Iran's top judiciary has ordered the United States to pay up $130 billion in damages about a year after the United Nation's top court ruled that President Donald Trump's administration should ease sanctions against Tehran to ensure the continued flow of humanitarian goods.

Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on January 2nd, 2020 in Baghdad by a drone strike ordered by Israel-first Trump. The Iranian Commander of the ‘Quds Force’ was murdered alongside the leader of the Iraqi ‘Popular Mobilization Forces’, Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, aka Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in addition to at least 6 other persons.

It was a coward act by a coward President who’s no better than a gangbanger on a drive-by shooting targeting unarmed individuals, who in this case were on a diplomatic mission.

There's reportedly a big reason casualties were avoided in Iran's Tuesday night strike.

Shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, Iran told Iraq a response to the U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani "had begun or would start shortly," Iraq's prime minister's office said Wednesday morning. And as an Arab diplomatic source has since told CNN, Iraq then relayed that information to the U.S. and told it "which bases would be hit."

When the Pentagon offered President Trump a series of potential responses to missile strikes on a U.S. base in Kirkuk, Iraq, by an Iranian-backed militia, they "tacked on the choice" of killing Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Quds Force commander and the second most powerful figure in Iran, "mainly to make other options seem reasonable,"

Iranian state television said that at least 80 “American terrorists” were killed in Iranian strikes on the US-operated Ayn al-Assad airbase and the US military facility near the city of Erbil. It added that US aircraft and military equipment were “severely damaged”.

The US military and political leadership appeared to be in a deep crisis over the ongoing escalation with Iran.

Since the very moment of the Iranian strike, the US has not really reacted to the development. The US appeared to be unprepared for such a move by the Iranian leadership.

Some sources claim that the US did not react because the Iranian missile strike was just a symbolic move: no US troops were allegedly killed and there are indications that US forces may have known in advance of the attack.

However, even if this is true, the entire situation (when some nation delivers missile strike on US forces and there is no response) is unprecedented. This demonstrates both the crisis within the US military political leadership and the weakening US position in the Middle East.

The attacks were launched at 1:20 a.m. local time, the exact moment the US military launched drone strikes on Friday that led to the martyrdom of General Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Quds Force, and the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) anti-terror group, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, among others, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

"Early estimates indicate heavy US casualties in Iran's missile attack," an informed IRGC Intelligence Department told FNA Wednesday morning.

"According to the reports sent by our sources in the region to this moment, at least 80 US arm personnel have been killed and around 200 others wounded," he said, adding that the wounded have been evacuated from Ein Al-Assad on choppers.

He further underlined the strategic importance of Ein Al-Assad airbase to the US, and mentioned that the military center provided backup for US army drones.

Ein Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the radar systems and missile defense shields in Ein Al-Assad have failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army's central radar systems at Ein Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.

“A slap was delivered last night, but what is important is that the seditious presence of America in the region is ended,” Ayatollah Khamenei said on Wednesday.

Most Iranian Jews live in the capital. In Tehran, there are 13 active synagogues that hold weekly services, five Jewish schools, two Jewish kindergartens, and a 100-bed capacity Jewish hospital. Although there are active Jewish communities all around the country, Tehran’s community is the most significant.

By Aaron Kesel

Iran has unleashed a barrage of missile fire on military bases Al-Asad and Erbil in Iraq, leading many to speculate there is a greater response to come; and if the events in the past few days wasn’t a sign of war, this certainly is. Amid the attack, there was also a report of a civilian airliner crashing in Tehran that was heading to Kiev, showing what’s to come as innocents die as a casualty of war. And a nuclear plant in Iran was hit with an earthquake, raising suspicions about the timing...

Soleimani was assassinated because of his success in combatting US-supported ISIS and other terrorists, undermining its regional imperial aims.“

(E)very indication is that he was in Iraq to work with that government seeking to regain control of the oil fields that President Trump has bragged so loudly about grabbing.”

Trump overstepped by assassinating Soleimani and Iraqi deputy PMU head Muhandis, connected to the country’s military.

His action backfired, uniting tens of millions of Iranians, Iraqis, others in the region and elsewhere against the menace that the US poses.

In one of the series of blatant lies the USA has told to justify the assassination of Soleimani, Mike Pompeo said that Soleimani was killed because he was planning “Imminent attacks” on US citizens. It is a careful choice of word. Pompeo is specifically referring to the Bethlehem Doctrine of Pre-Emptive Self Defence.

