After a U.S. airstrike kills Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells ‘Fox & Friends’ that President Trump’s decision was necessary to deter further aggression and disrupt an ongoing terror plot.
Details are starting to emerge about the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force. As with all early reports a modicum of skepticism toward the details should be applied. However, here’s the expanded reporting from the Associated Press.
BAGHDAD (AP) — The Pentagon said Thursday that the U.S. military has killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, at the direction of President Donald Trump.
An airstrike killed Soleimani, architect of Iran’s regional security apparatus, at Baghdad’s international airport Friday, Iranian state television and three Iraqi officials said, an attack that’s expected to draw severe Iranian retaliation against Israel and American interests.
The Defense Department said Soleimani “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” It also accused Soleimani of approving the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad earlier this week.
A statement released late Thursday by the Pentagon said the strike on Soleimani “was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.”
Iraqi State TV tonight reporting that Qassim Soleimani, leader of Iran’s Quds Force, the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards, was killed in US airstrike near Baghdad. For context this would be the equivalent of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf being killed during Dessert Storm. This is a major escalation… buckle up!
Oh man, this is huge. Soleimani was a bad guy, a terrorist, and responsible for many U.S. deaths; but this could also mean we are about to go into a full-blown war with Iran. Also killed was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces and other members within a convoy.
Qassim Soleimani (left) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (right)
Baghdad (AP) — Iraqi TV and three Iraqi officials said Friday that Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, has been killed in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport.
The officials said the strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Their deaths are a potential turning point in the Middle East and are expected to draw severe retaliation from Iran and the forces it backs in the Middle East against Israel and American interests. The PMF blamed the United States for an attack at Baghdad International Airport Friday.
NOTE: For interested readers it will be impossible for me to summarize the background for each step prior to putting the next puzzle piece into place. Therefore I strongly suggest bookmarking posts for later reference because it would take tens of thousands of words to understand for anyone who steps into the light mid-way through. [Just an FYI]
Tomorrow, January 3rd, 2020, the House Judiciary Committeee (HJC) will be presenting oral arguments in the DC court of appeals for their effort to obtain the Mueller grand jury information [6(e) material], and also compel testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn.
The House has a group of dozens of various DOJ and former Obama officials working on their behalf. That House network also has several currently employed DOJ, FBI, State Department and Intelligence Community officials feeding them information on current real-time events. The HJC are currently arguing the Mueller material and the McGahn testimony are needed for the impeachment trial of President Trump.
If the HJC team wins the argument to the three member DC Appellate Court, the DOJ will likely file for a full ‘en blanc’ review by the entire panel. If the HJC wins the ‘en blanc’ argument the DOJ will likely appeal for an administrative stay by the Supreme Court.
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Nuttery. Abject Lawfare nuttery. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe lied four times to internal FBI investigators, three times under oath, in 2017. This led to his firing in March 2018.
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In a remarkable act of hubris, in late 2018 Andrew McCabe sued the DOJ for wrongful termination through Lawfare lawyer Michael Bromwich. The legal argument was/is essentially that McCabe was allowed to lie to FBI investigators because he was the head of the FBI (an employee of the agency).
In response to the McCabe lawsuit the DOJ filed a motion for summary dismissal due to McCabe’s lying, and an Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) affirmation, saying the termination was valid.
In today’s response motion opposing the summary judgement [cloud pdf here], using a new batch of lawyers, McCabe’s legal team argues President Trump called McCabe a “dirty cop” last month, and that proves McCabe’s firing in March 2018 was wrongful.
Yes, that is their argument.
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American voters responded to the fraudulent impeachment effort in a big financial way for President Trump in the fourth quarter. The campaign announced a massive $46 million influx which doesn’t count the amount raised by the RNC.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign raised $46 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, a major haul that was boosted by a surge of donations in the wake of the Democrats’ impeachment bid, a senior campaign official said on Thursday.
[…] The Trump campaign begins the 2020 re-election year with cash on hand of $102.7 million, the official told Reuters, an amount that will help his bid to compete in more states beyond those that carried him to his improbable victory in 2016.
The 2020 Davos economic conference will be a little more important to watch this year (as it was in 2017) due to the completed U.S. Trade Agreements (S Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and China) and the predicted focus for the Trump administration to pivot from Asia to the EU and U.K. for the next critical phase of the ‘America-First’ global trade reset.
As a result of the recent U.K. election, pending Brexit, a favorable $7.5 billion WTO ruling and USTR Lighthizer’s new $2.4 billion EU targeted tariff program, the administration has significant advantages going into a trade discussion with the EU in 2020.
Team USA has the world’s strongest economy, the largest market, legally bolstered tariff authority and a quiver full of powerful economic arrows.
Meanwhile Team EU has: (1) the UK leaving; (2) severe drops in German industrial manufacturing; (3) a shrinking French economy; (4) yellow-vests in the streets; and (5) demands for greater economic autonomy from many key member states.
Overlay Germany, France and Italy large economy challenges such as: their promise to meet NATO obligations – and their attachment to the strangling Paris Climate Treaty, and the EU’s collective economic position is precarious at best.
WHITE HOUSE – Today, President Donald J. Trump announced the Presidential Delegation that will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, from January 20 to January 24, 2020.
The Honorable Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury, will lead the delegation.
Members of the Presidential Delegation:
In the aftermath of National Security Council usurper Lt. Col. Vindman helping to orchestrate a joint DoD, CIA and State Dept soft-coup against President Trump, several pointed questions were asked about why the NSC was allowed to undermine the office they were created to support.
In response to those questions, newly appointed National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien announce the White House was in an ongoing process to reduce the size of the NSC.
A follow-up article within the Washington Times highlights the downsizing so far.
WASHINGTON DC – The White House National Security Council staff is being downsized sharply in a bid to improve efficiency within the policy coordinating body by consolidating positions and cutting staff.
A second, unspoken thrust of the overhaul is a hoped-for end to what many critics see as a string of politically damaging, unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information. Leaks of President Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders and other damaging disclosures likely originated with anti-Trump officials in the White House who stayed over from the Obama administration, according to several current and former White House officials.
At the time of a Tuesday evening Fox News interview Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was affirming his trip to Ukraine was still planned. However, by the time Pompeo woke up on Wednesday morning those plans were cancelled…. Perhaps someone told the secretary he needed to stay-attached to the crisis he helped inspire?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday postponed a trip to Ukraine so he could focus on the situation in Iraq after demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassy.
Supporters of Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups stormed the U.S. embassy’s perimeter and hurled rocks in two days of protests. They withdrew on Wednesday after Washington dispatched extra troops and threatened reprisals against Tehran.
Despite the initial reaction a stable-minded person would likely take away from the headline, it is a good thing that ABC News and other MSM have dropped their pretense and shallow-efforts to retain their open secrets.
In this example while lamenting the outcome of the recent U.K. election that saw the socialists and leftists crushed by conservative and pragmatic voters, ABC is concerned the American people may end up similarly interfering in media objectives for the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The problem they discover is this pesky concept called “freedom”.
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Consider this argument from the article: “One of the things that we’re always very cautious about is everyone looking at Russia. But actually, we should be looking at the party and political dynamics closer to home and how domestic actors are using the platforms and manipulating the systems to spread information or misinformation that’s favorable to their political stance.”
I mean seriously. Can you imagine a world where U.S. politicians easily spread information favorable to their political stance. Oh.My.God… The outcome is almost unimaginable…. People, allowed to think for themselves. Yikes, the horror of it.
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