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Thread: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

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    Avalon Member mountain_jim's Avatar
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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    A little recent history reminder

    I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. - Robert Anton Wilson

    The present as you think of it, and in practical working terms, is that point at which you select your physical experience from all those events that could be materialized. - Seth (The Nature of Personal Reality - Session 656, Page 293)

    (avatar image: Brocken spectre, a wonderful phenomenon of nature I have experienced and a symbol for my aspirations.)

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Re the downed plane.

    For starters this post is traveling down the road of JPF type of "high octane speculation", be that as it may.

    From the very get go I've not been able to help but wonder

    Quote aren't the Iranians a little more sophisticated than this? They had ample time to prepare, coordinate, and get all their ducks in a row, it can't have been like firing from the hip in the heat of battle where friendly fire dwells like rusty nails dwell in wood.
    What if U.S. special forces have new technologies to play with that can blend right in with such a situation, bring down a jet, and have the evidence give all appearances that someone else did it, perhaps even showing that the adversary shot himself in the foot so to speak.

    Wouldn't that be a neat lil trick while leaving the adversary scratching their heads as to not only HOW something like this could have possibly happened, but how stupid and bungling it makes them appear to the outside world looking in?

    Just a thought.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    (I'm not a big fan of the Washington Post, but Jim Webb is a truly great man who has served his country and is for intelligent use of military force for defense purposes only.)

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...9fb_story.html

    Opinions
    When did it become acceptable to kill a top leader of a country we aren’t even at war with?

    By Jim Webb
    Jan. 9, 2020 at 5:55 p.m. EST

    Jim Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, served in the U.S. Senate from 2007 to 2013 and was secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan from 1987 to 1988.


    Strongly held views are unlikely to change regarding the morality and tactical wisdom of President Trump’s decision to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani as he traveled on a road outside the Baghdad airport after having arrived on a commercial flight. But the debate regarding the long-term impact of this act on America’s place in the world, and the potential vulnerability of U.S. government officials to similar reprisals, has just begun.

    How did it become acceptable to assassinate one of the top military officers of a country with whom we are not formally at war during a public visit to a third country that had no opposition to his presence? And what precedent has this assassination established on the acceptable conduct of nation-states toward military leaders of countries with which we might have strong disagreement short of actual war — or for their future actions toward our own people?

    With respect to Iran, unfortunately, this is hardly a new issue.

    In 2007, the Senate passed a non-binding resolution calling on the George W. Bush administration to categorize Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as an international terrorist organization. I opposed this proposal based on the irrefutable fact that the organization was an inseparable arm of the Iranian government. The Revolutionary Guards are not independent actors like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. They are part of the Iranian government’s formal military structure, with an estimated strength of more than 150,000 members. It is legally and logically impossible to define one part of a national government as an international terrorist organization without applying the term to that entire government.

    Definitions define conduct. If terrorist organizations are actively involved against us, we attack them. But a terrorist organization is by definition a nongovernmental entity that operates along the creases of national sovereignties and international law. The Revolutionary Guards are a part of the Iranian government. If they are attacking us, they are not a terrorist organization. They’re an attacking army.

    The 2007 proposal did not succeed. But last April the State Department unilaterally designated the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist entity. Although more than 60 organizations are listed in this category, this is the only time our government has ever identified an element of a nation-state as a terrorist organization. And the designation was by many accounts made despite the opposition of the CIA and the Defense Department.

    Which leads us to Soleimani.

    The assassination of the most well-known military commander of a country with which we are not formally at war during his visit to a third country that had not opposed his presence invites a lax moral justification for a plethora of retaliatory measures — and not only from Iran. It also holds the possibility of more deeply entrenching the U.S. military in a region that most Americans would very much prefer to deal with from a more maneuverable distance.

    No thinking American would support Soleimani’s conduct. But it is also indisputable that his activities were carried out as part of his military duties. His harm to American military units was through his role as an enabler and adviser to third-country forces. This, frankly, is a reality of war.

