On Tuesday, an Iranian legislator who hails from the same province as Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike on Jan. 3, told the Iranian parliament that the people of that province have offered $3 million to anyone who murders President Trump.
According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-usa-trump/iranian-mp-offers-3-million-reward-for-whoever-kills-trump-isna-idUSKBN1ZK0YS?il=0">Reuters</a>, which was quoting the ISNA news agency, legislator Ahmad Hamzeh stated, “On behalf of the people of Kerman province, we will pay a $3 million reward in cash to whoever kills Trump.”  Reuters added, “U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood dismissed the reward as ‘ridiculous,’ telling reporters in Geneva it showed the “’terrorist underpinnings’ of Iran’s establishment.”
Hamzeh continued, “If we had nuclear weapons today, we would be protected from threats &#8230; We should put the production of long-range missiles capable of carrying unconventional warheads on our agenda. This is our natural right.”
Threats from members of the Iranian government targeting the United States have been steady for some time; last September, after theattacks on two oil refineries in Saudi Arabia that destroyed 5% of the world’s oil supply, prompting accusations from the U.S. government that the attacks were launched by Iran, a top Iranian general boasted that U.S. sites were in range of Iranian missiles and Iran was ready for a &#8220;full-fledged&#8221; war.
Amirali Hajizadeh, who heads Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace, bragged, &#8220;Everybody should know that all American bases and their aircraft carriers in a distance of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) around Iran are within the range of our missiles,&#8221; adding &#8220;Iran has always been ready for a &#8216;full-fledged&#8217; war,&#8221; as quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency and reported by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-usa-missiles/iran-says-u-s-bases-and-aircraft-carriers-within-range-of-its-missiles-tasnim-idUSKBN1W004A">Reuters</a>.
Last August, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested the United States would have to bow down to Iran and repent from &#8220;economic terrorism&#8221; against Iran. He <a href="https://www.memri.org/tv/iranian-president-hassan-rouhani-america-west-lift-sanctions-repent-reject-change-attitude/transcript">said</a> in a video translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), &#8220;If you lift all the sanctions and bow down before the Iranian people, the circumstances will be different.”
Last July, Rouhani threatened to shoot down more American drones after Iran shot down an American drone, saying American drones “will receive the same response” as the American drone that was shot down in June.
Last June, Rouhani attacked President Trump, saying the White House’s actions showed that Trump was “mentally retarded,&#8221; Trump fired back with a series of tweets warning Iran that if they attacked anything American, that action would be met with “great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry &amp; Obama!”
Just prior to that, Former Iranian Minister of Defense General Hossein Dehghan, who was an advisor for defense affairs to Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, said that Iran would put America in &#8220;the garbage bin of history&#8221; if attacked. As MEMRI <a href="https://twitter.com/MEMRIReports/status/1142745724217638914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">translated</a> Dehghan’s comments on June 20 in an interview on Al-Nujaba TV:
<blockquote>Trump proved once again that he is merely an agent of his administration’s interests, that a war in this region would not be a walk in the park, that the United States is by no means ready for war, and that is completely understands how strong Iran is. What we understand from the behavior of the Americans is that they fear very much the break out of a war in the region. They are not ready for this, and they cannot assemble an international coalition, because there is no U.N. resolution to begin with. They don’t have global legal consensus to do this …  In my personal opinion, this war will not take place – not because America does not want war, but because Iran is strong enough to engage in confrontation. Iran would achieve a great victory, and America would find itself in the garbage bin of history.</blockquote>

U.S. President Trump At The World Economic Forum (WEF)

Iranian Legislator Puts $3 Million Bounty On Trump’s Head

Donald Trump

Iran

In an interview with TBN that airs in full Tuesday night, a preview of which has been released exclusively to The Daily Wire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed President Trump’s decision to target Iran’s top military leader, Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force. The removal of Soleimani, said the Israeli leader, is a “tremendous achievement” that accomplished two key priorities at once.
Asked how Soleimani’s death will “change the Middle East,” Netanyahu told TBN Television Networks President Matthew Crouch that he believes that, first of all, &#8220;it sends a message of American determination and American strength — it’s a deterrence, a very powerful one.&#8221;
“Secondly, Soleimani himself was the architect and the generator of Iran’s empirical [goals], the Iranian empire,&#8221; Netanyahu continued. &#8220;Iran is predominantly Shiite. [Soleimani] would go into a neighboring country, say Iraq, and he would find Shiites and would create Shiite militias … manned by Iraqi Shiites but commanded by his own officers, Iranian officers. The same he would do in Syria, same he would do in Yemen.&#8221;
“He was beginning to choke the Middle East,” the prime minister stressed. “He wanted to conquer the entire Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and ultimately destroy Israel. He was beginning to push his forces right next to Israel in Syria — and we responded to them very forcefully, we hit back.”
“But it is important to understand that Iran’s expansion into this horrible empire that brings misery and death to untold numbers of people in the Middle East—by the way, Jews and Arabs alike, Christians Muslims Jews, everyone,” said Netanyahu. “This man was an engine of destruction and conquest and subjugation. And his removal, I think, helps roll back these forces of tyranny.”
“It’s a tremendous achievement,” the prime minister added. “It both strengthens American deterrence but also pushes back Iran’s aggression.”
Video of Netanyahu’s comments below (full interview airs on TBN Tuesday night at 8/7c):
<iframe title="PRAISE | Israel Special Report | Tomorrow Night at 8/7c" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vb-rj7OwANU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
According to a press release issued by TBN Monday, in the 24-minute interview Netanyahu discusses a wide range of topics, including &#8220;Israel’s role as the Middle East’s sole democracy, its determination to aggressively defend itself against Iran and others intent on its destruction, and the important commitment of President Trump and America’s conservative and Christian community to stand in solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people.&#8221;
In response to the Trump-ordered strategic airstrike that took out Soleimani, Iran targeted two Iraqi bases where U.S. personnel were stationed. The next day, President Trump gave a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-addresses-nation-after-attack-no-lives-lost-iran-appears-to-be-standing-down">televised address</a> in which he announced that the strikes resulted in no U.S. or Iraqi deaths and that Iran had signaled that they were “standing down.” In the address, Trump reiterated his commitment to pushing back against Iran’s aggression in the region, particularly as orchestrated by Soleimani.
“As long as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump declared. “I am pleased to inform you, the American people should be extremely grateful and happy: No Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime. We suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases. Our great American forces are prepared for anything. Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned, and a very good thing for the world.”
“For far too long, all the way back to 1979, to be exact, nations have tolerated Iran’s destructive and destabilizing behavior in the Middle East. Those days are over,” Trump stated. “Iran has been the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world. We will never let that happen.”
&#8220;As the head of the Quds Force, Soleimani was personally responsible for some of the absolutely worst atrocities,&#8221; the president explained. &#8220;He trained terrorist armies, including Hezbollah, launching terrorist strikes against civilian targets. He fueled bloody civil wars all across the region. He viciously wounded and murdered thousands of U.S. troops, including the planting of roadside bombs that maim and dismember their victims. Soleimani directed the recent attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq that badly wounded four service members and killed one American, and he orchestrated the violent assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. In recent days, he was planning new attacks on American targets, but we stopped him.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/iran-sent-messages-through-three-back-channels-to-u-s-after-attack-to-say-they-were-done">Iran Sent Messages Through ‘Three Back Channels’ To U.S. After Attack To Say They Were Done</a>

Benjamin Netanyahu

WATCH: Netanyahu On Trump Taking Out Soleimani: ‘A Tremendous Achievement’ That Accomplished Two Key Goals

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

Israel

Qassem Soleimani

The Trump administration continued to tighten the screws on the world&#8217;s leading state sponsor of terrorism on Friday as Special Envoy to Iran Brian Hook announced new sanctions against a top general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
&#8220;The United States is listing IRGC Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour under section 7031c visa sanctions. General Shahvarpour committed gross violations of human rights against protestors in Mahshahr. He oversaw the massacre of 148 helpless Iranians in the Mahshahr region last November,&#8221; Hook said. &#8220;General Shahvarpour was in command of units responsible for the violent crackdown and lethal repression around Mahshahr. This is the first designation on an Iranian regime official being taken under the State Department authority from section 7031c authorities.&#8221;
Hook noted that the tip-line that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo established last November has received 88,000 tips from the people of Iran.
&#8220;Since the violent crackdown on protests last November, the United States has sanctioned two judges and eight other regime officials for their roles in brutalizing the Iranian people. We are continuing to review all information we receive from the Iranian people and will continue to hold more regime officials responsible for human rights violations,&#8221; Hook continued. &#8220;Over the past week, many Iranians took to the streets again to protest a corrupt government that lies to them. President Trump recognized their courage with his tweets in Farsi this past week standing with the Iranian people. We call on all nations to join our lead, particularly by sanctioning Iranian officials for human rights violations.&#8221;
“The Iranian regime is in a deep economic crisis. Back in May of 2018, shortly after leaving the Iran nuclear deal, Secretary Pompeo said that we will deny revenue to Iran’s clerics who use it to fund terrorism and violence across the region,” Hook stated. “He said that Iran’s expansionist foreign policy would no longer be cost-free, and that the economic price would be severe.  We have succeeded in raising the costs for Iran, and the regime is badly managing an economic crisis of its own making.”
&#8220;Iran&#8217;s oil exports are down by more than 2 million barrels per day, reducing Iran&#8217;s revenue from oil by more than 80%. This amounts to a loss of around $50 billion annually,&#8221; Hook added. &#8220;Today the question people are asking is whether the regime has the competence to avoid a banking disaster and hyperinflation. The Iranian economy this year could contract by as much as 14 percent.&#8221;
The move by the State Department comes after the Treasury Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ayatollah-khamenei-gets-mouthy-toward-trump-on-twitter-that-was-a-bad-idea">announced</a> additional sanctions &#8220;against any individual owning, operating, trading with, or assisting sectors of the Iranian economy, including construction, manufacturing, textiles, and mining.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today, Special Representative for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Iran</a> Brian Hook delivered remarks. <a href="https://t.co/8w6qyUpn4n">pic.twitter.com/8w6qyUpn4n</a>
&mdash; Department of State (@StateDept) <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1218200922192523266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The U.S. State Department provided the following additional <a href="https://www.state.gov/this-week-in-iran-policy-january-13-17/">information</a> about IRGC Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour:
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>An individual designated under Section 7031(c), as well as their immediate family members, is ineligible for entry into the United States.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Various open source media, along with statements by Iranian officials and information submitted by the Iranian people to the Rewards for Justice tip-line present a consistent timeline and scope of the killings in Mahshahr. They also indicate that the excessive use of force against protestors was perpetrated, at least in part, by Khuzestan Province’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>By nature of his position, Shahravar likely had knowledge of the operation to suppress the protests and the subsequent gross violations of human rights that were committed by his subordinates. Shahvarpour failed to prevent or stop his subordinates from committing the killings that took place in Mahshahr.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>There is no information indicating that Shahvarpour initiated an investigation into these gross violations of human rights.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>In light of these circumstances, the United States is placing a visa sanction on Khuzestan Province’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Vali Asr Commander Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour for his involvement in the gross violations of human rights against protestors during the November protests in Mahshahr.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>This U.S. action is taken pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2019, which is an ineligibility for entry into the United Sates of officials of foreign governments and their immediate family members for whom the Secretary of State has credible information on their involvement in gross violations of human rights.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>It demonstrates the United States’ continued commitment to the Iranian people in supporting their demands for accountability from Iranian officials who committed serious human rights abuses against protestors in November 2019.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>

