WASHINGTON (AP) â The State Department says itâs paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a former top aide, both of whom face âserious and credibleâ threats from Iran.
The department told Congress in a report that the cost of protecting Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook between August 2021 and February 2022 amounted to $13.1 million. The report, dated Feb. 14 and marked âsensitive but unclassified,â was obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Pompeo and Hook led the Trump administrationâs âmaximum pressureâ campaign against Iran and the report says U.S. intelligence assesses that the threats to them have remained constant since they left government and could intensify. The threats have persisted even as President Joe Bidenâs administration has been engaged in indirect negotiations with Iran over a U.S. return to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Update (03.13.2022 1158ET): Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed responsibility for a missile strike on what it called an Israeli "strategic center" located in the Kurdish capital of Erbil, located in northern Iraq, according to Bloomberg, citing the Revolutionary Guard's official news portal, Sepah News.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is closely aligned to the IRGC, said 10 precision-guided missiles were fired from northwestern Iran, citing an informed source that it didnât name. The report added that the strike âvery likelyâ resulted in âmany casualtiesâ without providing any details. -Bloomberg
Nobody was hurt or killed in the attack, according to US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, denying earlier reports that the US consulate was the target and had been hit. Sherman told Fox News that the incident was of "great concern to all of us," and amounted to attacking Iraq's sovereignty.
As we noted last night, the attack comes days after Iran vowed revenge for an Israeli missile attack near Damascus, Syria which killed two IRGC members. According to a Sunday statement by Sepah, there will be a "severe and destructive response" to any future attacks from Israel.
* * *
Update (2130ET): Initial reports that missiles 'struck' the US Embassy in Erbil, Iraq have been downgraded.
A dozen ballistic missiles launched from outside the country did hit the northern Kurdish regional capital on Sunday - however there were no casualties, and no parties have claimed responsibility.
According to Reuters, a US State Department spokesperson called it an "outrageous attack," however no Americans were hurt - nor was there any damage to US government facilities in Erbil.
U.S. forces stationed at Erbil's international airport complex have in the past come under fire from rocket and drone attacks that U.S. officials blame on Iran-aligned militia groups, but no such attacks have occurred for several months. -Reuters
Kurdish officials did not reveal where the missiles struck - however a spokesperson for regional authorities said there were no flight interruptions at Erbil airport, according to the report.
Adam Rawnsley Sat, March 12, 2022, 10:13 PM·2 min read
Iran launched a dozen ballistic missiles at the Iraqi city of Erbil late Saturday night in the vicinity of an unoccupied American consulate under construction, according to the Associated Press.
In a statement released after the attack, the State Department said, âWe condemn this outrageous attack and display of violence,â and confirmed that no U.S. personnel or facilities had been damaged.
Lawk Ghafuri, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government, confirmed that 12 missiles had struck Erbil and claimed that they had been launched âfrom outside Iraqâ and produced no casualties.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi stopped short of attributing the attack but condemned the âaggression which targeted the dear city of Erbil and spread fear amongst its inhabitants.â He called it âan attack on the security of our peopleâ and pledged to investigate it.
Social media users in Erbil posted clips of apparent missile strikes in Erbil followed by large explosions. Kurdistan24, a local news channel with a studio near the scene of the strike, also broadcast footage of broken glass and damage at its offices near what the outlet claimed was a missile attack.
Iranian-backed militia media outlets quickly claimed that the attack was carried out by Iran using Fateh-110 short range ballistic missiles. Social media users in Iran also posted videos of what appeared to be missiles streaking through the sky in towns and cities near Iranâs border with Iraq.
Iran has not claimed responsibility for the attack, and semi official Iranian news outlets have instead amplified claims by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. Fars News, which is close to Iranâs Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, tweeted out clips from Sabreen News, a popular Iranian-backed militia Telegram channel, which noted that security camera footage showed the missiles struck at 1:20 a.m., the same time that missiles from a U.S. drone killed Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. The caption said that the timing was ânot accidental at all.â
Iran has twice before launched ballistic missiles at Iraqi targets. In September 2018, the IRGCâs Aerospace Force launched short range ballistic missiles at a facility belonging to the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, an armed separatist group that has called for an independent Kurdish homeland in Iran. In January 2020, Iran also attacked U.S. forces with a ballistic missile strike on Al-Asad airbase in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani.
