oh, wow. i want to read out of the complaint the words used when talking about killing. as you said possibly 100 casualties burhanuddin rabbani. if the hundred go with him expletive them. which is showing how little they care about casualties. >> it is routine for the saudis. this is often they aren't, as fran indicated earlier, if they don't know what the right response is or haven't formulated one, this is not a government that is in to routinely making available statements to journalists. sometimes you see something come out the interior of the ministry but these are infrequent. this is not a government that is

routinely giving press conferences. they will booide their time and wait. >> you said it very diplomatically, not known to giving press conferences, to say the at least. thank you very much. we appreciate it and peter's reporting or sense is a possible location for the restaurant which was not named in the complaint could have been cafe milano in georgetown. coming up, the former governor of new jersey and the chairman of the 9/11 commission tom kean is joining us. i will ask if he is surprised by the attack and if he expects more in the future. and senator menendez, when he did know about the sno threat and how will it affect america's relationship with rival iran. and manssor arbabsiar, he's a naturalized american citizen, how serious is the home groin grown terror threat." up front" back in a minute. groi

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breaking news of a foiled terror plot on american soil. but first five other stories making news today. first the u.s. senate defeated president obama's 4 $447 million bill. final vote 50-49. number two with, an israeli soldier who spent more than five years in captivity close to

being released. israeli prime ministern in netanyahu says he brokered a deal to hamas. he said in exchange for that 1,000 palestinian prisoners will be free. firefighters search the backyard well in search for lisa irwin. police told us they found no sign of the missing baby after receiving an anonymous tip which led them to the backyard and vacant home. baby lisa, who was born 11 months ago today was last seen october 3rd. number four, gop front runner mitt romney picked up a big endorsement from chris christie. he said he is the best prepared candidate to beat president obama. cyst tee last week ended all talk of his own candidacy. it has been 67 days since the u.s. lost the top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? politics today, mitt romney getting the coveted chris christie endorsement a few hours before the gop debate.

we are joined by leslie sanchez and ed rollins. thank you to all of you. ed, so the chris christie announcement got completely over shadowed by this terror plot. how significant is it politically for mitt romney. >> it is very significant. it helps him to win the week and that's an important part of politics. it is like part of the ineffortability. i don't think it brings conservatives over but it could bring money people which is important. >> does it bring independents? >> very much so. all of this come wined with the follow polling, the financial reporting endorsement debates are all efforts that move the candidates to a first tier status. that's wa we started to shape out today. >> john, what do you think of of the chris christie endorsement. this isn't really a surprise but he could have waited and he didn't. he chose to come out early.

>> it is a big prize. he solid fies his status as a front runner and the big money that moved to romney says the momentum will continue and it will help with independents because christie has an edge with independents and romney is beating obama in independents right now. so this is a big gap. >> leslie? >> i was going to say big part of that is it allows the governor to be the spokesman. he's pushing back on the issues of religion. he's pushing back and you will see it against the president and his failed economic policies. it is part of the momentum of building a larger voice for governor romney. >> let's not get carried away. this is a republican primary we are running for. come january, the caucus is about republican voters in iowa. new hampshire has independent voters. south carolina republicans and when you get to florida this is a big battle of evangelicals. as important as this may be to

governor romney it does not bring conservatives over yet. >> what is more important at this point, surely for the general election independents matter but right now you are saying right now even jell call is more important. >> the bottom line is conservatives can nominate the established candidate usually wins but this may be a different election. >> christie has tea party support. and that helps romney. he has a weakness with tea party and evangelicals. this was a big deal and it will help him. >> i want to ask you, the other person in the news here obviously was herman cain. because of the surge over the past few weeks he came under attack. here's michele bachmann. >> the 9-9-9 plan isn't a jobs plan. it is a tax plan. when you take the 9-9-9 plan and turn it upside down, i think the devil's in the details. >> that was clever.

that's the bloomberg debate tonight in new hampshire. a clever play on words. >> and typical bachmann referencing satan from off stage there. here's the deal. herman cain taking heat and he showed he could handle it. 9-9-9 was the catch phrase of the debate. everyone is reacting against it. i think he will show a slight bump. >> it is still about winning these things. your former candidate, rudy giuliani led in all 50 state and every poll and didn't win a delegate. at the end of the day cain has to get organizing in new hampshire, iowa and win dst delegates. >> he didn't get in to detail. >> not the transparency piem wanted to see. he moved to the first tier sta stus. it is very much a media oriented campaign tochlt the 25 30% of the voter are republican primary

