The Iraqi Parliament vote was bogus - 2/3 of the Parliament was boycotting: With the Sunni and Kurd blocs boycotting, the pro-Iran bloc of the Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution to expel U.S. troops from the country in response to American military action that killed the leader of the Islamic regime's foreign terrorist operations.
The chamber was about one-third full on Sunday when the Shiite faction, chanting "Death to America" voted. The resolution urged Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to rescind an invitation Iraq made to U.S. forces in 2014 after about one-third of its territory was overtaken by ISIS.
We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that's there. It cost billions of dollars to build," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Washington. "We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it."
"They're allowed to kill our people," he said. "They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told "Fox News Sunday" that pressure from Iran prompted Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi and the Shiite Iraqi lawmakers to act.
"He's under enormous threats from the very Iranian leadership that ... we are pushing back against," Pompeo said. "We are confident that the Iraqi people want the United States to continue to be there to fight the counterterror campaign."
https://www.wnd.com/2020/01/pro-iran-bloc-iraq-parliament-votes-expel-u-s-troops/
SOS Pompeo:
"We didn't send pallets of cash to the Iranians. We didn't pay for hostages. We didn't create a deal which would have given them a clear pathway to a nuclear weapon. We have taken a very different approach. We believe it's the one that will ultimately lead to success and stability in the Middle East," he said.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/mike-pompeo-qassem-soleimani-strike-iran-trump
Iraqis — Iraqis — dancing in the street for freedom; thankful that General Soleimani is no more.
Ignored by Liberal Mainstream Media: Iranian Regime Bribed Funeral Attendees with Free Meals
The liberal pro-Iranian mainstream media could not stop talking about the size of the crowds at the “popular” and “loved” Qassem Soleimani funeral today. The media was in awe of the number of people at Soleimani’s funeral. Mike Maleki wrote about his experience being forced to protests as a student in Iran. https://mobile.twitter.com/mikemeleki/status/1214168860439523329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1214168860439523329&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2020%2F01%2Fignored-by-liberal-mainstream-media-iranian-regime-bribed-funeral-attendees-with-free-meals%2F The regime was serving dinners to people who came out to the funeral. Via Ali Safavi: https://mobile.twitter.com/amsafavi/status/1214288413416968192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1214288413416968192&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2020%2F01%2Fignored-by-liberal-mainstream-media-iranian-regime-bribed-funeral-attendees-with-free-meals%2F Not everyone was fooled. https://mobile.twitter.com/AlinejadMasih/status/1214288556149157890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1214288556149157890&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2020%2F01%2Fignored-by-liberal-mainstream-media-iranian-regime-bribed-funeral-attendees-with-free-meals%2F https://mobile.twitter.com/ImamSikollah/status/1214348949617659904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1214348949617659904&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2020%2F01%2Fignored-by-liberal-mainstream-media-iranian-regime-bribed-funeral-attendees-with-free-meals%2F
source -
Jan 5 - Nasiriyah, southern #Iraq #Iran-backed militias open fire on civilians refusing to attend a ceremony for the now dead IRGC Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani. All the while, @nytimes will describe him as a "popular general.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/HeshmatAlavi/status/1214150714261413889
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that the strike was carried out to prevent an “imminent attack” by forces directed by Soleimani, and said that the president has demonstrated that he will take “swift, decisive” actions to protect America.
President Trump said Friday that Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani was “hated and feared” within his own country and should have been killed “many years ago,” hitting back at critics just hours after he ordered a stunning Baghdad airstrike that killed the top military general.
“General Qassem Soleimani has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill many more…but got caught!” Trump tweeted Friday, in his first direct comments about Soleimani’s death and the U.S. airstrike. “He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people, including the recent large number of PROTESTERS killed in Iran itself.”
“While Iran will never be able to properly admit it, Soleimani was both hated and feared within the country,” he continued. “They are not nearly as saddened as the leaders will let the outside world believe. He should have been taken out many years ago!”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-soleimani-should-have-been-killed-years-ago-was-hated-within-iran
Bongino: I don't remember a single Republican asking when bin Laden was killed, "Was bin Laden an imminent threat? Did we escalate the situation?”
I'm thinking "We came, we saw, he died." by that giddy haggard old sociopath (Hillary while SOS) should just be played on a loop any time Suleimani's extermination is questioned.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENo90pYX0AEpbUB.jpg
Is it any wonder that the Sunnis and Kurds fled Baghdad allowing the Shias to vote alone?