    I fought as a Marine in Vietnam. We had similar problems throughout the Vietnam War because of Vietnam’s propinquity to China, which along with the Soviet Union provided continuous support to the North Vietnamese, including most of the weapons used against us on the battlefield. China was then a rogue state with nuclear weapons. Its leaders continually spouted anti-U.S. rhetoric. Yet we did not assassinate its military leaders for rendering tactical advice or logistical assistance. We fought the war that was in front of us, and we created the conditions in which we engaged China aggressively through diplomatic, economic and other means.

    Now, despite Trump’s previous assertions that he wants to dramatically reduce the United States’ footprint in the Middle East, it seems clear that he has been seduced into making unwise announcements similar to the rhetoric used by his immediate predecessors of both parties. Their blunders — in Iraq, Libya and Syria — destabilized the region and distracted the United States from its greatest long-term challenge: China’s military and economic expansion throughout the world.

    At a time when our political debates have come to resemble Kardashian-like ego squabbles, the United States desperately needs common-sense leadership in its foreign policy. This is not a failure of the executive branch alone; it is the result of a breakdown in our entire foreign policy establishment, from the executive branch to the legislative branch and even to many of our once-revered think tanks. If partisanship in foreign policy should end at the water’s edge, then such policies should be forged through respectful, bipartisan debate.

    The first such debate should focus on the administration’s unilateral decision to label an entire element of a foreign government an international terrorist organization. If Congress wishes to hold Iran to such a standard, it should then formally authorize the use of force against Iran’s government. The failure of congressional leadership to make these kinds of decisions is an example of why our foreign policy has become so militarized, and of how weak and even irrelevant Congress has allowed itself to become in the eyes of our citizens.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Quote Posted by Gracy May (here)
    Re the downed plane.

    For starters this post is traveling down the road of JPF type of "high octane speculation", be that as it may.

    From the very get go I've not been able to help but wonder

    Quote aren't the Iranians a little more sophisticated than this? They had ample time to prepare, coordinate, and get all their ducks in a row, it can't have been like firing from the hip in the heat of battle where friendly fire dwells like rusty nails dwell in wood.
    What if U.S. special forces have new technologies to play with that can blend right in with such a situation, bring down a jet, and have the evidence give all appearances that someone else did it, perhaps even showing that the adversary shot himself in the foot so to speak.

    Wouldn't that be a neat lil trick while leaving the adversary scratching their heads as to not only HOW something like this could have possibly happened, but how stupid and bungling it makes them appear to the outside world looking in?

    Just a thought.
    And was on my list of speculations...
    All the above is all and only my opinion - all subject to change and not meant to be true for anyone else regardless of how I phrase it.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    and as for - When did it become acceptable to kill a top leader of a country we aren’t even at war with?

    Who's "we?"

    Could the question be asked of any "we?"

    If so, could the question be asked of Hezbollah who assassinated the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri?

    Could it then be pointed out that Iran is and has been a major supporter of Hezbollah? Could it be pointed out that Soleimani helped with this assassination?


    What's my point? Looks like it isn't a matter of being or not being "acceptable." Looks like something else to me. Looks like "what can be done and gotten away with" is all that matters to the current batch of humans on this planet.
    Last edited by Chester; 10th January 2020 at 21:24.
    All the above is all and only my opinion - all subject to change and not meant to be true for anyone else regardless of how I phrase it.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Quote Posted by syrwong (here)

    It is very hard to imaging Iran would take down a plane in which half the passengers are Iranian. Iran is a deeply religious country which does not believe in developing nuclear weapons, although the western media like to bombard the people with Iran' intention to develop one. It is also not a country which likes to make false flags, because it has not gone to war for centuries. I suppose only belligerent nations use false flags because they have to in order to justify a war. I hope this post balances the sentiment in this thread a little. A video from RT,
    Yes. This is exactly why the mostly likely scenario is the downed plane was an accident. Sometimes you just trip over your shoelaces; there are no ulterior motives or 4-d chess objectives. If I'm not mistaken, computer algorythms allocated the airspace in which the plane was flying as a war zone. The plane was probably (mistakenly) in the wrong place at the wrong time and mistaken as a hostile projectile and taken down. This, of course, is just my opinion, but seems to be the most logical explanation given the facts.