voters that is an important effort and what the debates are supposed to do. he has to be careful with the 9-9-9. it can look like a one-trick-pony type gimmick. he wants to put more meat behind that if he wants to be taken seriously. >> rick perry, he needed a big night. here he is at the bloomberg debate. >> i think we're certainly talking about different times because what i heard him say this is that he was willing to trade tax increases for reductions. i don't think he ever saw those reductions. he just saw the tax increase. as a matter of fact in his diary he made that statement that he's still looking around for those reductions. so, i mean from the standpoint -- that's one of the problems we have in washington, d.c. one of the reasons that i think americans are so untrustworthy

of what's going on in washington is because they never see a cut in spending. >> i'm sure, leslie out in space was doing what ed and john were, you were jumping in. >> remember governor perry made his claim in college being a cheerleader and i don't think he will ever win a debate. the bottom line is he is a good retail politician. he has $17 million and that's a lot of money to spend in iowa and south carolina. >> he needed a big debate tonight. he needed to show he could study up and step up to the plate and instead he slumbered through the debate. he seemed almost more tired than the debate he said he hadn't had enough sleep. >> what's your take, leslie. >> they have always known the achilles heel of the governor is these debates. he did extremely poorly when the debated hutchenson. it cost him money and votes. voters are look for does he have

the fin necessary, the fooe refined skill to take on somebody like the president and i think against that measure he did not do himself any favors. doesn't mean with the bankroll that he has he can't recover. it is becoming increasingly difficult and people are looking at him with a jaundiced eye. >> the winner, ed? >> i think romney was the winner and cain close second. >> romney and cain, the two business guys won the economic debate. >> what would you say, leslie? >> they stayed in the top tier and governor perry moved to the second tier. >> i disagree with that. he is third in any poll. >> i disagree with a lot of what you say, ed. bau but we can have different viewpoints and come together to elect an republican president. >> appreciate you three taking the time. you are all kind to come in tonight. thank you. still up front, we are in detroit for the first day of the alleged underwear bomber's trial. that's one of the stories in

tonight's "outer circle." then more on today's revelationslations of an assassination plot and the role that mexico played in bringing it to light. yes, one of the most vicious, violent, biggest drug cartels in the world in the center of the iranian alleged plot. we'll be right back. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

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i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. we do in the same time every night, the outer circle. we are reaching to the middle east, the center of the story

tonight. saudi arabia expressing appreciation to the u.s. for stopping the plot to kill its ambassador. mohammad is there tonight. how does this help u.s./saudi relations? >> the u.s. saudi relationship has deteriorated lately. the leadership maintain their key alliance is strong. analysts have been saying the saudis have been upset with the obama administration ever since it distanced itself from hosni mubarak. they saw that as leading directly to his ouster. the saudi family felt threatened by the uprisings of the arab spring. today with the saudis showing how grateful they are to the u.s. for their actions that helps repair any damage to this relationship moving forward. >> thank you. next to iran, an aide to iran's president denies the country was involved in the plt plot to kill the ambassador. reza, what else did mahmoud ahmadinejad's adviser say? >> it is a children's story.

that's what the spokesperson for iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad is calling the allegations by the u.s. justice department against iran. the iranny president said it is a fab fabrication to distract the american public from domestic problems like unemployment. so a strong, almost mocking denial from iran. it's important to remember these are purely allegation coming from washington. no one has been convicted. even sew they are sure to ratchet tensions between teheran and washington. many officials are talking about slapping iran with tougher sanctions. >> now to detroit where a nigerian terrorism suspect went on trial for his alleged involvement to blow up 0 a plane on christmas day. what happened this court today. >> the accused underwear bomber looked comfortable and in

control. he was surrounded by his lawyers, the judge and prosecutors. they gave their opening statement saying that he traveled to yemen, where he was recruited in a mosque. he agrooi agreed to carry a bomb on a plane, the condition that he target a u.s. passenger jet and that he explode the device over u.s. air space. prosecutors describe how he ritually purr fied himself before igniting the device. the passenger next to him exclaiming, hey, dude, your pants are on fire. erin? >> thank you very much. . we are joined on the phone by mr. mohammad kazahi. he is a representative to iran for the united nations. we appreciate your coming on. obviously we have seen the iranian government's statement saying that the government was not involved. what more can you tell us? >> thank you. actually, although we are

hearing baseless allegation against my country by u.s. officials, but to be honest with you, i was so shocked to hear such a big lie, if i may say. therefore i felt to answer your question, not because big lie is being fabricated right before our eyes, but i think also because i don't know how to put it, the details of this hollywood script have been so blatant to insult the common sense of every ordinary people, even in the united states. accusing iran of plotting to murder an ambassador from the islamic neighboring country, in washington, actually is

