Disruptive Assassinations: Killing Qassem Soleimani
Binoy Kampmark
On the surface, it made not one iota of sense. The murder of a foreign military leader on his way from Baghdad airport, his diplomatic status assured by the local authorities, evidently deemed a target of irresistible richness.
“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”
The words from the Pentagon seemed to resemble the resentment shown by the Romans to barbarian chiefs who dared resist them.
“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”
The killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force in a drone strike on January 3, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, or Hash a-Shaabi and PMF Kata’ib Hezbollah, was packaged and ribboned as a matter of military necessity.
Soleimani had been, according to the Pentagon, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.” He was behind a series of attacks on coalition forces in Iraq over the last several months including attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad on December 31, 2019.
US President Donald J. Trump had thrown caution to the wind, suggesting in a briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that an option on the table would be the killing of Soleimani. The Iran hawks seemed to have his ear; others were caught off guard, preferring to keep matters more general.
A common thread running through the narrative was the certainty – unshakable, it would seem – that Soleimani was on the warpath against US interests.
The increased danger posed by the Quds Force commander were merely presumed, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was happy to do so despite not being able to “talk too much about the nature of the threats. But the American people should know that the President’s decision to remove Soleimani from the battlefield saved American lives.”
(Pompeo goes on to insist that there was “active plotting” to “take big action” that would have endangered “hundreds of lives”.) How broadly one defines the battlefield becomes relevant; the US imperium has decided that diplomatic niceties and sovereign protections for officials do not count. The battlefield is everywhere.
Trump was far from convincing in reiterating the arguments, insisting that the general had been responsible for killing or badly wounding “thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill may more… but got caught!” From his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, he claimed that the attack was executed “to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.”
Whatever the views of US officialdom, seismic shifts in the Middle East were being promised.
Iraq’s prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi demanded an emergency parliamentary session with the aim of taking “legislative steps and necessary provisions to safeguard Iraq’s dignity, security and sovereignty.”
On Sunday, the parliament did something which, ironically enough, has been a cornerstone of Iran’s policy in Iraq: the removal of US troops from Iraq. While being a non-binding resolution, the parliament urged the prime minister to rescind the invitation extended to US forces when it was attacked by Islamic State forces in 2014.
Iranian Armed Forces’ spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi promised setting “up a plan, patiently, to respond to this terrorist act in a crushing and powerful manner”.
He also reiterated that it was the US, not Iran, who had “occupied Iraq in violation of all international rules and regulations without any coordination with the Iraqi government and without the Iraqi people’s demands.”
While the appeals to international law can seem feeble, the observation from the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnès Callamard was hard to impeach.
“The targeted killings of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Humandis are most [likely] unlawful and violate international human rights law: Outside the context of active hostilities, the use of drones or other means for targeted killing is almost never likely to be legal.”
To be deemed lawful, such targeting with lethal effect “can only be used where strictly necessary to protect against an imminent threat to life.”
The balance sheet for this action, then, is not a good one.
As US presidential candidate Marianne Williamson observed with crisp accuracy, the attack on Soleimani and his companions had little to do with “whether [he] was a ‘good man’ any more than it was about whether Saddam was a good man. It’s about smart versus stupid use of military power.”
An intelligent use of military power is not in the offing, with Trump promising the targeting of 52 Iranian sites, each one representing an American hostage held in Iran at the US embassy in Tehran during November 1979.
But Twitter sprays and promises of this sort tend to lack substance and Trump is again proving to be the master of disruptive distraction rather than tangible action.
Even Israeli outlets such as Haaretz, while doffing the cap off to the idea of Soleimani as a shadowy, dangerous figure behind the slayings of Israelis “in terrorist attacks, and untold thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, Lebanese and others dispatched by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force,” showed concern.
Daniel B. Shapiro even went so far as to express admiration for the operation, an “impressive” feat of logistics but found nothing of an evident strategy. Trump’s own security advisers were caught off guard. A certain bloodlust had taken hold.
Within Congress, the scent of a strategy did not seem to come through, despite some ghoulish cheers from the GOP. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and chairman of the House Intelligence panel, failed to notice “some broad strategy at work”.
Michigan Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin, previously acting assistant secretary of defence and CIA analyst, explained why neither Democratic or Republic presidents had ventured onto the treacherous terrain of targeting Soleimani. “Was the strike worth the likely retaliation, and the potential to pull us into protracted conflict?” The answer was always a resounding no.
By killing such a high ranking official of a sovereign power, the US has signalled a redrawing of accepted, and acceptable lines of engagement.
The justification was spurious, suggesting that assassination and killing in combat are not distinctions with any difference. But perhaps most significantly of all, the killing of Soleimani will usher in the very same attacks that this decision was meant to avert even as it assists Iranian policy in expelling any vestige of US influence in Iraq and the broader Middle East.
It also signalled to Iran that abiding by agreements of any sort, including the international nuclear deal of 2015 which the US has repudiated, will be paper tigers worth shredding without sorrow.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]
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Jun 18, 2019 4 Times the US Threatened to Stage an Attack and Blame it on Iran
The US has threatened to stage an attack and blame it on Iran over and over in the last few years. Don’t let a war based on false pretenses happen again.
https://youtu.be/lhqLaYBtvXA
Today’s Washington doesn’t even have a grasp of common English usage:
“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans”
You don’t deter plans. You deter people from making plans.
A deterrent is something which persuades people not to do something.
I know that “corporations are people today”, but only in the sense that they are run by a bunch of people, so you can’t deter a corporation either, although you can deter its CEO from doing something.