    BTW, somewhere in this thread someone suggested Iran wasn't allowing any investigators to the crash site; it has been reported, at least here in the States, that Iran would allow a neutral country to the crash site, e.g. Ukraine or Canada, just not the United States (whom they don't trust). Don't blame them on that account. The point is, Iran isn't being completely uncooperative.

    It is also important for people to understand that people who use the term "United States" shouldn't necessarily equate USA with "President Trump" and/or his Administration's policies. The United States government is a colossal bureaucracy, entrenched with factions of Deep State actors, most of which are at war with Donald Trump and his policies, and/or are eager and ready to obfuscate any facts that ultimately run up the flag pole to the White House.

    I was never overly concerned that Trump was compromised as much as I was (and still am) concerned that he is surrounded by disingenuous intelligence operatives that might provide him with false or misleading information. A captain can only be as good the people surrounding him and running the ship. Most of those officers/actors are pro-war, anti-Trump.
    Last edited by T Smith; 11th January 2020 at 13:34.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    It's been updated a few minutes ago, but I first read this last night.

    U.S. to join probe of Ukrainian jet disaster that killed 176
    Quote PARIS (Reuters) - The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has accepted an invitation from Iran to take part in its investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian airplane in Tehran, the agency confirmed late on Thursday.
    The NTSB said in a statement its Response Operations Center had received formal notification from Iran of Wednesday’s crash of the Boeing 737-800 that killed all 176 on board. “The NTSB has designated an accredited representative to the investigation of the crash,” the agency said.

    The NTSB confirmed it would take part in the probe after an Iranian official told Reuters of the agreement.

    “The NTSB has replied to our chief investigator and has announced an accredited representative,” Farhad Parvaresh, Iran’s representative at the International Civil Aviation Organization, part of the United Nations, told Reuters.

    A person briefed on the matter said it was unclear what if anything its representative would be able to do under U.S. sanctions. NTSB said in its statement it “continues to monitor the situation surrounding the crash and evaluate its level of participation in the investigation.”

    The United States is allowed to take part under global rules since the Boeing (BA.N) 737-800NG jet was designed and built there.

    Canada, which had dozens of passengers onboard, has also assigned an expert, while a team from Ukraine held discussions in Tehran on Thursday, Parvaresh said in a telephone interview.

    Iran is ready to provide consular facilities and visas for accredited investigators, he added.

    Sweden and Afghanistan, which had some passengers on board, have also been notified. France may also be involved as it was one of the countries where the engines were made, Parvaresh said.

    He denied U.S. and Canadian claims that the jet had been shot down accidentally and said Iran was committed to a full and transparent investigation for the accident, adding it was too early to speculate on the cause.

    “As Iranians we feel this tragedy and disaster for us and for the families,” Parvaresh said, expressing condolences to the relatives of the people who died.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier the jet was probably brought down by an accidental Iranian missile strike, citing intelligence from Canadian and other sources.

    The U.S. government believes Iran shot down the plane by mistake, three U.S. officials told Reuters.
    The Ukraine International Airlines flight to Kiev from Tehran crashed hours after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two U.S. military bases in Iraq.

    Parvaresh said expert testimony indicated that the aircraft could not have been hit by a missile and that it was important to keep the crash investigation non-political.

    “I think we should keep this purely technical and not confuse it with political tensions in the region. We should leave it to experts to investigate and make their report.”
    Last edited by edina; 10th January 2020 at 20:28.
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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Quote Posted by Sammy (here)
    and as for - When did it become acceptable to kill a top leader of a country we aren’t even at war with?

    Who's "we?"

    Could the question be asked of any "we?"

    If so, could the question be asked of Hezbollah who assassinated the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri?
    That's a loaded question -- the wording should be:
    "could the question be asked of those who assassinated the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri?"
    In other words, first of all you should ask whether Hezbollah was responsible for the assassination of Rafic Hariri in 2005. If you have no doubt about that implied assumption, then you are pretty naive.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Why believe anything coming out about Iran from the Western press. Most of it is pure propaganda.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Quote Posted by silvanelf (here)
    Quote Posted by Sammy (here)
    and as for - When did it become acceptable to kill a top leader of a country we aren’t even at war with?