Developed by Daniel Bethlehem when Legal Adviser to first Netanyahu’s government and then Blair’s, the Bethlehem Doctrine is that states have a right of “pre-emptive self-defence” against “imminent” attack. That is something most people, and most international law experts and judges, would accept. Including me.

An unconfirmed video has emerged online purporting to show a Ukrainian Boeing 737 crashing soon after takeoff while en route back to Kiev from the Iranian capital.

Posted online late on Tuesday night, the brief video clip shows what is said to be a Ukraine International Airlines flight as it hit the ground, giving off a bright flash. There were reportedly some 167 passengers and crew on board; their fate remains unknown.

*hyperlinks/videos live at source*

Alternative media has documented for decades the Orwellian-lies from .01% US “leaders” for war on Iran in order to maximize profit from petrodollars and resources (natural and human). Because of the massive and ongoing lies for illegal Wars of Aggression, it's obvious that whatever is said by US Presidents, legislators, and corporate media is unreliable testimony.

That is, we don't know anything about what happened other than whatever we're told from "official sources" are lies of omission and commission to cover-up ongoing illegal Wars of Aggression.

The US base is getting plastered(video)

Video footage has emerged purporting to show the first moments of an alleged Iranian retaliatory strike on an American base in Iraq, which comes days after a US assassination of a top Iranian general.

“‘Hard revenge’ begins / Army's heavy missile attacks on US base in [Ayn al-Asad],” wrote the semi-official Fars News Agency amid reports of a heavy missile attack on an American airbase in Iraq.

While Iran has not yet tested or deployed a missile capable of striking the United States, it continues to hone longer-range missile technologies under the auspices of its space-launch program. In addition to increasing the quantity of its missile arsenal, Iran is investing in qualitative improvements to its missiles’ accuracy and lethality.

7:00 PM Eastern Time, 13 ballistic missiles have hit al Asad as Patriot batteries installed in May fail.

30 Iranian guided missiles have so far hit al Asad Air Base in Iraq, home of the United States Air Force and largest base in Iraq. The US deployed multiple batteries of Patriot Missiles to the base in May in case of such at attack.

The IRGC also warned all US allies in the region that they will be targeted if any aggressive action is undertaken from their territory, putting Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel on notice.

Amid confusion over a reported US letter to Iraq announcing the steps its military would take to move out of Iraq, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi confirms that Baghdad has actually received "signed and translated" copies from the US Army concerning the withdrawal.

Iranian academic, Mohammad Marandi claims that, in killing Qasem Soleimani, Donald Trump has turned the Iranian and the Iraqi people against the U.S.

7:40 PM ET: US F-35 planes took off from a base in UAE. Iran reportedly warns the UAE will be attacked if American aircraft from there strike Iran.

csd
? @csd
2h2 hours ago
Replying to @JenGriffinFNC

All blood is on Trump and Pompeo's hands.
225 replies 111 retweets 922 likes

"We warn all allied countries of the US that if attacks are launched from bases in their countries on Iran, they will be a target of military retaliation," the IRGC said in a statement obtained by the New York Times' Farnaz Fassihi.

The IRGC warned both the US and regional allies against retaliation following the January 8 strikes in Iraq.

“Multiple sites” have come under attack by Iranian ballistic and cruise missiles, Fox News reported citing anonymous Pentagon officials. There has been no official confirmation from the US Department of Defense.

Iran state TV said on Tuesday night that Tehran launched “tens” of surface-to-surface missiles at the Ain Assad air base which houses US troops in Iraq.

Pentagon confirms that more than a dozen ballistic missiles fired at US bases in Iraq. Trump briefed on situation.

Ayn al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq, which houses a large US air base, has been struck with several rockets following a strike carried out by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) as "revenge" for the killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani, reported Press TV.

The IRGC confirmed early Wednesday morning to Press TV that Ayn al-Asad Air Base was hit after tens of missiles were fired toward the facility, which contains US forces.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson boldly spoke out against war with Iran on his show Monday night and pointed out how the same people who lied about Iraq having WMDs as a pretext for war are pushing more lies to get us into war with Iran.

Truly our greatest ally!

"Netanyahu told security cabinet that Israel wasn't involved in the killing of Soleimani and stressed 'it is a U.S. event and we should stay out of it', according to 2 cabinet ministers who attended the meeting," Barak Ravid of Israel's Channel 13 reported Monday.