It’s always a question of deterring people from, and not deterring things.
Washington should know better, but I don’t know why I’m even addressing this issue concerning a rabid US government of ignorant basket cases. It must be because I’m a teacher, and some sort of alternative to chaos seems necessary…
It probably meant “This strike was aimed at deterring implementation of future Iranian attack plans”. The US administration is declaring the positive existence of such plans, which–per Pense on ‘national security’–unfortunately unable to tell anyone what they were’.
You could always ‘follow the money’ if you wanted to check that. Tony Blair’s bank account should register receipt of an associated copyright fee.
Yes. I knew what it meant. I just had a pedantic moment, brought on by the realization that it isn’t only our politics that have been totally corrupted by current trends, but our language too.
Allegedly. But with no substance provided. Less than with Iraqi WMDs.
But this article takes Pompeo’s bait and runs with it.
I have read that Soleimani was invited to a meeting seeking resolution of hostilities in Yemen – and perhaps other things. If that is true it could be that the war is being protected under cover story of averting war. That would make sense in the backwards mind of today’s narrative identity. (Doublethink).
If that invitation was set up with the Trump administration – then that casts a darker light on the USa’s willingness to openly deceive and openly assassinate – with apparent impunity. But there are always consequences.
However, Once such an act is executed, it would be very rare to not receive open support from the US establishment – whatever any private misgivings. And so it leaves me wondering what and who is involved in oversight and accountability. I don’t have a sense of a real government – so much as a captured and corrupted or neutered shell of a government. Perhaps the act was a fait accompli by a coterie who wanted to provoke open war – and are willing to risk everything on getting one.
The ‘globalist’ idea uses the US as it uses everything. Does it ‘use’ Israel – and the International Jewish lobby? Or vice verse? Israeli policy is typical in pre-emptive de-personing and execution – and this pattern is spreading through the body politic
I don’t know – but a lot of apparently ‘national’ interest is anything but – excepting for corporate cartels of mutual interest that effectively call the shots in a progressive (sic) deconstruction of the World order to an idea of global possession and control.
Insider dealing applies also to politics. We are not privy to decisions made that are then ‘delivered’ by all kinds of manipulative appearance.
When Trump threatened disproportionate retaliation – linking to the Iran hostage situation – the Iranians could counter with disclosure as the the weapons deal struck by Reagan camp to delay release until after Carter left office – and lost it in no small part to the failure to get the hostages home.
But it just isn’t done. Governing politicians as a rule do not bring out such dirty washing.
People might lose faith in them…
Washington denied Zarif a visa to attend a scheduled meeting of the United Nations Security
Council and Mike Pompeo mocked Zarif’s statement that Suleimani had gone to Baghdad on a diplomatic mission: “Is there any history that would indicate it was remotely possible that this kind gentleman, this diplomat of great order, Qassem Suleimani, traveled to Baghdad for the idea of conducting a peace mission?” he said.”
Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State, conducts foreign policy by humiliating, censoring, and promoting lies about sovereign leaders. What’s the purpose of the United Nations if leaders of nation-states are prohibited from speaking and stating their case. If the public is only permitted to hear “one” side of an issue, isn’t that the definition of propaganda. Of course, Pompeo would deny that Suleimani was on a diplomatic mission, inasmuch, to admit otherwise would reveal the assassination of Suleimani as an especially despicable war crime.
It’s unfortunate, that if a nation-state challenges US imperialism they’re characterized as not a sovereign state but as a terrorist regime. And if military leaders from these nation-states ensure the stability of their country by destroying ISIS and Al-Qaeda these generals are deemed terrorists. We live in a world where reality has been turned on its end, and is upside down.
So far, the US is extremely lucky that Iran’s retaliation for the murder of Sulaimani has been limited. Javad Zarif, Iran’s Foreign Minister stated:
“Iran took and concluded proportionate measures in self-defense under Article 51 of UN Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens & senior officials were launched Tuesday. We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”
Now the ball is the Buffoon’s court of neoconservative screwballs–let’s see if these warmongers can refrain from escalating this crisis, or will they continue to lead the US down the road to another military debacle. One that makes the Iraq War look like child’s play.
Below is a link citing the anti-war demonstrations organized and held by Codepink On Thursday, January 9, at 5 p.m.
https://www.codepink.org/01…
Pompeo is a typical Exceptionalist Imperial thug. The only difference from his predecessors and peers is that he does not dissemble to pose as ‘civilised’.
Some people have touched on this subject in other articles/website forums, but can I ask a ‘controversial’ question? How many dual-passport military bigwigs occupy intelligence/foreign-policy/military positions in the USA/UK/France etc as well as Iran, Iraq etc? Is it anti-semitic now to ask these questions? It is okay to ask about ‘Russians’ so-called infiltration and subversion but not Israelis?
People here may have heard of Victor Ostrovsky and his books, By Way of Deception and The Other side of Deception – where he details on many aspects of subversion, co-option etc e.g.how the sayanim network that aids mossad infiltrates top powerful positions in Embassies, intelligence agencies, military policy-maker dept and even medicine/charity orgs etc?
In the USA the infiltration is plain, but verboten. The upper ranks of Treasury, particularly the genocidal sanctions apparatus, and ‘Justice’ are super-saturated with Judeofacists and Zionists. Some with dual loyalties to Israel and the USA, some blatantly prioritising Israel, and a few, I dare say, fully loyal to the USA only, but I would imagine they are in a great minority.