Quds Day Rally In Tehran

Trump Administration Issues More Sanctions Against Iran For Killing Protesters

Iranian Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei was blasted on Friday by President Donald Trump after Khamenei decided to attack Trump directly on Twitter over Trump&#8217;s advocacy for the Iranian people.
Khamenei made his remarks in response to a tweet from Trump on January 11, which stated: &#8220;To the brave, long-suffering people of Iran: I&#8217;ve stood with you since the beginning of my Presidency, and my Administration will continue to stand with you. We are following your protests closely, and are inspired by your courage.&#8221;
Khamenei responded: &#8220;The villainous US govt repeatedly says that they are standing by the Iranian ppl. They lie. If you are standing by the Iranian ppl, it is only to stab them in the heart with your venomous daggers. Of course, you have so far failed to do so, &amp; you will certainly continue to fail.&#8221;
Trump responded to Khamenei by quote retweeting him and writing: &#8220;The noble people of Iran—who love America—deserve a government that&#8217;s more interested in helping them achieve their dreams than killing them for demanding respect. Instead of leading Iran toward ruin, its leaders should abandon terror and Make Iran Great Again!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The noble people of Iran—who love America—deserve a government that&#39;s more interested in helping them achieve their dreams than killing them for demanding respect. Instead of leading Iran toward ruin, its leaders should abandon terror and Make Iran Great Again! <a href="https://t.co/RLjGsC5WLc">https://t.co/RLjGsC5WLc</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1218309612304248834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a separate tweet, Trump added: &#8220;The so-called &#8216;Supreme Leader&#8217; of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe. Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The so-called “Supreme Leader” of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe. Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1218297466656829440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The New York Times said in a recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/business/economy/iran-economy.html">report</a> that the Trump administration&#8217;s sanctions again Iran, which is the world&#8217;s leading state sponsor of terrorism, have devastated the country and have limited Iran&#8217;s ability to respond to aggression from the U.S.:
<blockquote>Iran is caught in a wretched economic crisis. Jobs are scarce. Prices for food and other necessities are skyrocketing. The economy is rapidly shrinking. Iranians are increasingly disgusted.
Crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have severed Iran’s access to international markets, decimating the economy, which is now contracting at an alarming 9.5 percent annual rate, the International Monetary Fund estimated. Oil exports were effectively zero in December, according to Oxford Economics, as the sanctions have prevented sales, even though smugglers have transported unknown volumes.
&#8230;
The bleak economy appears to be tempering the willingness of Iran to escalate hostilities with the United States, its leaders cognizant that war could profoundly worsen national fortunes. In recent months, public anger over joblessness, economic anxiety and corruption has emerged as a potentially existential threat to Iran’s hard-line regime.</blockquote>
Pressure against Iran has rapidly increased over the last week after it admitted that it shot down a passenger plane, killing 176 people, and after Britain, France and Germany notified Iran that they were taking action to clamp down on Iran&#8217;s accelerating aggression, which violates the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/iran/news/article/joint-statement-by-the-foreign-ministers-of-france-germany-and-the-united">said</a> in a joint statement on Tuesday:
<blockquote>Following Iran’s announcement in May 2019 that it would cease meeting some of its commitments under the JCPoA, we have sought to persuade Iran to change course. The E3 have worked hard to address Iran’s concerns and bring it back into compliance with its commitments under the nuclear agreement. We have also undertaken and supported diplomatic efforts, such as France’s initiative, to deescalate tensions and to bring Iran and the US to the negotiating table for a comprehensive negotiated solution. The E3 remain fully committed to this diplomatic effort and intend to resume it as soon as conditions allow.
However, in the meantime Iran has continued to break key restrictions set out in the JCPoA. Iran’s actions are inconsistent with the provisions of the nuclear agreement and have increasingly severe and non-reversible proliferation implications.
We do not accept the argument that Iran is entitled to reduce compliance with the JCPoA. Contrary to its statements, Iran has never triggered the JCPoA Dispute Resolution Mechanism and has no legal grounds to cease implementing the provisions of the agreement.
We publicly stated our concerns, along with the High Representative of the European Union, on 11 November. At the Joint Commission on 6 December, we made clear to Iran that unless it reversed course, we would have no choice but to take action within the framework of the JCPoA, including through the Dispute Resolution Mechanism.
Instead of reversing course, Iran has chosen to further reduce compliance with the JCPoA and announced on 5 January that “the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the fifth step in reducing its commitments, discards the last key component of its limitations in the JCPOA, which is the ‘limit on the number of centrifuges’”, and that “the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program no longer faces any operational restrictions”, including on enrichment and enrichment-related matters.
We have therefore been left with no choice, given Iran’s actions, but to register today our concerns that Iran is not meeting its commitments under the JCPoA and to refer this matter to the Joint Commission under the Dispute Resolution Mechanism, as set out in paragraph 36 of the JCPoA.</blockquote>
The Trump administration launched new sanctions against Iran this last week in response to Iran firing missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq.
“First, the President is issuing an executive order authorizing the imposition of additional sanctions against any individual owning, operating, trading with, or assisting sectors of the Iranian economy, including construction, manufacturing, textiles, and mining,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-times-trumps-sanctions-against-iran-are-working-gives-u-s-unique-position">said</a> during a White House press conference. “And let me be clear: These will be both primary and secondary sanctions. The EO also allows us to designate other sectors in the future as Secretary Pompeo and me think is appropriate.”
“Second, we are announcing 17 specific sanctions against Iran’s largest steel and iron manufacturers, three Seychelles-based entities, and a vessel involved in the transfer of products,” Mnuchin said. “As a result of these actions, we will cut off billions of dollars of support to the Iranian regime, and we will continue our enforcement of other entities.”
“Third, we are taking action against eight senior Iranian officials who advanced the regime’s destabilizing activity and were involved in Tuesday’s ballistic missile strike,” Mnuchin concluded. “Today’s sanctions are part of our commitment to stop the Iranian regime’s global terrorist activities. The President has been very clear: We will continue to apply economic sanctions until Iran stops its terrorist activities and commit that it will never have nuclear weapons.”
This report has been updated to include additional information.

Ayatollah Khamenei Trump

Ayatollah Khamenei Gets Mouthy Toward Trump On Twitter. That Was A Bad Idea.

Khamenei

In a rare appearance on Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, praised the country&#8217;s missile strike on a U.S. airbase earlier this month while bashing President Trump as an untrustworthy clown and accusing the U.S. of using Iran&#8217;s downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet, which Iran initially tried to cover up, as a distraction.
“The fact that Iran has the power to give such a slap to a world power shows the hand of God,” Khamenei said, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-khamenei/khamenei-says-irans-strikes-at-us-targets-show-hand-of-god-idUSKBN1ZG0O8">Reuters.</a>
“These American clowns who lie and say they are with the Iranian people should see who the Iranian people are,” said the Iranian leader.
Khameini went on to accuse the U.S. of trying to use Iran&#8217;s horrific downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 to shift international attention from the Trump-ordered strike that took out Iran&#8217;s top military leader, Qassem Soleimani, who Khameini claimed was &#8220;mourned&#8221; by &#8220;millions in Iran.&#8221;
&#8220;Khamenei told the crowd Friday that Trump is not to be trusted and only pretends to support the Iranian people,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/irans-supreme-leader-calls-trump-a-clown-praises-missile-attack">Fox News</a> reports. &#8220;He said Western countries are too weak to &#8216;bring Iranians to their knees.&#8217; He said Iran was willing to negotiate, but not with the U.S.&#8221;
Since Khamenei has not addressed Friday prayers in Tehran since 2012, one Middle East scholar told the Washington Post that his address is a &#8220;symbolically significant act.&#8221;
On January 8, the Iranian regime launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. military and coalition forces in Iraq at the Asad airbase in Anbar Province. The attack followed an airstrike in Baghdad ordered by President Trump that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who he described as one of the &#8220;worst terrorists in history and the father of the roadside bomb.&#8221;
Though no Americans or Iraqis were killed or wounded in the blast, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-11-u-s-troops-treated-after-iran-missile-attack-cnn-politicizes-theres-more-to-the-story">recent report</a> shows that at least 11 U.S. troops were treated for injuries like concussions.
“No one was killed or wounded in the five barrages of multiple missiles that night, although several military personnel who were working were checked for concussions,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/world/middleeast/Iran-missile-attack-American-base.html">The New York Times</a> reported. “The absence of casualties seemed to be the result of luck and warnings.”
A spokesman for the U.S. military command in Baghdad also said: “As previously stated, while no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed.”
Shortly after the missile strike, Iran shot down a Ukranian jetliner that killed 176 people, presumably mistaking the plane for a U.S. counter-attack. Khamenei referred to the tragedy as a &#8220;bitter accident&#8221; that Iranians mourned.
Meeting in London on Thursday, ministers from Afghanistan, Britain, Canada, Sweden and Ukraine – all of which lost citizens in the crash – demanded full-transparency from Iran during the downed-plane investigation as well as compensation.
&#8220;We are here to pursue closure, accountability, transparency and justice for the victims – Ukrainian, Swedish, Afghan, British, Canadian as well as Iranian, through a full complete and transparent international investigation,&#8221; said Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne. &#8220;In the wake of such a horrific tragedy there are many many questions. Families want answers, all of the countries assembled here today want answers, and the international community want answers. The world is waiting for those answers and we will not rest until we get them.&#8221;

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

In Rare Sermon, Iran Leader Praises Missile Attack, Accuses U.S. Of Using Plane Tragedy As Distraction

