OF THE
TIMES
US President Donald Trump approved the assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani seven months ago, NBC News reported on Monday, citing five current and former senior administration officials.Israel (unsurprisingly) should be called to account too:
The president first issued the directive to kill Soleimani in June, after Iran shot down a US drone, the report said.
The order authorised the assassination in response to any Iranian attacks resulted in the death of American citizens, the report said, adding that Trump's directive came with the condition that he would have the final authority to sign off on the operation.
Trump gave his final approval for the assassination after the storming of the embassy in Baghdad on 31 December, according to the report.
The reported timing of the presidential order appears to undermine Trump's assertion that he authorised the assassination after learning that Soleimani was planning "imminent" attacks on US embassies in the Middle East.
According to an NBC News report late Friday, the Jewish state was involved in the January 3 operation, handing the Americans key intelligence details.Trump maintains he was right to order the assassination:
The information helped confirm intelligence provided by informants at a Syrian airport that Soleimani had been on a nighttime flight from Damascus to Baghdad, the report said, quoting two sources with direct knowledge of the operation and other US officials briefed on it.
After his plane landed, it was a simple matter of using drones to track him exiting the aircraft and entering a car, which was later targeted with four missiles.
Israeli media reported the day after the strike that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had briefed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of time about the US plans to kill Soleimani.
The Reuters news agency reported Thursday that a series of Syrian and Iraqi informants are suspected of providing the US with the information that led to Soleimani's killing.
The suspected informants โ two security employees at Baghdad airport and two workers in private Syrian airline Cham Wings โ gave the intelligence about Soleimani's secret flight from Damascus to Baghdad, the report said, quoting security officials, Baghdad airport employees and Cham Wings employees.
The president claimed in tweets marred with misspellings that it does not matter if Soleimani presented an imminent threat to the US, something he had said previously to defend the assassination, because of the general's "horrible past."Some have pointed to the hypocritical about-face made by the Trump administration with regard to Soleimani:
Trump also accused the media of trying to portray "terrorist Soleimani" as a "wonderful guy."
Though the president has claimed the January 3 assassination of Soleimani was due to the general planning attacks against US forces and embassies, his own defense secretary admitted on Sunday that he "didn't see" any specific evidence to suggest those attacks were imminent.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also struggled in a recent press conference to define the "imminent" threat Soleimani presented to the US. He claimed the US "got it right" with their decision to kill the general.
I still say this happened b/c the NeoCon GOP Senators has a knife to his neck in the form of impeachment. And, as I posted elsewhere, Tom Luongo thinks it was a set up too--with Pelosi holding the articles and waiting for things to get set in motion (deep state tag-team IMO)
"The Flying Monkeys Have Taken Over The Asylum" - Impeachment, Soleimani, & The Pull Of The Swamp
[Link] John Hankey has two really good documentaries out there (one on the assassination of JFK, and one on the assassination of JFK Jr.) and he suggests that in order to get to be President of the US it's a bit like a gang initiation--TPTB need you to get yourself dirty and prove you can be trusted to continue the ruthless foreign policy. It was definitely an interesting theory, and though I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, but it was something to think about.