The anti-semite fuss has effectively shut this down. However, if we study history we realize that the persecution of religeous minorities has often had its roots in perceived disloyalty to the state that those groups live in. In England this was seen by the Protestant/Catholic divide — the schism started over a dispute over temporal power and rapidly became a test of loyalty, so entrenched in British culture that Catholics were forbidden to marry heirs to the Crown.
Jews successfully integrated themselves into British life because in Britain the real fealty is to money, not the Crown, so as successful business and professional people they were seen as an integral part of commercial life (and by extension, cultural, political etc.). With the rise of open Zionism this has raised the question of loyalty again — Zionism is intrinsically linked to the State of Israel so its now natural to think of Jews as having their first loyalty to their religion — Israel. This is a formula for disaster which will eventually end up threatening the existence of Israel as a country and the security of Jews everywhere else. No amount of redefining anti-semitism to include criticism of the State of Israel and no amount of enshrining this into local law will save them — it will just make the inevitable crash that much harder. Common sense would suggest that a less abrasive and self-serving policy might be be the best for the long term but once a group gets the ‘master race’ bug there seems no way to make them see sense.
Indeed: the UK gets much more money from / through the Arab oil sheikhs than from / through some Jews, hence Islam criticism is forbidden => Islamophobia!
But loyalty of Muslims to the UK ? Never heard of the Ummah?
Simply hilarious inversion of reality. Priceless.
Well gong by conversations I’ve had with the people around me, everyone “knows” about “anti-Semitism” and they “know” equally well that the Labour Party is full of it. none of them even mention “Islamophobia” because as we all “know”, Islamophobia doesn’t exist. We all “know” that Muslims are just plain evil.
Brainwashing works, and on the sub-median 50% in terms of intelligence (however measured) it’s a bloody easy job. The thing is, once an idiot is brainwashed they are too dumb to understand that they are indoctrinated, and too ludicrously egotistic to give up their stubbornly held beliefs. The Dunning-Kruger process.
Exactly-the first group that will be protected by an honest discussion of Judaic religion, essentially the Talmudic supremacism of the Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox, of Zionist and Judaic elites’ nepotism and corruption of goy elites and institutions through straight monetary bribery, and Zionist crimes against humanity, will be Jewish people, good, bad and indifferent, themselves. As Bernard Lazare, the Jewish thinker in late 19th century France, observed, the Jews have run into strife in almost all the societies where they lived, despite the differences in social arrangements, history, race, religion and geography. He quite commonsensically declared that at least sum of the blame for these tensions must accrue to the Jews, as well as their adversaries. But today, on pain of vilification and social exclusion, you must declare that no Jew, anywhere, ever, acted badly, or even committed a mistake or error of judgment, or had their uniquely benevolent plans, say for the Gazans, thwarted by Fate and sheer bad luck. Once the ‘antisemitism’ scam is breached, there is the risk of an hideous reaction, if only from a minority, probably led by real, and religious, Judeophobes. The truth of 9/11 alone would unleash that deluge.
Jews ended up domination ~ 25,000 km2, in Israel only; Muslims with 100X that plus 50 nations states = seats at the UN.
I believe that RLS is referring to the weaponised “anti-Semitism” scam which extends way beyond Israel to the entire Western world. As for “Islamophobia”, that is only mentioned to create a phoney sense of balance as in the day Rabbi Mirvis attacked Corbyn and the BBC mentioned “Conservative Islamophobia” in passing before going on to try and convince the public that Corbyn was about to implement another Final Solution.
Keep fearing a few Jews and welcome more young religious Muslim men into your country: “good luck”.
I don’t fear a few Jews – or indeed any number of Jews. I just get disgusted when I feel myself being manipulated by conscienceless hacks.
The funniest, but central, tenet of the ‘antisemitism’ industry is that all Jews are alike, all Likudniks (the others are ‘self-hating’), and all perfection itself. None is bad, or merely indifferent, in any meaningful way, and none ever even makes a mistake. Thus any criticism of any Jew, or any dispute with one, MUST be the fault of the goy, or the ‘self-hating’ Jew if they are involved, and motivated by simple hatred, driven by envy. That no public figure anywhere in the West dares call this filthy sham out, tells you who pulls the strings, the purse-strings, in the decaying West. This abomination has just helped defeat the first real chance to bring the forty year reign of terror of neoliberalism in the UK to its end, and when the Tories inflict ever more austerity, class hatred and social sadism on the ‘losers’, the realisation of where the responsibility for this calamity lies, with elite Jews, the Blairite Quislings and a barbarous Rightwing MSM lie-machine, there will be consequences.
It is good to recall that not all Jews are racists like you.
The limits of Eretz Yisrael are well-known-‘..from the Nile to the Euphrates’ as Herzl said, and chuck in the Arabian Peninsula for the die-hard Talmudists. And then there are the Western states, starting with the USA, that Israel controls, totally.
I think we may just be playing the Americans’ game by discussing the legality of the assassination of the hero of the Resistance; it’s like discussing whether water-boarding is a legitimate interrogation technique on a six-year old girl.
The point of the killing was nothing to do with what Soleimani had done or was about to do, but evidently the one thing that Israel and the US knew Iran must respond to, so as to provide a pretext for an attack on Iranian territory – and of course it now has launched such an attack, before another state does it for them.
We might imagine that the US and other forces illegally occupying bases in Iraq, and everywhere else in the region, will now feel unable to operate without threat of attack from multiple unidentified sources. The mere fact that the missiles actually hit the Ain al Asaad base could be a wake-up call, particularly if there is evidence US forces were hit.
