FBI adds IRGC member to Most Wanted list for alleged assassination plot
Shahram Poursafi accused of soliciting killings of former US officials in retaliation for Soleimani strike.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
IRGC operative lands on FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list over alleged plot to kill former Trump advisor
Photograph: Internewscast (embedded from source)
What this story says
- The FBI has added Shahram Poursafi, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member, to its Most Wanted Terrorists list.
- Poursafi is accused of soliciting the assassinations of two former U.S. government officials, including former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
- The alleged plot, which occurred between October 2021 and April 2022, is believed by the FBI to be retaliation for the U.S. strike that killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani.
- Poursafi allegedly offered up to $300,000 to carry out the killing of John Bolton.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 8 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 9 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
70/100
Craft
65/100
Hype
45/100
9 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
None of the 8 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
The FBI has placed Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on its Most Wanted Terrorists list. Poursafi is accused of soliciting the murders of two former U.S. government officials. The alleged plot took place between October 2021 and April 2022. Investigators believe the actions were in retaliation for the U.S. strike in January 2020 that killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani.
According to court documents, Poursafi allegedly offered up to $300,000 to carry out the killing of former National Security Advisor John Bolton. The FBI also named three other alleged IRGC officials from the same unit, the Qods Force: Mohammad Reza Ansari, Abolfazl Alizadeh, and Mohammad Hossein Shamoradizadeh. Ansari is described as a deputy who supported IRGC operations in Syria and allegedly helped plan assassinations. Alizadeh and Shamoradizadeh are identified as battalion commanders involved in lethal plotting operations.
Disagreements in reporting
The reports do not disagree on the core facts of the FBI's announcement regarding Shahram Poursafi and the alleged assassination plot.
What the coverage left out
None of the right-rated digests mention the specific roles of Mohammad Reza Ansari, Abolfazl Alizadeh, and Mohammad Hossein Shamoradizadeh beyond their general alleged involvement in plotting operations. The centre-rated report provided these details, including Ansari's alleged role as a deputy supporting operations in Syria.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 12 Nov 2026, 11:45, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Centre
1 rated outlet
- The centre-rated report from Internewscast, which provided a full report, led with the FBI adding an IRGC operative to its Most Wanted Terrorists list for allegedly plotting to kill former U.S. officials. It detailed that Shahram Poursafi is accused of soliciting murders between October 2021 and April 2022, and that the FBI believes this was retaliation for the U.S. strike that killed Qasem Soleimani. The report noted Poursafi allegedly offered up to $300,000 for the killing of John Bolton and identified three other alleged IRGC officials involved. It quoted Gregory Heeb of the FBI’s Washington Field Office stating the FBI would continue disrupting plots and pursuing IRGC members threatening people in the U.S.
Right
7 rated outlets
- The right-rated reports, which were all digests, focused on the FBI adding an IRGC member to its Most Wanted Terror list for plotting to kill U.S. officials. Several reports highlighted that the plots were likely intended as retaliation for the U.S. assassination of Qasem Soleimani, citing court documents. Some digests included a statement attributed to the bureau: "The bureau said it 'will not stand for the IRGC’s brazen attempts to silence, harm or murder activists, dissidents, journalists, public officials or anyone else it deems a threat.'" Other digests mentioned that Shahram Poursafi allegedly sought to pay $300,000 to have John Bolton killed, linking the plot to retaliation for Soleimani’s death.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover FBI adds IRGC member to Most Wanted list for alleged assassination plot?
- Of the 8 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 12% are rated centre, 88% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 9. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is FBI adds IRGC member to Most Wanted list for alleged assassination plot left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 8 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of FBI adds IRGC member to Most Wanted list for alleged assassination plot biased?
- FBI adds IRGC member to Most Wanted list for alleged assassination plot is one event reported by 9 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting FBI adds IRGC member to Most Wanted list for alleged assassination plot?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered FBI adds IRGC member to Most Wanted list for alleged assassination plot?
- 9 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- Who is Shahram Poursafi and why is he on the FBI's Most Wanted list?
- Shahram Poursafi is an alleged member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The FBI added him to its Most Wanted Terrorists list for allegedly soliciting the murders of two former U.S. government officials, including John Bolton, between October 2021 and April 2022.
- What was the alleged motive for the assassination plot?
- The FBI believes the alleged plot was intended as retaliation for the U.S. airstrike in January 2020 that killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani. Poursafi is accused of soliciting the killings as a response to Soleimani's death.
- How much money was allegedly offered for the assassination?
- Shahram Poursafi allegedly offered up to $300,000 to carry out the killing of former National Security Advisor John Bolton. The FBI also indicated a second 'job' that would pay $1 million was mentioned.
Read it at the source
9 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
1Right
7- FBI adds Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member to ‘Most Wanted’ terror list for plotting to kill US officials (opens WIN in a new tab)
- FBI adds Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member to ‘Most Wanted’ terror list for plotting to kill US officials (opens Jewish News Syndicate in a new tab)
Jewish News Syndicate — is Jewish News Syndicate biased? Our profile of this outlet
- FBI adds Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member to ‘Most Wanted’ terror list for plotting to kill US officials (opens Cleveland Jewish News in a new tab)
Cleveland Jewish News — is Cleveland Jewish News biased? Our profile of this outlet
- IRGC operative lands on FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list over alleged plot to kill former Trump adviser - NEW YORK TIMES POST (opens nytimespost.com in a new tab)
nytimespost.com — is nytimespost.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- IRGC operative lands on FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list over alleged plot to kill former Trump advisor (opens WVII / Fox Bangor in a new tab)
WVII / Fox Bangor — is WVII / Fox Bangor biased? Our profile of this outlet
- IRGC operative lands on FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list over alleged plot to kill former Trump advisor (opens Fox News in a new tab)
- IRGC operative lands on FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list over alleged plot to kill former Trump adviser (opens wfmd.com in a new tab)
Not rated
1How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
