Celebrations today mark the 41st anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran. On this day in 1979, the shah&#8217;s monarchial rule was abruptly quashed, as fundamentalist Shiite clerics seized power under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
While President Hassan Rouhani will boast about the regime’s perceived successes, military might, and dominance in his annual anniversary speech today in Tehran, the reality of the Islamic Republic’s 40th year is grim.
Each year around the anniversary, Iranian officials typically unveil technological advancements in their armed forces, nuclear, and space arsenals. On Saturday, Ayatollah Khamenei <a href="https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1226081823610081280" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1226081823610081280&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1581529523479000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF92tKqfv5E6W9UUgkO_sTep8BfUQ">claimed</a> Iran’s air force capabilities, once weak under the Pahlavi dynasty, were thriving under the Islamist mullocracy. Over the weekend, Iran tried and failed to put a satellite into orbit. This failure came after two failed launches last year of the Doosti and Payam satellites and a botched rocket explosion over the summer.
Iran’s nuclear program has faced similar deterioration this year. The 2015 nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S., the U.K., China, Russia, Germany, and France is close to collapse. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States first from the flawed deal in May 2018, insisting any new deal must curb Iran’s ballistic missile program as well as hinder uranium enrichment. Iranian leadership unsurprisingly refused, leading to economic disaster in the country. Last month, Iran declared it will no longer fulfill its uranium enrichment commitment, compelling Germany, France, and Britain to prompt the deal’s dispute resolution mechanism. If international sanctions are indeed reinstated, the worsening economic crisis in Iran will become catastrophic.
Iran also suffered blows to its military and proxy power this past year. On January 3, a U.S. airstrike outside Baghdad, Iraq, killed Iran’s top military commander, Qassem Soleimani. Leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps&#8217; Quds Force, Soleimani was a critical player in Iran’s terror regime. President Trump ordered his killing following months of attacks on American troops by Iran proxies in Iraq. In response to Soleimani’s death, Khamenei <a href="https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1212998634264027136" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1212998634264027136&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1581529523479000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEYdHWRB7U2ca3aOkJNu_LNA5I4nA">assured</a> his Twitter followers that “jihad of resistance will continue with more motivation” as Iran <a href="https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1212991721954578432" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1212991721954578432&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1581529523479000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGL2Y7VINtjMcTIyiU5mnXfnKfU9A">must</a> “congratulate Soleimani’s pure soul and condole the Iranian nation on this great martyrdom.”
Hezbollah, Iran’s most successful export, faced protest long before Soleimani’s killing in January. Since October, fed-up demonstrators have taken to the streets of Lebanon and Iraq to voice their grievances against Iran’s infiltration in and influence upon both governments. According to the U.N. special envoy to Iraq, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/world/middleeast/Iraq-protests-Iran.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/world/middleeast/Iraq-protests-Iran.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1581529523479000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGP5zOmnYYipy_TNN3CpWeOpTVQpQ">over</a> 500 demonstrators have been killed and 19,000 wounded — the majority at the hands of Iranian-backed militias. As the Iranian regime continues to dismiss these protests as inauthentic and foreign-led, their weakening grasp on the Middle East accelerates.
Despite the propaganda Iran’s regime will put forth on today’s anniversary, the world has witnessed its monumental failures. Blows to Tehran’s nuclear arsenal, economic durability, technological development, proxy strength, and military power prove Iran is indeed losing its grip on the Middle East.
 
Maya Carlin is an M.A. candidate in Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security at IDC Herzliya’s Lauder School of Government in Israel. She is also an Analyst at the Center for Security Policy, located in Washington D.C.

Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei meets students in Tehran

CARLIN: 40 Years Of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Riddled With Failures