Trump’s successful presidential campaign included a pledge to disengage from useless Asian wars, a promise that might well have been his margin of victory.

Having executed a deliberate, planned assassination of a foreign leader, the United States has committed an act of war and is now de facto at war with Iran in a conflict that could easily have been avoided and which will not end well for any of the participants.

The blood of the Americans, Iranians and Iraqis who will die in the next few weeks is clearly on Donald Trump’s hands as this war was never inevitable and serves no U.S. national interest. It will surely turn out to be a debacle, as well as devastating for all parties involved. And it might well, on top of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, be the long-awaited beginning of the end of America’s imperial ambitions. Trump has had three years to learn the lesson gleaned from Iraq and Afghanistan. He obviously used that time to learn nothing.

Jan. 07, 2020 - 2:04 - Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst reports from Baghdad after Defense Secretary Mark Esper's remarks on the U.S. presence in Iraq after the death of Gen. Soleimani.

Iran has already complained that the US breached international laws with the targeted killing of General Soleimani. The US Secretary of State said any US military strikes inside Iran would be legal.

The Trump administration is barring Iran’s top diplomat from entering the United States this week to address the United Nations Security Council about the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top military official in Baghdad, violating the terms of a 1947 headquarters agreement requiring Washington to permit foreign officials into the country to conduct U.N. business, according to three diplomatic sources.

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: Doubling Down Into Another “March of Folly”?

The drone assassination in Iraq of Iranian Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani evokes memory of the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in June 1914, which led to World War I. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quick to warn of “severe revenge.” That Iran will retaliate at a time and place of its choosing is a near certainty. And escalation into World War III is no longer just a remote possibility, particularly given the multitude of vulnerable targets offered by our large military footprint in the region and in nearby waters.

America's second largest oil company has evacuated all of its American oil workers from Iraq following last week's U.S. airstrike in Baghdad.

New Delhi, Jan 04 (ANI): Speaking on US strike on Iran where Iran’s top commander General Qasem Soleimani was killed, Ambassador of Syria to India, Daniel Chuburu said, “This process will make danger escalation in the region. It proves that how America is keen to protect terrorism in the ground because America killed the leader who was against the terror groups. The leader Qasem Soleimani was the leader of military group and defeated ISIS in the ground of Iraq and Syria. ISIS is created by CIA, which is Central Intelligence Agency of America. Because America is keen to protect ISIS so, they killed Mr. Qasem Soleimani.”

James Dorsey warns that adopting the principle of might is right and abandoning international law “risks creating a global jungle in which wars, political violence, marginalisation of ethnic and religious groups, and destabilising mass migration contribute to rule of the jungle rather than rule of law”.>>

Iran’s parliament on Tuesday passed a bill labelling the entire US military a terrorist organisation in response to last week’s assassination of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani by the United States.

The Iranian parliament’s presiding board earlier called the drone hit on Soleimani an act of ‘state-sponsored terrorism’.

The motion, which was approved unanimously by the Majlis, also allocated over $220 million to the Quds force, an elite unit responsible for clandestine military and intelligence operations abroad

Gen. Soleimani had been the Quds Force long-time commander; he was widely credited with helping Iraq defeat Daesh* and was considered to be one of Iran’s most prominent political figures, so his killing was interpreted by many in Iran as the de-facto declaration of war.

Iraq's caretaker prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, told his parliament in Baghdad on Sunday that US strike on Soleimani was a 'political assassination'
Abdul Mahdi claimed that Soleimani was due to meet with him on the same day that he was killed by a US drone near the Baghdad airport early on Friday
The outgoing Iraqi leader says that Soleimani was supposed to bring him Iran's response to a Saudi proposal for de-escalating regional tensions
Saudi Arabia, a regional rival, blames Iran for an attack on the kingdom's oil facilities in September
Abdul Mahdi also claims that President Trump called him and asked him to mediate talks with Iran after the US embassy in Baghdad was nearly overrun
Supporters of the Shiite group Kataib Hezbollah scaled the walls and barreled through security at the US embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday
Abdul Mahdi said he personally intervened to defuse the embassy crisis and that the American president thanked him for doing so

According to the Iraqi Prime Minister Iran and the Saudi Kingdom were in Peace Negotiations that were being hosted by Iraq

Over the weekend, an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reportedly hinted at striking Donald Trump’s properties in response to the targeted airstrikes that took out the high ranking military commander Qassem Soleimani.