    Who's "we?"

    Could the question be asked of any "we?"

    If so, could the question be asked of Hezbollah who assassinated the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri?
    That's a loaded question -- the wording should be:
    "could the question be asked of those who assassinated the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri?"
    In other words, first of all you should ask whether Hezbollah was responsible for the assassination of Rafic Hariri in 2005. If you have no doubt about that implied assumption, then you are pretty naive.
    Agree... it should have said "of those" and left out the assumption (and "accepted narrative") of Hezbollah.

    I have doubt... On my list of suspects is Col. Wissam al Hassan, the head of Lebanese Intelligence at that time.
    Last edited by Chester; 10th January 2020 at 21:35.
    All the above is all and only my opinion - all subject to change and not meant to be true for anyone else regardless of how I phrase it.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Quote Posted by AutumnW (here)
    Why believe anything coming out about Iran from the Western press. Most of it is pure propaganda.
    I wouldn't necessarily believe it, but when press sympathetic to the Mullah regime in Iran matches the Western press, I raise the odds it has some or much truth to it.
    All the above is all and only my opinion - all subject to change and not meant to be true for anyone else regardless of how I phrase it.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Quote Posted by edina (here)
    It's been updated a few minutes ago, but I first read this last night.

    U.S. to join probe of Ukrainian jet disaster that killed 176
    Quote PARIS (Reuters) - The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has accepted an invitation from Iran to take part in its investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian airplane in Tehran, the agency confirmed late on Thursday.
    The NTSB said in a statement its Response Operations Center had received formal notification from Iran of Wednesday’s crash of the Boeing 737-800 that killed all 176 on board. “The NTSB has designated an accredited representative to the investigation of the crash,” the agency said.

    The NTSB confirmed it would take part in the probe after an Iranian official told Reuters of the agreement.

    “The NTSB has replied to our chief investigator and has announced an accredited representative,” Farhad Parvaresh, Iran’s representative at the International Civil Aviation Organization, part of the United Nations, told Reuters.

    A person briefed on the matter said it was unclear what if anything its representative would be able to do under U.S. sanctions. NTSB said in its statement it “continues to monitor the situation surrounding the crash and evaluate its level of participation in the investigation.”

    The United States is allowed to take part under global rules since the Boeing (BA.N) 737-800NG jet was designed and built there.

    Canada, which had dozens of passengers onboard, has also assigned an expert, while a team from Ukraine held discussions in Tehran on Thursday, Parvaresh said in a telephone interview.

    Iran is ready to provide consular facilities and visas for accredited investigators, he added.

    Sweden and Afghanistan, which had some passengers on board, have also been notified. France may also be involved as it was one of the countries where the engines were made, Parvaresh said.

    He denied U.S. and Canadian claims that the jet had been shot down accidentally and said Iran was committed to a full and transparent investigation for the accident, adding it was too early to speculate on the cause.

    “As Iranians we feel this tragedy and disaster for us and for the families,” Parvaresh said, expressing condolences to the relatives of the people who died.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier the jet was probably brought down by an accidental Iranian missile strike, citing intelligence from Canadian and other sources.

    The U.S. government believes Iran shot down the plane by mistake, three U.S. officials told Reuters.
    The Ukraine International Airlines flight to Kiev from Tehran crashed hours after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two U.S. military bases in Iraq.

    Parvaresh said expert testimony indicated that the aircraft could not have been hit by a missile and that it was important to keep the crash investigation non-political.

    “I think we should keep this purely technical and not confuse it with political tensions in the region. We should leave it to experts to investigate and make their report.”

    So the US will join the probe of the Ukrainian disaster? Isn't that a bit like asking the fox to watch the hen house? That seems ridiculous to me or maybe just another antagonistic poke at Iran?

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    The US wouldn't be invited in if Iran didn't think they had "it" cleaned up. They've had two days to comb over the entire crash debris area.
    All the above is all and only my opinion - all subject to change and not meant to be true for anyone else regardless of how I phrase it.

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Quote Posted by peterpam (here)
    Quote Posted by edina (here)
    It's been updated a few minutes ago, but I first read this last night.

