livingston
20×102mm Vulcan
WASHINGTON — Since the dawn of the Clinton administration, a silky Italian restaurant in Georgetown has been more famous for its patrons than its provisions. At Cafe Milano, D.C.'s political dons and doyennes see and are seen, executing handshake deals over plates of lobster linguine.
But in 2011, something far more sinister was nearly served up.
The restaurant found itself in the middle of an international cloak-and-dagger operation that reads like the plot of a Bond novel: There was the high-flying Saudi ambassador, a DEA informant, surreptitious FBI surveillance and Mexican drug cartels.
And then, the powerful Iranian military man who supposedly oversaw the circuitous scheme: Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force and the impresario of the republic's clandestine operations around the world.
Soleimani, who was killed Thursday in a "defensive" U.S. airstrike near the Baghdad airport, was responsible for hundreds of American deaths, military officials say, but his most notorious conspiracy may be one that was never carried out.
But in 2011, something far more sinister was nearly served up.
The restaurant found itself in the middle of an international cloak-and-dagger operation that reads like the plot of a Bond novel: There was the high-flying Saudi ambassador, a DEA informant, surreptitious FBI surveillance and Mexican drug cartels.
And then, the powerful Iranian military man who supposedly oversaw the circuitous scheme: Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force and the impresario of the republic's clandestine operations around the world.
Soleimani, who was killed Thursday in a "defensive" U.S. airstrike near the Baghdad airport, was responsible for hundreds of American deaths, military officials say, but his most notorious conspiracy may be one that was never carried out.
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Iranian agents once plotted to kill Saudi ambassador in DC in a case that reads like a spy thriller
Since the dawn of the Clinton administration, an Italian restaurant in Georgetown has been more famous for its patrons than its provisions. At Cafe Milano, D.C.'s political dons and doyennes see and are seen, executing handshake deals over plates of lobster linguine. But in 2011, something far...
www.stripes.com