Iranian Spy Cables Give A Different Portrait Of Qassem Soleimani

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp Brigadier General Haj Qassem Soleimani

Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept: Portrait of a General: Secret Iranian Spy Cables Show How Qassim Suleimani Wielded His Enormous Power in Iraq

In the four decades since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, few Iranian leaders have achieved the global profile attained by Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the military commander killed in an American airstrike on Thursday. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Suleimani emerged as the United States’s most capable adversary in that country. His American counterpart at a key point during the occupation, Gen. David Petraeus, described Suleimani as “a truly evil figure” in a letter to Robert Gates, then the U.S. defense secretary. Over the years, Suleimani gained a reputation as a fearsome military leader who controlled a network of ideologically driven militia proxies across the Middle East.

A more nuanced portrait of Suleimani emerges from a leaked archive of secret Iranian spy cables obtained by The Intercept. The documents were generated by officers from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, or MOIS, stationed in Iraq between 2013 and 2015, when the Iranian war against the Islamic State was at its height, and Suleimani was running the show.

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WNU Editor:  Aside from the few million in Iran who showed up for his funeral today, there are also many who are applauding his death. The above post gives a sobering explanation on why.