Hesameddin Ashena, one of the top advisers to the Iranian President, made a post on Twitter linking to a Forbes article which listed all the properties in the Trump real estate empire, including his hotels in New York, Las Vegas, Chicago and his resorts and golf courses that are spread out across the US and Britain.

The beginning of the end for US Forces in the Middle East. I hope they get them out before a bunch of US service men and women get killed. But that is probably wishful thinking on my part. Neither Trump or Pompus ass or Esper give a fuck about the lives of anyone under them. In 2 letters the Swiss envoy delivered to Iran,Trump asked Iran to not massively retaliate against US Forces. He asked for a proportional response,ie,kill one of our generals and we can call it even. I don't think the military is too happy with this pack of neocons.

The the US-led military coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh terrorist group has reportedly relocated its headquarters in Iraq to Kuwait in the wake of recent assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and the second-in-command of Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and public rage over the targeted killings.

Millions of Iranians have packed the streets of Tehran to pay homage to the Middle East's most prominent anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani who was assassinated on US President Donald Trump's order Friday.

A huge sea of mourners, streaming from all the adjoining streets in freezing temperatures, descended on the iconic Engelab Square in central Tehran Monday morning before rallying to Azadi Tower in the capital's west.

Chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," they carried portraits of their national hero whose assassination in a US airstrike at Baghdad airport has generated an outpouring of anger and patriotism across Iran and elsewhere, with vociferous calls for revenge.

Tehran (Basirat) :Iranian MPs on Tuesday voted for a triple-urgency motion, dubbed the Harsh Revenge Motion, which designates Pentagon and those involved in the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani as terrorists and adds them to the list of Iran’s sanctions.

Articles of impeachment by House Dems against Trump with no legitimate standing seek political advantage in November’s presidential and congressional elections.

That’s what this is all about, ignoring serious Trump wrongdoing, just cause for impeachment and removal from office. More on this below.

Under the Constitution’s Article II, Section 4, impeachment and conviction require proving “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

”No legitimacy exists to impeach Trump for abuse of power on grounds of seeking interference from Ukraine to aid his 2020 presidential reelection and obstruction of Congress for defying House subpoenas.

Clear just cause exists to impeach and remove him from office for crimes of war, against humanity, and betraying the public trust by serving monied interests exclusively at the expense of ordinary people he greatly harmed at home and abroad.

But now he’s just a madman with nukes, being pulled by betrayal, frustration, anger and fear towards making even more dangerous decisions than the ones he’s already made.

Because, when you realize that Soleimani was in Baghdad to deliver Iran’s opening terms for a negotiated peace with Saudi Arabia, this attack was a blunder.

When you further realize that Soleimani was there at Trump’s behest with Iraqi Prime Minister Mahdi as broker, this attack looks like patently insane.

America’s hegemonic military agenda in the Middle East has reached a dangerous threshold.

The assassination of IRGC General Soleimani ordered by the President of the United States on January 3, 2020 is tantamount to an Act of War against Iran.

What the media has failed to acknowledge is General Soleimani’s central role in countering ISIS-Daesh and Al Qaeda terrorists in both Iraq and Syria.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC) under the helm of General Soleimani consisted in waging a real counter-terrorism campaign against ISIS-Daesh mercenaries, who from the outset were funded, trained and recruited by the US and its allies.

Trump’s action plan to “stop a war” consists in “protecting” America’s ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliated foot-soldiers.

Complete confusion reigned at the Pentagon after the publication of a letter about withdrawal from Iraq, with the top general describing it as a “mistake” and the Defense Secretary arguing there were no plans for the US pullout.

In the address, Abdul-Mahdi revealed that that Soleimani had traveled to Baghdad to deliver a message back from Iran to Saudi Arabia about a proposal to lower tensions in the region, that Soleimani was to meet with the Prime Minister the very morning he was assassinated, and — most crucially — that days prior Trump had asked the Iraqi Prime Minister to “play the mediator’s role” between the U.S. and Iran.

Oddly, this information is not yet a major headline in any mainstream publication and those that have mentioned it in passing do not explain its full implications.