1 THREAD: Middle East waking up to incredible news of Qassem Suleimani's killing in US strike in Iraq, at Baghdad airport. He had reportedly just flown back from Beirut. He was like a Middle East viceroy, trotting around region, giving orders, masterminding small and large ops 2 A combination of elation, relief and fear here in the region among people who suffered tremendously from Suleimani's policies, from Lebanon to Syria and Iraq. Elation and relief because he was seen as the evil mastermind of policies of death and destruction... 3 ...propping up bloodthirsty oppressive militias, overseeing a devastating war in Syria, feeding/playing on sectarian hatred, helping crack down on protestors in Iran (2009/2017/2019), Iraq now, and likely more recently helping Hezb to navigate protests in Lebanon. 4 Note that he had just flown back from Beirut.... and it's definitely not his first visit.... There were reports of him being in Lebanon in 2006 to help Hezbollah strategise in the war against Israel. 5 and so there's celebration and relief from Iran, to Iraq to Lebanon and Syria, among those, Sunnis and Shias who suffered from his evil mind. I write about him in my forthcoming book Black Wave and the deadly dynamics of revenge that he pursued after Iran-Iraq war 6 there is fear because he was so central to almost every regional event in the last two decades that even people who hate him can't believe he could die, a bit like people couldn't believe Saddam was really gone. He seemed invincible, omnipotent. What happens in his absence? 7 some of his aura or reputation was probably overblown, but he really was indispensable to Iran, he was not on a mission, he WAS the mission, the architect of Iran's expansionist regional policy, the indispensable upholder of the Islamic Revolution, keeping it alive for Khamenei 8 So what comes next: war? chaos? limited retaliation? nothing? no one really knows, not in the region, and not in DC, because this is unprecedented. 9 There is anger too of course, among his supporters, allies, proxy militias, who were devoted to him and lionized him and will be lost without him. There is no replacement that I know of or can see. They will be mulling their next step for a bit. First, huge displays of mourning 10 Lots more to say abt region, US policy, Saudi Arabia reax, Iran domestic reax, local dynamics... more later, but for now then read Dexter Filkins' piece from 2013 on Suleimaini, the best profile out there: The Shadow Commander Qassem Suleimani is the Iranian operative who has been reshaping the Middle East. Now he’s directing Assad’s war in Syria. newyorker.com https://twitter.com/KimGhattas/status/1212976875074662400https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1212976875074662400.html
DC, Beirut, the world. @CarnegieEndownon-resident scholar.
Fascinating reporting and analysis about Qassem Suleimani as he real power in Iran - quasi-military, thuggery intimidating everyone, including the mullahs. Was he Iran’s vicious version of Saddam Hussein being the scenes? Read more here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1213721173529260038.html
From June 20, 2014:
As Kenneth R. Timmerman reveals in his new book, “Dark Forces,” Suleymani was even the shadowy figure behind the killing of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.
He’s the Wizard of Oz of Iranian terror, the most dreaded and most effective terrorist alive.
He is Qassem Suleymani, the head of the Quds Force, an organization that acts as a combination CIA and Green Berets for Iran, and a man who has orchestrated a campaign of chaos against the United States around the world.
Today, the Obama Administration has allied itself with Suleymani to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
“Iran wants chaos. They want to generate anti-American anger, radicalize the rebels, and maintain a climate of war,” a former Iranian intelligence chief for Western Europe told me. “They are very serious about this. They want to damage the reputation of the United States as a freedom-loving country in the eyes of the Arabs.”
Suleymani has orchestrated attacks in everywhere from Lebanon to Thailand. The US Department of Justice accuses him of trying to hire a Mexican drug cartel to blow up the Saudi Ambassador to the United States while he was in Washington, DC.
My sources, meanwhile, say Suleymani was involved in an even more direct attack on the US — the killing of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.
“In Libya, Iran wanted to block US influence, which they saw as a threat,” the intelligence chief said. “They saw the uprising against Khadafy — and the Arab Spring more generally — as an opportunity to accomplish this.”
Since Iran is now more of an enemy at war with us, doesn’t that make the case that those aiding and abetting Iran are formally and legally guilty of Treason?