    U.S. to join probe of Ukrainian jet disaster that killed 176
    Quote PARIS (Reuters) - The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has accepted an invitation from Iran to take part in its investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian airplane in Tehran, the agency confirmed late on Thursday.
    The NTSB said in a statement its Response Operations Center had received formal notification from Iran of Wednesday’s crash of the Boeing 737-800 that killed all 176 on board. “The NTSB has designated an accredited representative to the investigation of the crash,” the agency said.
    So the US will join the probe of the Ukrainian disaster? Isn't that a bit like asking the fox to watch the hen house? That seems ridiculous to me or maybe just another antagonistic poke at Iran?
    I'm not sure how that can be an antagonistic poke at Iran, if Iran were the ones who invited the US to join the investigation?
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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    from Global Research:



    The complete (translated) words of Abdul-Mahdi’s speech to parliament:

    This is why I visited China and signed an important agreement with them to undertake the construction instead. Upon my return, Trump called me to ask me to reject this agreement. When I refused, he threatened to unleash huge demonstrations against me that would end my premiership.

    Huge demonstrations against me duly materialized and Trump called again to threaten that if I did not comply with his demands, then he would have Marine snipers on tall buildings target protesters and security personnel alike in order to pressure me.

    I refused again and handed in my resignation. To this day the Americans insist on us rescinding our deal with the Chinese.

    After this, when our Minister of Defense publicly stated that a third party was targeting both protestors and security personnel alike (just as Trump had threatened he would do), I received a new call from Trump threatening to kill both me and the Minister of Defense if we kept on talking about this “third party”.

    Nobody imagined that the threat was to be applied to General Soleimani, but it was difficult for Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi to reveal the weekslong backstory behind the terrorist attack.

    I was supposed to meet him [Soleimani] later in the morning when he was killed. He came to deliver a message from Iran in response to the message we had delivered to the Iranians from the Saudis.

    https://www.globalresearch.ca/deeper...eimani/5700117

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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Quote Posted by Sammy (here)
    The US wouldn't be invited in if Iran didn't think they had "it" cleaned up. They've had two days to comb over the entire crash debris area.
    Maybe, maybe not?

    The counter intel person I mentioned in this comment talked about how there had been a spike in radio chatter in Iran just prior to the plane exploding.

    I've checked back few times to see if she has anything worth noting from vetting. I get a sense that she feels a need to be cautious and has turned information over to the appropriate authorities.

    So, I think there will not be anything more to share from that direction.

    I think maybe I should explain, the reason why I am tracking that in the Q thread, instead of here in this thread, is because I wanted to talk about it in the context of information from the Q posts and my understanding is that would not be appropriate to do in this thread.

    Some people feel okay looking there, and others don't. I linked it in my comment along with the manifest links for people who were okay with it.

    Thanks Iyakum for sharing a downloadable version of the manifest here.

    I'm feeling spread a little thin right now, so I'm going to go back to focusing primarily on the Q thread.
    Last edited by edina; 10th January 2020 at 23:16.
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  32. Link to Post #237
    UK Avalon Member Jayke's Avatar
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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Reza Marashi from https://iranian.com/

    Unable to embed but well worth clicking through to listen to the podcast. By far the most level-headed and insightful analysis of the Iran situation I’ve heard to date.

    https://iranian.com/2020/01/09/america-and-iran-almost-go-to-war-podcast-episode-4
    From Bill: here's the MP3.
    https://buzzsprout.com/723294/244772...-episode-4.mp3
    Episode Description: This week, Reza gives the people a special episode dedicated to breaking down the Trump Administration killing Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani, why doing so was a bad idea, and the thinking behind Iran’s response going forward. Amir Handjani, Board Member at the Atlantic Council and Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project, chats with Reza about Trump’s decision to kill a senior foreign government official in broad daylight, its impact inside and outside of Iran, and where U.S.-Iran relations might go from here.

    About Reza Marashi: With 15 years of experience working in both the U.S. government and Washington DC think tank world, Reza Marashi breaks down American foreign policy, the lack of diplomatic engagement and military restraint that is guiding it, the cast of characters that are making this unsustainable problem worse, and how all of this is firmly not in the national interest of the United States.
    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 11th January 2020 at 17:24. Reason: added the podcast mp3

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  34. Link to Post #238
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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Iran admits culpability in downing this plane.

