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Qassem Soleimani Tag

Posted by Miriam Elman on January 30, 2018 19 Comments
According to recent Israeli security assessments, more than a third (420 out of 1,027) of the terrorists released in a November 2011 swap for captive soldier Gilad Schalit have gone back to planning terror attacks. As noted by senior Israeli security officials, some of these freed murderers have taken up leadership roles in Hamas in Gaza, from where they are “working with Iran to execute terrorists attacks and kidnappings.”

Posted by David Gerstman on January 16, 2018 11 Comments
One of the predicted outcomes of the nuclear deal with Iran, contrary to what President Barack Obama claimed, is that it would strengthen the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the "hardliners" in the regime. (I don't believe there are moderates in the regime. It is a revolutionary regime that seeks to export its ideology across the region. President Hassan Rouhani would not have been allowed to compete or win if he did not subscribe to the same ideologies as the hardliners.) Rather than opening up or liberalizing Iran, the deal was correctly predicted to lead to further repression.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 11, 2017 5 Comments
On May 13, 2016, we reported on the death of Mustafa Badreddine at an airport in Syria, Another top Hezbollah commander killed – but who dunnit?
There have been a series of assinations of top Hezbollah commanders in the recent past, including Imad Mughniyeh (mastermind of almost all attacks on Israel and the U.S.), his son Imad Mughniyeh (who was killed along with several high level operatives and an Iranian general), Hassan Laqqis (key Hezbollah link to Iranian weapons procurement) and Samir Kuntar (who killed an Israeli girl by smashing her head against the rocks on a beach).

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 04, 2015 247 Comments
Thursday, Hugh Hewitt interviewed Donald Trump. Among other things, Hewitt asked Trump a handful of foreign policy questions. "Are you familiar with General Soleimani?" asked Hewitt. "Yessss. Go ahead, give me a little. Go ahead, tell me," responded Trump. Hewitt explained that Soleimani runs the Quds forces, which Trump confused with the Kurds, though Trump eventually remembered who Soleimani was. Hewitt was then complementary and reminisced of the time Trump "schooled the Senate" on real-estate, and then went on to explain that he's looking for a Commander in Chief that knows who the players in the vast battlefield of Islamic terrorism. "Do you know who the players are without a score card, Donald Trump?" Hewitt asked. "I think by the time we get to office they'll all be changed, they'll be all gone, I knew you were gonna asks me things like this and there's no reason because number one, I will hopefully find General Douglas McArthur in the PAC, I will find whoever it is that I'll find, but they're all changing, those are like history questions, do you know this one, do you know that one." "I don't believe in gotcha questions, I'm not trying to quiz you," retorted Hewitt. "Well that is a gotcha question," Trump accused. And then a media controversy was birthed.

Posted by David Gerstman on August 23, 2015 8 Comments
A number of stories have been reported since the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the nuclear deal with Iran is known, that raise serious questions about its effectiveness to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and even about whether or not it will stop a war.

Syria's Secret Chemical Weapons Stockpile

The Wall Street Journal reported on July 23 (Google link) that Syria, contrary to previous reports, had maintained “caches of even deadlier nerve agents.” Why it's important: The first reason is that Iran is the main sponsor of Assad regime. Given that it has supported the use of WMD in Syria and suffered no consequences for this will likely embolden it. The second reason is more practical. The chemical weapons inspectors were limited by the Assad regime where they could go. They also feared that if they reported something that would displease the authorities they would be barred from other sites. The same problem will exist with Iran. But being able to declare military sites out of bounds for inspections, Iran will limit inspectors' access, compromising the effectiveness of inspections regime.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2015 17 Comments
Leaks of classified and politically-charged intelligence information often are purposeful. So what to make of simultaneous leaks to The Washington Post and Newsweek Magazine that the CIA helped Israel assassinate Hezbollah master terrorist Imad Mughniyah, responsible for killing more Americans in terror attacks than anyone else prior to 9/11, and continued to work to kill Americans in Iraq and elsewhere. He also was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of CIA Beirut station chief William F. Buckley (not the author), and reportedly sent video of the torture to CIA headquarters. Washington Post graphic Imad Mighniyah This was thought to be a purely Israeli operation. Some of the details leaked also contradict prior claims as to how the assassination was carried out -- instead of a bomb planted in a headrest, it was planted in the spare tire in the vehicle. The Washington Post reports, CIA and Mossad killed senior Hezbollah figure in car bombing:
On Feb. 12, 2008, Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah’s international operations chief, walked on a quiet nighttime street in Damascus after dinner at a nearby restaurant. Not far away, a team of CIA spotters in the Syrian capital was tracking his movements. As Mughniyah approached a parked SUV, a bomb planted in a spare tire on the back of the vehicle exploded, sending a burst of shrapnel across a tight radius. He was killed instantly.

Posted by Bruce Carroll on July 25, 2014 3 Comments
Every morning for most of 2014, it seems we wake up in dreaded anticipation of what horrible news has happened overnight and around the world. There are so many things going on -- Israel/Hamas, Ukraine/Russia, passenger jets falling from the sky (or vanishing), the U.S. border crisis -- that it is sometimes hard to fathom. Let's not forget the battle for Iraq is still in the mix. We covered the eradication of the Christian population in the territory held by the Islamic State on Monday. But the news of Iraq's overall situation seems to have faded from the American news media's short attention span the past couple of weeks. Quick update: things aren't getting better. There is a bit of good news on the political reconciliation front in Baghdad. The Iraqi Parliament elected a new President for the nation yesterday.
Iraqi MPs have elected Kurdish politician Fouad Massoum as president, succeeding Jalal Talabani. Mr Massoum, 76, is a founding member of Mr Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party. Since 2003 Iraq's president has always been a Kurd, while the prime minister is a Shia and the parliamentary speaker drawn from the Sunni Arab bloc. Iraq is facing a radical Sunni insurgency and is struggling to agree on a new coalition government. The presidency is the second major government post to be filled, after Salim al-Jabouri was elected as parliament speaker last week.
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