Ali Khamenei

During a recent interview with Fox News&#8217; Brian Kilmeade, retired U.S. Navy SEAL Jocko Willink — who was a former commander of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-seal-jocko-willink-top-lesson-dont-quit-2018-6">most decorated</a> special operations unit of the entire Iraq War — described President Donald Trump&#8217;s recent ordered strike on top Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Quds Force general Qassem Soleimani as a &#8220;gamble&#8221; that nonetheless clearly &#8220;paid off&#8221; for the president.
&#8220;Retired Navy SEAL and author Jocko Willink applauded the &#8216;gamble&#8217; taken by President Trump in ordering the killing of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which was followed by anti-regime protests that erupted on the streets of Tehran,&#8221; Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/navy-seal-jocko-willink-trump-iran-soleimani-killing">reported</a>.
“When you look at it from that perspective you could say that this was a brilliant move to kill a person that was an enemy of America and an enemy of the Iranian people,” Willink said on “The Brian Kilmeade Show,&#8221; Fox News wrote.
“Was it a risk to do this operation?&#8221; Willink continued. &#8220;Absolutely. And if you were to poll everyone that had knowledge about what the conflict is like over there, &#8216;Hey should we do this or not?&#8217; There would have been mixed feelings.”
Willink then explained how such operations are always a risk, analogizing to the famous Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan to take down 9/11 mastermind jihadist Osama bin Laden of al-Qaeda.
“It was a risk to do this just like it was a risk when Obama sent SEALS in to go kill [Osama] bin Laden. That was huge risk,” Willink continued, as also reported by Fox News. “He’s going into Pakistan, he didn’t tell Pakistan what we’re doing. There was massive risk. You know the whole building could have been bombed. That’s a massive risk to do that operation. Pulled it off. Bravo. Outstanding.”
“We don’t know what could have happened. Trump took a gamble and did this, and you know what? From what it looks like right now the gamble paid off,” Willink said as he wrapped up his remarks.
In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">Daily Wire op-ed</a> published the day after President Trump&#8217;s successfully ordered strike of Soleimani, I wrote approvingly of the &#8220;just and proper strike&#8221; of &#8220;mastermind Iranian jihadist&#8221; Qassem Soleimani:
<blockquote>The world has awoken today a safer and more just place. And the unraveling of former President Barack Obama’s pro-Iran regional Middle East realignment, which began with President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-trump-just-shredded-iran-deal-here-are-5-ben-shapiro">thunderous exit</a>from his predecessor’s pro-ayatollah nuclear capitulation, has now reached its logical conclusion.
The Obama Middle East foreign policy legacy is dead. As is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s infamous jihadist mastermind, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-responds-to-u-s-military-killing-2-top-iranian-military-leaders-involved-in-terrorists">Qassem Soleimani</a>.
Good riddance to both. &#8230;
Qassem Soleimani was a monstrous thug. In addition to the hundreds of Americans killed in Iraq via Iranian-supplied roadside IEDs, Soleimani personally oversaw the jihad-led destabilization of all nations within Tehran’s coveted <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/09/03/the-shiite-crescent-and-regional-disaster/">“Shiite crescent”</a> of desired regional hegemony. He likely is responsible, on net, for tens of thousands of deaths. He was a relentless and unceasing foe of Western civilization, more broadly, though he held a special disdain for the mullahs’ “Little Satan” of Israel and “Great Satan” of the United States.</blockquote>
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Emily Zanotti <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ted-cruz-dares-democrats-offers-senate-resolution-praising-soleimani-mission">reported</a> earlier this month, Iran hawk Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a formal Senate resolution praising the Soleimani strike. &#8220;Senator Ted Cruz wants Democrats to publicly declare their feelings on the Trump Administration’s mission to kill Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani,&#8221; Zanotti wrote.

President Donald J. Trump Watches Raid On Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Compound

Retired SEAL: Trump’s ‘Gamble’ On Soleimani Strike ‘Paid Off’

Al Qaeda

Foreign Policy

Fox News

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Middle East

Military

Osama bin Laden

A new report from The New York Times highlights how President Donald Trump&#8217;s economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran have devastated the country and have allowed the U.S. to become even more aggressive toward the terror-sponsoring state because it is afraid of any additional fallout from continued escalation.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/business/economy/iran-economy.html">reported</a> Monday:
<blockquote>Iran is caught in a wretched economic crisis. Jobs are scarce. Prices for food and other necessities are skyrocketing. The economy is rapidly shrinking. Iranians are increasingly disgusted.
Crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have severed Iran’s access to international markets, decimating the economy, which is now contracting at an alarming 9.5 percent annual rate, the International Monetary Fund estimated. Oil exports were effectively zero in December, according to Oxford Economics, as the sanctions have prevented sales, even though smugglers have transported unknown volumes.</blockquote>
On Tuesday, European countries triggered a dispute mechanism against Iran, which is <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Soleimani-killing-Window-of-opportunity-open-for-Israel-against-Iran-614151">producing</a> enough enriched uranium to build one nuclear bomb by the end of the year, for violating the Iran nuclear deal.
The Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/iran/news/article/joint-statement-by-the-foreign-ministers-of-france-germany-and-the-united">said</a> in a joint statement on Tuesday:
<blockquote>Following Iran’s announcement in May 2019 that it would cease meeting some of its commitments under the JCPoA, we have sought to persuade Iran to change course. The E3 have worked hard to address Iran’s concerns and bring it back into compliance with its commitments under the nuclear agreement. We have also undertaken and supported diplomatic efforts, such as France’s initiative, to deescalate tensions and to bring Iran and the US to the negotiating table for a comprehensive negotiated solution. The E3 remain fully committed to this diplomatic effort and intend to resume it as soon as conditions allow.
However, in the meantime Iran has continued to break key restrictions set out in the JCPoA. Iran’s actions are inconsistent with the provisions of the nuclear agreement and have increasingly severe and non-reversible proliferation implications.
We do not accept the argument that Iran is entitled to reduce compliance with the JCPoA. Contrary to its statements, Iran has never triggered the JCPoA Dispute Resolution Mechanism and has no legal grounds to cease implementing the provisions of the agreement.
We publicly stated our concerns, along with the High Representative of the European Union, on 11 November. At the Joint Commission on 6 December, we made clear to Iran that unless it reversed course, we would have no choice but to take action within the framework of the JCPoA, including through the Dispute Resolution Mechanism.
Instead of reversing course, Iran has chosen to further reduce compliance with the JCPoA and announced on 5 January that &#8220;the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the fifth step in reducing its commitments, discards the last key component of its limitations in the JCPOA, which is the ‘limit on the number of centrifuges’”, and that “the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program no longer faces any operational restrictions”, including on enrichment and enrichment-related matters.
We have therefore been left with no choice, given Iran’s actions, but to register today our concerns that Iran is not meeting its commitments under the JCPoA and to refer this matter to the Joint Commission under the Dispute Resolution Mechanism, as set out in paragraph 36 of the JCPoA.</blockquote>
As The Times noted, the fact that conditions are deteriorating so rapidly in Iran means that its government is concerned about continued protests, which seem to become more problematic for the regime every time they break out.
As a result, &#8220;the bleak economy appears to be tempering the willingness of Iran to escalate hostilities with the United States, its leaders cognizant that war could profoundly worsen national fortunes,&#8221; The Times added. &#8220;In recent months, public anger over joblessness, economic anxiety and corruption has emerged as a potentially existential threat to Iran’s hard-line regime.&#8221;
The Trump administration launched new sanctions against Iran last week after the world&#8217;s leading state sponsor of terrorism launched missile attacks against U.S. forces stationed in Iraq. The sanctions were announced on Friday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a press briefing at the White House.
“First, the President is issuing an executive order authorizing the imposition of additional sanctions against any individual owning, operating, trading with, or assisting sectors of the Iranian economy, including construction, manufacturing, textiles, and mining,” Mnuchin began. “And let me be clear: These will be both primary and secondary sanctions. The EO also allows us to designate other sectors in the future as Secretary Pompeo and me think is appropriate.”
“Second, we are announcing 17 specific sanctions against Iran’s largest steel and iron manufacturers, three Seychelles-based entities, and a vessel involved in the transfer of products,” Mnuchin said. “As a result of these actions, we will cut off billions of dollars of support to the Iranian regime, and we will continue our enforcement of other entities.”
“Third, we are taking action against eight senior Iranian officials who advanced the regime’s destabilizing activity and were involved in Tuesday’s ballistic missile strike,” Mnuchin concluded. “Today’s sanctions are part of our commitment to stop the Iranian regime’s global terrorist activities. The President has been very clear: We will continue to apply economic sanctions until Iran stops its terrorist activities and commit that it will never have nuclear weapons.”

IRAN-POLITICS-US-CANADA-AVIATION

New York Times: Trump’s Sanctions Against Iran Are Working, Gives U.S. Unique Position

New York Times

Surprise, surprise: Three countries that are signatories to the infamous Iran nuclear deal have suddenly hardened their positions vis-à-vis Iran after the Trump administration’s airstrike killing Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
On Tuesday, Britain, France and Germany triggered the nuclear deal’s dispute mechanism, which means Iran has 30 days to stop violating the nuclear deal before a “snapback” of U.N. and EU sanctions on Iran could be implemented, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/76ef3722e781efed91a832a44d25917d">Associated Press</a> reports.
As Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab informed Parliament, although Russia and China objected to the move by Britain, France and Germany, every time Iran violates the deal, the “breakout time” Iran needs to create a nuclear bomb is diminished. He warned, “Each of these actions were individually serious. Together, they now raise acute concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated, “Our goal is clear: We want to preserve the accord and come to a diplomatic solution within the agreement. We will tackle this together with all partners in the agreement. We call on Iran to participate constructively in the negotiation process that is now beginning.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry claimed there would be a “serious and strong response” to the new actions by the triumvirate of European countries. AP noted of the nuclear deal, “Iran last year began violating its limitations in stages … Following the drone strike in Iraq that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran announced what it said was its fifth and final step in violating the deal, saying it would no longer abide by any limitation to its enrichment activities.”
Making sure they did not offend Iran too much, the three countries protested that they were not joining the Trump administration in its hard-line stance toward Iran, stating,  “Our three countries are not joining a campaign to implement maximum pressure against Iran. Our hope is to bring Iran back into full compliance with its commitments.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also dithered that this was not a hard-line move, stating that just because the three countries were implementing the dispute mechanism did not mean sanctions would be forthcoming. He said, “We have to preserve the nuclear deal and work to go back to full and effective implementation,” calling the nuclear deal a “significant achievement” and adding, “there is no alternative to this agreement.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry argued against the move, stating, “We see no reason for such a step,” calling it an “ill-considered decision” that could make a return to the original nuclear deal “unachievable.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in April 2018 that Iran had a comprehensive program, Project Amad, to design and develop nuclear weapons, which was carried out inside the Iranian Defense Ministry, a program whose existence Iran denied.
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-news-using-advanced-centrifuges-violating-nuclear-deal-2019-09-07/">CBS News</a> reported last September:
<blockquote>Iran has begun using arrays of advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium in violation of its 2015 nuclear deal, a spokesman said Saturday, warning that Europe has little time left to offer new terms to save the accord. The comments by Behrouz Kamalvandi of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran signal a further cut into the one year experts estimate Tehran would need to have a enough material for building a nuclear weapon if it chose to pursue one … Iran already has breached the stockpile and enrichment level limits set by the deal.</blockquote>

Republican National Convention: Day Four

BREAKING: The Trump Effect: Britain, France, Germany Suddenly Harden Toward Iran After Killing Of Soleimani