Reuters
March 8, 20221:44 PM ESTLast Updated 4 days ago
Iran will send a series of military satellites into orbit over the coming years, Space Commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force Ali Jafarabadi said on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
"We will launch a series of Noor satellites in the coming years. The space program of the country, of which we are a part, is to stabilize various scientific, research and defence satellites in low-earth orbit and then reach orbit of 36,000 kilometers above land," Jafarabadi said.
The U.S. military says the same long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also allow Tehran to launch longer-range weapons, possibly including nuclear warheads.
Tehran denies U.S. assertions that such activity is a cover for ballistic missile development and says it has never pursued the development of nuclear weapons.
"The IRGC successfully placed Iran's second military satellite, Noor 2, into orbit 500 kilometres from earth," the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
The three-stage Qased, or "Messenger", carrier launched the Noor 2, from the Shahroud space port, it added. The same type of rockets, which use a combination of liquid and solid fuels, carried the first military satellite.
In December, Iran's space launch failed to put its three payloads into orbit after the rocket was unable to reach the required speed, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The attempted launch drew criticism from the United States, Germany and France.
Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent years due to technical issues.
The United States imposed sanctions on Iran's civilian space agency and two research organisations in 2019, saying they were being used to advance Tehran's ballistic missile program.
Tehran denies that its space activity is a cover for ballistic missile development.
Iran will send a series of military satellites into orbit over the coming years, Space Commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force Ali Jafarabadi said on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
"We will launch a series of Noor satellites in the coming years. The space program of the country, of which we are a part, is to stabilize various scientific, research and defence satellites in low-earth orbit and then reach orbit of 36,000 kilometers above land," Jafarabadi said.
The U.S. military says the same long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also allow Tehran to launch longer-range weapons, possibly including nuclear warheads.
Tehran denies U.S. assertions that such activity is a cover for ballistic missile development and says it has never pursued the development of nuclear weapons.
"The IRGC successfully placed Iran's second military satellite, Noor 2, into orbit 500 kilometres from earth," the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
The three-stage Qased, or "Messenger", carrier launched the Noor 2, from the Shahroud space port, it added. The same type of rockets, which use a combination of liquid and solid fuels, carried the first military satellite.
In December, Iran's space launch failed to put its three payloads into orbit after the rocket was unable to reach the required speed, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The attempted launch drew criticism from the United States, Germany and France.
Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent years due to technical issues.
The United States imposed sanctions on Iran's civilian space agency and two research organisations in 2019, saying they were being used to advance Tehran's ballistic missile program.
Tehran denies that its space activity is a cover for ballistic missile development.
Greenwald's piece seems mostly tangential w.r.t. the topic in which it was posted.
He's touching on the recent assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (likely by the Mossad but also likely with the approval and cooperation of the Trump administration) but he's also putting it into the context of previous administrations' actions and its reception in the press.
(Re)making peace with Iran will be a major foreign policy challenge for the incoming administration. Think of it as the background to that challenge.
I had read it, and then some. It's more of an "American Justice" rabbit hole.
Greenwald's piece seems mostly tangential w.r.t. the topic in which it was posted.
He's touching on the recent assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (likely by the Mossad but also likely with the approval and cooperation of the Trump administration) but he's also putting it into the context of previous administrations' actions and its reception in the press.
(Re)making peace with Iran will be a major foreign policy challenge for the incoming administration. Think of it as the background to that challenge.
Trump is not an historical aberration. He is an ugly mirror.
American memories of past violent acts are generally short and incomplete if not romantically revised.
If it is a question of assigning partisan blame for the Sept. 11th attacks in 2001, it is the Democrats.
That said, it is unfortunate that the writer Glen Greenwald appears to endorse the War on Terror. The War on Terror has been useful to dehumanize and demonize innocent civilians so they are politically easier to kill. The War on Terror justifies not engaging and talking with some groups or nations and thus perpetuating some conflicts for decades.
