Tag: Trump-created Iran crisis

Critics pummel Secretary Esper over ‘astoundingly embarrassing’ Sunday show interviews after he admits there’s no evidence to back up Trump’s ‘4 embassies’ claim

AlterNet logoDefense Secretary Mark Esper made the morning show rounds on Sunday, ostensibly to provide cover for the Trump administration’s claim that Iranian General. Qassem Soleimani posed an “imminent threat” to United States personnel prior to his assassination. In doing so, however, Esper highlighted the administration’s evolving justifications for launching the strike that killed Soleimani, and contradicted President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim the Iranian commander was planning an attack on “four embassies” in the region.

Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Esper insisted Trump “never said there was specific intelligence to four different embassies.”

“What the president said was he believed it probably could have been,” Espert told Tapper. “He didn’t cite intelligence.” Continue reading.

Trump privately admits he killed Suleimani ‘under pressure’ from upcoming impeachment trial: report

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump privately told associates that his upcoming impeachment trial factored heavily into his decision to kill top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate,” associates of the president told the outlet.

The revelation, buried deep into a lengthy piece about the strike, follows a similar report from The New York Times. Continue reading.

Trump complains he didn’t get Nobel Peace Prize days after threatening to commit war crimes

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump complained that he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize just days after he threatened to commit war crimes in Iran.

Trump spoke at a rally in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday after walking back his threat to target Iranian cultural sites, which would constitute a war crime.

Trump complained at the rally about the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded back in October to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea,” according to the Nobel Committee. Continue reading.

Rep. Collins (Sort Of) Apologizes For “Democrats Love Terrorists” Outburst

After a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassim Suleimani, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia smeared Democratic critics of the operation as being “in love with terrorists” on Wednesday. By Friday, the GOP congressman was apologizing for his remark, though only a few hours before he went on Fox News and vigorously defending it.

During his Friday Fox News appearance, Collins said of Democrats, “Do all of them love terrorists? No. I think the issue that we have here, though, is that they won’t acknowledge that (Suleimani) was a terrorist. They won’t acknowledge that this was a good thing for the world for Suleimani to be taken out. And from my perspective, that needs to be called out.”

Collins continued, “If they would start calling him a terrorist and stop saying that our president assassinated him — that’s accusing our president of a crime…. Our president took out a terrorist, and the world is a better place for it.” Continue reading.

Pompeo walks back comments that appeared to contradict Trump on embassy attacks

After Trump told rally about multiple embassies targeted, secretary of State says targets weren’t known

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tried Friday to clean up comments from the night before  that appeared to contradict President Trump’s claim that the Iranian general he had killed was targeting multiple U.S. embassies.

Pompeo told reporters U.S. officials acted on “specific information on an imminent threat,” and that the “threat stream included attacks on U.S. embassies. … Full stop.”

American officials did not know “exactly which minute,” but he claimed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani was planning “broad, large-scale attacks” on American targets. Continue reading.

Trump administration hits Iran with fresh sanctions after attack on U.S. forces

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration hit Iran with more sanctions Friday in the first concrete response to the attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq this week, which were in retaliation for the U.S. airstrike that killed the most powerful Iranian military commander.

The sanctions target Iran’s metal industries, and eight senior military and national security officials who U.S. officials said were involved in the ballistic missile attacks on two bases in Iraq that house U.S. military personnel.

Those on the sanctions list include the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the deputy chief of staff of the armed forces and the commander of the Basij militia, which has been responsible for a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests. Continue reading.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson calls out Trump’s lies on Iran

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump brought the United States to the brink of war with Iran by ordering the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the second most powerful figure in Iran. After Soleimani and four others were killed in a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport Friday, Trump, offering no evidence, alleged that Soleimani was orchestrating imminent attacks on American personnel. We should be skeptical when Trump, or any leader, invokes secret “intelligence” to justify their violent actions. Perhaps no one knows this better than Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005. He witnessed, and participated in, the effort by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and others to promote lies to justify the disastrous, illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“That effort led to a war of choice with Iraq — one that resulted in catastrophic losses for the region and the United States-led coalition, and that destabilized the entire Middle East,” Wilkerson wrote in a New York Times editorial in 2018 titled, “I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again.” Wilkerson continued, “the Trump administration is using much the same playbook to create a false impression that war is the only way to address the threats posed by Iran. This war with Iran … would be 10 to 15 times worse than the Iraq war in terms of casualties and costs.”

Back in 2003, Col. Wilkerson helped Powell prepare his infamous Feb. 5, 2003, speech before the United Nations Security Council. “My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources,” Powell said. “These are not assertions. What we’re giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.” His presentation included numerous slides, audio clips and a sample vial, purportedly containing anthrax, which Powell gingerly held aloft for the cameras. The speech lasted over two hours and, it turns out, was riddled with lies and fabrications. Powell would later describe his performance as a permanent “blot” on his record. But it did the job. Six weeks later, “shock and awe” began: The Bush/Cheney administration indiscriminately bombed Iraq. Continue reading.

Graham, Paul rift deepens over Trump’s war powers

The Hill logoA high-profile debate over President Trump’s war powers is fueling a feud among Senate Republicans.

The fallout from a closed-door briefing on the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani has put a spotlight on the divisions among two of President Trump’s biggest congressional allies: Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

“If I had an eye problem, I would go to him. If I had a constitutional question, he would be the last guy I would pick,” Graham said on Thursday when asked about Paul, who is an ophthalmologist. Continue reading.

Trump to Lee: Other people called it ‘best presentation they’ve ever seen’

President Donald Trump disagreed with GOP Sen. Mike Lee’s comments that Wednesday’s Iran briefing was the worst briefing he’d ever seen on a military issue.

“Other people have said it was the best presentation they’ve ever seen,” Trump told reporters Thursday. He said the military “didn’t want to give” all the information Lee and GOP Sen. Rand Paul were looking for.  View the video here.

NOTE:  We wonder if ‘John Barron’ is one of the people who told President Trump it was the best presentation.

Exclusive: Informants in Iraq, Syria helped U.S. kill Iran’s Soleimani – sources

REUTERS – Iranian General Qassem Soleimani arrived at the Damascus airport in a vehicle with dark-tinted glass. Four soldiers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards rode with him. They parked near a staircase leading to a Cham Wings Airbus A320, destined for Baghdad.

Neither Soleimani nor the soldiers were registered on the passenger manifesto, according to a Cham Wings airline employee who described the scene of their departure from the Syrian capital to Reuters. Soleimani avoided using his private plane because of rising concerns about his own security, said an Iraqi security source with knowledge of Soleimani’s security arrangements.

The passenger flight would be Soleimani’s last. Rockets fired from a U.S. drone killed him as he left the Baghdad airport in a convoy of two armored vehicles. Also killed was the man who met him at the airport: Abu Mahdi Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the Iraqi government’s umbrella group for the country’s militias. Continue reading.