But of course the killing of Soleimani was neither justifiable nor legitimate, so Iran’s designation of the US army as a terrorist organisation is, and it is now open season.
https://resistancenews.org/2020/01/08/iran-strikes-us-bases-in-iraq-to-avenge-martyr-soleimani-threatens-to-target-israel-and-us-bases-in-the-region-al-manar/
Leaving religious, organized delusions aside – to which I count all major religions, especially Hypochristianity – Iran has excelled in reason and resolve.
Do not fuck around with Iran any longer.
Donald Trump and his sub-cogniscent advisers on the other hand need to go and fuck themselves. Using the same methods on each other they have used to destroy a free and independent Iran since the great People of Iran kicked the fascist western regimes out of Iran.
Like Lybia, Syria, Bolivia and Venezuela, the government is FOR the People, not against them. Anybody, or anyone with better ideas than those Iran has utilized since 1979? Anybody? I thought so. Because there are assholes – among them corrupt, rich Iranian maggots that prefer the Trump model – who complain about how the revolution took away the freedom to exploit and to corrupt, while it is them that have Julain Assange locked away like a Chimpanzee in a Nazi laboratory.
No, what happened – oddly though in conjunction with a prophecy by Edgar Casey – is, that the whole sane world can see that America has become a drug addicted cheap whore who will do anything to get her fix.
America needs mandatory psychoanalysis and not the reciting of the pledge of allegiance. In Teheran, millions – not one, or two, like in a ‘Love Parade’ – no, five million real Iranian People filling the streets. What a shame in the face of the fucking Trump regime assholes. Fuck them all. Impeach the entire heap of shit and bring them before a court of justice. In Teheran.
Iran – as the descendant of one of the greatest Empires ever to rule the region – proved itself worthy of its great history. It shlashed the Gordian knot today. The terroristic murder of Lt. General Soleimani has indeed changed everything. Everything. It is now out in the open that ISIS/Daesh was created and funded by wetsern fascist regimes under the lead of the U.S., Israel, SA et al. The people that killed innocent civilians, cut heads off before cameras, putting women and children in cages, destroying important cultural sites in the region were and still are paid for by the U.S. tax payer and that makes every U.S. et al citizen an accomplice in the ‘WAR OF TERROR’. You paid for the murder of the one person that defeated the US TERROR GROUPS. He helped Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to fend off the terroristic assault of the fascist western regimes.
ISIS’R’US.
So, leaving the general religious thing aside, Iran has torn down the wall of hypocrisy the west is surrounding itself with. Alliances will now be made and others will crumble and vanish. Saudi Arabia is looking at its last days. The Palestiniancaust and genocide in Yemen will not continue.
Iran has shown that it is capable of defending the truth against the fascist western regimes.
To those who do not want to stop killing innocent women, mothers and children, the elderly and defenseless:
Cease and desist your murderous activities in order not to get killed.
Long live Iran.
Bless its People who have shown the pathetic public in the west what UNITY really means. (Not to discredit the work of countless groups to change things to the better.) But the equivalent would be 300 million Americans weeping in the streets over the loss of their most beloved General.
Go Humanity! Now or never!
You touch on some valid points, but you ignore there’s a huge difference between most Iranians and the fundamentalist nutjobs who rule over them. Similar to the USA in many respects.
The thing is Frank, I know only too well (from my relatives in Iran) how a lot of ordinary Iranians still feel about the Shah, about UK/US/French imperialism. They and Iraq have been attacked quite a few times over the past hundred years by US/UK (along with Russia). There is still raw evixdence of chemical weapons victims from the Iran Iraq war.
They area very proud people, 98% Shia, and will come together as one if attacked, just as they did back in 1980, when Saddam Hussein backed by the USA attacked them.
While I am certainly not a friend of any organized religion, to call them ‘fundamental nutjobs’ gives away the brainwashing program that has achieved this result.
Pence, Pompeo et evangelical al are the real ‘fundamental nutjobs’. They kill Muslims by the thousands. And have no regard at all for anybody that does not match their christojudeo-fascist world view.
Don’t forget the Talmudic and Zionist nutjobs, for Gawd’s sake.
Lybia? Where dat?
Right next to Libya. Or Labia?
Or Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.
SpartUSA and its friends in low places, Saudi Arabia, Israel and its Western Allies love giving names to things when they ‘Export Democracy ‘ around the World, like Operation Enduring Freedom.
Cannot the alternative Blogosphere come up with a similar banner as a push back to the Rogue State of SpartUSA?
How About:
1. Operation Jog On!
One of the avenues Iran could pursue is the legality of the assassination.
The likes of Agnes Callamard (UN rapporteur on extra judicial killings) says “activate Article 99 of the U.N. charter and establish an impartial inquiry into [the] lawfulness of Soleimani’s killing and events leading up to it.”
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/UN-Expert-Demands-Official-Investigation-on-Soleimani-Killing-20200107-0008.html?fbclid=IwAR2jw0hmHo8-d3WXvWOQIFTMZusqWtpd0p4Iu4biWqz-kiIQs-MYdIgFEEk
It is high time the question of whether or not the US is above international law was finally confronted.
The extra-judicial murder of General Soleimani brings this issue to the heart of international affairs: if there is no legal redress for Iran then it more or less makes a mockery of the idea that justice is possible in a world dominated by terror states.
Whilst I agree with the core message of your post Harry, I would have to draw the conclusion that the US has put themselves above and out of the reach of international law.
Drone attacks and civilian deaths all over the World, 80 years of coups, assassinations and wars, shooting down civilian airliners (USS Vincennes and IranAir flight 655), torture.
Then you only have to Google “Hague Invasion Act”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law
Andy you’re right, but it now needs to be legally formally addressed at the UN and other courts every time the US violates international law. Time and again. Over years it might make an impact, at least to isolate the them.