Foreign Policy

Iran

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Khamenei

Middle East

Nuclear Weapons

Perhaps the sole silver lining of the otherwise-harrowing capitulation to fundamentalist jihadist evil that was President Barack Obama&#8217;s Iran nuclear deal was the fact that the leading Sunni Arab states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt chief among them — began to warm up to the Jewish state of Israel. The enemy of my enemy, as the venerable maxim goes, is indeed my friend. And these Sunni stalwarts have found common cause with Israel in opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran&#8217;s decades-long hegemonic ambitions, which were only augmented by the capitulatory cash influxes provided by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
To date, however, the thawing of relations has generally taken a clandestine form — mostly on the intelligence and counterintelligence level. But the unveiling yesterday of President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; peace proposal for Israel and the Palestinian-Arabs represents the clearest public sign yet of just how far this thawing has progressed.
It is nothing short of remarkable just how far we have come, when considering the &#8220;Three No&#8217;s&#8221; of the infamous 1967 Khartoum Resolution, decreed in the aftermath of Israel&#8217;s miraculous Six-Day War victory: &#8220;No peace [with Israel],&#8221; &#8220;no recognition [of Israel],&#8221; and &#8220;no negotiations [with Israel].&#8221;
For starters, as The Daily Wire&#8217;s Hank Berrien <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-deal-of-the-century-for-israel-palestinians-a-realistic-plan-with-arab-states-backing-it">reported</a> yesterday, &#8220;Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba of the UAE, Ambassador Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa of Bahrain, and the Ambassador Hunaina al-Mughairy of Oman <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Bahrain-UAE-envoys-come-to-White-House-for-Trump-Deal-of-the-Century-615706">were in the East Room</a> of the White House on Tuesday as Trump announced his plan.&#8221;
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Three great friends of peace &#8211; you, your countries &amp; your leaders are courageous. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being at the event at the <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> today &amp; thank you for your encouragement &amp; support! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UAE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UAE</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bahrain?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bahrain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oman?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oman</a> <a href="https://t.co/N3LvtQufvz">pic.twitter.com/N3LvtQufvz</a>
&mdash; Jason D. Greenblatt (@GreenblattJD) <a href="https://twitter.com/GreenblattJD/status/1222227819033518083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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It is unprecedented to have such leading representatives from Sunni Arab governments effectively recognizing Israel&#8217;s right, under U.N. Security Council <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-meaning-of-un-security-council-resolution-242">Resolution 242</a>, &#8220;to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.&#8221; It is even more unprecedented for such Arab governments to effectively recognize this international law right in the context of what is quite clearly, on the underlying merits, the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-Trump-Plan-How-Israel-Should-Respond-615681">most pro-Israel peace plan ever offered</a> by an American president — and one that is offered by a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-jerusalem-matters-ben-shapiro">historically pro-Israel American president</a> and a conservative Likud party Israeli prime minister, no less.
Numerous Arab governments, furthermore, have offered public endorsements of Trump&#8217;s plan that invariably refer to it as a welcoming or promising development.
From the <a href="https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&amp;newsid=2027848#2027848">Kingdom of Saudi Arabia</a>, home to the Islamic holy city of Mecca and the centuries-long epicenter of the Sunni Muslim world: &#8220;The kingdom appreciates the efforts of President Trump&#8217;s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides, and encourages the start of direct peace negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, under the auspices of the United States, and to resolve any disagreements with aspects of the plan through negotiations.&#8221;
From (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">deeply problematic &#8220;ally&#8221;</a>) <a href="https://news.qna.org.qa/lang/en/w/article/1580250375011598800">Qatar</a>: &#8220;The State of Qatar welcomes all efforts aiming towards a longstanding and just peace in the occupied Palestinian territories. It also appreciates the endeavors of President Trump and the current U.S. administration to find solutions for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, all solutions should be consistent with international law and the relevant U.N. resolutions.&#8221;
From <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1452664425061142/posts/2592875164373390/?d=n">Egypt</a>: &#8220;The Arab Republic of Egypt appreciates the continuous efforts exerted by the U.S. administration to achieve a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian issue, thereby contributing to the stability and security of the Middle East, ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.&#8221;
From the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1021964141227620/posts/2670012913089393/">Kingdom of Morocco</a>: &#8220;The Kingdom of Morocco expresses the wish that a constructive peace process be launched from now on, with a view to a realistic, applicable, equitable and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question, satisfying the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, for an independent, viable and sovereign State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and enabling the peoples of the region to live in dignity, prosperity and stability.&#8221;
Contrast that with the leading 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, who have <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/democratic-candidates-censure-trump-peace-plan-warn-against-annexation/">all assailed</a> the plan. Or contrast it with Hamas/Hezbollah-loving Jeremy Corbyn of Britain, who calls it a &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1222303875593637891">travesty</a>.&#8221;
The Arab world is desperately trying to move on and finally resolve the Palestinian issue once and for all. But the American and European Left will not let them do so.
Kudos, nonetheless, to the Trump administration and the main actors/former actors there responsible for crafting the plan — including but hardly limited to Jason Greenblatt, Jared Kushner, and Avi Berkowitz — for their work in this very <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/eugene-kontorovich-trump-israeli-palestinian-peace-plan-is-fair-and-just-but-palestinians-wont-compromise">fair and thoughtfully devised</a> peace plan.

Donald Trump at White House with Benjamin Netanyahu

HISTORIC: Arab States Welcome Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan

Anti-Semitism

Barack Obama

Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump

Egypt

Islam

Israel

In its latest annual <a href="http://www.islamophobia.org/reports/228-2018-civil-rights-report-bias-incident-data.html">hate crimes report</a>, the <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/resources/profiles/the-council-on-american-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a> (CAIR) vilified U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials as the nation’s greatest perpetrators of anti-Muslim discrimination. So, when as many as 60 Iranian and Iranian-American travelers were delayed for hours earlier this month at the U.S.-Canada border, CAIR was quick to accuse the federal agency of living up to its purported reputation. Has the U.S. government decided to make life difficult for Iranians living in America, as CAIR contends? Or are the nonprofit’s actions part of an enduring campaign to subvert U.S. border security?
In response to a January 2 air strike which <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/opinion/soleimani-iran-tom-cotton.amp.html">killed</a> Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/ntas/alerts/20_0104_ntas_bulletin.pdf">published</a> a bulletin warning that Hezbollah and other Iranian loyalists could carry out homeland-based plots by targeting “critical infrastructure.” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed the national guard to protect public transportation, while <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-03/us-cities-on-alert-after-killing-of-iran-leader-qassem-suleiman">government officials</a> in California, Washington, and Massachusetts ordered increased police patrols or warned citizens to remain extra vigilant.
Meanwhile, the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Washington became congested on January 4 after as many as 60 Iranian natives were allegedly selected for additional screening and detained, in some cases, for several hours. The travelers, who were returning from a pop concert in Vancouver, put a <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article238985213.html">strain</a> on CBP resources as customs agents struggled to keep up with the sudden increase in cross-border traffic. However, CAIR officials explicitly alleged that delays and mistreatment were premised solely on national heritage.
Soon after, CAIR’s Washington chapter issued a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-wa-assisting-iranian-americans-detained-at-us-border-300981286.html">press release</a> accusing CBP officials of treating Iranians and Iranian-Americans to prolonged interrogations at the U.S.–Canada border. “A source at CBP reported that the [DHS] has issued a national order to CBP to ‘report’ and detain anyone with Iranian heritage entering the country who is deemed potentially suspicious or ‘adversarial,’ regardless of citizenship status,” CAIR wrote.
CBP <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/us-border-protection-denies-reports-that-iranian-americans-were-detained-at-washington-canada-border/281-e276b43b-21a1-46d3-8de7-f1e700b0016a">rejected</a> these allegations. &#8220;Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false,” said CBP spokesperson Michael Friel.
So far, CAIR has failed to produce any evidence supporting its discrimination claims. Instead, the nonprofit denigrated CBP personnel based on the testimony of frustrated tourists who experienced delays while crossing an international border during a period of heightened geopolitical tension.
What can’t be known about the recent cross-border controversy, because it falls beyond the public purview, is whether there was specific intelligence from the Terrorist Screening Center that indicated a need to conduct a more robust screening operation at the Peace Arch crossing. It is telling that <a href="https://www.thenorthernlight.com/stories/order-to-detain-iranian-american-travelers-likely-originated-in-blaine-say-lawyers,9173">no other enhanced security measures</a> were enforced at other U.S. entry points around the same time.
Even public knowledge of the threats posed by Shi’ite Islamism suggests that it was credible national security risks, and not uninformed profiling, that guided CBP’s actions. The agency must contend with Hezbollah’s elite external operations unit, known as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), whose members have been <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/iran-has-terrorists-embedded-inside-the-united-states-and-across-our-border/">trained</a> to &#8220;maintain ostensibly normal lives” until they are activated to serve the Iranian regime&#8217;s interests.
<a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/iran-has-terrorists-embedded-inside-the-united-states-and-across-our-border/">FBI reports</a> indicate that Canada serves as a staging area for future homeland attacks. Ali Kourani, a Hezbollah sleeper agent <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/hizballah-operative-sentenced-40-years-prison-covert-terrorist-activities-behalf-hizballah-s">convicted</a> in 2019 of planning attacks in the U.S., <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/14/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut-its-in-new-york-too-canada-united-states-jfk-toronto-pearson-airports-ali-kourani-iran/">told </a>FBI agents that IJO is “even more active in Canada than they were in the United States.” Kourani’s Iranian handlers discussed the strategic advantages of cultivating familial ties to Canada, so that “it wouldn’t appear suspicious or odd if he were to make travel to Canada with some regularity or frequency.”
Iran is a country that is regularly <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-state-department-iran-remains-world-s-worst-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-/30248755.html">cited</a> as a state sponsor of terrorism, with a track <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/14/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut-its-in-new-york-too-canada-united-states-jfk-toronto-pearson-airports-ali-kourani-iran/">record</a> of penetrating U.S. borders. For instance, between 1995 and 2000, Lebanese immigrant Mohammed Youssef Hammoud oversaw a vast “<a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/mohamad-youssef-hammoud-sentenced-30-years-terrorism-financing-case">criminal enterprise</a>” in Charlotte, North Carolina, which accumulated millions of dollars in capital intended for Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.
In 2011, Soleimani’s Quds Force was implicated in a clandestine <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/">plot</a> to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and bomb the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. Then there is Alexei Saab, a New Jersey resident charged in September with a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-indictment-new-jersey-man-terrorist-activities-behalf">nine-count indictment</a> for surveilling targets on behalf of IJO, probing for “soft spots” throughout New York City.
CAIR’s position on screening for terrorists, however, has been to <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_to_announce_complete_victory_in_constitutional_challenge_to_federal_terror_watchlist">undermine</a> the process wherever possible. Indeed, the organization exerts a great deal of <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-asks-federal-court-in-mich-to-prohibit-fbi-border-agents-from-interrogating-muslim-travelers-about-religious-beliefs-and-practices-300858541.html">effort</a> challenging the government’s immigration and border security policies.
In September, CAIR proclaimed “complete victory” in a <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_to_announce_complete_victory_in_constitutional_challenge_to_federal_terror_watchlist">lawsuit</a> that challenged the constitutionality of the <a href="https://apnews.com/f8abc66af1a64cc7a5f4fba0420cfc54">terrorist watch list</a>, a security protocol that subjects implicated airline passengers and border transients to additional screening. (Fewer than 0.5% of watch list suspects are U.S. citizens or legal residents.) For more than a year, CAIR filed lawsuits and amicus briefs that <a href="https://www.cair.com/fighting_the_unconstitutional_muslim_ban">stalled</a> Trump administration efforts to implement a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">travel ban</a> affecting visitors from select high-risk countries
CAIR has even directed Muslim Americans who are detained by customs officials to <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wtsp.com/amp/article/news/politics/muslim-rights-groups-urge-passengers-to-refuse-secondary-questioning/67-395025140">obstruct</a> the screening process whenever possible, perhaps explaining the delays experienced at the Peace Arch Border Crossing. “Whether you wait an hour or four hours, remain silent until they let you out,” advised CAIR-Florida executive director Hassan Shibly.
National-level law enforcement efforts must be led by consulting relevant intelligence <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/law-enforcement-guard-iran-retaliation-u-s-after-commander-killed-n1109826">sources</a>. Given the geopolitical context, the enhanced security posture at the U.S.-Canada border can be attributed to due diligence, and not some nefarious desire to pester Iranian-Americans. Yet, CAIR is far too eager to paint American security personnel as aggressors. CBP was merely taking reasonable precautions in the face of escalating hostility from a rogue nation that has spent decades building powerful Islamist infrastructure across North America.
&nbsp;
David Firester is a writer for Islamism in Politics, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>. He is the founder and CEO of TRAC Intelligence, LLC, an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter College, and a former U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst.