Donald Trump’s threat to destroy the sites of ancient Persia should send a shiver down the spine of any civilised person. How can anything justify American bombing of Persepolis or the mosques of Isfahan? Only the demented can see them as “threatening America”. It is on the same ethical plane as the Islamic State vandalism of Palmyra and Mosul.

The destruction of cultural artefacts in war is specifically outlawed under the Hague convention of 1954 and subsequent protocols. It ranks with genocide, chemical weapons and the “strategic” bombing of civilians as beyond the pale of human behaviour. The US does not recognise most of these treaties as it concedes extraterritorial sovereignty, but it normally obeys them.

After Washington’s illegal assassination of Iran’s decorated and beloved general, Qasem Soleimani, media outlets and pundits on both sides of the aisle wasted no time spewing falsehoods. These outlets and journalists rely on the ignorance of readers to peddle their lies and rewrite the narrative.

Indeed, most Americans had never heard the name “Qasem Soleimani” prior to January 2, 2020, but were suddenly instructed to hate him.

Following a vote by the Iraqi parliament to remove foreign troops from the nation, the US president threatened to destroy Iraq’s economy in retaliation and to refuse to leave unless an expensive military base worth billions of dollars was paid for.

“If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis,” Trump told the press on Sunday. “We will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame. If there’s any hostility, that they do anything we think is inappropriate, we are going to put sanctions on Iraq, very big sanctions on Iraq.”

We are governed now by a Twit who Tweets!

US President Donald Trump has told Congress to follow his Twitter posts for any action against Iran if it retaliates against the death of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in an American drone strike last week.

Trump who ordered the killing of Soleimani without giving prior information to Congressional leaders, said in the dramatic tweet on Sunday that he was not legally required to notify Congress.

The Trump administration claimed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was planning “imminent attacks” on US interests when it assassinated him. That lie was just destroyed, but not before countless corporate media outlets transmitted it to the public.
By Max Blumenthal

The West and its allies support al Qaeda and ISIS globally. They are the proxies, the “boots on the ground” that destroy sovereign, independent countries for their Western permanent-state masters. They are the essence of barbarism and evil, shrouded in torn veils of “plausible deniability” that deceive only those who willfully choose to be deceived.

By Chris Menahan

President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threat to destroy sites “important to Iran and Iranian culture” if Iran retaliates over the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.

Trump, who in the past has said he wants to leave the Middle East entirely but is only staying there for Israel, said Sunday that the US will not leave Iraq unless they “pay us back” for an expensive air base we built up to permanently occupy the region.

Where will Iran strike back? And will Trump drag us into battle. Hear this week's full monologue right here.

Washington’s murder of Qasem Soleimani, a great Iranian leader, indeed, one of the rare leaders in world history, has dimmed Trump’s leadership and placed the limelight on Putin. The stage is set for Putin and Russia to assume the leadership of the world.

Washington’s murder of Soleimani is a criminal act that could start World War 3 just as the Serbian murder of the Austrian Archduke set World War 1 in motion. Only Putin and Russia with China’s help can stop this war that Washington has set in motion.

Soleimani and the Quds force were comrades in arms with US Forces in 2001 and fought the Taliban together in Afghanistan!

The 2001 uprising in Herat was a coordinated insurrection and uprising in the Afghan city of Herat as part of the United States war in Afghanistan. The city was captured on November 12 by Northern Alliance forces as well as Special Forces of the United States, the United Kingdom[1] and the Islamic Republic of Iran.[2][3]

The U.S. Special Operations teams consisted of U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force under the command of CENTCOM General Tommy Franks. Iranian forces consisted of agents of the Quds Force under the command of Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the IRGC, and Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force.[3]

America's naive belief in the miracle of the assassination fantasy, especially when applied in the Middle East, reminds me of an Alzheimer's patient who believes in magic beans but fails to remember that the beans never sprout. We keep on planting the same seed and look anxiously for a beanstalk that never sprouts.

Killing Qassem Soleimani is the latest meaningless chapter in this blood soaked narrative of revenge and retribution against a "bad" guy. Killing a "bad" guy makes us feel proud and provides the emotional equivalent of a sugar rush. But there is no compelling evidence that these killings actually advance the cause of peace or coerce the other bad guys into hiding in a cave and praying that we go away.

Let me take you for a walk down memory lane. Let's start in Beirut in 1982--that's 38 years ago. In other words, if you are younger than 45 this is likely to be new to you.