Did you know:
John Kerry’s daughter married an Iranian national, and the son of the Iranian Secretary of State was the best man at the wedding...https://michaelsavage.com/family-business-john-kerrys-secret-talks-with-iran-after-daughter-married-iranian-national-best-man-was-son-of-irans-secretary-of-state/
An Iranian member of Parliament confirmed that the Obama administration granted citizenship to approximately 2,500 Iranians -including family members of politicians and other VIPs- in the run-up to the Iranian nuclear agreement.
Via Fox News: “He claimed it was done as a favor to senior Iranian officials linked to President Hassan Rouhani, and he alleged the move sparked a competition among Iranian officials over whose children would benefit from the scheme.”
“When Obama, during the negotiations about the JCPOA, decided to do a favor to these men, he granted citizenship to 2,500 Iranians and some officials started a competition over whose children could be part of these 2,500 Iranians,” claimed the cleric.
“If today these Iranians get deported from America, it will become clear who is complicit and sells the national interest like he is selling candies to America,” he added.
https://www.rightjournalism.com/iranian-member-confirms-obama-granted-citizenship-to-2500-iranians-ahead-nuclear-deal/ Kellyanne Conway: I am not going to be lectured by people who voted affirmatively to fork over $130 billion in cash to Iran which helped to fund the Quds force. I don’t think it went to economic development or women’s freedom and liberation, do you?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/kellyanne-conway-im-not-going-to-be-lectured-by-people-who-voted-affirmatively-to-fork-over-130-billion-in-cash-to-iran-video/
Former president Barack Obama granted amnesty to Iranian general Qassem Suleimani as part of the “historic” Iran deal back in 2015.
According to a 2015 article published by The Telegraph, Suleimani was taken off the list of proscribed Iranians alongside a number of senior members of the Revolutionary Guards.
https://newspunch.com/obama-granted-amnesty-terror-general-iran-deal/
Telegraph.co.uk reports:
Qassem Suleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, fully deserves his reputation as one of the world’s leading terrorist masterminds.
For a decade a more he has been the driving force behind an array of Iranian-sponsored terrorist groups, from Hizbollah to Hamas, which have orchestrated a reign of terror throughout the Middle East.
From a purely British perspective, he was responsible for training and equipping the Shia militias in southern Iraq who killed scores of British troops during the dark days of Iraq’s sectarian conflict following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and was reported to have trained the Taliban in the art of making deadly roadside bombs that killed and mutilated our Service personnel serving in southern Afghanistan.
So you can imagine my amazement when, leafing through the more obscure annexes of President Barack Obama’s “historic” deal with Iran (page 86 of the annex, to be precise), I found that Mr Suliemani – as the White House no doubt now refers to him – has been granted an amnesty and taken off the list of proscribed Iranians – together with a number of senior members of the Revolutionary Guards.
Thanks to Mr Obama’s scandalous capitulation to Tehran, Mr Suleimani has overnight gone from being one of the world’s most wanted terrorists to the White House’s newest best friend.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/11741235/Obamas-Iran-deal-has-just-granted-an-amnesty-to-the-worlds-leading-terrorist-mastermind.html Biden Too:
Biden played a significant role in the process that allowed Iran to more fully exert its influence on the Iraqi government and render that nation something of a puppet state to the Iranian regime in Tehran, which occurred around the time that then-President Barack Obama was precipitously withdrawing all U.S. forces from Iraq.
Biden is alleged to have urged a secular pro-America politician at the time to step aside and allow somebody else, a more religious and pro-Iran leader, to step up in his place.
In 2010, pro-American Iraqi politician Ayad Allawi helped his party win a majority of seats in the Iraqi Parliament, but was forced to step down from a bid to become prime minister after allegedly being told to do so by Biden.
Allawi told The New Yorker that he would have had no problems building a majority government and being prime minister if he’d had the backing of the U.S. government. He claims that he was instead informed directly by Biden that “you can’t form a government” and was pushed aside in favor of Nuri Al-Maliki, who had essentially been handpicked during behind-the-scenes negotiations involving Soleimani.
“I needed American support,” Allawi recalled. “But they wanted to leave, and they handed the country to the Iranians. Iraq is a failed state now, an Iranian colony.”
Bear in mind also that all of this was occurring while the Obama administration was secretly negotiating the eventual Iran nuclear deal.
https://www.westernjournal.com/obama-years-biden-reportedly-helped-soleimani-iran-gain-power-middle-east/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=WJBreaking&utm_campaign=ct-breaking&utm_content=western-journal
Back in 2015 Israel was reportedly on the verge of killing Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force but the Obama administration warned Iran of the imminent attack.