European Union

On Monday, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin interviewed Kelli Hake, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Christopher Hake, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/us/suleimani-iran-attacks.html">was killed</a> by an IED in Iraq in March 2008, prompting her to join over 300 veterans and family members who have filed a lawsuit against Iran for its arming and funding of terrorist groups in attacks in Iraq against U.S. and coalition forces from 2004 to 2011.
Hake&#8217;s son Gage was only two when his father was killed; as <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/12/06/trial-losses-from-iranian-bombs-echo-in-the-lives-of-wounded-troops-gold-star-families-a-decade-later/">Military Times</a> wrote of the letter Christopher wrote his little son before he left for his last mission:
<blockquote>
The neatly scripted, single-page message told little Gage how special the boy was to this first-time father, how the night he left on this second Iraq deployment was the hardest he’d face, how he’d kept picking up the boy, kissing him, putting him back down and then picking him up again.
“I never wanted to let you go,” Hake wrote. But the 26-year-old staff sergeant had a mission. He had to go. As he closed the letter, he made promises to his son. “I will be with you again. I will teach you to ride your first bike, build your first sand box, watch you play sports and see you have kids also,” Hake wrote. “I am always with you. Dadda,” he signed off.
</blockquote>
When Baldwin asked Hake how she felt when she heard of the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which provided to the IEDs to Shiite militias in Iraq, as the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/a-burden-off-my-chest-wife-of-soldier-killed-in-iraq-recounts-finding-out-about-soleimani-death">Washington Examiner noted</a>, Hake answered that it “felt like a burden off my chest that he was gone,” later adding that when her now 13-year-old son heard the news, “He just kind of started running around the house saying, “Yes! Yes! He’s dead!’”
Baldwin started the interview by asking, “When you first found out that the U.S. killed Soleimani in that drone strike, what was the first thing that went through your mind?”
Hake answered, “Probably a little bit of relief, knowing that he couldn’t hurt anyone else.”
Baldwin: And can you describe the relief a bit more?&#8221;
Hake: Yeah, I just — the name came across and the name wasn’t super familiar, but the name of the IRGC was very familiar to me. And so I put everything together and realized what had just happened. It kind of felt like a burden off my chest that he was gone and I didn’t really have to worry so much, you know. It was just like a burden off my chest.
Baldwin asked, “At what point did you realize, at what point did you put two and two together, that the way in which your husband was killed was ultimately at the hands of this guy Soleimani?”
Hake replied, “That was not until years later.”
Baldwin asked, “Tell me how.”
Hake: So I had known during conversations with other soldiers that he was killed by a very specific IED called an EFP; I had known that it was a very specific kind, but that’s really all I knew. I didn’t know that it was made in Iran; I didn’t know the specifics of everything at the time, and then as the years passed, I ended up getting a letter from my lawyer, who at the time wasn’t my lawyer at the time, but kind of explaining what their findings were. They were tracing these EFPs back to Iran and that they would like to have another conversation with me. At that time I went ahead and spoke with them and learned more about who actually killed my husband.
Asked what she hoped to gain from the massive lawsuit, Hake answered, “To make it public. I want the American people to understand that Iran had a part in killing my husband who was an American soldier.”
Baldwin asked Hake how she had explained her husband’s death to her son through the years. Hake answered, “There have been a few conversations here and there, I mean, at first he was so young; really we just said “Daddy died and went to heaven to be with the angels.” As he’s gotten older we have talked more about how he died, and how he is our hero, and how he’s an American hero. We’ve gone through those things as he asked questions; we try to answer them to the best we can for however old he is at the time. When we did find out that Soleimani had passed away, I did tell him that he was the one responsible for his dad’s death.
Baldwin: And he said what to you, the thirteen-year-old boy?
Hake: He kind of looked at me and he was like, “Really?” And he he just kind of started running around the house saying, “Yes! Yes! He’s dead!” I could tell he was very relieved as well.
Video below:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3CUdk8c1JlY" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Army Staff Sergeant Buried At Arlington National Cemetery

WATCH: Wife Of Soldier Killed By Iranian IED Gives Powerful Testimony About Death Of Soleimani

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now blaming U.S. &#8220;escalation&#8221; in the Middle East for the death of 57 Canadians, who were killed when Iranian forces shot down a Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 on board.
Trudeau said the Canadians killed would be &#8220;home with their families&#8221; right now if tensions in the Middle East had not risen because of U.S. actions.
&#8220;I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,&#8221; Trudeau said in an interview with Global television.
“This is something that happens when you have conflict and war. Innocents bear the brunt of it and it is a reminder why all of us need to work so hard on de-escalation, moving forward to reduce tensions and find a pathway that doesn’t involve further conflict and killing,&#8221; he said.
Trudeau also said the international community has been &#8220;very, very clear about needing to have a non-nuclear Iran,&#8221; but added that it needs to continue &#8220;managing the tensions in the region that are brought about by U.S. actions as well.&#8221;
President Trump this month ordered U.S. forces to take out terrorist and Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani after Iran fired missiles into Baghdad, killing an American. In response, Iran fired more missiles into Iraq, targeting U.S. military bases. In the chaos, Iranian forces shot down the Ukranian plane, which they at first denied but then acknowledged they had &#8220;unintentionally&#8221; downed the plane.
Trudeau&#8217;s comments mirror those of Iran, which blamed the death of those killed by the Iranian surface-to-air missile on &#8220;U.S. adventurism&#8221; that prompted both countries&#8217; militaries to go on high alert.
In the interview, Trudeau said he had spoken with Trump about the incident.
“I have spoken to him and I have talked about the need to de-escalate tensions,” he said. “I’ve talked about the tremendous grief and loss that Canadians are feeling, and the need for clear answers on how this happened and how we’re going to make sure it never happens again.”
Trump has no made no comment on talking with Trudeau.
The two have a rocky relationship. Last month, Trump called the Canadian prime minister &#8220;two-faced&#8221; after Trudeau and other foreign leaders were seen on video ridiculing Trump at a NATO summit near London.
Meanwhile in Iran, President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday called the shooting down of the Ukrainian plane an &#8220;unforgivable error&#8221; and pledged to punish those responsible.
Rouhani added that &#8220;one person cannot be solely responsible for the plane crash&#8221; and said the country is in the midst of a full investigation. After Iranians protested against the government, Rouhani said his government is &#8220;accountable to Iranians and other nations who lost lives.&#8221;
&#8220;For our people it is very important in this incident that whoever was at fault or negligent at any level&#8221; is prosecuted, he said. &#8220;Anyone who should be punished must be punished. Iranian armed forces admitting their mistake is a good first step &#8230; We should assure people that it will not happen again.&#8221;
An Iranian judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili, said there have been arrests. &#8220;Clearly, as President Rouhani has said, Iran made a terrible mistake. It is good they have apologized.&#8221;

President Trump And First Lady Welcome Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau And His Wife Gregoire To The White House

Canadian PM Trudeau Blames U.S. ‘Escalation’ In Middle East For Death Of 57 Canadians

Canada

Justin Trudeau

After initially denying responsibility for the tragic crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet last Wednesday that killed all 176 people on board — covering up evidence and accusing the U.S. of conducting a &#8220;psychological operation&#8221; on Iranian citizens — Iran finally <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-iran-admits-it-shot-down-passenger-plane-killing-176-people">admitted</a> three days later that it did indeed shoot down the plane, saying the plane was accidentally targeted when it turned toward an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military base.
Amid escalating protests, to which the oppressive Iranian regime has responded with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/iran-opens-fire-on-demonstrators-protesters-chant-our-enemy-is-here-they-lie-to-us-that-its-america">violence</a>, Iran&#8217;s judiciary announced Tuesday that it has made multiple arrests related to the downing of the Boeing 737.
&#8220;Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said &#8216;extensive investigations have taken place and some individuals are arrested,'&#8221; The <a href="https://apnews.com/40f1b9bd475d23bd5d2977ff2e473d7b">Associated Press</a> reports. &#8220;His statement on the judiciary’s website did not say how many individuals had been detained or name them.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the &#8220;painful and unforgivable&#8221; incident in a speech on state-controlled television Tuesday and called for a special investigation. &#8220;The judiciary should form a special court with a ranking judge and dozens of experts,” said Rouhani, as reported by AP. “This is not an ordinary case. The entire the world will be watching this court.”
“The responsibility falls on more than just one person,” he said, promising punishment for all responsible for the deaths of the 176 passengers aboard the flight.
The president of the terror-sponsoring regime also made a point of trying to blame the U.S. for the tragedy, saying, &#8220;It was the U.S. that made for an agitated environment. It was the U.S. that created an unusual situation. It was the U.S. that threatened and took our beloved (General Qassem Soleimani).&#8221;
Iran shot down the plane shortly after it launched missiles at two Iraqi bases at which U.S. personnel were stationed. The attack, which resulted in no U.S. or Iraqi casualties, was a retaliation for the Trump-ordered airstrike that took out Soleimani, who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers and helped orchestrate Iran-backed terror campaigns for decades.
Iran initially denied culpability for the downing of the plane, accusing the U.S. of spreading a &#8220;big lie&#8221; about Iran&#8217;s role in the tragedy.
&#8220;It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the U.S. government and those supporting it are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved families and victimizing them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies,” Iranian Government spokesman Ali Rabiei <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7872337/Iran-accuses-big-lie-missile-claims.html">said</a> last week. “No one will assume responsibility for such a big lie once it is known that the claim had been fraudulent.”
Iran also began removing evidence from the crash. Eventually, they could deny the truth no longer and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-iran-admits-it-shot-down-passenger-plane-killing-176-people">admitted</a> three days later to having shot down the plane accidentally.
The incident has sparked <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/death-to-liars-iranians-turn-on-ayatollah-demand-resignation-over-shot-down-plane">massive backlash</a> in at least a dozen cities in Iran, with Iranian protesters shouting &#8220;Death to the Islamic Republic&#8221; and &#8220;Death to the dictator.&#8221; Iran&#8217;s theocratic regime responded by violently suppressing the protests, firing “tear gas, rubber bullets and eventually live ammunition to disperse demonstrators.”
(Top image: An Iranian woman holds a placard reading in Farsi &#8220;Your mistake was unintentional, your lie was intentional&#8221; during a demonstration outside Tehran&#8217;s Amir Kabir University on January 11, 2020. -Getty Images)
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/iran-opens-fire-on-demonstrators-protesters-chant-our-enemy-is-here-they-lie-to-us-that-its-america">Iran Opens Fire On Demonstrators. Protesters Chant: ‘Our Enemy Is Right Here; They Lie To Us That It’s America’</a>

