FILE PHOTO: A view shows the scene of the attack that killed Prominent Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, outside Tehran, Iran, November 27, 2020. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Simon Tisdal, The Guardian: Was scientist’s killing the opening shot of a Trump-led war on Iran?
The assassination of the country’s top nuclear expert raises fears that the outgoing US president is determined to take further action
The assassination on Friday of Iran’s leading nuclear scientist has heightened suspicions that Donald Trump, in cahoots with hardline Israeli and Saudi allies, may be trying to lure the Tehran regime into an all-out confrontation in the dying days of his presidency.
Trump’s four-year-long Iranian vendetta is approaching a climax – and he still has the power and the means to inflict lasting damage.
Speculation that Trump might soon initiate or support some kind of attack on Iran, overt or covert, kinetic or cyber, had swirled across the Middle East in the wake of last weekend’s unprecedented meeting in Saudi Arabia between Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
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WNU Editor: Talk about speculation and conspiracy theories. President Trump has always said that these useless wars do not serve America's long term strategic interests. And he is the first President in my life time who did not start or war and/or escalated an existing one. Would he break this streak to start a war .... especially since US forces are withdrawing from the region on his orders?
I doubt it.
As to what do the other nations in the region think or want to do. Bottom line. The U.S. does have influence, but not to the extent that many in the Western media like to believe it does. If Israel wants to assassinate Iran's top nuclear physicist, they will do it with or without U.S. blessings.
The Iranians said they killed 3 of 4 attackers. So they can get finger prints, DNA and dental records. Which lead them to an Iranian city, town or village. That is the attackers are are disaffected Iranians who are minorities or Persian, who hate the regime. The attacks may have had support from Israel or the Gulf States. Really hard to prove, since Iran is a pariah state.
ReplyDeleteSaddam use to support disaffected Iranians. He built a base for them south, southeast of Fallujah.
The list of suspect nations helping the dissident include Pakistan. I always wondered how Iranian and Pakistani Baluchis can launch attacks from Pakistan into SE Iran. Very funny! A person might argue that Pakistan has a Baluchi problem itself and so would not support Baluchis attacking Iran. Pakistan supports the Taliban and has a Pakistani Taliban problem, whose adherents assassinate and bomb people inside Pakistan. So Pakistan could covertly assist Baluchi attacks on Iran and have'plausible' deniability.
If Pakistan would do it why not Turkey? There is no evidence that Turkey has done anything of the sort in the pages of the MSM, but the two countries are historical and recent enemies.
Azerbaijan is recidivist. They want a large chunk of Western Iran. Azerbaijan is active in its claims as we have seen.
The list of enemies of the Khameini Regime is long.
The lost of countries
They said....l doubt they killed anyone or their weapons etc would already be in display
Delete"Speculation that Trump might soon initiate or support some kind of attack on Iran, overt or covert, kinetic or cyber ..."
ReplyDeleteThere have been cyber attacks going on for awhile, one which we have heard about and some we have not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet
Question is, when did we stop attacking Iran or when did they stop attacking us?
If there are cyber attacks at regular intervals, then speculating about cyber attacks is writing about nothing, but wanting people to accept your writings as something. If it were an air campaign they would measure effort in # of sorties and also do BDA's. We get nothing measurable form Tisadall. No metrics.
We just get speculation of "soon" or "might, which is not why we pay for newspapers. Editorials of what should be or could be are for the 5% pages in the end under editorials.
So Tisdall to threw out the all encompassing overt or covert, kinetic or cyber to sound astute and be considered a deep thinker. He threw the the contents of the garbage can and the can itself up against the wall to see if it would stick. It is not impressive.
Although he did go to Cambridge, we have no confirmation of him staying at a Holiday Inn Express.
Just the Iranian Khomeini partisan ...not the people.
ReplyDelete"And he is the first President in my life time who did not start or war and/or escalated an existing one."
ReplyDeleteGod, that gave me a big chuckle.
Your poor trolling give us all a chuckle. Name the war.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Trump has done zero , he had 2 opportunities in January, when iran hit the drone and when they injured 100 u.s troops.
DeleteThe editor comment is essentially spot on here. Furthermore Israel acts with an eye toward the long term and does not base its decisions based upon anything that may or may not happen in current US politics. Some in US leadership have a much higher opinion of themselves than is warranted. Arrogance by itself is a dangerous. When we combine the extreme levels of incompetence with extreme arrogance as exist in with many US officials especially the incoming Biden Administration this combination is especially dangerous.
ReplyDelete"Bottom line. The US does have influence, but not to the extent that many in the Western medial like to believe it does." This is especially spot on. Unfortunately many US leaders like to believe our country has more influence than it really does. When the US tries to act in a capacity as a "superpower," "hyperpower," "the indispensible nation," "leader of the free world," or some other sort of nonsense like this, things go awry. A careful study and implementation of Sun Tzu and implementation of such would be in order. When US leaders act stupidly like this they place us in grave danger!!
An incoming administration that has not yet done anything is incompetent? wow...Putin Putz goes overboard here
ReplyDeleteYou don't even know what you are talking about.
DeleteUnless you are already in a full blown war and the enemy is at your gates, you not use your only nuke. You start thinking about it when you have back up such a 6, 20, or more.
ReplyDeleteIt is not that hard to make a Gun-type fission weapon, which is not very deliverable. This guy was working on the harder stuff.
Of course this guy could have been the Iranian Heisenberg and stalling the Iranian program from the inside.
ReplyDeleteSomeone in the German nuke program dropped of docs in Denmark and they had the intended effect. They went to England and then t America. It alerted the allies that Germany had a nuke program.
Besides the Brits messing with German heavy water efforts and the chaotic, stovepipe nature of German organization at the time to ensure the top dogs remained in power, there was someone on the inside frustrating German efforts.
Anon (3:14)
ReplyDeleteThe incoming Biden Administration is seeking to hire people from the "establishment" and those who had high ranking positions in the Obama Administration. These are the same people who support the "?forever wars" and needlessly stoked tensions with Russia. I call these people for what they are, incompetent boobs who are pushing an agenda that runs contrary to that of the American people.
Assuming there actually is a Biden Administration which seems very likeky now I expect the American people to experience what's known as "buyers remorse" quickly. We didn't vote for expanded forever wars, needless expansion of Cold War 2, economic stagnation as will be evident by increased taxes and regulations, and more COVID-19 fear porn. Many of us simply didn't understand what we voted for. As such, I fully expect big Rehoboth gains in 2022 and 2024. I expect the time in power for the Biden Administration to be very short assuming he actually takes office.
I meant big Republican gains in 2022 and 2024. I apologize for the typo.
ReplyDelete3:14 PM
ReplyDelete"An incoming administration that has not yet done anything is incompetent? wow...Putin Putz goes overboard here"
The Biden admin incompetent? Banish the thought. The Biden admin will be the savior of planet earth. Masterful Global diplomacy. A firm and steady hand in US domestic affairs. And of course Climate Justice.
You may actually be witness to the second deity (Other than the Bambster) to hold office. I don't think we'll be able to keep up with the deluge of Nobel acclaim and the transnational praise. I can almost feel the "healing" right now.
And of course when it all goes to shit, he'll blame Trump. Biden will be the second president to escape any/all accountability for the total failure he will be as *president.
But we can all rest easy in knowing that the MSM will reliably fellate the old moron every month or so when he actually shows his tired face.
No danger of bad news at all. And at least you progs can go to bed without the Bad Orange Man living inside your tiny brains.
Trump killed their top[ general. That is not zero. We don't know how much is being done off the books.
ReplyDelete