Frank, unfortunately I believe that the UN is merely a New York based vassal of the US. How many sanctions have ever been placed on the US or it’s little friend Israel for their obvious war crimes?
I have been saying for many years that the HQ of the UN should not be in the US.
It’s a war crime, Harry! I notice Binoy, the UN Rapporteur Agnes Callamard, and you refrain from calling it out. Pre-crime violates every judicial principle known. There has to be a crime for a verdict – let alone an execution. This is the enactment of “Minority Report” Phildickian criminal injustice thinking.
Pre-emptive Justice has been American foreign policy since at least Bush the Lesser Evil. Along with R2P – which defecated on Westphalia Peace Treaty principles – this violated the London Agreement (Nuremberg Principles) …which are supposedly the foundation of modern IHL.
So, let’s take our pick for pre-emptive murder …war crime, crime against the peace, or crime against humanity?
So Trump gets a rap from the Rapporteur: where do we try this most obvious of crimes? The ICC, ICJ, or a kangaroo UN Tribunal …where precisely no American will ever show up …because they are legally exempt and immune. Agnes’ rap is not worth waiting for, I’m sorry to say. The UN is complicit and as toothless as the old imperialist League of Nations that carved up the Middle East to cause these problems.
On the rare occasion the UN has produced a truthful report – ie calling Israel an apartheid state – that report has been recalled and shredded before you can say “Try Netanyahu!”. You know the score.
Iran has exacted the only Justice it can in this lawless Wild West Justice of the Gun international anti-diplomacy “free”market-power world. I’d love to share your sentiment, but that world was eclipsed when America turned its back on the ICC circa Nicaragua. If Agnes can pull it back, I’m with her all the way. Also, I’m not holding my breath!
Everything the Nazis did is now neoliberal foreign policy.
I hear you and I agree with the gist of what you are saying but let me suggest that even though the UN is toothless and the rogue US establishment continue with their cowboy rampage over any nation that does not kneel to it’s demands ,it is especially important that the criminal actions of this out of control regime be documented for historical purposes . Lets face it it ,right now the United Nations is the best and only body of an international politic that we have to do so. This is what they are so scared about .The truth .
The ‘truth’ was euthanised long, long ago. ‘…there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’
Everything the Nazis did was simply Western imperial aggression. They did nothing different from what the English did in India, China, Africa etc. They just had better technology, and did not have 200 years to perfect the systems of pillage.
I see two options:
1. Make the relevant International Organisations do their job, although the UN, OPCW, ICC and the like are soemwhat neutered. And if not, stop paying for them, they are a PR exercise.
2. Act like a Democracy, where the people hold those in account to power. Boycott SpartUSA would be my choice.
As a Brexiteer, I partially understand why people jumped ship from Jeremy Corbyn, but Brexit was never about Brexit, it was about killing Jeremy. The EU feared Jeremy more than anything, and when we lost him, the country lost a counter to the Imperial machinations of SpartUSA, the EU and NATO and their friends in low places in the MiddleEast.
I would suggest a third option, Operation Patriot Resolve.
In it, the alternative blogosphere works with ex members of the UK Armed Forces, and forces the UK government to release all the supporting evidence of Article V (I think), which supported the invasion of Afghanistan. We can ask Lord Robertson for his substantial input into the evidence he held. It must be voluminous, given the Offical Report into 9/11; Offical Conspiracy Theory is so highly regarded.
There is a term for different legal treatment based on status, called Affluenza.
Maybe a new term needs to be used for the West selective interpreations of various laws. Maybe Rogue State/Regime will suffice.
Harry, whilst wholeheartedly agreeing with your sentiment, I fear the definition of being under threat of ‘imminent’ attack is so broad and vague that the Yanks will be able to claim legality. However, The Saker makes for some very interesting reading regarding likely/possible fallout from this action, none of which looks good for the Yanks, or for that matter, anyone allied to them.
In answer to my own question, I think Iran has about as much chance of receiving justice for the murder of Qasem Soleimani as Julian Assange does for revealing war crimes.
In answer to BB – apologies for not being clear – yes, I think this is a war crime.
I was just alluding to the fact terror inflicted by Britain and the USA is never defined as such (in a court of law) – quite the opposite, many of the architects, such as Tony Blair grew rich on the back of the misery they authored.
This profound legal failing is one of the reasons the neocons keep getting away with it.
In theory Iran has a strong case, one that has been already backed up by the UN rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, but it will be hard for them to escape a sense of futility that pervades any attempt to investigate the machinations of the US deep state.
For example, and as most of us on Off-G already know, the American authorities have steadfastly refused to properly investigate what happened on 9/11, presumably because a meaningful investigation would reveal a long list of uncomfortable truths?
While in Britain we had the long-winded and expensive charade of Chilcot – many knew from the outset that it was a waste of time and money, and that no actor would have be held to account for the bloodbath that ensued in Iraq, even though the whole thing was built on a pack of lies and led to the mysterious death of Britains foremost weapons inspector.
Among all his war crimes: let’s not forget that R2P was formerly the ‘Blair Doctrine’ …which he morphed wit Robin Cook during the Bosnian War …just in time for Kosovo.
I’m afraid we live under the jurisprudence of ‘Victor’s Justice’. Those who win the wars make the laws the others have to abide by.
And these dumbfucks in this country can’t wait to be part of the evil empire, I would never knowingly buy anything from warmongering evil America, or Israel, I see hairy arse Johnson is making it illegal for councils to boycott the other evil country, Israel , I only wish I was younger , I would get out of this shithole tomorrow.