poisoning by some and politicians who are experienced in fabricating security threats to terrorize the public in order to advance their political agenda and to quench the thirst for inventing enemies. we should not forget iraqi's war on what happened in iran, in iraq that was based on such allegations against that country, as well. therefore -- >> can i ask you about -- i want to ask you about the names. one thing in the complaint from the u.s. government was not just burhanuddin rabbani, but also gholam shakuri, which according to mr. burhanuddin rabbani is a senior member of the iranian revolutionary guard corps. is that so? >> look, i do not know the exact name, but my point is the whole issue is a fabrication against iran. so the issue is not the name of

some people that was, you know, accused or publicized by the media. in my view, and in my government's view, it is the most absurd thing ever to implicate iran in an assassination plot in the united states. therefore, i have to make the statement that we strongly reject this shameless accusation and warn the american public to be vigilant about such vicious campaigns which are definitely aimed at furthering political pressure against my country. this is the main point. >> thank you very much for calling in and making your point, given the iranian take on the story. mr. khazahee which is the permanent representative to the united nations in new york. we will have more on the terror plot after the break. okay, so you mean you just ignore the environment. actually, it's cleaner. and, it provides jobs. and it helps our economy. okay, i'm listening.

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mexico played a big role in bringing the terror plot to light. the case came to the attention of authorities when the suspect, burhanuddin rabbani met with the dea informant in mexico, who was posing as a member of a notorious, huge, and violent drug cartel. now, the suspect allegedly told this informant that he wanted the saudi embassy to the united states killed. the informant told the suspect he would need four men to carry out the murder and a payment of $1.5 million. the suspect made an initial down payment of $200,000. this is something straight out

of a spy novel. the author of the "new york times" best seller, the secret soldiering five other thrillers one of my favorite thriller writers of all time. it is great to have you with us. >> i had no idea you were a fan. >> did you have a great idea, thinking i thought this only happened in first fiction. >> if i took this plot to my editor, he would say this is ridiculous. the iranian government is not hiring the mexican drug cartel to kill the saudi arabia embassy in d.c. it doesn't happen and yet it appears to have happened. waen and what is in the mind of the informant when he hears the iranian government wants to hire you for this. this guy just made his life. he can deal drugs from now until the end of time and the u.s. government is not touching him. >> what surprising you the most, the drug cartel connection? >> that surprised me. the other thing is why did we publicize this, who are we

trying to signal, are we trying to signal someone in the iranian government, already there are elements that are out of control and you need to get them under control, force the china and russians to let go of them as a state. >> we were talking about this issue, trying to play a game to force china to choose saudi arabia and isolate iran. this is a dangerous way for the u.s. to play it. >> if that is the game. or is in the dea being the dea. a few years ago, they arrested a russians arms merchant. it wasn't clear whether they were doing this on their own rng and whether the cia and state department actually wanted this guy arrested and eventually, the whole u.s. government had to get behind it. sometimes the dea is out front on things the rest of the government isn't necessarily in to. >> out front, we like the use of that word. you spent a lot of time and reported on the middle east and now you write these books so you

are familiar with the saudi royal family and also of the iranian government. what's your i take on what's really going on between those parties right now. >> you know, the iranians and saudis don't get along. even before this, that was very clear. i don't know that we would have guessed that the dislike or hatred ran this deep, but, you know, the iranians are shia, the saudis are sunnis. never the two shall meet. >> the iranian side it says it is a fabrication and untrue. >>er if the u.s. government to bring the indictment the evidence is at least as strong as what is in the complaint and the fact the money was transferred is strong evidence. >> there was senior level involvement. >> at least there was a plot here. again, the question in my mind is was it senior-level involvement or are we trying to tell the iranians you need to

control your government because there is a rogue element. >> take away from a spy novel, thriller perspective. they focus on chinese cartels, you have middle east. but what about more on mexico? it seems to be sort of the center of everything now, the cartels there. >> the cartels seem to be almost a government. certainly in northern mexico there's a real question about the authority of the central government and how many police get killed, how many government officials get killed. i think the fact that the iranian government was willing to do business here, or thought it could do business with these cartels tells you somebody thought they were a kweisi national organization. >> that is one of the most important things for americans to think of. you think of terror and threats you think it is far away. >> when it is south of the border. >> thank you. we appreciate it. secret soldier and other novels to your credit already. thank you for coming in. >> thank you for having me. tomorrow we will get personal with michele bachmann. questions and