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On January 12th, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that he had seen no “hard evidence” to suggest that four American embassies had been under possible threat when President Donald Trump authorized the drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and others.
Esper said the Trump administration thought that Iran might have hit more than just the US Embassy in the Iraqi capital. But when Esper was asked whether he had seen any evidence replied:
“I didn’t see one with regard to four embassies.″
And in response to a question about whether Trump was “embellishing″ the threat, Esper said, ”I don’t believe so.”
Esper also spoke of the protests in Iran, claiming that the people were “hungry for a more accountable government.”
“You can see the Iranian people are standing up and asserting their rights, their aspirations for a better government — a different regime,” Esper said.
US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien spoke on the matter, as well. O’Brien suggested the United States sees this moment as an opportunity to further intensify pressure on Iran’s leaders.
“I think the regime is having a very bad week,” O’Brien said.
“This was a regime that’s reeling from maximum pressure, they’re reeling from their incompetence in this situation and the people of Iran are just fed up with it,” he said.
O’Brien emphasized that regime change was not the US policy on the matter, which clearly contradicts reality.
“The people of Iran are going to hopefully have the ability at some point to elect their own government and to be governed by the leaders they choose,” the National Security Adviser said.
NBC News cited five unnamed current and former Trump administration official who said that Trump had authorized the killing of Qassem Soleimani 7 months ago, but with some conditions.
The presidential directive in June came with the condition that Trump would have final signoff on any specific operation to kill Soleimani, the sources said.
“There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time,” an anonymous senior administration official said.
After Iran shot down a U.S. drone in June, John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser at the time, urged Trump to retaliate by signing off on an operation to kill Soleimani, according to the sources, but the US President refused. Allegedly, Trump said that Soleimani would be assassinated if Iran “crossed a redline” – killing an American.
Trump signed off on the operation to kill Soleimani after supporters of Kata’ib Hezbollah responded to the U.S. strikes on their positions by storming the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper presented a series of response options to the president two weeks ago, including killing Soleimani.
Esper presented the pros and cons of such an operation but made it clear that he was in favor of taking out Soleimani, officials said. This directly contradicts what Esper has said, following Soleimani’s killing.
The management of Babson College in Massachusetts dismissed associate professor Ashin Phansey, after he made a joke that Iran should list the “cultural heritage sites” of the US that could be hit, the NYT reported.
Fancey, although he recognized his humor as “unsuccessful,” claims that employers violated his right to freedom of speech by firing him.
Why does @Babson "College" have an America-hating terrorist supporter on their payroll. Ask them! 781-236-1200. https://t.co/aEkeRF44Fi
— Rick Shaftan (@Shaftan) January 8, 2020
According to The New York Times, Phansey is a graduate of the private Babson College, in 2008 he graduated from the university with a degree in business administration. He then became an associate professor.
Upon learning of Phansey’s comments, his employers rushed to dismiss him and declare that Babson College condemns “threats in any form” and “acts condoning violence”, and noted that the opinion expressed on their employee’s personal page does not reflect the cultural values of the institution.
After removal, Phansey apologized for his “unsuccessful humor.”
“As a person born and raised in America, I tried to compare our cultural objects with the ancient temples and mosques of Iran. I apologize if someone saw the threat in my unsuccessful joke,” he said.
According to Ashin Phansey, he is “disappointed” and “dejected” by the fact that his employer decided to dismiss him only because “someone intentionally distorted the joke” that he “wrote for friends” on Facebook.
The ex-professor admitted that he hoped that Babson College would uphold his right to freedom of speech, and shared concerns about how this precedent might affect Americans’ continued attempts to express their views on political issues.
Phansey’s lawyer Jeffrey Pyle claims that his client was fired only because they wanted to drown outrage in social networks.
The lawyer also emphasized that some criticisms of Phansey were racist in nature.
Regardless, this is an example of censorship and thwarting of free speech, specifically what the US accuses the Iranian leadership carrying out, among other things.
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The most disgusting part is that the murdering, liars and savage Americunts arseholes assassinated a decent man on a mission of peace to reduce tensions in the region. Most people now recognize that as the Jew scum did not want General Soleimani to succeed in defusing tensions with the Saudi losers they had the fat pimp Pompeo order the dumbass orange pig moron Trump to authorize his killing. Hopefully, the people in Iran and the world will see the whole picture and realize what the the Zionist scum are doing to create a global conflict. It is time the Zionist parasites are eliminated or the planet is doomed.
I really hope they avenge his death
Like I said before, this is a long drawn out conflict, be patient. Russia is getting pissed off with the Turkey arseholes too as Erdogan the moron is planning to invade both Syria and Libya in force. Let’s how well that is going to turn out.
