Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the NBC News report that US President had authorized Iran’s Soleimani killing 7 months ago in June, with conditions, and as a part of a “list” of “menu” options presented the the US president, courtesy of John Bolton.
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Bolton’s Swamp Played Key Role In Soleimani Killing by The Duran
The Duran Quick Take: Episode 433. The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the NBC News report that US President had authorized Iran’s Soleimani killing 7 months ago in June, with conditions, and as a part of a “list” of “menu” options presented the the US president, courtesy of John Bolton.
There’s been a number of theories to emerge surrounding President Trump’s incredibly risky decision to assassinate IRGC Guds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, including that it was all the brainchild of hawkish Secretary of State and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
But an emerging reporting consensus does indicate that the public justification for the strike — that Soleimani posed an “imminent” threat as he was orchestrating an attack against American troops and sites in the region — was manufactured based on flimsy intelligence. The evolving and contradictory statements within the administration itself demonstrates at least this much.
And now according to the latest NBC bombshell it’s becoming clear that the top IRGC general’s killing was actually months in the works:
President Donald Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Gen.Qassem Soleimani seven months ago if Iran’s increased aggression resulted in the death of an American, according to five current and former senior administration officials.
Apparently the “option” to take him out was already on the “menu” of Pentagon contingencies long before Soleimani’s fateful Jan.3 early morning passage through Baghdad International Airport.
Reports NBC based on multiple officials, “The presidential directive in June came with the condition that Trump would have final signoff on any specific operation to kill Soleimani, officials said.”
The Dec.27 Kataeb Hezbollah rocket attack on a US base in Kirkuk then became a core element of the official rationale, given it killed an American contractor later identified as 33-year old Sacramento resident Nawres Waleed Hamid, who had been assisting the Army as a linguist.
The new report confirms further that it was both National Security Advisor at the time John Bolton as well as Mike Pompeo that had Trump’s ear on the subject.
“There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time” related to bold steps to curtail Iranian aggression, a senior administration official told NBC, which reports further:
The president’s message was “that’s only on the table if they hit Americans,” according to a person briefed on the discussion.
The origins of the plan to assassinate the top IRGC elite force general and popular “national hero” inside Iran actually evolved initially out of 2017 discussions involving Trump’s national security adviser at the time, retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.
The report explains:
The idea of killing Soleimani came up in discussions in 2017 that Trump’s national security adviser at the time, retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, was having with other administration officials about the president’s broader national security strategy, officials said. But it was just one of a host of possible elements of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran and “was not something that was thought of as a first move,” said a former senior administration official involved in the discussions.
The idea did become more serious after McMaster was replaced in April 2018 by Bolton, a longtime Iran hawk and advocate for regime change in Tehran. Bolton left the White House in September — he said he resigned, while Trump said he fired him — following policy disagreements on Iran and other issues.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s chief of staff from 2001 to 2005, cuts to the chase: “America exists today to make war. How else do we interpret 19 straight years of war and no end in sight? It’s part of who we are. It’s part of what the American Empire is. We are going to lie, cheat and steal, as Pompeo is doing right now, as Trump is doing right now, as Esper is doing right now … and a host of other members of my political party, the Republicans, are doing right now. We are going… Read more »
Why do we need the assumption that The President was manipulated into signing off on the assassination of Sulemani? And why do we need the assumption that the advisors of The President is trying to push him into war or force a regime change in Iran? I don’t see any proof of either, not even circumstantial proof. Why this whole theory of the President being an easy target when he’s golfing at Mar a Lago. The facts of this revelation that The President put Sulemani on the list in June last year, only implies that is was an option. A… Read more »
A glass half full…. of arsenic, is not much of an elixir.
Time to throw in the towel. Trump has shown his true nature; lining up tin soldiers on a monopoly board and making up the rules as he goes. PNACers never had it so good as with this guy.
Let me get this straight. The “stable genius” can’t comprehend that killing adversaries on diplomatic missions in Iraq and who, by the way, were most instrumental in engineering the defeat of ISIS is not only legally wrong but morally wrong, as well. This “stable genius” didn’t learn anything from the false flags in Syria (beautiful babies, don’t you remember). This “stable genius” picked all these advisors that got him in this predicament. But poor baby “stable genius” shouldn’t be blamed for any of this. Never mind the B*LLSH*T. The two Alex’s desperate “I want to believe” about Trump really pisses… Read more »
Agreed. After three years of being “deceived” by the neocons, if Trump hasn’t seen through their agenda by now, he’s either too stupid to be president, or he’s thick as thieves with them.
The Orange Baboon is ‘Intellectual Lazy’ [copyright: Max Blumenthal], Arrogant as hell, a total Sociopath w/o a moral compass and gives a shit about the rest of the World….he also has this fascist US Exceptionalism horseshit delusion….that’s whats unfolding here.
All fine qualifications for any US presidential candidate these days. Almost de rigueur, even genetic one might say.
The neocons stroke his ego and he purrs like a kitten, then tweets pictures of himself as a roaring lion. It’s all in the playbook.
Get it straight? That’s a no no. Trump’s foreign policy is much like a maneuverable ICBM. It’d designed to be nigh on impossible to put your finger on it.
That may be a bit too sophisticated though. (rocket science & all). Here’s an alternate analog that may fit better:
It’s like trying to change in motion, the underwear of an escaped mental patient on the run as he cannonballs helter skelter through the corridors of power (a.k.a. The Asylum), hoping to avoid being fingered.
Bush was manipulated into attacking Iraq; Obama was manipulated into attacking Libya; Trump was manipulated into killing Soleimani. We can make this apologetic argument for any president. But who makes the final decision to kill? A weak-minded president is a pathetic and dangerous being. Sorry, neither Bush, Obama nor Trump deserve a pass on their bad executive decisions. They may have been manipulated, or they may have embraced the neocon agenda for their own convenience and narcissism. Whatever their reasons, they are war criminals.
Janet, I agree completely….there is no excuse for any of these actions..
It vaz moider!
It impresses me time and again how the US respects people’s lives. Really! How the US goes to so many places in the world to preach “human rights” and “democracy”. This deplorable nation can’t even respect their own citizens…
Yeah, land of the free – you know! There’s no justice in the USA – what so ever – if you are black, brown, red or simply poor. The country where record numbers of unarmed people shot dead by police and the majority are people of color. The country whith the largest gulag prison system on the planet with the majority of inmates are people of color, convicted of minor non-violent offenses but with extrem long sentences to be exploited as slaves, tortured, treated like animals – those prisons are for-profit prisons owned by the new[old] slavers AKA corrupt elites… Read more »