Border Wall As House Investigates $400 Million Contract

FIRESTER: CAIR’s Fight To Undermine U.S. Border Security Continues

Border Wall

CAIR

Canada

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Muslim Immigration

Muslims

National Security

It turns out that an Iranian student who was recently denied entry upon his arrival in the U.S. and was subsequently deported has some pretty shady ties, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/iranian-student-whose-deportation-spurred-dem-outcry-has-family-ties-to-irgc-hezbollah-dhs-official">spoke to Fox News</a>. That the deported student has such problematic links — to Iran&#8217;s murderous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian regime&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Lebanon-based Hezbollah proxy</a>, in particular — ought to serve as a wakeup call for the Democratic Party officials, left-wing activists, and open-borders advocates who trotted out the normal hue and cry upon the student&#8217;s denial and deportation.
&#8220;An Iranian student who was denied entry to the United States on arrival and deported this week, amid objections from top Democrats and left-wing activists, has family ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah, a Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News,&#8221; the outlet <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/iranian-student-whose-deportation-spurred-dem-outcry-has-family-ties-to-irgc-hezbollah-dhs-official">reported</a>.
&#8220;Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein was denied entry to the U.S. and detained on Sunday when he arrived on a student visa at Boston Logan International Airport,&#8221; Fox News continued. &#8220;His detention sparked outrage from activists, who flooded the airport demanding his release. It also drew objections from Northeastern University, where [Hossein Abadi] was due to be enrolled, and the American Civil Liberties Union.&#8221;
Some very prominent Democrats, such as 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), responded indignantly. Warren, taking up Hossein Abadi&#8217;s cause, casually accused President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration of &#8220;xenophobia[a].&#8221;
&#8220;Shahab Dehghani is an Iranian student with a valid F1 visa, returning to finish his education,&#8221; Warren tweeted. &#8220;[U.S. Customs and Border Protection] already held him overnight. His deportation must be halted, and we must fight the Trump administration&#8217;s xenophobic policies.&#8221;
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Shahab Dehghani is an Iranian student with a valid F1 visa, returning to finish his education. CBP already held him overnight. His deportation must be halted, and we must fight the Trump administration&#39;s xenophobic policies. <a href="https://t.co/ZCKVo5fwvM">https://t.co/ZCKVo5fwvM</a>
&mdash; Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1219457019729588224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
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A judge in Massachusetts had initially stayed Hossein Abadi&#8217;s deportation, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) then promptly executed his deportation. CBP issued a statement on the incident, as <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/22/iranian-student-bound-northeastern-removed-us-despite-court-order">reported</a> by Insider Higher Ed.
&#8220;Every applicant for admission is subject to inspection upon arrival in the United States,&#8221; CBP said. &#8220;The issuance of a visa or participation in the visa waiver program does not guarantee entry to the United States. Upon arrival at Logan Airport on Sunday, January 19, [Hossein Abadi] was deemed inadmissible and processed for expedited removal and return to his place of departure. During today’s hearing, the court ruled that the matter is now moot as the subject was never admitted into the United States, the subject is no longer in custody, and the court does not have jurisdiction to order his return.&#8221;
Hossein Abadi had first applied for a U.S. visa in 2018 and &#8220;[h]is visa was granted approximately a week ago,&#8221; Insider Higher Ed reported. But the DHS official who spoke to Fox News told the outlet that &#8220;the case was more complicated than some were letting on, and that there were legitimate reasons for rejecting [Hossein Abadi]&#8221; — in other words, his ties to the IRGC and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, the Iran-funded and -trained proxy militia that has <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/lebanon-is-gone">all but overrun Lebanon</a>, is uniquely poised to cause immense trouble for Israel. As I explained last month in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Daily Wire op-ed</a> calling for the full defunding of all U.S. taxpayer foreign aid to Lebanon:
<blockquote>Bear in mind that Hezbollah currently maintains scores of Iranian-funded, <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hezbollah/hezbollahs-precision-guided-missile-project/">precision-guided missiles</a> currently stationed in southern Lebanon and aimed straight at the hearts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel’s next war — and it is a matter of when, not if — with Hezbollah is going to be a <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/the-new-hezbollah-israels-next-war-will-be-a-godawful-mess/">long, bloody mess</a>. And foreign aid to Israel aside, the U.S. taxpayer presently also funds the horrifically wrong side of that inevitable war.</blockquote>