Iranian Protest

Iran Announces Arrests Over Shooting Down Plane Amid Escalating Protests

On Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) threw down the gauntlet to Democrats, as he announced he would introduce a resolution supporting the protestors in Iran who are fighting against the theocratic, despotic Islamic regime. The resolution states that it condemns the actions of the government of Iran and supports the protestors’ desire for the government of Iran to respect freedom and human rights. McCarthy thus put Democrats in the position of either supporting the protestors or refusing to do so and thus tacitly supporting the Iranian regime.
The resolution lists various actions the Iranian government has committed, including November 2019, when “Iranian security forces killed approximately 1,500 demonstrators when they rose up across the country in protest”; January 8, 2020, when “the Government of Iran shot down Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752, lied about its responsibility, and then admitted to mistakenly shooting the airliner down, killing all 176 people on board,” and  January 11, 2020, when the “government of Iran arrested the British Ambassador to Iran, in violation of the Vienna Convention.”
The resolution then segues to the protestors, noting on January 11 they “gathered across Iran to denounce what they called lying and incompetence by the country’s leadership”; that at Amirkabir University of technology in Iran, “protestors tore down posters of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani”; that on January 13 “video from inside Iran showed protestors chanting slogans including ‘Clerics get lost,’” and that “video appears to show Iranian security forces firing live ammunition at protestors and a woman being carried away leaving a trail of blood on the ground as people shout that she has been shot.”
The resolution notes President Trump’s support for the protestors before it again condemns the Iranian regime.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The people of the United States support freedom and democracy, and we will always stand beside those who seek it.
Here is the full text of my resolution supporting the protestors in Iran. I expect the full House to vote on it this week. <a href="https://t.co/nFk25Gjj4P">pic.twitter.com/nFk25Gjj4P</a>
&mdash; Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/1216908744073891841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Last week McCarthy bluntly criticized the Democrats for their lack of support for the Trump administration as it battles the despotic Iranian regime, tweeting, “Think of the contrast. ↴While Democrats are trying to remove President Trump from office, the President is focused on removing terrorists from the face of the earth.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Think of the contrast. ↴ While Democrats are trying to remove President Trump from office, the President is focused on removing terrorists from the face of the earth.
&mdash; Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/1213834480387014656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This week McCarthy doubled down, saying, “Any time I hear a Democrat talk about him (Soleimani) and say he was ‘bad,’ but then use the word ‘but,’ yes, I question it. There is no ‘but’ when it comes to Soleimani; he was bad ‘because,’ not ‘but.’ He was bad because he killed more than 600 American soldiers; he was bad because of the attacks and the American citizens he killed; he was bad because he went after our embassy. He was bad because he was planning to kill more Americans. So, no: I never use the word ‘but’ when I refer to him, and I don’t think any other America should either, and if they do, I’ll question them on it as well.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Any time a Democrat says &quot;Soleimani was bad, BUT&#8230;&quot; they need to be called out.
Soleimani was bad BECAUSE he was a terrorist who targeted and murdered hundreds of Americans. <a href="https://t.co/q6mnDo65aG">pic.twitter.com/q6mnDo65aG</a>
&mdash; Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/1216367426843152384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
McCarthy’s reference to Democrats using “but” when describing Soleimani has resonance; last week, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UHrvp-UeyU">said</a>, “We have some questions to ask of our own president. Look, there is no question that Soleimani had American blood on his hands, that he was a bad actor in the region, but if there is anything that we have learned in the last twenty years in the Middle East, it’s that taking out a bad guy is not necessarily a good idea.”
Fellow presidential contender Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1212951889060470788?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1212951889060470788&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fopinion%2Fthe-left-criticized-elizabeth-warren-for-calling-soleimani">tweeted</a>, “Soleimani was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans. But this reckless move escalates the situation with Iran and increases the likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict. Our priority must be to avoid another costly war.&#8221;
Then, of course, there’s Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), whose legendary history of cozying up to dictators apparently precluded him from even mentioning Soleimani’s brutal history, as Sanders only <a href="https://twitter.com/CaraKorte/status/1212961215707844608/photo/1">condemned</a> Trump’s “dangerous escalation.”

Health And Human Service Department Announces New Division On Conscience And Religious Freedom

Kevin McCarthy Backs House Dems Into Corner, Will Introduce Resolution Supporting Iranian Protestors

Kevin McCarthy

U.S. House of Representatives

When and how did President Donald Trump come up with the decision to have Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani killed? That’s the question the media seems to have been asking for the past week &#8212; and so far, they’ve come up with wildly different answers.
Using the oh-so-tired “anonymous sources” trick, media outlets have reported everything from Trump wanted Soleimani dead back in 2017 to suggesting it was actually Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who pushed for the killing. Here are the four completely contradictory narratives the media have “reported,” all based on anonymous officials:
Trump Made The Decision Just Days Before Soleimani’s Death And Officials Were ‘Stunned’
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/04/us/politics/trump-suleimani.html">The New York Times</a> and others all claimed a day after Soleimani’s death that anonymous “Pentagon officials” were “stunned” by Trump’s decision to kill the Iranian general. Pentagon officials allegedly presented Trump with multiple options in “the chaotic days leading” to Soleimani’s death. One of those options was to kill Soleimani. The anonymous officials said this option was presented as an extreme to make the other choices look better. Trump, according to this narrative, rejected killing Soleimani but days later told officials to go ahead. The officials who allegedly spoke to the Times were not quoted, yet their claims allowed the Times to once again bash Trump.
It Was Pompeo’s Idea
The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/killing-of-soleimani-follows-long-push-from-pompeo-for-aggressive-action-against-iran-but-airstrike-brings-serious-risks/2020/01/05/092a8e00-2f7d-11ea-be79-83e793dbcaef_story.html">reported</a> that anonymous officials said it was Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence who urged Trump to approve Soleimani’s killing, and that the secretary of state had been trying to convince Trump for months to retaliate against Iran using the military.
“Pompeo first spoke with Trump about killing Soleimani months ago, said a senior U.S. official, but neither the president nor Pentagon officials were willing to countenance such an operation,” the Post reported.
Trump Actually Authorized Soleimani’s Killing 7 Months Ago
NBC <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-authorized-soleimani-s-killing-7-months-ago-conditions-n1113271?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma">reported</a> Monday that “five current and former senior administration officials” told the outlet that Trump actually authorized the killing of Soleimani seven months ago. Trump alleged authorized the killing on the condition that he “would have final signoff on any specific operation,” as if that would ever need to be said. The outlet also reported that when Trump authorized the attack – allegedly seven months ago – in the event that Iran’s escalating aggression killed an American.
One of the anonymous officials told NBC that “a number of options presented to the president over the course of time,&#8221; and that it was “some time ago” that Trump’s aides added killing Soleimani to the list of potential responses.
NBC also added in that former national security adviser John Bolton, along with Pompeo, urged Trump to authorize the killing, again, months ago.
Trump Wanted To Kill Soleimani Back In 2017
The Washington Post, who previously reported that Pompeo was the driving force behind the killing of Soleimani, now <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/killing-of-soleimani-reflects-an-aggressive-national-security-team-not-inclined-to-curb-trump/2020/01/12/a83f5346-333c-11ea-898f-eb846b7e9feb_story.html">reported</a> that it was actually Trump who wanted to kill the Iranian general – back in 2017.
“As a presidential candidate in 2015, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9puLBIX48M">Trump in an interview didn’t seem to have heard of Soleimani</a> or the paramilitary Iranian Quds Force he led. But within five months of taking office, Trump was raising the possibility of killing him — an idea he would bring up several times again in the months and years to follow,” the outlet reported.
So, which is it? Maybe it’s all of them.
<a href="https://twitter.com/aghamilton29/status/1216544840533475328?s=11">H/t AG</a>

President Trump

Media, Using Anonymous Sources, Have Presented 4 Separate Narratives Surrounding Trump And Soleimani

Media

In a series of social media posts Monday morning, President Trump highlighted outraged responses to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s much-criticized comments about the growing protest movement among Iranians against the country&#8217;s oppressive, theocratic regime after Iranian authorities were forced to admit to shooting down a passenger jet carrying 176 people. After retweeting posts condemning Pelosi&#8217;s comments downplaying the unity and significance of the protests, Trump summed up the Democrats and the left-leaning media&#8217;s strategy on framing the Iran conflict.
Asked by NBC News&#8217; George Stephanopoulos if she supports the Iranian protesters and thinks it would be &#8220;a good thing if they brought the regime down,&#8221; Pelosi failed to give a straight answer, instead appearing to dismiss the unity and power of the movement.
“Well, the protesters are protesting, as I understand it, this brand of protesters, about the fact that that plane went down. And many students were on that plane. These are largely students in the street,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-pelosi-asked-would-it-be-a-good-thing-if-iranian-protesters-brought-down-regime-after-showdown-with-trump-gets-ripped-for-response">said</a> Pelosi. When Stephanopoulos pointed out that the protesters are “calling out the regime for lying&#8221; and &#8220;saying ‘Death to Khamenei’,&#8221; Pelosi said dismissively, “Well whatever it is. But the fact is this: There were protesters in the street before against the regime. After the taking out of Soleimani, there were protesters in the street joined together, as you know, against us. It wasn’t good. Taking down this plan is a terrible, terrible tragedy, and they should be held accountable for letting commercial flights go at a time that was so dangerous. But there are different reasons why people are in the street.&#8221;
Trump responded by retweeting multiple incensed reactions to the interview, including by Mohammad Mozafari, who wrote (tweets below): &#8220;The Iranian people are being killed in the streets by the Islamic Republic, but Nancy Pelosi in the USA supports those who kill the Iranian people. Why?&#8221;
Trump also retweeted a post by Farid Khalifi condemning Pelosi: &#8220;While the Iranian people are being killed by the mullahs in the protests, you are lying to the American people! The real people of Iran don&#8217;t want the Democrats-backed terrorists. Shame on you for playing with the blood of Iranian people. STOP <a class="twitter-hashtag pretty-link js-nav" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash" data-query-source="hashtag_click"><s>#</s>NancyPelosiFakeNews</a>&#8221;
&#8220;Just for a second assume there is no Dem nor Rep party,&#8221; said &#8220;Saied,&#8221; in another post retweeted by Trump. &#8220;Look at the reality. Iranians want mullas gone. They’ve been massacred on Nov when main media were covering Trump impeachment. Be a human and stand for human right. <a class="twitter-hashtag pretty-link js-nav" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash" data-query-source="hashtag_click"><s>#</s>NancyPelosiFakeNews</a>&#8221;
&#8220;Question: Who in America supports this mullahs&#8217; crime? Answer : Nancy Pelosi,&#8221; wrote another Pelosi critic retweeted by the president. &#8220;People just now realizing how crazy and destructive Nancy is to America, better yet the world. I pity those that still support her. <a class="twitter-hashtag pretty-link js-nav" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash" data-query-source="hashtag_click"><s>#</s>NancyPelosiFakeNews</a>&#8221; wrote another. &#8220;Iranian people are angry about what Nancy Pelosi said recently in the interview with <a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link js-nav" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/ABC" data-mentioned-user-id="28785486"><s>@</s>ABC</a> so We&#8217;ve launched a hashtag against what she said. <a class="twitter-hashtag pretty-link js-nav" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash" data-query-source="hashtag_click"><s>#</s>NancyPelosiFakeNews</a>&#8221;
&#8220;The corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah&#8217;s rescue. <a class="twitter-hashtag pretty-link js-nav" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash" data-query-source="hashtag_click"><s>#</s>NancyPelosiFakeNews</a>,&#8221; added another critic, along with a photo of burka-wearing Pelosi next to a turbaned House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in front of an Iranian flag.
Trump then offered his summary of what the Democrats and their allies in the left-leaning media are trying to accomplish. &#8220;The Democrats and the Fake News are trying to make terrorist Soleimani into a wonderful guy, only because I did what should have been done for 20 years,&#8221; he tweeted. &#8220;Anything I do, whether it’s the economy, military, or anything else, will be scorned by the [Radical] Left, Do Nothing Democrats!&#8221;
<div class="stream-item-footer">
<div class="ProfileTweet-actionList js-actions" role="group" aria-label="Tweet actions">
<div class="ProfileTweet-action ProfileTweet-action--reply">Tweets below:</div>
</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🔴The Iranian people are being killed in the streets by the Islamic Republic, but Nancy Pelosi in the USA supports those who kill the Iranian people. Why?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NancyPelosiFakeNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/gGCyoLYkYX">https://t.co/gGCyoLYkYX</a>
&mdash; Mohammad Mozafari (@mohmd_mozafari) <a href="https://twitter.com/mohmd_mozafari/status/1216681333734416384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
While the Iranian people are being killed by the mullahs in the protests, you are lying to the American people! The real people of Iran don&#39;t want the Democrats-backed terrorists. Shame on you for playing with the blood of Iranian people. STOP <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NancyPelosiFakeNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/FWKwuc9oOE">pic.twitter.com/FWKwuc9oOE</a>
&mdash; Farid Khalifi (@FaridMedia) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaridMedia/status/1216706712780070925?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Just for a second assume there is no Dem nor Rep party. Look at the reality. Iranians want mullas gone. They’ve been massacred on Nov when main media were covering Trump impeachment. Be a human and stand for human right. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NancyPelosiFakeNews</a>
&mdash; Saied (@Saiedey) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saiedey/status/1216707354915483648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Question: Who in America supports this mullahs&#39; crime? Answer : Nancy Pelosi<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NancyPelosiFakeNews</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IranProtests2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IranProtests2020</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IranPortests?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IranPortests</a> <a href="https://t.co/SsGmLihFet">pic.twitter.com/SsGmLihFet</a>
&mdash; مترسک⁦🇺🇸⁩⁦🇮🇱⁩ (@Scarecr0_w) <a href="https://twitter.com/Scarecr0_w/status/1216697807148589057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
People just now realizing how crazy and destructive Nancy is to America, better yet the world. I pity those that still support her. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NancyPelosiFakeNews</a>
&mdash; BiggZie_ (@BiggZie_VT) <a href="https://twitter.com/BiggZie_VT/status/1216702825293668352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Iranian people are angry about what Nancy Pelosi said recently in the interview with <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABC</a> so WE&#39;ve launched a hashtag against what she said. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NancyPelosiFakeNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/4VTGAXlzOJ">https://t.co/4VTGAXlzOJ</a>
&mdash; 🤖Nariman (@NarimanGharib) <a href="https://twitter.com/NarimanGharib/status/1216673858767544320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah&#39;s rescue.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NancyPelosiFakeNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NancyPelosiFakeNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/a0ksPHeXCy">pic.twitter.com/a0ksPHeXCy</a>
&mdash; داون آندر (@D0wn_Under) <a href="https://twitter.com/D0wn_Under/status/1216667026191605760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Democrats and the Fake News are trying to make terrorist Soleimani into a wonderful guy, only because I did what should have been done for 20 years. Anything I do, whether it’s the economy, military, or anything else, will be scorned by the Rafical Left, Do Nothing Democrats!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216748556561866755?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

