AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A Texas man who plotted to assassinate a Saudi diplomat regaled a jail psychologist with stories of days as a wealthy playboy, court documents said.
A report filed by Dr. Gregory Saathoff portrayed Manssor Arbabsiar as a well-to-do luxury car salesman who had to give up the go-go days because of the recession and nagging dental problems.
Arbabsiar, who pleaded guilty in New York this month to plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States, told Saathoff he "had a blast for 20 years," but had to give it up because he was broke and needed expensive oral surgery.
The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman said Arbabsiar claimed to have hatched the assassination plot at the request of a cousin, whom he described as a member of the Revolutionary Guards' Qod Force in his native Iran.
The newspaper noted defense psychiatrists had diagnosed Arbabsiar as bipolar.
Federal prosecutors countered with an expert who said Arbabsiar displayed no bipolar symptoms and had never been treated for the mental disorder.
