As the Trump Administration continues to barrel toward a war with Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a press conference in which he once again claimed that every dubious accusation made by the administration was true, and the internally inconsistent comments among top officials are all somehow in agreement.
Pompeo’s comments, even the ones that made no sense or were obviously untrue, were echoed across US media outlets as absolute facts following the briefing. Everyone was clearly more comfortable just reporting “Pompeo says” than analyzing it.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was very critical of some of the worst claims Pompeo made, saying one would have to be brain-dead to believe them. He noted it made no sense to attack Iran to “preempt” attacks when the attack just made attacks even more likely.
Pompeo was largely dismissive of questions about the US attack, and rejected claims that Gen. Qassem Soleimani was working on Saudi diplomacy, saying nobody believed Soleimani was engaged in diplomacy and that Iran’s Foreign Minister was lying about that. In reality, Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi was the one who broke the story of why Soleimani was in Iraq. Instead of offering evidence to the contrary, Pompeo just denied.
On the question of the US barring Zarif from the UN in violation of the headquarters agreement, Pompeo said the US doesn’t comment on why they deny people entrance, and insisted that the US always complies with the headquarters agreement, despite it flat out saying you can’t block officials from speaking at the UN, and the US doing exactly that.
The closest anyone at the briefing came to calling Pompeo on his contradictions was on the matter of the US attacking cultural sites. President Trump threatened to attack Iranian cultural sites on Saturday, Pompeo said Trump never said that on Sunday, and Trump said it again on Sunday evening. Pompeo was asked to address this.
Pompeo said that what he said, that Trump never said there would be attacks on cultural sites, was “completely consistent with what the President has said,” which repeatedly was that he intends to attack cultural sites. This was a bit too glaring, and one of the press said “No, but the President has -” before being interrupted by Pompeo.
At this point, Pompeo went off on a tangent claiming that the ayatollah is the “real threat” to Iranian culture. When asked if that meant US attacks on cultural sites are “ruled out,” despite Trump’s comments, Pompeo promptly ended the briefing and left.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper also claimed on Tuesday that Soleimani was planning to attack Americans “within days” if the US hadn’t killed him. As with Pompeo, his claim did not include any evidence, and as with Pompeo’s claims, the press is echoing it.
It has begun.
God help us all.
You should look past the vale.
That makes zero sense, not that I give a damn what anyone has to say about it at this point anyway.
It makes zero sense to you because you have set your senses at zero.
Pompeo, ” we lie, we cheat, we steal “
I swear Pompeo is Cheney. I know I can’t say things like I hope something traumatic happens to them where they experience a permanent cessation of consciousness so I’ll just say that I hope Karma is real and at least a bit painful.
I suppose saying it a second time might be a bad idea given the circumstances..
It makes sense. The Emperor returned in the final film.
Problem is that he’s already had “permanent cessation of consciousness” along with his conscience being shut down as well.
I swear Pompeo is Cheney
Less smart, more religious fanaticism. Equally dangerous.
Everyone, repeat after me!
‘9/11! Never forgive, never forget.’
‘They hate us for our freedoms.’
‘We need to attack them over there so they can’t attack us here.’
If that is irony or sarcasm, it ain’t funny.
How about the truth? It’s not like we won’t be hearing them ad nauseam.
Pompass, the top US diplomat, is unfortunately typical of US diplomacy and of many US Evangelical Christians. Any simple observation shows that all the grotesque lies about Iran, past, present and future, have no basis.
Pompeo had special training in how to lie effectively since that is part of what the CIA is about when dealing with the rest of us…Operation Mockingbird is alive and well in the White House…
One might think he’d be better at it…
Pompeo was appointed by the President and approved by a Republican Senate because he lies.
Heck, Uncle Sam has been lying for more than 200 years. Just ask the Native Americans.
Exactly!
When you send military forces into nations that no longer want them there, of course, they are in danger of getting hurt. So even if Soleimani planned military attacks on invasive forces, how is that different than any other place where military forces are at odds? By the rationale of Pompeo, he would fully understand then that the assassination by incineration of one of our top Generals while in a Third Country would be acceptable, because that General was planning an attack on opposing forces?
“Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was very critical of some of the worst claims Pompeo made, saying one would have to be brain-dead to believe them. He noted it made no sense to attack Iran to “preempt” attacks when the attack just made attacks even more likely.”
Rand should have stuck to his guns when Pompeo was approved by the senate but he caved. Still, calling him “brain dead” brought a smile to my face. We can only wait with joyful anticipation to when Rand is talking literally.
Pompeo please take your lyin’ shit show to Kansas, apologies to that state.
It is indeed quite remarkable in a very bad way that pomp feels free to stand up before the world and utter these absolutely obvious lies. I initially thought that because he is a fundamentalist zealot, that he truly believed his lies.
Now, I’m not so sure because he is part of an admin that really does not deal in facts and truth so he is one of their star performers in attempting manipulation and deception.
So, this is what we have, America.
When will the press begin to challenge this dangerous farce or when will the american sheeple find leaders with status to stand up challenge this complete and utter deception. Unfortunately, I do not believe it will happen anytime soon.
You could bury all the PGE power lines in California for the cost of a single B-2 bomber, but there is plenty of money for bombers and missiles that leave nothing but holes in the ground, and none for life-saving infrastructure. Where are the protestors?
Among the Presidential candidates there is only one who has taken an anti-war stance, Bernie Sanders, and despite his age ands slight infirmity, the others do not deserve support for having failed to address this issue squarely.