President Donald Trump

Trump Highlights Blowback To Pelosi’s Iran Protest Comments, Sums Up Dems, Media Strategy

Nancy Pelosi

Qasem Soleimani

<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-authorized-soleimani-s-killing-7-months-ago-conditions-n1113271?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma">NBC News reports</a> Monday that President Donald Trump signed off on launching a strike against the head of the Iranian Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, as many as seven months ago but was waiting for the right time to pull the trigger, according to the outlet&#8217;s sources within the White House and Defense Department.
According to NBC News, an order to kill Soleimai would go out if &#8220;Iran&#8217;s increased aggression resulted in the death of an American.&#8221;
A week ago Friday, Trump made the ultimate decision to end Soleimani&#8217;s life in response to an attack on the United States embassy in Baghdad, which left a military translator dead and several members of the U.S. military wounded. The embassy was left in ruins. Iraqi officials initially claimed the incident was the end result of &#8220;protests&#8221; and &#8220;riots&#8221; against American influence in the Middle Eastern country, but it quickly became clear that Iran had orchestrated the unrest, and that Soleimani was the chief architect behind Iran&#8217;s efforts to destabilize Iraq.
Killing Soleimani was presented among a &#8220;menu&#8221; of options, NBC News reports, designed to send a message to Iran that meddling in Iraq&#8217;s fragile peace wouldn&#8217;t be tolerated.
&#8220;&#8216;There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time,&#8217; a senior administration official said, adding that it was &#8216;some time ago&#8217; that the president&#8217;s aides put assassinating Soleimani on the list of potential responses to Iranian aggression,&#8221; NBC reports.
Former national security advisor John Bolton actually suggested killing Soleimani last summer, after Iran downed a U.S. drone, but Trump ultimately declined the opportunity, noting, sources say, that an attack on an unmanned drone didn&#8217;t rise to a serious enough level.
NBC News claims that the new information &#8220;undermines&#8221; the White House&#8217;s stated justification for killing Soleimani &#8212; that the Iranian general was planning a series of &#8220;imminent attacks&#8221; on United States embassies in Iraq and elsewhere &#8212; but the Trump administration&#8217;s hard line on Soleimani, that an American had to die before action was taken, could have easily moved since June, particularly if American lives were left in danger by Soleimani&#8217;s continued presence in Iraq.
United States intelligence tracked Soleimani, NBC says, for years before deciding more aggressive action might need to be taken. Bolton, who helped design the Trump administration&#8217;s foreign policy &#8212; and specifically its policy toward Iran &#8212; during his time in office, was particularly interested in putting an end to Soleimani&#8217;s reign of terror.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have cooled considerably since the Soleimani strike. Iran launched a series of missiles at Iraqi bases that house American troops last week, but, they now admit, shot down a Ukrainian airliner by accident in the volley, likely putting an end to any continued aggression against the United States.
The House will vote this week, also, to curb President Donald Trump&#8217;s ability to wage war against the Middle Eastern nation by restricting the &#8220;use of force&#8221; authorization inked in the years following the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is expected to press a similar measure in the Senate.

Report: Soleimani Strike Planned ‘Months’ Ago, Trump Waited For Embassy Attack

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s appearance on ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week&#8221; Sunday has sparked strong criticism after she was asked if she supports the growing uprising in Iran against the country&#8217;s oppressive regime following its showdown with President Trump.
After initially lying about the cause of the horrific crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet that took the lives of all 176 people on board, Iran finally <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-iran-admits-it-shot-down-passenger-plane-killing-176-people">admitted</a> late last week what the world suspected: they shot down the Ukrainian 737, claiming that the plane was accidentally targeted when it turned toward an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military base the night the regime launched missiles at two Iraqi bases where U.S. troops were stationed.
Iran&#8217;s admission — which came after three days of Iran&#8217;s leaders accusing America of “propagating fallacies” about the crash as part of a “psychological operation” against the country — added more fuel to a growing uprising against the terror-sponsoring regime, Iranians taking to the streets, photos and video <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-iranian-protesters-refuse-to-walk-on-u-s-israel-flags-attack-soleimani-posters">showing</a> protesters &#8220;attacking images of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani while also refusing to walk on American and Israeli flags.&#8221; Over the weekend, the Iranian government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/iran-opens-fire-on-demonstrators-protesters-chant-our-enemy-is-here-they-lie-to-us-that-its-america">responded</a> by firing “tear gas, rubber bullets and eventually live ammunition to disperse demonstrators.”
Amid the reports, former Bill Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulous asked Pelosi on Sunday if she supports the Iranian protesters and thinks it would be a &#8220;good thing&#8221; if the theocratic regime were overthrown. The Democratic leader responded by initially refusing to give a straight answer. Instead, the California Democrat questioned the unity of the protests and downplayed the role Iran&#8217;s tragic downing of the passenger jet has played in the growing movement.
&#8220;We&#8217;re seeing now demonstrations in the streets of Iran against the regime,&#8221; Stephanopoulos said. &#8220;Do you support those protesters? And would it be a good thing if they brought the regime down?&#8221;
&#8220;Well, the protesters are protesting, as I understand it, this brand of protesters, about the fact that that plane went down. And many students were on that plane,&#8221; she said. &#8220;These are largely students in the street.&#8221;
&#8220;I think the Iranians should have not had commercial flights going off there,&#8221; she said, in an obvious assertion before being interrupted by Stephanopoulos.
&#8220;They&#8217;re calling out the regime for lying. They&#8217;re saying &#8216;Death to Khamenei,&#8217; as well,&#8221; he stressed, referencing Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
&#8220;Well whatever it is,&#8221; said Pelosi, dismissively. &#8220;But the fact is this: There were protesters in the street before against the regime. After the taking out of Soleimani, there were protesters in the street joined together, as you know, against us. It wasn&#8217;t good.&#8221;
Having tried to make Trump the bad guy in the situation, Pelosi acknowledged Iran&#8217;s fault in shooting down the passenger plane. &#8220;Taking down this plan is a terrible, terrible tragedy,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and they should be held accountable for letting commercial flights go at a time that was so dangerous.&#8221;
The Democratic leader then emphasized what was apparently her key point. &#8220;But there are different reasons why people are in the street,&#8221; she said.
Pelosi&#8217;s problematic response to Stephanopoulous&#8217;s straightforward question — which appeared to be motivated by the speaker&#8217;s focus on making sure the Trump administration doesn&#8217;t get any credit for the Iranian people turning against the terror-sponsoring regime — earned the attention of RNC Research, which posted a clip of the exchange. &#8220;Pelosi dismisses protests in Iran against regime, &#8216;different reasons why people are in the street,'&#8221; RNC Research captioned the video.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Pelosi dismisses protests in Iran against regime, &quot;different reasons why people are in the street&quot;<a href="https://t.co/weKuQ6fSlO">https://t.co/weKuQ6fSlO</a> <a href="https://t.co/q9YwCUZrQ9">pic.twitter.com/q9YwCUZrQ9</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1216378286592360453?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The clip has since made the rounds online, with many others, particularly on the right, similarly <a href="https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2020/01/13/nancy-pelosis-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-2020-gets-worse-following-her-iranprotests2020-comments-on-this-week/">blasting</a> the speaker for her response.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-highlights-blowback-to-pelosis-iran-protest-comments-sums-up-dems-media-strategy">Trump Highlights Blowback To Pelosi’s Iran Protest Comments, Sums Up Dems, Media Strategy</a>

WATCH: Pelosi Asked ‘Would It Be A Good Thing’ If Iranian Protesters Brought Down Regime After Showdown With Trump; Gets Ripped For Response

