There are fewer sham stories with Obama in charge than with Bush, but they're no less irritating, and it is, of course, the same unelected corporate media monopolizing the public airways to incite wars we can't afford with sham stories.

1. Los Zetas make billions in profits a year. The idea that someone would consider hiring them to work as hit men against an ambassador in Washington, potentially alienating and inciting the US government against them, for $1.5 million is not credible;

2. Everyone with a cursory knowledge of covert affairs knows that Los Zetas, like every major drug trafficking organization, is infiltrated. The idea you would hire such an organization for such is hit is not credible;

3. It is a published, verified, and mutually agreed upon fact that Los Zetas was founded by graduates of the School of the Americas. What caused these graduates to go into this livelihood is a matter of speculation, but the idea that a bunch of Iranians would hire Los Zetas to attack the US knowing this, which everyone knows, is not credible;

4. There is no evidence whatsoever linking this plot to the Iranian government. The corporate media says that Attorney General Holder "stopped short" of linking the plot to Iran, which means he didn't say it;

5. The idea that Iran would choose the US as a place to kill a Saudi ambassador, considering the viability of such an attack in the US and the potential ramifications of such an attack in the US, makes no sense whatsoever to Iran;

6. The consensus among regional scholars that this is completely uncharacteristic of how Iran conducts itself diplomatically, while war hawks like Elliott Abrams, whose judicial censure for giving misleading testimony to Congress on three separate occasions makes him a perfect columnist for the New York Times, are jumping on the opportunity to call for increased sanctions on Iran;

7. With regard to Iran, folks like Ray McGovern have recently raised concerns about an attack against them in the works. My take on this is that if any potential attacker knew what to attack, that is, had solid knowledge of a nuclear weapons facility in Iran, it would be all over the media, since the reticence of international institutions to condemn Iran further has been hindered by a lack of a shred of evidence. We are seeing psychological warfare but there is no self-interest on anyone's part to attack a facility that most certainly doesn't exist (Update 10/14: McGovern on the "plot");

8. I hope that seven is true, but the fact that Hillary Rodham Clinton would say we could "obliterate" a country of 70 million people, more than those obliterated by Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot combined, and be confirmed as Secretary of State is something historians will find revealing about the times and culture we live in;

9. This has the stamp of the Axis of Evil tactic: fabrication of a coalition of expedient enemies. It has been proven that the Mexican government, with the assistance of the US, has sided with the Sinaloa Cartel against Los Zetas. Presidential candidates are talking openly about the US military getting involved in the Mexican drug war in the same breath of talking about the Iranian threat.

Update 10/14: This sham story is predictably falling apart like a cheap suit, with a chorus of regional specialists having to bring up how sloppy the yarn is.. Iran expert Gary Sick says "I find this very hard to believe. In fact, this plot, if true, departs from all known Iranian policies and procedures.." "Iran has never conducted — or apparently even attempted — an assassination or a bombing inside the US. And it is difficult to believe that they would rely on a non-Islamic criminal gang to carry out this most sensitive of all possible missions. In this instance, they allegedly relied on at least one amateur and a Mexican criminal drug gang that is known to be riddled with both Mexican and US intelligence agents. Whatever else may be Iran’s failings, they are not noted for utter disregard of the most basic intelligence tradecraft." Patrick Cockburn: "The claim ... goes against all that is known of Iran’s highly sophisticated intelligence service." Glenn Greenwald put it succinctly: "The most difficult challenge in writing about the Iranian Terror Plot unveiled yesterday is to take it seriously enough to analyze it." But Hillary and co. is still banging on the war drums and the cartel in Sinaloa is celebrating a major Los Zetas kingpin getting nabbed.