Compiled by Bill Gertz, Geostrategy-Direct.com

A former CIA officer told Congress last week that the apparent sloppy trade craft of an Iranian operation to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States is not unusual.

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA Iranian targets officer, in testimony to the House Homeland Security Committee, dismissed skeptics who say senior Iranian leaders like Ali Khamanei were not linked to the plot.

“Let me tell you, the truth is that Iranian operations are almost always sloppy. That’s the way they have been,” Gerecht said.

“Do not mix up the notion that an operation that was this sloppy and that it cannot be lethal.”

Iran’s bombing in Paris in 1986 is an example, he said.

An Iranian official who sought to retaliate for French support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war conducted a series of attacks, including a department store bombed by a Tunisian convert to Islam.

He was an ideal candidate for Hizbullah and the Iranians, Gerecht said.

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