Trump Administration

Progressives, never known for their sense of epistemological humility, are often fond of boasting that it is they — and only they — who are on the &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history">right side of history</a>.&#8221; Never mind that American progressives, going back at least as far as the depths of the Cold War, have evinced a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-bernie-sanders-entire-worldview-grotesquely-josh-hammer">most peculiar obsequiousness</a> toward America&#8217;s totalitarian geopolitical foes.
President Barack Obama, the braggart who taunted then-House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) a mere three days after his first inauguration with, &#8220;<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/08/13/too_bad_obama_didnt_follow_his_own_advice_123650.html">I won</a>,&#8221; was very fond of gloating how it was he — and not his partisan opposition — who was on the &#8220;<a href="https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/69855/right-side-history-according-president-obama">right side of history</a>.&#8221; Never mind that Barack Obama, who oversaw a most rancid realignment in the Middle East in favor of the world&#8217;s number one state sponsor of jihad, kowtowed to that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">terrorist regime</a> to the tune of $100–150 billion in funding and $1.7 billion in <a href="https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-iran-payment-cash-20160907-snap-story.html">cold, hard pallets of cash</a>.
Because nothing apparently says &#8220;progressive&#8221; like a regime that funds murderous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">terrorist proxies</a> the <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/houthis/">world over</a>, brazenly attempts targeted assassinations <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/08/iran-behind-two-assassinations-in-netherlands-minister">all</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/02/france-blames-iran-for-foiled-bomb-attack-near-paris">throughout</a> the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2011/10/11/justice/iran-saudi-plot/index.html">West</a>, publicly <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-publicly-hangs-man-on-homosexuality-charges-578758">hangs homosexuals</a> simply because they are homosexuals, and has been found <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-10/iran-told-to-pay-10-5-billion-to-sept-11-kin-insurers">liable by a U.S. federal judge</a> for billions of dollars in damages owed to the families of those killed on 9/11.
In a sane world, Barack Obama and his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html">failed novelist</a>-centric <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-05-24/the-secret-history-of-the-iran-deal-echo-chamber">&#8220;echo chamber&#8221;</a> of pro-ayatollah sycophants would be apologizing today to both the American people and the Iranian people. Obama will never actually do so, of course; how very un-&#8220;progressive&#8221; it would be to humbly concede the retrospective error of one&#8217;s ways. As Dennis Prager once <a href="https://www.dennisprager.com/being-on-the-left-means-never-having-to-say-youre-sorry-part-230/">quipped</a>, perhaps the nicest part of being on the Left is never having to say you&#8217;re sorry.
Instead, it is Donald Trump, recent author of the <a href="https://twitter.com/SGhasseminejad/status/1216131659986325504">most liked tweet</a> in the history of the Farsi language, who has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">boldly defended</a> American interests against the Iranian mullocracy and stood in <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216356280933273600">lockstep solidarity</a> with the repressed Persians <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-iranian-protesters-refuse-to-walk-on-u-s-israel-flags-attack-soleimani-posters">bravely protesting in the streets</a> against their Islamic Revolutionary overlords. The mullahs are once again shooting some of their very own in the streets, but the president of the United States has made it exceedingly clear that the eyes of the world are watching. By <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/03/trumps-strike-on-soleimani-is-about-america-first-not-reckless-interventionism/">knifing the Qassem Soleimani jugular</a>, prudently declaring victory and <a href="https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1216363363510386688">cutting bait</a> at exact right time, and offering moral and rhetorical succor to a subjugated populace, Trump has led by example every step of the way through this most recent flare-up of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-the-unyielding-iranian-menace">unceasing</a> post-Islamic Revolution <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-the-dispatch-of-soleimani-and-the-escalation-of-the-war">tumor</a>.
Every step of the way.
It is Donald Trump, and not Barack Obama, who is on the &#8220;right side of history&#8221; on the issue of Iran.
You would never know that from our media elites — nor from the other sheltered denizens of our bicoastal <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ruling-Class-Corrupted-America-About/dp/0825305586">ruling class</a> clerisy who barely conceal their dripping disdain for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">rubes and yokels</a> of flyover country. Really, hold aside for a moment the oh-so-predictable pro-Iran apologia of moral midgets like Rep. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-crippling-sanctions-starve-iran-bds-movement-israel-economic-warfare-measured-response">Ilhan Omar</a> (D-MN). It is our media vanguard, who on cable television and the nation&#8217;s leading broadsheets alike so often take the form — by sheer happenstance, we are assured! — of <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2020/01/10/the-obama-administrations-guerrilla-war/">Obama administration alumni</a>, that have parroted ludicrous <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dan-gainor-anti-trump-media-attack-him-for-killing-of-soleimani-blame-him-for-iran-shooting-down-plane">Iranian regime talking points</a> in a depraved attempt to deny the dreaded orange man of anything that might be viewed as a political &#8220;victory.&#8221;
Cold War-era Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) may have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-and-iran-11578262553">once said</a> that &#8220;politics stops at the water&#8217;s edge,&#8221; but for today&#8217;s debased media and political Left (I repeat myself), the mantra might as well be &#8220;shilling for a uniquely evil jihadist regime to own the cons.&#8221;
Thankfully, the Iranian people — who, above all else, are the victims of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 — need not care about the American media&#8217;s temper tantrums and self-immolations; Trump&#8217;s Twitter allows him to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-trump-tweets-for-liberty-in-iran">easily speak directly</a> to the American people. The Iranian people need not care about the armchair quarterbacking of those who would question the wisdom of the Soleimani strike. The Iranian people need not care about those who would haphazardly yell &#8220;warmonger!&#8221; at a president who has arguably been the most militarily restrained commander-in-chief since Jimmy Carter. And the Iranian people need not care about an idolatrous political Left that, along with abortion and global warming, has found an additional pagan sacrament in the thuggish Iranian regime.
What the Iranian people quite clearly do care for is Donald Trump&#8217;s Iran policy. The Iranian people, unlike Obama&#8217;s &#8220;echo chamber&#8221; and the leftist/media alliance that has fought so diligently to defend its rotten legacy, know what it means for an American statesman to be on the &#8220;right side of history&#8221; when it comes to their country. Barack Obama and his henchmen will never apologize for their sins, but the history books they seem to care so much about will note how it was his successor who righted his own wrongs on Iran.

John Kerry with Javad Zarif

HAMMER: On Iran, Trump Shows Obama The Real ‘Right Side Of History’

Barack Obama

Nuclear Weapons

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

On Sunday, Muslim scholar Dr. Qanta Ahmed, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/muslim-scholar-on-iranians-protesting-regime-over-plane-being-shot-down">appearing on Fox News</a>, asserted of the despotic theocratic Islamic regime in Iran in 1979, “I do think this regime for the first time ever is seriously threatened.”
Asked how weak the Iranian regime is right now, Ahmed answered, &#8220;It&#8217;s in its most fragile and precarious time probably since 1979.  They&#8217;ve had a disastrous outcome in their attempt at intimidating the United States; their attempts on the embassy in Baghdad failed; they&#8217;ve had Qassem Soleimani decapitated; they&#8217;ve had to admit that they shot down their own commercial airliner killing hundreds of people, 83 Iranians, many Iranians have lost multiple family members.  The devastation in Canada is extraordinary because Canada is a huge country with a small population.  It&#8217;s been a calamity and they also briefly arrested the British ambassador and Britain threatened them that they&#8217;re either going down the avenue of total pariah status globally or they now have to accept that they deal with the international community.&#8221;
Fox News&#8217; Pete Hegseth asked if the fact that the Iranian regime initially lied about their responsibility for the downed Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 would trigger Iranians to feel that the Iranian regime had lied to them many times before.
Ahmed answered:  &#8220;I think the Iranians have to ask themselves what else have they concealed; it wasn&#8217;t just the error; they denied it at first; then finally they&#8217;re admitting it. Now they want to know what other falsehoods have been fed.  And also their population are sacrificial animals, loss of life; as you&#8217;ve mentioned just now 1500 people were killed in recent protests in Iran before the Qassem Soleimani execution.  So they are finally able to voice what they&#8217;ve suspected all along.”
Ahmed stated, “And we must not ignore those voices.  President Trump made a wonderful statement on Twitter in Farsi and in English that the United States was with the people of Iran; we have no enmity with the people of Iran, but we do despise the Islamic Iranian theocratic regime which is a totalitarian regime.  They&#8217;ve had that country for 41 years shrouded totally suffocated in oppression since then, and I think we&#8217;re seeing that veil coming off.”
One Fox host noted former President Obama&#8217;s different reaction when protests were launched against the Iranian regime in 2009.  Ahmed responded, &#8220;So well said. I remember this image in my mind of President Obama watching the protests in Washington on television and restrained — when in 2008 he had the speech in Cairo talking about the U.S. engagement with the Muslim world.  That was his &#8216;hallmark,&#8217; was engagement.  But in reality he was engaging secretly with the Iranian regimes at the expense of the Iranian people.   That was on June 12.  The protest on June 20 we remember Neda Agha-Soltan,  the young girl who went to protest with her music teacher and was shot to death on camera and the entire world saw her die.  This is a legacy so that her death was not in vain if we can help the Iranian people realize their dream.&#8221;
Asked if Iran would come to the negotiating table, Ahmed responded, “Many experts have been speaking about that.  I can&#8217;t imagine it because the more they are threatened, the more Promethean their grip.  They would have to completely deny their origin, this regime.  I do think this regime for the first time ever is seriously threatened.  People are saying, &#8216;The United States is not our enemy; the regime is our enemy; our enemy is not here in the U.S.; it is here where we are in Tehran.&#8217;  And that kind of explicit speech, I&#8217;ve never encountered.&#8221;
Ahmed noted, “There&#8217;s been an incredible ricochet over the last week. Because a week ago they were mourning their leader, and the size of those crowds, millions; that could not have been orchestrated.  That was an organic response, the humiliation of the nation.  But also, this is a nation that has been cultivated in forty years of idolizing martyrdom; an Islamic regime, like any totalitarian regime, needs an external enemy to bind the population.  An external enemy, what could be better than the United States or Israel?  So there may be a lot of indoctrination, but at the same time there&#8217;s a huge intellectual class; all those Iranians killed on that flight, many of them were academics in North America.  They understand the reality and they see through it.  So there are  many Iranians that are greatly pro-American.  In fact the Iranian diaspora of 2009 was begging the United States to support the Green Revolution and we failed them.&#8221;
She concluded, “And we must not fail them now though we are seasoned after seeing the Arab Spring turn into a Arab winter, so this must come from the Iranian people, but we must help them.  We must give them satellite communications, hot spot Wi-Fis. our agencies must help them in whatever way, money, arms even if they need it.&#8221;
Hegseth interjected, “All the things the Obama administration never did in 2009.”
Ahmed agreed: “Put a stop on even though the advisors recommended many of those things.”<noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="https://www.foxnews.com">foxnews.com</a></noscript>

Iranian flag waving with city skyline on background in Tehran, Iran

Muslim Scholar On Iran: ‘This Regime For The First Time Ever Is Seriously Threatened’