Department of Homeland Security

Deported Iranian Student Linked To IRGC And Hezbollah, DHS Says

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has been doing some impressive bipartisan lobbying. Politicians from across the spectrum, from Former Secretary of State <a href="https://en.radiofarda.com/a/kerry-met-iran-zarif-several-times/29488152.html">John Kerry</a> to Sen. <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/mark-levin-rips-into-rand-paul-over-iran/">Rand Paul</a> (R-KY), are all taking their turns to meet with him. Their common goal: Get President Donald Trump to end his “maximum pressure” campaign against the hostile Tehran regime.
Last year, this leftist-libertarian alliance was codified into a new &#8220;non-interventionist&#8221; think tank, the Quincy Institute. On its board is Trita Parsi, a man who has for decades worked behind the scenes — often in tandem with Iranian officials, including Javad Zarif — to weaken America&#8217;s resistance to Iranian aggression and nuclear ambitions.
In the weeks since the killing of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">terrorist mastermind</a> Qassem Soleimani, agitation by the Iranian regime&#8217;s apologists has reached a crescendo. In response, I asked <a href="https://twitter.com/AdelleNaz">Adelle Nazarian</a>, senior media fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy in Washington, D.C. and fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, India, to tell us more.
What follows is a question-and-answer interview with Nazarian.
Who is Trita Parsi?
Nazarian: Trita Parsi is the Iranian-born founder of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that is <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-seeks-investigation-into-pro-iran-lobby-group-tied-to-tehran-regime/">allegedly the lobbying extension</a> and arm of the Iranian regime. That would be the same Iranian regime rife with corruption, terrorism, and the murder of its own people. Parsi and NIAC’s support for the Iranian regime is <a href="https://twitter.com/AdelleNaz/status/1217693851890126848?s=20">in violation of FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act ] law</a> and they were instrumental in helping pass the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal. Parsi is an activist who has <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/03/the_ayatollahs_lobby_on_k_street.html">maintained a close relationship</a> with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2015-03-31/iran-s-charmer-in-chief-wins-again">Javad Zarif</a> and was a lead advisor to the Obama administration throughout the process of executing the JCPOA. NIAC falsely claims it supports the full spectrum of Iranian interests, but it actually only cares about pushing the regime’s interests. NIAC is at odds with Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, his supporters, and any Iranians who do not share the dictatorial vision of the Iranian regime. If Iran’s regime falls, it will be seen as the failure of Trita Parsi.
What is the Quincy Institute?
Nazarian: Trita Parsi is the executive vice president and co-founder of the Quincy Institute, which is funded by both Charles Koch and George Soros. It is also co-founded by Iran deal advocates. This think tank aims to compel American politicians to adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy by actively funneling misinformation and propaganda to the media and, by extension, the American people. The think tank’s board is anti-Israel, with fellows having written books very critical of America’s close alliance with Israel. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt — both co-authors of “The Israel Lobby&#8221; and fellows at the Quincy Institute — have an issue with the so-called &#8220;Israel lobby,&#8221; but have no issue working with the Iran lobby. While on the surface, the organization presents itself with the noble aim of ending endless wars in the pursuit of international peace, its co-founders — namely Andrew Bacevich, Stephen Wertheim, Eli Clifton, and Suzanne DiMaggio — are Iran deal advocates. The group also boasts Gary Sick as a “distinguished fellow.” In 1980, Mr. Sick infamously and falsely accused officials in Ronald Reagan&#8217;s presidential campaign of making a secret deal with Iran to delay the release of the American hostages until after the election.
What are Iranians and Iranian-Americans saying? 
Nazarian: Iranians and Iranian-Americans know the Quincy Institute pushes misinformation. Parsi’s move from NIAC to the Quincy Institute is an attempt to further his lobbying and propagandizing efforts. Due to funding from Soros and Koch, Parsi has been able to shield his anti-American and pro-Iranian views and actions. Iranians do not want war with America and President Donald Trump’s neutralization of IRGC-Quds Forces Commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani pushed Iran to stop its antagonistic and provocative behavior that was swiftly deteriorating U.S.-Iran relations and leading us to war.
Though Parsi claims to speak on behalf of the full spectrum of Iranian-Americans, <a href="https://twitter.com/AdelleNaz/status/1139620277396987905?s=20">a poll conducted in June</a> shows an overwhelming 85% of participants see NIAC and its affiliates as the “enemy.” Due to President Trump’s decisive actions, the machinations and manipulations of Trita Parsi have been undone. Regardless of the future, it is clear that Trita Parsi is a menace.

Javad Zarif

MITSOTAKIS: Iran Apologists, Left And Right, Have A New Think Tank

John Kerry

Koch Brothers

Rand Paul

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

Fox News

Military

Osama bin Laden

Qassem Soleimani

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’

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

Media

Media Bias

The U.S. military launched a secret operation to kill a second high-ranking Iranian terrorist last week on the same day that President Donald Trump authorized a drone strike that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Forces (IRGC-QF) Commander Qassem Soleimani.
&#8220;The disclosure of a second mission indicated that the Trump administration was attempting to target a larger set of Iranian military and paramilitary leaders than was previously known,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/world/middleeast/trump-iran-yemen.html">reported</a>. &#8220;The unsuccessful airstrike in Yemen was aimed at Abdul Reza Shahlai, an official with Iran’s Quds Force, a potent paramilitary organization. He was known as a key financier for Iran’s proxy wars.&#8221;
The Washington Post reported that U.S. officials said that details of the mission remain &#8220;highly classified&#8221; and suggested that Shahlai could be re-targeted again in the future.
&#8220;Another senior official said the two strikes were authorized around the same time and that the United States did not disclose the Shahlai mission because it did not go according to plan,&#8221; The Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/on-the-day-us-forces-killed-soleimani-they-launched-another-secret-operation-targeting-a-senior-iranian-official-in-yemen/2020/01/10/60f86dbc-3245-11ea-898f-eb846b7e9feb_story.html">reported</a>. &#8220;The official said Shahlai may be targeted in the future, though both countries have signaled an interest in de-escalating the crisis.&#8221;
One top U.S. official told The Post, “If we had killed him, we’d be bragging about it that same night.”
The U.S. State Department announced a $15 million reward last month for information leading to Shahlai and the disruption of the IRGC&#8217;s financial networks.
Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative on Iran, <a href="https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2019/dec/05/state-department-protest-crackdown-intervention-yemen">said</a> last month that &#8220;Shahlai has a long history of attacks Americans and our allies globally.&#8221;
&#8220;He planned multiple assassinations of coalition forces in Iraq, provided weapons and explosives to violent Shia extremist groups, and planned the January 20th, 2007 attack in Karbala that killed five American soldiers and wounded three others,&#8221; Hook continued. &#8220;In 2011, Shahlai funded and directed a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir.  This would have been carried out in a restaurant in Georgetown. Shahlai also aimed to carry out follow-on attacks in the United States and elsewhere. Had this scheme succeeded, as many as 200 innocent civilians in the United States could have been killed.&#8221;
&#8220;Given Shahlai’s track record of terrorism and destabilization in Iraq, we remain gravely concerned by his presence in Yemen and potential role in providing advanced weaponry of the kind that we have interdicted to the Houthis,&#8221; Hook continued. &#8220;Iranian UAVs, missiles, and explosive boats have been used by the Houthis to threaten key civilian and economic interests and otherwise wreak havoc in the region. This designation, together with the recent interdiction in Yemen, underscores our commitment to deny Iran the means to run an expansionist foreign policy.&#8221;
Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-pompeo-release-details-on-terror-attack-soleimani-planned">revealed</a> on Friday details of the terrorist attack that Qassem Soleimani was planning on U.S. interests in the region that led to the president&#8217;s decision to eliminate him.
In an interview on Fox News, Trump said, “I can reveal that I believe it probably would’ve been four embassies.”
During a press conference, Pompeo said that the attack was targeted “American facilities, including American embassies, military bases. American facilities throughout the region.”