The real dumbfucks are the Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, Romanians, Estonians who are pro-US and EU fanatics. Oh and I forgot about another neoliberal EU basket case, Sweden. The US calls the shots in the EU, primarily through corralling in the Petainist riff-raff into NATO.
And by the way ss we move into a hot war … where exactly is our LauraKoftheCIA?
Not a peep since her splurge on 19th December topped of with:
‘Right then twitter, that’s it from me til next year – Happy Christmas one and all … see you on the other side (follow
@BBCPolitics
and
@BBCNews
if you want to keep up, or sit on your sofa and eat Quality Street and come back in 2020)
Laura Kuenssberg
·
19 Dec 2019
Hard time of year for a lot of folks. Suicide Hotline 116 123 (Samaritans) A simple copy and paste might save someone’s life.
Would 3 Twitter friends please copy this text and post under their own name? Pass it on…
Laura Kuenssberg
·19 Dec 2019
———-
My guess is at the same site as bozo as they were briefed on the next phase.
Their role for the Pathocracy and getting their stories rehearsed – I expect her to move into Downing Street as the official press officer!
Presumably they will have been getting their inoculation flu jab which has just been unleashed as zillions of chinese take to the air for their new year intermingling with the zillions of westerners sun seeking crisscrossing the planet.
This world war will not be fought with the outdated nuclear weapons – they have better plans to get rid of us pesky revolters, and shiny multicoloured tellytubby suits as demo’d in Salisbury to clear away the dead and take all our possessions.
How long before the internet shutdown?
For these dumb yankee doodle yahoos and Brit donkeys who still don’t understand the significance – imagine if General Washington had been assassinated by King George for having won in the revolution, how would the proto yanks have taken that then and still now 200 years later.
Also how great was the irani General?
– Off-G might want to publish this photo of Soleimani having a walkabout amongs US troops and tanks
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/01/06/censored-photo-shocker-general-soleimani-with-american-troops-in-iraq/
US can’t claim they couldn’t have got to him without using drones.
….
A Ukrainian Boeing Jet appears to have dropped out of the sky on fire after leaving Tehran…
….
A new flu type seems to have kicked off in China just as zillions are traveling for newyear.
——
As a large percentage of middleclass westerners travel to sunny paradises of SE Asia and Caribbean at this time of year…they may not be traveling back!
People need to be hit the general public with the OPCW chemical evidence whilst this is playing out as another example of the West lying to bomb another soveriegn country, and make sure people know that the impartiality of the OPCW and the UN has been neutered.
Of course, the next stage, a step on from awareness is to hit SpartUSA where it hurts them the most. They are kinda of attached to The Benjamins, and are fond of Sanctions, ask Madeliene Albright.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iFYaeoE3n4
Boycott SpartUSA
The people of Amerika need to remember that when they vote in the up-and-coming Presidential election they are voting for democracy! Not the kind of democracy that other countries have, such as Iraq who just voted for Amerika to leave their country. But the kind of democracy that has to be created by force. The type of none representative democracy which furthers economic exploitation. It comes as no surprise that Amerika has allies in waiting otherwise known as vassals. Just ask the Eaton Mess and his Galfriend – as Old Blighty soon to be renamed Cor-Blimey is about to be forced to nationalise the railways (shurely a socialist concept ed?). Also ask Macron as a national strike grips France. “No”, you will hear the media shills shrill, “It’s the international rules based democratic order”.
I heard a journalist stating with some ‘authority’ that the US attack couldn’t be defined as ‘terrorism’, because it was carried out by a democratic state. Apparently, the actions and leaders of ‘democratic states’ cannot be guilty of carrying out ‘terrorism.’
Normally, after ‘real terrorist’ attacks occur, that is, violence directed against us and our interests and allies, if members of the public raise their fists and express joy and enthusiastic support for the ‘evil terrorists’, such feelings and utterances land them in extremly hot water with the authorities as vocal support for terrorist outrages is illegal and can easily lead to them being prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation.
But things are different when ‘we’ are the ones using ‘terrorism’ against our enemies, then, suddenly, the laws are applied, or not applied, in a radicaly different way.
Iran is a democratic state as much as any.
We have seen how our democracy is a sham with the postal vote rigging of the election and the referendum.
It stopped Corbyn by direct self admitted foreign government gauntlet and is delivering the hard brexit that ONLY benefits the ancient City and it’s masters.
They are on the retreat and like the confederacy they are burning Atlanta…
While this is certainly true, it’s difficult to think of a case where forces allied to the Resistance have actually been responsible for a terrorist attack. One might need to return to the time of the Palestinian Intifada, where suicide bombers certainly terrorised Israelis – even for a just cause. Any suggestions? Not only does the “war on terror” appear to be contrived and concocted, but its evident acts seem always to be false flags, and always serving the interests of those that the attacks are supposed to be against.
War on terror is an oxymoron. War is terror David as I am sure you already know . Leave it to the CIA and or neocons to come up with such a stupid slogan .
Cheers.
The Western media pundits are using mental contortions to rationalize the impossible and looking extremely foolish for doing so.It’s kind of like digging your own grave .
‘Democratic’ in Western propaganda usage = White, Western, neo-liberal capitalist, pro-American and ‘Judeo-Christian’ a chimera as self-contradicting as ‘capitalist democracy’.
An awful lot of Judeofascists and other Zionist and Talmudic psychopaths seem very happy about this cowardly murder. But they are, after all, the world champions of cowardly murders of any who dare ‘get in our way’. It is a religious observance, a mitzvah, after all.
