Israel’s former military intelligence chief has said Israel convinced the US that Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani posed an “immediate threat” to American soldiers, the same language former President Trump used to justify his assassination at the time, although no evidence was ever provided for the claim.
Soleimani was the commander of Iran’s IRGC Quds Force and was killed in Baghdad by a US drone strike in January 2020. At the time, Tamir Hayman served as the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate. Hayman told Jewish News that Israel had provided the US with information to convince the US Soleimani posed a threat.
“We supplied the intelligence and shared analysis and over a long period of time they were eventually convinced that Soleimani was an immediate threat to American lives and its strategic posture in the Middle East,” Hayman said.
Trump told reporters at the time of the killing that Soleimani was “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.” The claim was never confirmed, and according to then-Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Soleimani was in Baghdad as part of an Iraqi mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“I was supposed to meet him in the morning the day he was killed, he came to deliver a message from Iran in response to the message we had delivered from the Saudis to Iran,” Abdul-Mahdi said after the assassination.
Trump’s justification for the assassination later changed, and members of Congress briefed on the killing said the administration provided no evidence of “imminent attacks.” In a legally mandated memo to Congress issued in February 2020, the administration dropped the “imminent attacks” claim altogether.
The memo said the assassination was done to “protect United States personnel, to deter Iran from conducting or supporting further attacks against United States forces and interests, to degrade Iran’s and Quds Force-back militia’s ability to conduct attacks, and to end Iran’s strategic escalation of attacks.”
The series of events that led to Soleimani’s assassination was sparked by a rocket attack on a base in Kirkuk, Iraq, that killed a US contractor on December 27th, 2019. The US blamed the Kirkuk attack on Kataib Hezbollah, a Shia militia the US views as an Iranian proxy.
The US responded to the Kirkuk attack by launching airstrikes on several Kataib Hezbollah targets, killing 25 of the group’s fighters. The airstrikes enraged many Iraqis, and protesters stormed the US embassy. After the embassy incident, President Trump ordered the drone strike that killed Soleimani.
The US never substantiated the claim that Kataib Hezbollah was responsible for the Kirkuk attack. In February, Iraqi intelligence officials told The New York Times that it was more likely that ISIS carried out the Kirkuk attack. ISIS would also have the motive to spark fighting between the US and Iran and the Shia militias as they were previously allied against the Sunni terror group.
The drone strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, who led the Popular Mobilization Forces, a group of mostly Iraqi Shia militias that was formed in 2014 to fight ISIS. The killings enraged many in Iraq and brought the US and Iran to the brink of war, but the standoff was defused after Iranian missile strikes on bases in Iraq housing US troops that didn’t result in any deaths. But to this day, Iran vows revenge for Soleimani’s death.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive…”
Worse than I had imagined… Israel again, and again, and again…. Sponsored and paid for by US, and even me, against my will… I’m disgusted…!!!!!!!
In a representative democracy,however flawed the one we have is,your “will” is no more important than anyone else’s. If I don’t like supporting public schools, I still pay for them, and rightly so.
Trump according to WSJ was promised of no more harrassing threat of impeachment from the senate if he killed Soleimani.
Then orange clown killled .
No surprise.
He was a very bad guy
Much better guy than Herzl,Ben Guiron,Weissman,Shamir,Begin, Golda Meir, Shimon, Shamir, Bibi,and Sharon .Also lot better than Kagan Kruthamer Kristol, Perle,Wolfowitz,Feith,Abram and Schumer.
Maybe better than prokyssencho
He was no threat to the US. At least anyone in the US. But the little parasite made a demand and the Don obeyed.
The usual BS. He killed hundreds of Americans. Is that not reason enough?
The BS if from a former Israeli intel chief. And the only Americans killed were on the other side of the world where they don’t belong. And one can only imagine the reaction by the US if one of their own “very bad guy” general had been assassinated.
So the 241 marines killed by Hezbollah (an Iranian proxy) in 1983 marine barracks bombing had it coming because they didn’t belong there ?
I joined the Marine Corps shortly after the Beirut attack, and worked with some of the survivors.
They were all of the opinion that they didn’t belong there, and upon a re-think, Reagan agreed and decided to GTFO of Lebanon.
That may be the case. But it shouldn’t mean that those responsible should not be held accountable
They were sleeping with their watch on guard without ammunition in an insanely unstable area. Raygun sure got as pass because he made people feel good. If you send your guys there,then let them do the job.
I clearly recall remarking at the time, more than once, that even the teenagers in Beirut had ammo in their guns, but not US marines. It was ridiculous.
I didn’t say anything about anyone “having it coming”. That doesn’t change whether they belonged there or not. They didn’t. A US general would do/does similar things that the assassinated Iranian general did and would be called a patriot.
IRGC is not a promoter of peace, and if you are their leader,what does that make you?
Not relevant. As usual.
4Q.If soli went around causing violence and death, he got what for.
4Q too. And if causing violence and death are criteria for getting assassinated, Israel and the US would be missing a boat load of people.
Americans were getting killed. Americans didnt know . Israelis figured it out . Israelis told to kill Sulemani .
The big parasite calling others parasites-laughable.
Sure. Everyone that paid into a system for 50 years is a parasite. So, do you have any parasites in your family? Or are you twelve and none of your relatives have reached social security age?
“ISIS carried out the Kirkuk attack”
More likely Israel told ISIS to attack and then blame it on 3rd party .US always looks to Israel to run the country known as America.
Typical canard that I would expect. We all know who invented AIDS and COVID.
Well, yes … the US was run by a trash talking real estate developer who murdered at will. And?
And he killed fewer people than any of the community organizers or lifetime politicians who have held the office.
My sign for Bush Jr. said “BUSH IS A STUPID WARMONGER”, and the site would filter what I commonly call Obama.
Nothing surprising here.
IsraHell says “ Bend over”: Amerikkka says, “Okay, but hand me the KY first.”
” But to this day, Iran vows revenge for Soleimani’s death.”
Trump and Pompeo should be looking over their shoulders at all times.
Don’t buy this Israeli BS. Iranian Mullahs saw the general a threat to their power and sold him out.
There is no ‘conviction’. It was ” do it,otherwise,we will fuck you ,you moron orange fool “.
Orange fool did it .
Now lets go back to WSJ reporting that Trump was told that senate wont impeach him if he assissinated Soleimani.
Yes,the zionist could claim that there was a threat but it was not to the soldiers . It was to Trump.
Why did the senate make this deamnd?
Senate is infested with Israeli agents . Israel tells them how to play good cop or bad cop.
Convinced? That’s an interesting way to put it.
Conspiracy to commit murder?