F-35

U.S. Launched Secret Operation To Kill Second Top Iranian Terrorist On Same Day As Soleimani

Yemen

On Thursday, vocal Trump supporter Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) joined Democrats in voting for the Democrat-sponsored War Powers Resolution, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-war-powers-resolution-is-and-always-has-been-unconstitutional">seeks to limit</a> President Donald Trump&#8217;s authority to take prolonged military action against Iran without congressional approval.
As noted by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/pelosi-says-house-send-clear-war-powers-statement-trump-thursday-n1113006">NBC News</a>, the resolution &#8220;directs the president to terminate the use of U.S. armed forces to engage in hostilities against Iran unless Congress has declared war or enacted a specific authorization or unless military action is necessary to defend against an imminent attack.&#8221;
The president and many Republicans have voiced their opposition to the measure.
&#8220;The president has the right and duty to protect this nation and our citizens from terrorism. That&#8217;s what he continues to do, and the world is safer for it,&#8221; a statement read from White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley. &#8220;This House resolution tries to undermine the ability of the U.S. Armed Forces to prevent terrorist activity by Iran and its proxies, and attempts to hinder the president&#8217;s authority to protect America and our interests in the region from the continued threats.&#8221;
Speaking on the House floor, Gaetz explained his support for the resolution.
&#8220;This resolution offers no criticism of the president — no critique. It doesn&#8217;t criticize the president&#8217;s attack on Soleimani. Matter of fact, this resolution doesn&#8217;t even say Soleimani&#8217;s name it,&#8221; the Republican said, according to <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/watch-gop-rep-matt-gaetz-explains-why-he-voted-for-war-powers-resolution?utm_content=buffereeb13&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=tw-theblaze">TheBlaze</a>.
&#8220;I represent more troops than any other member of this body. I buried one of them earlier today at Arlington,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;If our servicemembers have the courage to fight and die in these wars, Congress ought to have the courage to vote for or against them.&#8221;
During a Fox News appearance on Thursday, Gaetz said the resolution &#8220;did say that if any president wants to drag our nation into another forever Middle East war, that they require the approval of the United States Congress. That&#8217;s something that I deeply believe, and I think it&#8217;s something the president deeply believes.&#8221;
Before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) went after the president for killing terrorist and Iranian terrorist general Qassem Soleimani last week.
&#8220;Last week, in our view, the administration conducted a provocative disproportionate airstrike against Iran which endangered Americans, and did so without consulting Congress,&#8221; Pelosi said.
&#8220;Asked whether the Trump administration misled the public in justifying the airstrike, Pelosi said that while she can&#8217;t share the classified information that she has been briefed on, &#8216;I do not believe in terms of what is in the public domain that they have made the country safer by what they did,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/pelosi-says-house-send-clear-war-powers-statement-trump-thursday-n1113006">NBC News</a> detailed.
Republicans argue that the resolution is non-binding.
&#8220;The bill is what&#8217;s known as a &#8216;concurrent resolution,&#8217; meaning it requires only the approval of both chambers of Congress and does not go to the president for his signature. Republicans argue this makes the bill non-binding and largely symbolic,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/war-powers-resolution-house-votes-to-limit-trumps-ability-act-against-iran/">CBS News</a> outlined.
Two other Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie (KY) and Francis Rooney (FL), also voted in favor of the resolution.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I represent more troops than any other member of this body. I buried one of them earlier today at Arlington. 
If our servicemembers have the courage to fight and die in these wars, Congress ought to have the courage to vote for or against them. 
I’m voting for this resolution. <a href="https://t.co/cSCBG7CmIm">pic.twitter.com/cSCBG7CmIm</a>
&mdash; Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMattGaetz/status/1215398328944545797?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mike-lee-details-why-he-was-upset-with-intel-briefing-new-resolution-with-democrat">Mike Lee Details Why He Was Upset With Intel Briefing; New Resolution With Democrat</a>

Rep. Matt Gaetz

Pro-Trump Rep. Matt Gaetz Joins Dems On War Powers Resolution. Here’s His Explanation.