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  36. Link to Post #239
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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Trump Reportedly Tried to Kill Another Top Iranian Commander on Same Day as Soleimani
    by Jake Johnson, staff writer Common Dreams
    Friday, January 10, 2020

    "The Trump administration reportedly tried and failed to assassinate a senior Iranian military official in Yemen on the same day it killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani with a drone strike in Baghdad last week, nearly sparking a full-blown regional war.

    The Washington Post reported Friday that U.S. forces carried out a "top secret mission" targeting Abdul Reza Shahlai, a high-level commander of Iran's Quds Force. According to the Post, the U.S. launched a strike against Shahlai in Yemen but it was unsuccessful for unknown reasons.

    According to the Post:

    The Trump administration views Shahlai as a particularly potent adversary.

    The State Department offered a $15 million reward last month for information leading to Shahlai and the disruption of [the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps'] financial mechanisms. The announcement said that Shahlai is based in Yemen and has a "long history of involvement in attacks targeting the U.S. and our allies, including in the 2011 plot against the Saudi ambassador" at an Italian restaurant in Washington.

    Critics said the Post reporting undermines the Trump administration's claim that it assassinated Soleimani due to an "imminent threat" to American interests—and indicates the general's killing was part of what was meant to be a far more sweeping effort to damage the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

    "This suggests a mission with a longer planning horizon and a larger objective, and it really does call into question why there was an attempt to explain this publicly on the basis of an imminent threat," Suzanne Maloney, an Iran scholar at the Brookings Institution think tank, told the Post.
    Quote Alex Emmons

    @AlexEmmons
    If this operation had succeeded, how was this administration going to claim that an IRGC commander in Yemen of all places - was an "imminent" threat to Americans?https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...feb_story.html

    8
    11:40 AM - Jan 10, 2020
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    Quote Tommy Vietor

    @TVietor08
    Multiple strikes on top IRGC officials is starting a war. These were decapitation strikes. All the claims about an imminent threat are bull**** pretext. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...feb_story.html

    486
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    The Post reported that the strikes on Soleimani and Shahlai were approved at around the same time but the latter was not disclosed because "it did not go according to plan." One senior official told the Post that Shahlai "may be targeted in the future."

    "If we had killed him, we'd be bragging about it that same night," another official told the Post, referring to the night the U.S. assassinated Soleimani.

    News of an attempted second U.S. strike comes after legal experts and members of Congress condemned the assassination of Soleimani as a violation of both U.S. and international law. On Thursday night, the House of Representatives passed a War Powers Resolution aimed at barring Trump from taking military action against Iran without congressional approval.

    "Congress has not authorized military action against Iran," Matt Duss, foreign policy adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), tweeted in response to the Post story. "This is a completely lawless president."

    Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a vocal critic of the Trump administration's hawkish Iran policies, said "Congress needs answers" to serious questions raised by the new reporting.

    "What was the full extent of the Trump administration's plans to kill Iranian officials?" Khanna tweeted. "How does the attempted killing in Yemen have anything to do with an imminent threat?" "
    Last edited by onawah; 11th January 2020 at 07:06.
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  38. Link to Post #240
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    Default Re: The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

    Here is some direct response from the assassination. Two days ago, Iranian proxies were seen pouring in to Abu Kamal near the Iraq-Syria border. Through this area, there have been increasing drone attacks by Israel.

    As of now, the buildup has been hit hard by unidentified warplanes in Iraqi airspace. Some are quick to accuse Israel. This has been rather damaging.

    Since Israel does the same thing from Lebanon, it would not be too surprising if they were responsible. If so, Iran may not be able to legally retaliate, since it is a private militia. I am not really sure if there is any way they can legally attack Israel the way they say they would like to.

    Of course, certain parties can attack whomever they want, but if you are Iran, the "world" might use it against you.

    If they admit to whatever happened to the Ukranian plane within a few days, that is a lot more transparent than the one that happened in the Ukraine itself under similar circumstances.

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