According to a recent report released by the Times of Israel, it was officials in Tel Aviv who provided the White House with the key intelligence details leading to the targeted double assassination of Iranian Quds Force leader, General Qasem Soleimani, and senior Iraqi PMU commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, on January 3rd.
CONFIRMED: Israel Supplied the Key Intelligence for U.S. Assassination of Iran’s Soleimani
This latest revelation should not surprise anyone who has been actively following the exploits of the current Trump Administration and its partner organization, Israel’s Netanyahu government.
The illegal assassinations prompted an Iranian missile strike on two US bases in Iraq, and bringing Washington and Tehran dangerously close to a larger military confrontation, until Trump stood down in the face of reprisals by Iran and its allies in the region.
This latest news also validates previous analysis by 21WIRE which concluded that Israel has been the primary source of “intelligence” provided to the White House, relating to the recent chain of events involving the United States, Iraq and Iran.
Netanyahu Lied About Involvement
This also indicates that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was lying last week when he told ministers that the killing of Soleimani was “carried out solely by the US,” and that Israel was not involved. According to Axios:
“Netanyahu told Security Cabinet ministers Monday that the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani was carried out solely by the U.S. and that Israel was not involved in any way and must not be dragged into the escalating conflict, two ministers who attended the meeting told me.”
This calculated move to walk-back his previously hawkish stance on Soleimani and Iran appears to have been a shrewd and cynical political maneuver to avoid being implicated in the political maelstrom which ensued in Washington – where US Senators and Congressional Representatives were demanding the White House present any of the illusive intelligence relating to the successive incidents. Their calls were met with complete stonewalling from the Trump Administration who claimed that any discussion into the matter would be ‘helping the enemy.’
The question now is whether or not Israel also provided the White House the illusive intelligence that prompted Trump’s illegal assassination orders – the mysterious intelligence which claimed there were “imminent threats” to the United States. Elected representatives are still waiting.
The new reports now reveal how Israeli intelligence officials provided President Trump the location and reconnaissance data which resulted in the state-sanctioned murder of Soleimani. Details of the operation also appeared in an NBC News report:
Armed with a tip from informants at the airport in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the CIA knew exactly when a jet carrying Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani took off en route to Baghdad. Intelligence from Israel helped confirm the details.
Once the Cham Wings Airlines Airbus A320 landed, American spies at Iraq’s main airport, which houses U.S. military personnel, confirmed its exact whereabouts.
Three American drones moved into position overhead, with no fear of challenge in an Iraqi airspace completely dominated by the U.S. military. Each was armed with four Hellfire missiles.
(…) On large screens, various U.S. officials watched as an Iraqi militia leader walked up a set of stairs to greet the leader of Iran’s Quds Force as he emerged from the airplane. It was past 1 in the morning, so the black and white infrared imagery wasn’t very clear. No faces could be seen.
It is important to note that from the onset of the Trump presidency, Israel has played a visible role in directing US policy regarding Iran. In fact, the current round of hostilities between the US and Iran was started when the White House unilaterally withdrew from the landmark international JCPOA Iran Nuclear Agreement in May 2018. Leaked recordings reveal that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu boasted about his own role in convincing the White House to unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA deal.
At the same time,
Official ISIS Newspaper ‘Thanks God’ for Trump Killing Iran’s General Soleimani
It was only a matter of time before President Trump got the recognition he deserved for America’s military exploits these past two weeks.
Yesterday, Trump received glowing praise from the official international ISIS newspaper, Al Naba, highlighting Washington’s assassination of Iranian IRGC’s General Qasem Soleimani on January 3rd.
by Patrick Henningsen | 21stCenturyWire
In an ideal world, this latest endorsement by ISIS for Trump’s actions should really put to rest the well-worn Washington and Israeli propaganda talking point that Soleimani was an “evil and deadly terrorist.” Unfortunately, the current American political discourse is so thoroughly coated in layers of political fiction that this might take a while to sink in.
One only has to take a cursory look at reports over the last few years to quickly realise exactly how valuable the Iranian military and its celebrated general were in the global war on terror. Yet, this reality is mostly lost on US war hawks and America’s Conservative punditry class.
In her recent reporting, BBC Monitoring editor Mimi Al-Lami described how Islamic State terrorists are now “thanking God,” that the US and Iran are busy targeting each other, and “indifferent to the impact it has on their mutual fight against the Islamic State.”