Israel’s Haaretz News reported:
The report says Israel was “on the verge” of assassinating Soleimani three years ago, near Damascus, but the United States warned the Iranian leadership of the plan, revealing that Israel was closely tracking the Iranian general. The incident, the report said, “sparked a sharp disagreement between the Israeli and American security and intelligence apparatuses regarding the issue.”
Fast forward to 2020–
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/flashback-israel-wanted-to-kill-al-quds-leader-soleimani-but-obama-tipped-off-iran/
https://www.westernjournal.com/mq-9-reaper-footage-soleimanis-last-seconds-earth-bright-loud/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=WJBreaking&utm_campaign=ct-breaking&utm_content=western-journal
“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have … targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD,” Trump tweeted.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari (Press TV)
H.J.Ansari Zarif’s senior advisor: “If Europeans stop trading with Iran and don’t put pressure on US then we will reveal which western politicians and how much money they had received during nuclear negotiations to make #IranDeal happen.”
That would be interesting.#JCPOA — Raman Ghavami (@Raman_Ghavami) May 8, 2018
Daniel Greenfield at FrontPage.com reported in 2015 on the Democrat senators who took money from the Iran US lobby before their vote to support the deal.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/flashback-democrat-senators-took-money-from-iran-lobby-before-vote-on-obamas-nuke-deal-iran-threatened-to-out-bribed-officials/
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump’s claim that John Kerry violated the Logan Act is “true.”
“It’s true. I mean I was there in Munich when I saw not only Kerry … the whole gang that crafted that terrible deal…they were there, they met with the Iranian leadership,” Pompeo said during an appearance on “Fox and Friends.”
“It’s unusual, but more importantly, it’s wrong,” said Pompeo.
On Thursday Secretary Pompeo accused the Obama officials of secretly telling Iran to wait out President Trump — then America will go back to appeasing.
Via FOX News:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused members of the Obama administration of undermining President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran by telling the Iranians to “just hang on” until Trump loses in 2020.
“I’ll be straight up with you,” Pompeo says in an interview for the American Enterprise Institute’s national security podcast “What The Hell Is Going On?,” which I co-anchor with my colleague Dany Pletka, “you have folks who served in the previous administration who are telling the Iranian leaders today, ‘Just hang on. President Trump will lose in the election in November and we’ll go back to appeasement. America will write you a big check, we’ll underwrite your terror campaign around the world, we’ll give you a clear pathway to a nuclear weapon system. Just wait until the Trump administration is finished.’”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/treason-secretary-pompeo-former-obama-officials-are-telling-iran-to-wait-out-trump-then-america-will-go-back-to-appeasing-iran/
Last Thursday al-Ameri was arrested by US forces in Iraq.
PHOTOS OF CAPTURE LEADERS….. SOME HEADING TO U.S WITHOUT AIRFARE OR VISA…… ASAIB AHI AI-HAQ LEADER OF QAIS KHAZALI HADI AL-AMIRI WAS INVITED TO WHITE HOUSEhttps://t.co/JiUrzINPTppic.twitter.com/MA0SqMVUlk — KW (@wwebster03) January 3, 2020
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/sorry-barack-us-arrests-hadi-al-ameri-the-badr-corps-chief-and-terror-leader-who-met-with-obama-in-the-white-house/📷
Some very fine and timely humor: Enjoy!
Another brilliant and humorous short video from Carpe Donkum: Enjoy! https://mobile.twitter.com/CarpeDonktum/status/1213317378102243329 From The People’s Cube:
"A Trump era remake of the Benghazi story '13 Hours' has just finished filming in Baghdad. Titled '13 Minutes,' it chronicles the short period from when the U.S. Marines landed at our Baghdad embassy to when the Iran-backed militias ran away losing their sandals.
Starring John Krasinski and such crowd pleasers as Apache helicopters, the remake is admittedly much more enjoyable than the Obama-era original, with a bigly satisfying ending. Finished ahead of schedule and under budget, it immediately showed on your screens as of January 1, 2020.
No YouTube videos were harmed in the making of this movie.
More here: https://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/13-minutes-a-trump-era-remake-of-benghazi-s-13-hours-t21110.html