There were already over 50,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East before the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, a buildup by the Trump administration despite the President’s promise as a candidate to “end all endless wars.”
Since the assassination, the Pentagon has been increasing its ground, air, and sea forces in the region by adding some 4,000 additional American troops.
Recently, the Pentagon dispatched squadrons of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. Air Force announced in December that a significant U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia “grows daily.” Six B-52 bombers have been moved to an island in the Indian Ocean to be closer to potential Iranian targets.
The U.S. has been continually shoring up military support around the Strait of Hormuz, which is a conduit for about 20 percent of the world’s oil exports.
And, according to a report by a leading military analyst, the Pentagon “has deployed a new nuclear weapon that increases the prospects for nuclear war.” The weapon, referred to as “W76-2,” is light enough to be fired by submarines.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who donated $35 million to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and $113 million in the 2018 midterm elections, had proposed nuking Iran if they did not bend to U.S. demands. “What I would say is, ‘Listen. You see that desert out there, I want to show you something.’ …You pick up your cellphone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say, ‘OK let it go.’ And so there’s an atomic weapon, goes over ballistic missiles, the middle of the desert, that doesn’t hurt a soul. Maybe a couple of rattlesnakes, and scorpions, or whatever. And then you say, ‘See? The next one is in the middle of Tehran.’ So, we mean business.”
Bernard Marcus and Paul Singer, who, along with Adelson, have donated a combined $259 million to Republican campaigns, were in favor of Trump pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran and have made public statements supporting military action against Iran.
EU Bows to U.S.
Prior to the assassination of General Soleimani, the International Atomic Energy Agency had confirmed Iran was in compliance with the JCPOA.
France, Germany, and Britain, America’s European allies who had been critical of the U.S. breaking the nuclear deal and who had opposed the assassination of Soleimani, have now agreed to re-impose sanctions on Iran for breaking some of the provisions of the JCPOA.
Beyond the Soleimani crisis, Iran said its moves to gradually re-start its nuclear program were a reaction to EU members failing to counteract the severe economic impact of U.S. sanctions, which have ramped up since the U.S. broke the nuclear deal in 2018 and have led to European companies leaving Iran entirely.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi, however, rebutted the charges, saying, “The European powers’ claims about Iran violating the deal are unfounded. Whether Iran will further decrease its nuclear commitments will depend on other parties and whether Iran’s interests are secured under the deal.”
Murder in the First Degree
Attorney General William Barr, commenting on President Trump’s order to kill Soleimani, said last week, “The president clearly had the authority to act as he did.” Barr added, “Frankly, I didn’t think it was a close call… We had a situation where the Iranians had already embarked on a series of escalating violent actions taken against our allies, taken against the American people, our troops, with the avowed purpose of driving us out of the Middle East.”
Barr referred to Soleimani, Iran’s top military leader and beloved political figure, as “a legitimate target” and that his killing was “a legitimate act of self-defense.”
The attorney general made these statements despite Executive Order 11905, signed by then-President Gerald Ford in 1976, which stated, “No employee of the United State Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.”
For several months before he was murdered, it has been reported there was broad agreement within the Trump administration to take out General Soleimani.
And, as detailed in last week’s Trends Journal, not one shred of evidence has been provided that Soleimani posed an “imminent threat,” despite claims by the White House, Pentagon, and intelligence agencies otherwise.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: There has been virtually no condemnation from either political party or the media of the arrogance and inaccuracy of Attorney Barr’s conclusion that “The president clearly had the authority act as he did.”
Soleimani, considered the number two leader of Iran, was a high government official of a sovereign nation. Thus, Barr provided no legal justification for what is considered a war crime under both U.S. and international law. Indeed, the Bill of Rights clearly states that “No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Further, his statement: “Frankly, I didn’t think it was a close call,” further illustrates his arrogance. It is not a question of what he “thinks,” it is a matter of law.
Barr’s claim that “Iranians had already embarked on a series of escalating violent actions taken against our allies,” is not legal justification for murder.
In fact, what were the escalating violent actions taken by Iran and against which allies? The beheading-loving Saudi Gang “allies” that, with the help of the U.S., have slaughtered over 100,000 Yemenis and created the worst humanitarian crisis on earth?
As for the violent actions “taken against the American people,” what American people is he referring to?
Finally, Barrs’ Iran has “the avowed purpose of driving us out of the Middle East,” claim is also not a justifiable cause for President Trump’s ordering the assassination of Soleimani.
Is Barr referring to the “us” that have illegally invaded, destroyed, and are occupying sovereign nations in the Middle East… several thousand miles from our homeland?
Trump Card: The Joker is Wild
Last week, President Trump, as part of his continuing anti-Iran/anti-Muslim campaign, retweeted a doctored photo of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a hijab and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a turban. The photo was superimposed on the image of the Iranian flag and had the caption: “The corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah’s rescue.”
Continuing the administration’s inflammatory rhetoric, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham stated, “I think the president is making it clear that the Democrats have been parroting Iranian talking points and almost taking the side of terrorists and those who were out to kill the Americans.”
Despite Trump’s attacks on Pelosi and Schumer, the most influential Democrats have agreed that Soleimani was a murderous criminal who deserved to have been killed, and none of them have publicly denounced the Soleimani assassination as a war crime. Their main complaint was that they were not consulted with first.
Indeed, in the Democrat’s non-binding resolution, passed by the House of Representatives to limit President Trump’s ability to wage war with Iran, it states, “The Government of Iran is a leading state sponsor of terrorism and engages in a range of destabilizing activities across the Middle East. Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was the lead architect of much of Iran’s destabilizing activities throughout the world.”
During the recent presidential debate among the six leading Democratic candidates, neither the reporters asking questions nor any of the candidates referred to Soleimani’s assassination as a criminal act or clear violation of international law.