“Judeofascists”? Surely “Zionazis” is more appropriate?
I want to make the link to Talmudic Judaism more plain. The Talmudists are the religious face of Israeli crime and villainy, and Zionism the more secular, but both influence the other. My sympathies are with the anti-Zionists and Judeoantifascists, you see. ‘Zionazi’ I have used, but it only immediately incites rage and dismissal, so, while eerily true and evidence of a tragic transference of characteristics, it seems to me to be unhelpful.
Macroeconomic decoupling is occurring and Trump’s gambit for irrational war management via threats & intimidation on an international/geopolitical level is not only an outright act of war but it is testament to the desperation that Trump finds himself in pre-election. Trump has already indicated that he will do anything to keep the DOW inflated irrationally at ever increasing nosebleed levels he can push it to even if it means meddling in Federal Reserve independence and undermining confidence in the central bank authority.
Trump is a one man central banking Military Industrial Complex war machine set on autopilot without vision outside of controlling everything from the interest rate benchmark set by central banks to the G7 trade deals and Russian Federation gas deals, and everything in between.
Trump has to be the center of attention every single day of the week & twice on Sundays. He twitterbombed Greta the climate teen to appropriate her limelight as the Davos elite rolled her out onstage.
Trump bombed strategically for the presidential plaudits that never materialized because he leapt to an erroneous conclusion & misperceived that everyone else in the world is not viewing it from an oval office desk like he is. Immediately following the outrage the rationalizations came forth from the White House that their target was for the good of the nation when in fact everyone knows it was for Trump’s impression management.
Trump likely made the decision unilaterally and the world is just not being made aware of that. Fortunately, the Democrats see his departure from protocol as a war crime also. Trump is not experienced enough to stay the course any longer given that he must have acted unilaterally to cause the bombing assassination without due diligence from his advisers taking place. When the Democrats press the issue with Congress it will become an issue that Trump used the state to murder for purposes of leveraged deal making.
MOU
”Trump is a one man central banking Military Industrial Complex war machine set on autopilot.”
Pretty good! I like it.
Its interesting to speculate about why these people were murdered. Pompero’s explanations have a distinct yellowcake feel to them — “We know what we’re doing, trust us” sort of thing. The Administration has zero credibility except among the faithful here in the US. I suspect the real reason could be a combination of two factors. One is that whenever there’s any danger of peace breaking out in the Middle East it gets spoiled and invariably there something or someone Israeli at the bottom of it. The leaders killed were particularly dangerous precisely because they’re not hot heads, they develop policies in a rational manner and are instrumental in keeping wayward elements under control. This is the kind of ME leader that is feared by Israel — they need a disorganized rabble without the gates (one that’s preferably fighting among itself) so that they can keep their internal politics under control. The other factor is Trump is susceptible to anything that appeals to his vanity, especially if its one-up against Obama. There’s already been the claim that this was a proper response, unlike Benghazi. (..and apparently ISIS is an Obama creation….) So I could see a situation where a back channel suggestion is whispered into an ear, orders are given, people are killed and we have to deal with the consequences.
I just hope that the Isranians and Iraqis are sophisticated enough to provide a measured response. I thought the Iraqi lawmakers’ response was perfect — the US has breached the terms of the agreement by which its supposed to be in that country so it should leave. (Trump’s response is more typical of his responses — bluster about sanctions and threaten the Iraqis with a bill for an airbase.)
Strictly speaking, ISIS is a CIA creation under the Obama administration. I draw your attention to the shiploads of Libyan weapons delivered to international jihadists in Syria by way of Turkey. Along with John McCain’s close association with Prince Bandar of KSA (Before he was chopped-up because Saudi finance became common knowledge and the beast got out of control). It’s interesting to note that Obama, a democrat, used McCain, a neocon hawk as his middle east special envoy. Not that Trump has changed much, he can’t, he’s not in control.
Correction: Strictly speaking, ISIS was a CIA creation under their Obama fig leaf
Daash are alive and well, re-grouping under US protection, and being trained by US ‘contractors’. Ignorance or disinformation?
You gotta hand it to Trump for coming up with such stupid shit as ,we will not leave until you pay us for the costs of building a base in your country. LOL I almost busted a gut laughing at the stupidity of the guy saying this .
Consider that I break into your house and make a mess of things , help myself to the food in the fridge , not to mention your wife and daughters if I took a liking to them , leave all the dirty laundry lying around after a week or so and will not leave .In order to accept leaving the premises , you must pay me .Pay me whatever I ask .
This is how stupid and absurd this charade no minds is descending into .
Somebody stop the world ,I want to get off.
Even JFK’s assassination didn’t upset the Anglo military – industrial complex’s apple cart, and he was a good guy. QS wasn’t and his death won’t change much. Donald Trump’s might turn out to be more disrupting…
Perp all the same: T-Rex CIA, NOT the mossad mosquito however much Zionphobes wish it to.
‘QS’ was a saint compared to the psychopathic butchers who run Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Israeli colony known as the USA.
How many deaths were Truman, LBJ, Nixon, Bush x 2, Clinton, Obama and Trump responsible for compared to QS?
Tens of millions more, mostly innocents. QS, as far as I can see, only killed salafist vermin.
Multiple United States targets hit by missiles in Iraq, including Ayn Asad Airbase and Al Taji coalition base north of Baghdad.
No news on casualties yet. This response was expected, but the $64 million dollar question is how hard will the nutters in Washington respond? And what of the 6 B-52 bombers that have just been sent to Diego Garcia?
And news just in of a second wave of missiles directed at US targets.
Trump, Pompeo, Esper…. You are reaping what You sowed. Total wackjobs.