The biggest surprise came this evening. A VT source in Baghdad reported that the killing may have been a staged ambush. Soleimani was lured to Baghdad with news that Prime Minister Mahdi, who been acting as in emissary between Washington and Tehran, had received an important message for him.

As news flowed in about Iran’s response, expected to be measured as it always is, word came from one of its top generals that Iran would only consider attacking US military targets, no civilians. Then came the report that the US had passed along through the Swiss asking that Iran’s retaliation be on a similar level to what the US had done. We know this was true, as Zarif mentioned during the day that he had gotten a “silly” message from the Americans.

Millions of Iranians have packed the streets of Tehran to pay homage to the Middle East's most prominent anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani who was assassinated on US President Donald Trump's order Friday.

Iran has promised retaliation for the assassination of Qassem Suleimani. Donald Trump said this will lead to a disproportionate response from the US. One side can deliver on its threats, the other can’t, unless it goes nuclear.
Iran means business

“Our reaction,” Iranian general Hossein Dehghan said at the weekend, “will be wise, well considered and, in time, with decisive deterrent effect.”

Dehghan also noted that Iran was not seeking a wider confrontation with the US.

“It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted.”

The US and Western partners are contemptuous of peace, stability, equity, justice, and the rule of law — waging war on humanity by hot and other means.

US Supreme Court Justice/Chief Nuremberg Prosector Robert Jackson called aggression “the supreme international crime against peace…the greatest menace of our times.”

Time and again, I called the preemptive attack by one nation on another the highest of high crimes. All other wrongdoing pales in comparison.

Is greater Middle East war coming after Trump regime assassinations? Is this what its hardliners want?

US President Donald Trump’s new threat to strike 52 important targets in Iran, including the cultural ones, has provoked a strong backlash, with many calling it a “war crime.”

Trump has given his enemies real ammunition to impeach him.

In a tweet Saturday night, Trump said that if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets, the United States has targeted 52 Iranian sites -- a reference to the number of Americans taken hostage in the 1979 revolution -- "some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture," he wrote.
Iraqi Parliament votes for government to work on plan to end US troop presence in Iraq after Soleimani killing
Iraqi Parliament votes for government to work on plan to end US troop presence in Iraq after Soleimani killing
"They attacked us, & we hit back. If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!" Trump wrote.
Sunday, he reiterated that threat in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One.

I don't think the military is too happy with Trump. They committed a war crime for this Israeli puppet. Reportedly Trump offered up the life of a US 4 star general in a letter delivered to Khameini by the Swiss envoy,if Iran would not massively retaliate against US Forces. They just may hang Trump out to dry. They have a real high crime now to impeach him for.

Former congressman and Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh slams President Trump for deciding to use Twitter to notify Congress of possible further actions taken against Iran

Days before Soleimani was targeted, US senior military officials reportedly offered to Trump the option of killing him. The Washington Post broke the news on Saturday, citing sources, that top Pentagon officials were "stunned" when the US president picked the most extreme option as a response to recent Iranian-led violence in Iraq.

Soleimani was officially visiting Iraq. He arrived openly as a VIP guest from Syria, and was met on the tarmac by an equally senior Iraqi official, Al-Muhandis, who was assassinated also, (together with seven others). It was all open. General Soleimani regularly used his mobile phone as he argued that as a senior state official, if he were to be assassinated by another state, it would only be as an act of war.

This act, performed at the international airport of Baghdad, constitutes not just the sundering of red lines, but a humiliation inflicted on Iraq – its government and people. It will upend Iraq’s strategic positioning. The erstwhile Iraqi attempt at balancing between Washington and Iran will be swept away by Trump’s hubristic trampling on the country’s sovereignty. It may well mark the beginning of the end of the US presence in Iraq (and therefore Syria, too), and ultimately, of America’s footprint in the Middle East.

The murder of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, in the early hours of January 3 by US forces, only highlights the extent to which US strategy in the Middle East has failed. It is likely to provoke reactions that do not benefit US interests in the region.

In the early hours of January 3, 2020, another tangle was added to the Gordian Knot that is the Middle East. Qasem Soleimani was assassinated when his convoy was attacked by a drone near Baghdad International Airport. The most effective opponents of ISIS and Wahabi jihadism in general was thus eliminated by the US in a terrorist act carried out in foreign country in a civilian area (near Baghdad International Airport). The champagne would have no doubt been flowing immediately upon receiving this news in the US Congress, the Israeli Knesset, Riyadh royal palace and in Idlib among al Nusra and al Qaeda militants.