In the aftermath of the death of Qassem Soleimani last week, the torching of the <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/12/iraq-protests-iran-consulate-karbala-najaf.html">Iranian consulates in Najaf and Karbala</a>, Iraq, and the Saturday death of Abbas Ali Al-Sa&#8217;edi, the pro-Iranian Hashd Al Sha’abi commander in Karbala, there are clear indications that the Iranian and Iraqi people are losing their fear of the mullahs of Iran. There is a lot of YouTube video of Iranians in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere, and a particularly neat one of Iranian students <a href="https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace/status/1216401446674919424">refusing to walk </a>on an American and an Israeli flag.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Here’s the most beautiful thing you will see today! Students at Beheshti University in Tehran refuse to walk on the US &amp; Israeli flags painted on the ground. They chant, “Basij [the IRGC paramilitary] forces, you are responsible for killing the people.” | <a href="https://t.co/dskKJeDa18">pic.twitter.com/dskKJeDa18</a>
&mdash; Mike (@Doranimated) <a href="https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1216328831239360512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This is a prelude to understanding President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216114167108849665">tweet to the Iranian people</a> on Saturday and the sure knowledge that he’s outpaced newspapers, radio, and TV alike in understanding what regular people understand regardless of what language they speak. Then there is the absence of coverage of the event by what has been called the “mainstream media” — although the mainstream appears not to be following them. Google results mid-morning Sunday — in order of appearance, with sources — show you who cared:
<ul>
<li>Trump Persian Tweet to Iranian People: I “Stand with You.” (Heavy.Com)</li>
<li>Trump tweet in Farsi “the most liked Persian tweet’ in history of Twitter (Washington Examiner)</li>
<li>Trump’s support for Iranian protestors breaks a Twitter record, something the MSM ‘will not report’ (TheBlaze)</li>
<li>Trump Persian Tweet to Iranian People: I &#8220;Stand With You…” (Schooltips.com)</li>
<li>Trump tweet in Farsi &#8220;the most liked Persian tweet&#8221; in… (enmnews)</li>
<li>Donald Trump Tweets in Persian to Pump Up Iranian Protests (CNN)</li>
<li>President Trump’s Tweet in Farsi is Most Liked Persian Tweet… (Gateway Pundit)</li>
<li>Trump Tweets Support for Iranian Protesters — in Persian (Legal Insurrection)</li>
<li>Trump Tweets Support for the ‘Brave and Suffering’ of Iran (PJ Media)</li>
</ul>
See a pattern?
With the exception of the snarky CNN headline, most are smaller outlets and all are openly supportive of the president’s decision to tell the Iranian people that we are not their enemy and we support their struggle against their government.
The Iranian people appear to appreciate that.
So where is The New York Times? Where is The Washington Post? The Los Angeles Times?
The Post had a few presidential tweet stories. In May, there was one about how the president’s tweets “put the Middle East <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/05/20/trump-places-middle-east-knife-edge/">on a knife edge</a>.” There were a few  in June and July — specifically, about one tweet the Iranian government called &#8220;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/irans-top-diplomat-says-white-house-statement-on-tehran-attack-is-repugnant/2017/06/08/a7604a62-4c1b-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html">repugnant</a>.&#8221; The New York Times did some “analysis” of Mr. Trump’s tweets: &#8220;<a href="https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrCmnriRBteySUAKhUPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTEycXY1bDdiBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjg0OTJfMQRzZWMDc3I-/RV=2/RE=1578874210/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.nytimes.com%2f2019%2f11%2f02%2fus%2ftrump-twitter-takeaways.html/RK=2/RS=Ex5huSGSJj_rBkAbLi_kwJBlmas-">Trumps Twitter Presidency</a>&#8221; and an opinion piece that claimed the tweets proved the president to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/opinion/trump-twitter-racism.html">a &#8220;raging racist.&#8221;</a>. Those were the nice ones.
You get the point.
And sure, by the time you read this, someone in the MSM will have figured out that the tweet was important — not only for what it said, and not only for the apparent joy it brought to the Iranians who read it, liked it, and retweeted it, but because Donald Trump has figured out a way to talk to people without their government or media intervening.
Oh, wait. That’s what he’s been doing with the American people from the beginning of his presidency — letting people hear directly from the man they elected. Americans have often taken that for granted: After all, most of us have unfettered Internet and we can log onto WhiteHouse.gov if we want to know what the president said last night in Arkansas. But this is why the president has 70 million Twitter followers.
And here, perhaps, is the source of MSM unhappiness with Donald Trump. It isn’t only what he does as president; sometimes they even approve of that. It is resentment that he skips them — and denigrates them — just as much as they skip over his agenda and denigrate him. It has long been the position of newspapers, radio, and television that the American people need a filter for what happens — and that they are the filter. They are the way to understand the world. Walter Cronkite was that for millions of people in the 1960s. Tom Friedman, with fewer than a million followers (even adding the 44 million of his employer, The New York Times), isn’t that.
And no one is likely to be that again. Not in the United States. And not even in a country where the government manages and manipulates the media and the official pronouncements. Not even in Iran.
There’s a new day out there. President Trump gets it.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

Twitter iPhone

BRYEN: Trump Tweets For Liberty In Iran

Islam

Media Bias

Muslims

The only woman to ever win an Olympic medal for Iran has defected from the country, as conditions under the Islamic regime continue to rapidly deteriorate, and took multiple shots at the oppressive government in a message she posted to social media.
Kimia Alizadeh, 21, is a Taekwondo athlete who won a bronze medal during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Alizadeh&#8217;s decision to defect from Iran comes as the Islamic regime was forced to admit to lying last week about shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board. The incident sparked massive protests across the country over the weekend, which resulted in protesters being shot and continued scrutiny from world leaders.
The following is the English translation of the message that Alizadeh posted Sunday on her Instagram account, as translated for The Daily Wire by four Iranians fluent in Persian:
<blockquote>How do I start? With a hello, a goodbye or to offer my condolences? Hello to the oppressed people of Iran, goodbye to the noble people of Iran, and my condolences to the perpetually mourning people of Iran. How well do you know me? Have you only seen me in sports matches, on television, or in the presence of government leaders?
Allow me to now freely and without censorship introduce myself.  They will say after this I will amount to nothing. I myself believe that even before this I was nothing. I am Kimia Alizadeh; I am not a historian nor a champion nor a flag-bearing representative of Iran. I am one of millions of oppressed Iranian women who has been a pawn of the regime for years.
They have taken me wherever they have wanted. They dictated the way I should dress and every sentence that they asked me to say, I repeated. At any time they wanted, they paraded me around. They even sacrificed my medals and victories for their oppressive dress code and hijab. I was not important to them. None of us were. We were just tools.
They only cared about our medals. They were only as valuable as the political leverage that they could offer. At the same time, they tell you “a woman should not stretch her legs.” Every morning I wake up my legs are unknowingly spinning like a fan and they expect not to be the flexible athlete that I am? In a live television interview they invited me to specifically ask me about this.
Now they I have left l, they say I sold out. “Mr. Saee, I have left so that I don’t become like all of you. And that I do not take even one further step in the direction that you have taken. If I had, I would have become much more successful much sooner.”
I turned my back because I am a human and I want to stay a human. In your male dominated and female oppressing minds you always thought ‘Kimia is a woman and will not speak.’ My tortured soul will no longer serve your filthy political endeavors nor your dirty economic dealings.
Other than Tae-kwon-do, the only thing i want is a happy and healthy life. To the kind and oppressed people of Iran: I did not want to climb to a pedestal whose steps are paved with lies and deceit and no one from Europe has invited me and no one has offered me anything, but I am willing to bear the difficulty of living in exile because I could no longer stay at a table where dishonesty, con-artistry and injustice were being served. Making this decision was more difficult than earning the Olympic gold medal, But please know that wherever I am I will forever remain a child of my native country. I will count on you and my only wish is to have the support of my people.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7LtxeOnZZU/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:500px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);">
<div style="padding:16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7LtxeOnZZU/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> 
<div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;"><svg width="50px" height="50px" viewBox="0 0 60 60" version="1.1" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"><g transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)" fill="#000000"><g><path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"></path></g></g></g></svg></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style=" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"> View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
</a> 
 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7LtxeOnZZU/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">با سلام آغاز کنم، با خداحافظی یا تسلیت؟ سلام مردم مظلوم ایران، خداحافظ مردم نجیب ایران، تسلیت به شما مردم همیشه داغدار ایران. شما مرا چقدر می‌شناسید؟ فقط آنطور که در مسابقات، در تلویزیون، یا در حضور مقامات دیده‌اید. اجازه دهید حالا آزادانه، هویت سانسور شده‌ام را معرفی کنم. می‌گویند کیمیا پس از این چیزی نخواهد شد. خودم از این هم فراتر می‌روم و می‌گویم قبل از این هم چیزی نبوده‌ام: «من کیمیا علیزاده، نه تاریخسازم، نه قهرمانم، نه پرچمدار کاروان ایران» من یکی از میلیون‌ها زن سرکوب شده در ایرانم که سال‌هاست هر طور خواستند بازی‌ام دادند. هر کجا خواستند بردند. هر چه گفتند پوشیدم. هر جمله‌ای دستور دادند تکرار کردم. هر زمان صلاح دیدند، مصادره‌ام کردند. مدال‌هایم را پای حجاب اجباری گذاشتند و به مدیریت و درایت خودشان نسبت دادند. من برایشان مهم نبودم. هیچکداممان برایشان مهم نیستیم، ما ابزاریم. فقط آن مدال‌های فلزی اهمیت دارد تا به هر قیمتی که خودشان نرخ گذاشتند از ما بخرند و بهره‌برداری سیاسی کنند، اما همزمان برای تحقیرت، می‌گویند: فضیلت زن این نیست که پاهایش را دراز کند! من صبح‌ها هم از خواب بیدار می‌شوم پاهایم ناخودآگاه مثل پنکه می‌چرخد و به در و دیوار می‌گیرد. آنوقت چگونه می‌توانستم مترسکی باشم که می‌خواستند از من بسازند؟ در برنامه زنده تلویزیون، سوال‌هایی پرسیدند که دقیقاً بخاطر همان سوال دعوتم کرده بودند. حالا که نیستم می‌گویند تن به ذلت داده‌ام. آقای ساعی! من آمدم تا مثل شما نباشم و در مسیری که شما پیش رفتید قدم برندارم. من در صورت تقلید بخشی از رفتارهای شما، بیش از شما می‌توانستم به ثروت و قدرت برسم. من به اینها پشت کردم. من یک انسانم و می‌خواهم بر مدار انسانیت باقی بمانم. در ذهن‌های مردسالار و زن‌ستیزتان، همیشه فکر می‌کردید کیمیا زن است و زبان ندارد! روح آزرده من در کانال‌های آلوده اقتصادی و لابی‌های تنگ سیاسی شما نمی‌گنجد. من جز تکواندو، امنیت و زندگی شاد و سالم درخواست دیگری از دنیا ندارم. مردم نازنین و داغدار ایران، من نمی‌خواستم از پله‌های ترقی که بر پایه فساد و دروغ بنا شده بالا بروم. کسی به اروپا دعوتم نکرده و در باغ سبز به رویم باز نشده. اما رنج و سختی غربت را بجان می‌خرم چون نمی‌خواستم پای سفره ریاکاری، دروغ، بی عدالتی و چاپلوسی بنشینم. این تصمیم از کسب طلای المپیک هم سخت‌تر است، اما هر کجا باشم فرزند ایران زمین باقی می‌مانم. پشت به دلگرمی شما می‌دهم و جز اعتماد شما در راه سختی که قدم گذاشته‌ام، خواسته دیگری ندارم.</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kimiya.alizade/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> 𝓚𝓲𝓶𝓲𝓪 𝓐𝓵𝓲𝔃𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓱🌟</a> (@kimiya.alizade) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-01-11T14:40:07+00:00">Jan 11, 2020 at 6:40am PST</time>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>

Menu