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.
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.
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.
First, the explanation from former CIA Director, current U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo:
President Trump responds to the domestic and foreign alignment of provocations.
President Trump doesn’t have too many options here. However, he’s a much more cunning adversary than the Deep State has faced previously. Strategically a good decision to head-off those carrying the banners in the war parade. Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Asper, Joint Chiefs’ Milley have an alignment of domestic interests well organized.
Resounding applause will be heard from The State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA, Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, John Bolton, Tom Cotton, Adam Kinzinger, Mark Levin, Mitt Romney and a host of well positioned senators, soon to be jurists….
The domestic warning was akin to ‘we can create a Benghazi, watch‘. POTUS takes the energy from the threat, uses a little judo adding his own energy, and controls the outcome.
“Happy New Year” is akin to “Relax, I got this“…. So now we watch.
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If they think Iran is attempting to bait the U.S. into military action in Iraq that will facilitate the agenda of Iran… then why would Pompeo, Esper and Milley take the bait?
The most likely answer is because they (DoS/CIA) wanted to take the bait… then stage an overreaction (DoD)…. and call it “defensive” (DoS)… which makes matters worse…. and draws us in deeper (DoD/DoS)… which is the excuse for war with Iran…. which is ultimately the end goal.
Only this time it’s obvious…
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Well, well, well…. we are not alone in our suspicions of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley.
Tonight Col Douglas Macgregor outlines his own suspicions about the U.S. military attack in Iraq and Syria that parallel our initial gut reaction. Macgregor states his belief that President Trump is being “skillfully misinformed”. WATCH:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears on Fox and Friends this morning to discuss several topics. One key topic was yesterdays U.S. military strikes in Syria and Iraq.
President Trump has been silent about the controversial strikes. No White House statement, no press release, no tweets, complete and total silence. Overlay that silence with Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Asper and Joint Chief Milley’s rather odd briefing statements yesterday from Mar-a-Lago; and consider this interview:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Miley traveled to Mar-a-Lago today to brief President Trump on issues around the middle-east. The three leaders also held a press briefing this evening about U.S. military strikes that took place earlier today.
At the beginning of his remarks Secretary Pompeo stated “we came to Florida today to brief the president on activities that have taken place in the Middle East over the course of the last 72 hours.” Additionally Pompeo said he would let Esper discuss “the military aspects but I wanted to put into context our policy with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Secretary Pompeo: “The attack that took place against the Iraqi facility threatened American forces. This has been going on now for weeks and weeks and weeks. This wasn’t the first set of attacks against this particular Iraqi facility and others where there were American lives at risk. And today what we did is take a decisive response that makes clear what President Trump has said for months and months and months, which is that we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy.”
Earlier this morning Commander-in-Chief President Donald Trump hosted a Christmas Eve video teleconference with members of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard to thank them for their service and wish them a merry Christmas.
Participating on the call were: ♦ARMY Unit: 103 Sustained Command, Location: Camp Arifjan, Kuwait Captain Roxanna Flores. ♦MARINE CORPS Unit: Task Force Southwest 19.2, Location: Camp Shorab, Afghanistan, Brigadier General David Odom. ♦NAVY
Unit: USS Forest Sherman (DDG 98), Location: Gulf of Aden, Commander Frank Azzarello. ♦AIR FORCE Unit: 20th Attack Squadron, Location: Whiteman AFB, Missouri
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Wassmuth; and ♦COAST GUARD Unit: CG Air Station Sitka,
Location: Sitka, Alaska, Captain Michael Frawley. [Video Below]