Talk about convenient timing.
Yesterday’s announcement of a thwarted Iranian bombing/assassination plot against Saudi targets in Washington sure takes a lot of heat off of Attorney General Eric Holder.
Coming, as it did, just as the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), seemed to have caught him in a bald-faced lie about his role in Operation Fast and Furious.
That the botched gun-tracking scheme remains a very touchy subject for Holder was obvious yesterday.
As soon as one of the reporters at his nationally televised press conference raised the issue, Holder offered a curt reply — then hurriedly left the room.
Obviously, that was the last question on that subject he intended to answer.
Even so, he and a dozen other Justice officials reportedly are about to be subpoenaed by Issa’s committee for documents they’ve thus far refused to turn over.
Certainly, the seriousness of the plot — at least as outlined in the criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court — can’t be denied.
It also underscores the continuing danger of the Islamist fifth column in this country — given that the accused lead conspirator is a naturalized US citizen.
But you really have to wonder: Was the bust accelerated?
Alleged lead conspirator Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian-born naturalized US citizen, has been in federal custody for nearly two weeks since being nabbed at JFK Airport.
As recently as last week, he was reportedly confessing all to FBI agents and making incriminating phone calls, monitored by the feds, to his alleged government contact in Iran.
The plot itself was said to have been hatched last spring, when Arbabsiar approached someone he believed was a reliable member of an assassination-for-hire Mexican drug cartel — but turned out to be a Drug Enforcement Administration informer.
What appears to have been crack work by law-enforcement and intelligence agencies — including, pointedly, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms — couldn’t have come at a better time for Holder.
The ATF is under heavy pressure to explain how it ended up selling guns to those same Mexican cartels — some of which later turned up at the site where a US border agent was gunned down.
Even as the administration searches for scapegoats, congressional investigators have been zeroing in on Holder — trying to answer the famous question: What did he know, and when did he know it?
So far, the AG’s stonewalling.
On Friday, Holder sent Issa a blistering letter attacking his investigation and defending his role.
Now, he and the AFT deftly change the subject.
As we said, very convenient.
Maybe too convenient.