I would be too, in fact I would have never started wheeling and dealing with them
Russia was trying to play the strategic game trying to pry the Turkey pimps from NATO but naive Putin does not know the backstabbing nature of the mongol peasants. The old Russian Czars and even USSR knew how to deal with Turkey cowards. Sooner than later Russia will have to take a hard look at its arms sales to the worst treacherous savages in the region.
Yea I kinda miss him lmao
blablabla
I hoped the Iranians would use some more rockets, and either wrote AMI GO HOME in 5×7 matrix letters on the runway, or use some anti satellite rockets and destroy some of US and Israhells spy satellites. This would have been a more appropriate reaction.
Yes, do they have antisat capabilities?
No they don’t.
:(
It was stopped for the counter-productive JCPOA.
Unbelievable!
It was an issue already 2008 when Iran anounced the Ghadr 110/Ashura. It was argued that they may be working on a weapon allowing to take out the spy satellites over Iran, despite the rockets to be balistic missiles..
https://defense-tech.blogspot.com/2010/06/irans-anti-satellite-asat-capability.html And Iran has the capability to detect low flying satellites as well. https://medium.com/war-is-boring/iran-can-now-detect-u-s-stealth-jets-at-long-range-765efd6253e2
That is true, but after the stupid and useless JCPOA all long range missile testing was stopped and Ahmedinajad who was the father of the long range missile program was fired. During his presidency Iran tested a missile almost every month and the range was getting longer and then all was stopped. During his tenure Iran sent 3 successful satellites into orbit.
Due to lack of cohesive and mature leadership, the Iranian mullahs are totally losing control over the whole narrative and support of their own people, which is that the Americunt arseholes killed a senior Iranian general on foreign soil without any rhyme or reason. Now Iran is in the dock trying to defend its actions. It is high time some adults take over in Tehran. It is the Americunts who started this whole mess. Even if Iran shot down the Ukrainian jet, it was not intentional and done in the fog of war. The basic FACT is that the Americunt murderers should be on trial.
Hahahaha none of these clowns can get their story straight, I would love to be a fly on the wall listening to trump talk to him and pompeo, asking them what the hell is going on hahhahahha
Of course there was no evidence, Trump turned mad after hearing rebel generals in Pentagon assassinated Iraqi & Irani generals, but had to pretend he had ordered the attack, because of the impeachment constraint. Ruling elite of the US thinks sanctions are not working, while Trump thinks they work. That’s why Trump was against assassinating generals. Maybe after 2 decades US state will reveal the facts about the chaos between the White House & the Pentagon (or ruling elite guided boomer generals).
Trump apparently didn’t need an evidence in order to avenge the attack against the embassy in Iraq. He said in advance that he would consider Iran responsible for any attack on US targets. And Solimani probably wanted to see how far he could go with his provocations. Since the liquidation, the mullahs regime managed this crisis in the most inept way possible.
I hope he will meet all the arabs and Iranians he has killed.
I hope ur late Reagan bastard meet all people he killed u cynical bastard
Me too. If he shakes hand and excuse for all, there will be no hands left:(
You love the likes of ISIS that much?
It’s obvious Trump acted impulsively when he ordered the assassination of Soleimani and neither considered or cared about the consequences. It has merely been retrospectively justified and not particularly convincingly.
Soleimani was such a bad man – that when he walked pass US troops in the Middle East – they couldn’t stop/kill him.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/03/11/22945592-7847069-Qassem_Soleimani_pictured_centre_in_Iraq_in_2015_leader_of_Iran_-a-187_1578050511689.jpg
Regardless, since when do thugs need evidence to commit crimes?
Now, if the bent-over-to-the-West Rouhani clan (opposed to the Khomeini clan which Soleimani was part of) had accepted talks with the US, this could have been avoided.
Since when do thugs need evidence?
Regardless, I find it strange that Trump — who sought talks with Iran — ordered the killing of General Suleimani. Talks with Iran were feared by the Deep State and their attack dog, Israel, and constantly rejected by Rouhani who represents the Iranian elite in bed with the Western Deep State. I suspect that the Deep State ordered the strike (Israel is said to have provided the US with Suleimani’s coordinates in Iraq) and left Trump deal with the outcome. High ranking US officials/departments and the MSM taking a stand against Trump on the matter seems indicative of the latter.
Lastly, I can’t help but wonder why the US didn’t take General Suleimani out when he walked pass US troops in Iraq?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e8a7ab968c504e3dd5405f98d8633e749f49a52db9362da8ad592f210f75b9e6.jpg