Funeral processions began in Iran on Sunday for dead Iranian General Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds force.

The first procession started in Ahvaz, after which Soleimani's body will be taken to the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.

The Islamic Republic has vowed revenge for the airstrike, ordered by US President Donald Trump, that killed Soleimani and several senior Iraqi militants on Friday in Baghdad.

I mention Israel, the more so as its name is mysteriously missing from most of these reports on the current crisis in the Middle East. Yet it is no secret that this wanton act of war has been perpetrated on behalf of Israel, much to the satisfaction of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to whom it comes as a gift from heaven. When the body bags return to the West in due course, assuming this dogfight escalates beyond control, we can be sure they will contain the mangled bodies of American and British soldiers, with not a single Israeli Jew cadaver among them.

Trump’s supporters will undoubtedly come up with some cock-and-bull story to justify their hero’s intransigent behavior. We are not concerned with these wishful thinkers. They are best left to their own devices and allowed the pleasures of idolatry.

Iran, which lies in the Cradle of Civilisation, is home to 24 UNESCO World Heritage sites and other priceless ancient artefacts from its rich history.

Indeed, the US and its Western allies were highly critical of recent destruction in Syria - which holds a similar number of heritage treasures - by Islamic State jihadists.

According to the UN's 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, it is a war crime to desecrate cultural sites in military action.

The blowback has begun

First, let’s begin by a quick summary of what has taken place (note: this info is still coming in, so there might be corrections once the official sources make their official statements).

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdl Mahdi has now officially revealed that the US had asked him to mediate between the US and Iran and that General Qassem Soleimani to come and talk to him and give him the answer to his mediation efforts. Thus, Soleimani was on an OFFICIAL DIPLOMATIC MISSION as part of a diplomatic initiative INITIATED BY THE USA.For one thing, the US will now become an official and totally illegal military presence in Iraq. This means that whatever SOFA (Status Of Forces Agreement) the US and Iraq had until now is void.

Second, the US now has two options:

Fight and sink deep into a catastrophic quagmire or
Withdraw from Iraq and lose any possibility to keep forces in Syria

Joe Cortina: US military officials did not “kill” these Generals, they murdered them.

We use the word “kill” only in actual war time scenarios.

This strike however was made without Congressional approval or notification, had nothing to do with “security,” and was executed in a civilian scenario.

The US military MURDERED these men, NOT “killed” them.Joe Cortina: If I wasn’t so pissed off I’d be throwing up.

Trump is too stupid, or willfully ignorant to know that Soleimani was at the forefront of the US led coalition to eradicate ISIS from Northern Iraq in March 2015.

Soleimani also, as a commander of the Iranian Quds Force, was part of the American-led coalition under US General Tommy Franks fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan in the October 2001 Battle of Herat.

Moreover, Soleimani worked to protect Eastern Christians against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq, and empowered them to defend themselves as best they could.

Because “Iranian proxies” (as Americans would have it) injured a pair of Iraqi servicemen it does not follow that Americans are now entitled to kill or wound seventy-seven Kataib paramilitaries who are also Iraqi servicemen.

Thirdly, unlike the Trump gang would have it, history did not begin on December 27th. Between July 19 and September 22 Iraqi paramilitaries were hit in their Iraqi bases on at least eight different occasions. In August the Israeli PM Netanyahu confirmed that Israel was carrying out these strikes “against Iranian consolidation”. (That was also just the latest escalation on top of Israeli strikes on Iraqi paramilitaries positioned against ISIS in eastern Syria.)

Meeting the legendary Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Iraq November 2017 – murdered yesterday by the US/Israeli settler states :

When in #Iraq, Abu Mehdi Al-Mohandes gave us two hours of his time in between battles. Two days later his men from Hashed al Shaabi were in Al Qaim to liberate it from ISIS.

“The US did not supply a single bullet to fight ISIS” Mohandes told us.
“The US tanks had no ammunition."

When the Sinjar Mountain massacre and abduction of thousands of Yazidi men took place in August 2014, the US planes did nothing against ISIS. Only Iran, according to Al Mohandes, stepped up and prevented an even greater bloodbath, allowing Hashed forces to liberate 300,000 Yazidis.