Matt Gaetz

U.S. House of Representatives

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed new disturbing details about the terrorist attack that Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani had planned against the United States that ultimately led to Trump authorizing a drone strike that killed Soleimani.
In an interview on Fox News, Trump said, “I can reveal that I believe it probably would’ve been four embassies.”
During a White House press briefing on Friday, Pompeo said, &#8220;We had specific information on an imminent threat, and those threats included attacks on U.S. embassies. Period. Full stop.&#8221;
Pompeo said the only thing that U.S. officials did not know was the exact minute or day that Soleimani was going to launch the attack but that &#8220;it was very clear&#8221; that &#8220;Qassem Soleimani himself was plotting a broad, large-scale attack against American interests. And those attacks were imminent.&#8221;
When asked about what targets Soleimani had designated, Pompeo said, &#8220;American facilities, including American embassies, military bases. American facilities throughout the region.&#8221;
The U.S. State Department released the following fact sheet on Soleimani last week:
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Since 1998, Qassem Soleimani commanded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the terror arm of the Iranian regime. The IRGC-QF is tasked with planning and executing terror and military operations outside Iran’s borders. Under Soleimani’s command, the IRGC-QF has fueled destabilizing sectarian conflicts throughout the Middle East for decades.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>The IRGC-QF continues to wage an illegal campaign of terrorism, assassinations, and violence. At Soleimani’s direction and with his oversight and guidance, the IRGC-QF has planned and conducted terrorist attacks across six continents and inside the United States.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>The United States designated IRGC-QF a Foreign Terrorist Organization for its activities, and the United States designated Soleimani as a Specially-Designated Global Terrorist.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>As the leader of the IRGC-QF, Qassem Soleimani was directly responsible for arming, funding, and training proxy groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Operations carried out by these proxy groups have led to the death and suffering of tens of thousands, including many hundreds of Americans. These proxies routinely target and kill civilians, intensify sectarian conflicts, and prolong the suffering of innocent men, women, and children.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Soleimani personally directed and provided arms to militias in Iraq for more than a decade. These militias undermine the sovereignty of the Iraqi state, threaten the legitimacy of Iraq’s security forces, and target American citizens and forces. With Soleimani’s support and lethal assistance, proxies of the IRGC-QF targeted and killed over 600 Americans between 2003 and 2011.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>We can confirm that in the past several days, General Soleimani had been traveling in the Middle East coordinating further imminent large-scale attacks against U.S. diplomats and service members. These threats were highly credible and the intelligence is sound. General Soleimani’s travel also violated the ban imposed by the United Nations Security Council.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Recent orders given by General Soleimani dramatically escalated Iran’s campaign of violence and terrorism against Americans and American interests in the Middle East. He orchestrated a series of attacks against American forces in Iraq in the past several months, culminating in the rocket attack on December 27, 2019, which resulted in the death of an American citizen, wounded four American service members, and threatened the lives of many more American personnel. General Soleimani also ordered the assault on the American Embassy in Baghdad. General Soleimani continued to command Iranian supported proxies in Iraq, which posed an escalating threat to the lives of Americans.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>For his actions, Soleimani had been designated and sanctioned by the United Nations, European Union, and United States and is banned from international travel by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231. In defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions, however, Soleimani continued to travel to Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon directing and coordinating lethal actions that pose a threat to regional peace and security.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Some key international and United States designations of Soleimani include:</blockquote>
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Designated a Tier I terrorist as part of the Department of State designation of the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2019.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Designated under U.S. Executive Order 13224 as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2011.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Designated under U.S. EO 13572 for human rights abuses in 2011.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Designated under U.S. EO 13882 for providing material support to terrorists in 2007.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Sanctioned by the United Nations under UNSCR 1747 for involvement in Iran’s nuclear program in 2007.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Designated by the European Union in EU 442/2011 for support to the Syrian regime in 2011.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Trump Pompeo

Trump, Pompeo Release Details On Terror Attack Soleimani Planned

Mike Pompeo

Following President Donald Trump’s decisive, defensive strike on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">arch-terrorist</a> Qassem Soleimani of Iran&#8217;s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (QF), Democrats immediately claimed that the U.S. was on the warpath with Iran.
They didn’t ask for the president’s justification in taking out a man who was responsible for the murder of over 600 U.S. service members in Iraq via roadside IEDs; instead, they immediately labeled the strike “disproportionate” and an “act of war.” They claimed the Trump administration was actively attempting to start a war with Iran, and in taking out the head of the QF (a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization), the administration had done just that.
However, Democrats&#8217; certainty was quickly dashed when the Iranian “retaliation” proved to be symbolic and merely face-saving. There was no aggressive response that would indicate the start of war. Instead, the Iranians effectively bombed the sand, targeting bases in Iraq that had been given prior warning of the strike.
Iran’s response proved not that the mullahs wanted to escalate, but that they understood the cost of a potential full-scale war with the United States. Their feckless strike made it clear that <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/296604/iran-and-america-are-suddenly-both-naked">Trump’s message was heard and received</a>: You do not mess with the United States. Trump reiterated this message in his address to the nation following the Iranian airstrikes, saying, “we have sent a strong message to terrorists, if you value your own life, you will not threaten the lives of our people.”
The truth is that Trump wasn’t trying to start a war with Iran; he was trying to keep us out of a war with Iran while <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/03/trumps-strike-on-soleimani-is-about-america-first-not-reckless-interventionism/">nonetheless asserting American deterrence</a>. Democrats fail to see this because they are seemingly incapable of admitting Trump ever does anything right.
The Obama-Biden doctrine of foreign policy, appeasing our enemies at all costs — and if that doesn’t’ work, also send them pallets of cash — is what got us into the situation into the first place. The Obama administration would set “red lines,” and then regularly allow our enemies to cross those lines without any form of retaliation. And this wasn’t a one-time thing; repeated aggression would go virtually unchecked, other than perhaps a stern finger-wagging speech and a “promise” for retaliation in the future.
Real “red lines” only work if your enemy knows that if they cross that line, there is a high likelihood of retaliation. The Iranians hadn’t seen a real red line in so long that they were shocked when they were actually held to one.
Iran would be aggressive. Obama would allow it. Iran would be aggressive again. Obama would send them pallets of cash. Iran was aggressive under Trump, but Trump eventually drew his own red line. Iran was plotting future aggression that would cross that line. Trump saw a clear and present danger to U.S. troops and personnel, so he launched a decisive, defensive strike.
It’s a lot simpler than what many on the Left would lead you to believe.
President Trump’s red line is clear: You do not lay a hand on Americans. Period.
His willingness to hold to the red lines he sets, coupled with a multitude of comments emphasizing the U.S. doesn’t seek war, is how Trump kept the United States out of a war with Iran. Because sometimes, the enemy doesn’t respect you until you give them a reason to do so. President Trump gave the mullahs just such a reason.
&nbsp;
Ryan Fournier is founder and co-chairman of <a href="https://www.tpaction.com">Turning Point Action</a>.