The War on Terror implies that American voters are fundamentally ignorant and easy to manipulate by organized special interests.
I'd be interested in reading the article you seem to have found.
This screed is long and brings up many related questions, but at the core it calls out the American left/media nexus for appalling hypocrisy. Assassinating people around the world is bad when done by proxy, bad when done by direct covert action, bad when done by a Republican administration, bad when done by a Democratic administration. Partisan outrage is posturing, not a principled stance.
When youâre reduced to sitting on Twitter trying to distinguish your own global assassination program from the one youâre condemning, that is rather potent evidence that you are among the absolute last persons on earth with the moral credibility to denounce anything. Thatâs particularly true when you directed your unilateral assassination powers onto your own citizens, ending several of their lives.
But thatâs the Trump era in a nutshell: the most bloodthirsty monsters and murderers successfully whitewash their own history of atrocities by deceiving people into believing that none of this was done prior to Trump, and that their flamboyant opposition to Trump â based far more in stylistic distaste for him and loss of their own access than substantive policy objections â absolves them of their own prior, often-worse monstrosities. Call it the David Frum Syndrome.
Trump is not an historical aberration. He is an ugly mirror.
American memories of past violent acts are generally short and incomplete if not romantically revised.
If it is a question of assigning partisan blame for the Sept. 11th attacks in 2001, it is the Democrats.
That said, it is unfortunate that the writer Glen Greenwald appears to endorse the War on Terror. The War on Terror has been useful to dehumanize and demonize innocent civilians so they are politically easier to kill. The War on Terror justifies not engaging and talking with some groups or nations and thus perpetuating some conflicts for decades.
The War on Terror implies that American voters are fundamentally ignorant and easy to manipulate by organized special interests.
This screed is long and brings up many related questions, but at the core it calls out the American left/media nexus for appalling hypocrisy. Assassinating people around the world is bad when done by proxy, bad when done by direct covert action, bad when done by a Republican administration, bad when done by a Democratic administration. Partisan outrage is posturing, not a principled stance.
When youâre reduced to sitting on Twitter trying to distinguish your
own global assassination program from the one youâre condemning, that is
rather potent evidence that you are among the absolute last persons on
earth with the moral credibility to denounce anything. Thatâs
particularly true when you directed your unilateral assassination powers
onto your own citizens, ending several of their lives.
But
thatâs the Trump era in a nutshell: the most bloodthirsty monsters and
murderers successfully whitewash their own history of atrocities by
deceiving people into believing that none of this was done prior to
Trump, and that their flamboyant opposition to Trump â based far more in stylistic distaste for him and loss of their own access than substantive policy objections â absolves them of their own prior, often-worse monstrosities. Call it the David Frum Syndrome.
Iran analysts and nuclear experts say these attacks do not fundamentally alter Iranâs trajectory if it is seeking nuclear capabilities; at best, they delay progress by a few months or a year. There is no way, short of regime change or armed invasion, that countries can deter rivals determined to obtain nuclear weapons.
But the actual demise of the authoritarian regime that's been in power since 1979 will come more from acts like the one taken by Kimia Alizadeh, Iran's only female Olympic medalist. Late last week, the bronze medalist in Taekwondo in the 2016 Summer Games announced via Instagram that she has fled her home country due to the systematic oppression of women. Via CNN:
"Let me start with a greeting, a farewell or condolences," the 21-year-old wrote in an Instagram post explaining why she was defecting. "I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years."â¦
"They took me wherever they wanted. I wore whatever they said. Every sentence they ordered me to say, I repeated. Whenever they saw fit, they exploited me," she wrote, adding that credit for her success always went to those in charge.
"I wasn't important to them. None of us mattered to them, we were tools," Alizadeh added, explaining that while the regime celebrated her medals, it criticized the sport she had chosen: "The virtue of a woman is not to stretch her legs!"
I think one of the lessons of the Arab Spring is that western countries have very limited ability to influence the events and it is probably better to lay low in most cases. That seems particularly true about Iran. Obama should have been a lot smarter about Libya and Syria. Egypt, too.