This is deeply disturbing….
Nothing would work better than closing Hormuz, and destroying Saudi oil installations. That would be a seismic shock to US economic hegemony.
Very unconfirmed reports there may have been up to 80 United States personnel killed in the missile attacks on Ayn Assad Airbase today.
This could be fake news tho?
That’s appeared on Vanessa Beeley’s Facebook page as well as a guy called Laith Marouf, and Press TV has just been reported as ‘breaking news’ that “there were casualties”.
Tellingly, no other independent sites have been reporting this (so far)
And Trumpf is tweeting ‘all is well’.
Don’t expect the truth from Team USA, or the retarded presstitutes.
Duh… What a dumb thing to say. Of course not.
I still believe United States will respond to the Iranian missile strikes. Can you imagine Pompeo or Esper going ‘okay, all good, we’re all even now’ after today.
I can’t.
If things do take off, closing the Straits Of Hormuz would be one of the very first options for Iran. And then watch the panic in the ‘civilised, democratic, freedom loving’ West when the economy starts imploding.
‘As ye sow, so shall ye reap’. The West has been sowing death and destruction for centuries. Nemesis is at hand.
The bloody gremlins…!
Several times tried to post reply, and it won’t post. So short, but not sweet.
Exactly. Many millions of people dead. Vast uncountable fortunes looted from much of the World. So much misery inflicted. So much.
Imperialism and colonialism.
Reap what you sow indeed.
A massive epochal shitstorm is coming.
Most of us know it.
And when the entire economic ponzi scheme collapses…? Think of how many millions live in large cities. And what happens when all the supermarkets have been looted? Awful.
Venting here helps. Music helps. Patting dogs helps. Connecting with others helps.
But tragically, nothing will stop what’s coming.
Death comes to all, even universes, and Evil systems of exploitation and genocide are no exception.
The psychopaths who rule us will now try to close down the internet.
The attacks carried out by the Iranians today are peanuts compared to what’s coming in the following days, most of which you won’t be told about.
The biggest laugh is how they will try to excuse Donald Trump, who’s the biggest joke there’s ever been as an American President.
The same bogus lame excuses given to attack Iran as per the Iraq debacle. If this continues we need to rid ourselves of these American lunatics who are a clear and present danger to all of us. We can start in Europe by removing governments who endorse this insane behaviour.
That went well in the UK, didn’t it. Voting is a waste of effort, and the ruling parasites’ first line of defence.
Who would have thought that Philip K Dick’s predictions about “pre-crimes” in Minority Report would come true. Of course killing all the people who hate the USG right now which according to Pompass are potential “terrorists” (as opposed to being actual terrorists like say Israel and the US) would mean world wide genocide.
On the lighter side if one can be found I thought this tweet might get a smile:
https://twitter.com/Chewnano/status/1213871182975340544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewsmaven.io%2Findiancountrytoday%2F
The Bethlehem Theory of ‘imminent’ attack, produced by the Zionists, is explained well by Craig Murray. To call the ‘reasoning’ involved ‘Talmudic casuistry’, would be quite apt.
Again, this is not Iranian revenge…
https://www.rt.com/news/477674-alasad-airbase-rockets-iraq/
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed last Friday, and the Iraqis are now getting their own back.
When the Iranians strike – as I believe they will do so sometime in the next 7 days – you will know about it.
Iran doesn’t have to strike back directly since the have the Axis of Resistance to bring vengeance on their behalf. The US and its allies in the ME has just reaped the whirlwind.
Iran has struck back directly
I would like to see Iran attack with minimal casualties, say by sinking a few oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz while rescuing the crews. To make the contrast between them and the genocidal thugs of Israel and the USA, where murder is sacrosanct, obvious. Military action in self-defence is different, of course.
And oil pollution?
‘Collateral damage’. The world is already completely ecologically stuffed, so a little more pollution will make no difference. Perhaps an empty tanker or two, or they could scuttle some of their own.
Another act of goodwill that would play well for the Iranians is to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe , on the grounds pf safety ?
TeleSUR reporting missile attacks on the Ain al-Assad and Erbil bases in Iraq.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Iran-Strikes-US-Ain-al-Assad-Base-in-Iraq-20200107-0009.html?fbclid=IwAR2T60DPyTM_8EicWFz7AQ3yhkfVQUT9cfPm3GCNNhVlowxX53QtM8mKhhQ
What else did you think was going to happen?
The dumb carrot topped retard has just sent more troops into harms way to act as cannon fodder for American Exceptionalism (a euphemism for mental retardation).
Yes and the idiots can wait to get over there.
One certainty from this kind of radical sectarianism is that it is not just the intended target who will be maimed or killed but those caught up in the aftermath (because its impossible to imagine there won’t be retribution).
So as well as killing Qassem Soleimani and the entourage travelling with him, Trump has in effect signed the death warrant of a number of fellow Americans, perhaps a very significant number?
The huge crowds in Iran tell you just how deep feelings go and how provocative Trump, or his handlers have been to stir up such primal hatred.
If Iran can no longer negotiate with the US in good faith then a war footing is a much more likely response than submission – what in gods name were the neocons thinking?
what in gods name were the neocons thinking?
nothing new under the sun
oded yinon
when israel is mighty
Good link! I remember stumbling on this video a few years ago – it was/is very eye-opening!
Fascinating. It explains a lot.
Makes that nonsense term ‘Judeo-Christian’ even more ludicrous than ever.
If anybody doubted just how stupid this public wet job is there seems to be time for reflection as the first rockets start to fly. What a stupid man!