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Many years ago — way back in the 20th Century — there was a thing called the three-strike rule. As readers know, today, a criminal can have a hundred strikes and still be happily walking the streets. Still, although it may no longer work on the streets, I do wonder why the three strike rule can’t apply in foreign affairs.
A week ago today the author Salman Rushdie was almost killed onstage by a young assassin. The novelist suffered appalling injuries — his throat, kidney, face and other parts of his body were hacked. He is exceptionally lucky to be alive. But as The Post found out when speaking to the alleged assailant, the motivation was obvious. Twenty-four year old, New Jersey born Hadi Matar praised the late Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini and his 1989 fatwa on Rushdie. For a third of a century the Iranian authorities have kept their fatwa in place, with various Iranian politicians, businessmen and foundations making sure that a bounty remained on the author’s head for the “crime” of writing a novel.
For 33 years, Rushdie has managed to survive multiple assassination attempts. But none came so close to killing him as what happened in New York state a week ago today. The free world’s media might have reported what happened to Rushdie with horror. But Iran’s state-run press reveled in the attack, using their front pages to show Rushdie burning in hellfire, decapitated or with his head in a noose.
But it isn’t just novelists that the Iranian authorities are after. Last week we also learned more details about a thwarted assassination attempt against two former US government officials. This was the highly developed disrupted plot in which Iranian agents were attempting to kill former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisor John Bolton. The Department of Justice has indicted a member of Iran´s Revolutionary Guard Corp for the attempted killings.
The Iranians appeared to be targeting Bolton and Pompeo as revenge for the 2020 killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani who was killed as he was plotting against American forces in Iraq.