Thread: In the editorial of its weekly paper #AlNaba, #ISIS welcomes the death of #Soleimani in a US drone strike, but is careful not to openly credit the US for his demise but portrays it as an act of God to support IS and Muslims more broadly. pic.twitter.com/6bNXiMyOcX
— Mina Al-Lami (@Minalami) January 10, 2020
The inconvenient fact that Soleimani was actually leading the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2018, has been carefully airbrushed from most US media coverage and commentary. But this wasn’t always the case. Even leading pro-war outlets like CNN admitted as far back as 2015 how US military officials acknowledged the pivotal leadership role played by the Iranian Quds Force commander – which helped turn the tide against the deadly terrorist wave.
Retired US Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey, also praised Iran and Soleimani’s role in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and in particular, in the Battle of Tikrik, calling it ‘a positive step’. Newsweek said at the time, “without Iranian assistance and Soleimani’s guidance, the offensive on Tikrit may not have been possible.”
US Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis reiterated the praise for Soleimani back in November 2014, explaining, “The fighting that’s going on now in Iraq [against Islamic state] quite frankly has been led by General Soleimani, the Quds Force out of Tehran.”
Western media used to accurately report that Soleimani led Iran’s fight against ISIS. When Trump assassinated him, those same outlets portrayed him as the world’s number one terrorist. Watch my short video on how US regime media manufactures consent: pic.twitter.com/REpCuuxpJC
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) January 10, 2020
Another example of when western media used to admit Soleimani fought ISIS 👇
Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis in Nov 2014: “The fighting that’s going on now in Iraq [against Islamic state] quite frankly has been led by General Soleimani, the Quds Force out of Tehran.” pic.twitter.com/b64nc6mx2S
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) January 10, 2020
Despite all of this, the rabid calls for military intervention dominate the Beltway’s bellicose conversation. Behind Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are perennial Republican hawks like Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ben Sasse (R-NE), all of whom have been crowing endlessly about their seemingly great acheivement following the US drone attack which was carried out near Baghdad International Airport on Friday January 3rd. Their narrative is all but baked into any commentary after the fact, mainly to somehow justify what the White House has just done. The reclassification of Soleimani as a “terrorist” – and not someone who was instrumental in fighting terrorism, is perhaps one of Washington’s great propaganda successes of recent years.
Now with Soleimani out of the way, ISIS thanked the United States for eliminating one of its most feared adversaries. BBC’s Al-Lami adds:
“It welcomes IS enemies being busy fighting each other, saying it distracts them away from “Muslims” and drains their energy which, it adds, benefits jihadists.”
“The killing of Soleimani “has created changes in the path of the Crusader campaign against the Islamic State and its soldiers, which we believe is part of God’s support for His patient mujahidin.”
Coming to grips with the actual reality on the ground in the region may be out of the scope of understanding of American neoconservative war hawks, who generally view the Middle East in terms of binary and sectarian paradigms like Israel vs Muslims, or Shia vs Sunni. Hence, it may take a while longer before any of this can filter through into the collective consciousness of a highly propagandized 21st century American society. For Trump’s MAGA cult followers, this cold reality will be even more difficult to grasp, and may never penetrate this group’s membrane of cognitive dissonance.
The loss of Soleimani in the war on terror was echoed by Rev Ibrahim Nseir, a pastor and leading Christian voice in the Middle East from the Arab Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Aleppo, who said, “All what Qassem Soleimani did was stand up for Christians against ISIS and Al Qaeda.”
“All what Qassem Soleimani did was stand up for Christians against ISIS and Al Qaeda”
A mass was held in the evangelical church of Aleppo, Syria to honor the martyrdom of General Soleimani who had an essential role in the liberation battle of Aleppo against US-backed Jihadists. pic.twitter.com/yEgU4FyRAO
— هادي نصرالله (@HadiNasrallah) January 6, 2020
Based on the terrorist group’s recent statement, General Qasem Soleimani was certainly regarded a mortal enemy of ISIS and al Qaeda in the Middle East, and will no doubt be remembered throughout the region as a key figure in the battle to push back radical jihadist terror.
If ISIS does reemerge, then there’s a risk that residents of the region may also remember Donald Trump’s double assassination of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani and the Iraqi military’s PMU commander, Abu Mahdi al Mouhendis – for what it truly was, a gift to global terrorism.
Let’s hope the region can eventually overcome these reoccurring pestilences.
Whaddaya Say?