Trump press conference Iran

FOURNIER: How President Trump Kept Us Out Of A War With Iran

Trump Administration

The Trump administration announced on Friday a series of new devastating sanctions against Iran which U.S. officials said would cut off billions of dollars from the Islamist terrorist regime.
The sanctions were announced by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a press briefing at the White House and come in response to Iran&#8217;s latest attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq.
&#8220;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,&#8221; Mnuchin began. &#8220;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.&#8221;
&#8220;Second, we are announcing 17 specific sanctions against Iran&#8217;s largest steel and iron manufacturers, three Seychelles-based entities, and a vessel involved in the transfer of products,&#8221; Mnuchin said. &#8220;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.&#8221;
&#8220;Third, we are taking action against eight senior Iranian officials who advanced the regime&#8217;s destabilizing activity and were involved in Tuesday&#8217;s ballistic missile strike,&#8221; Mnuchin concluded. &#8220;Today&#8217;s sanctions are part of our commitment to stop the Iranian regime&#8217;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.&#8221;
Pompeo said that the new sanctions, in addition to cutting off vital resources to the regime, specifically target &#8220;the heart of the Islamic Republic&#8217;s inner security apparatus.&#8221;
&#8220;These sanctions targets include the secretary of the Supreme National Council and the commander of the Basij Forces; that&#8217;s the regime&#8217;s brute squad, which has, in the last few months, killed approximately 1,500 Iranians who were simply demanding freedom,&#8221; Pompeo said. &#8220;Our action targets other senior leaders close to the ayatollah. They&#8217;ve carried out his terrorist plots in destabilizing campaigns across the Middle East and around the world. They&#8217;ve employed soldiers across the region&#8217;s battlefields. They&#8217;ve trained militias in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the arts of domestic repression.&#8221;
&#8220;The goal of our campaign is to deny the regime the resources to conduct its destructive foreign policy. We want Iran to simply behave like a normal nation. We believe the sanctions that we impose today further that strategic objective,&#8221; Pompeo continued. &#8220;Our campaign is composed of diplomatic, economic components that have deprived the regime of billions in revenue the regime has used to fuel death and destruction across the Middle East and all across the world.&#8221;
Pompeo noted that while the Obama administration opened up revenue streams for Iran, which included giving Iran money that former Secretary of State John Kerry <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/21/politics/john-kerry-money-iran-sanctions-terrorism/index.html">admitted</a> would be used for terrorism, the Trump administration has imposed crushing sanctions on the world&#8217;s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
&#8220;But under our administration, oil revenues are down by 80% and Iran cannot access roughly 90 percent of its foreign currency reserves,&#8221; Pompeo said. &#8220;And not even two weeks ago, President Rouhani of Iran admitted that our sanctions have cost Iran over $200 billion in lost foreign income and investment. As long as Iran&#8217;s outlaw ways continue, we will continue to impose sanctions.&#8221;

Trump

Trump Administration Launches Crushing New Sanctions Against Iran

Congressional Democrats, who seemed <del>willfully naive</del> blissfully unaware of then-President Barack Obama&#8217;s rather expansive interpretation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 during his strategically disastrous 2011 operation to oust Libyan strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi, suddenly seem to care an awful lot about constitutional norms and separation of powers principles again.
Intellectual inconsistency much?
Specifically, Speaker Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s House of Representatives is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/08/politics/war-powers-act-explainer-iran/index.html">debating today</a> whether to congressionally impose War Powers Resolution limitations upon President Donald Trump&#8217;s unilateral ability to ratchet up militancy with the Islamic Republic of Iran. In their crusade to hamstring the president&#8217;s conduct of his foreign policy vis-à-vis the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">jihadist</a> Iranian regime, House Democrats have even found some libertarian-leaning <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-lee-senator-utah-lambasts-trump-briefing-soleimani-strike-worst-hes-received-on-military-issue/">Republican allies</a>.
But this exercise is misguided, because the War Powers Resolution is, and always has been, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304186404576389474268093278">unconstitutional</a>.
Let&#8217;s start with what the War Powers Resolution, which was passed during the closing stanzas of the Vietnam War, actually does. The <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/93/hjres542/text">statute</a> requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces abroad, and it precludes deployed U.S. forces from remaining engaged in &#8220;hostilities&#8221; abroad for more than 60 days without an affirmative authorization for the use of military force that has passed through Congress. At the time, President Richard Nixon vetoed the bill on constitutional grounds, <a href="https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/president-richard-nixons-letter-house-representatives-regarding-his-veto-war">arguing</a> that the measure would define presidential war powers &#8220;in ways which would strictly limit his constitutional authority.&#8221; Nonetheless, a two-thirds majority in each congressional chamber overrode the veto.
Nixon&#8217;s veto was correct.
The Constitution famously divides foreign affairs powers between the legislative and executive branches. Among other enumerated powers in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei#section8">Article I, Section 8</a>, Congress has the ability to &#8220;declare War,&#8221; &#8220;raise and support Armies,&#8221; &#8220;provide and maintain a Navy,&#8221; &#8220;make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces,&#8221; &#8220;provide for calling forth the Militia,&#8221; and &#8220;provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia.&#8221;
By contrast, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii">Article II</a> of the Constitution provides that &#8220;[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.&#8221; The very first clause of Article II also vests the president with &#8220;[t]he executive Power&#8221; — meaning a &#8220;residual&#8221; foreign affairs power that encompasses all those powers not expressly delegated to Congress in Article I, Section 8. As legal scholars Saikrishna B. Prakash and Michael D. Ramsey <a href="https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/the-executive-power-over-foreign-affairs">persuasively argued</a> in a 2001 Yale Law Journal article, 18th century English common law had an &#8220;ordinary &#8230; meaning of executive power&#8221; that &#8220;included foreign affairs power.&#8221;
A careful, line-by-line overview of Congress&#8217;s enumerated powers does not actually provide a legislative means that could feasibly justify the War Powers Resolution. The most likely candidate is the Declare War Clause, but that provision happens to be woefully misunderstood by many lawyers and politicians across the ideological spectrum. As John Yoo <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=426862">compellingly laid out</a> in a 2003 University of Chicago Law Review article, &#8220;[t]he Declare War Clause simply confers on Congress juridical power to both define the United States&#8217;s legal relations with other countries and trigger domestic constitutional authorities during wartime.&#8221; It is the president of the United States, under Article II&#8217;s Commander in Chief Clause, who is actually responsible for initiating and conducting hostilities. Congress can then intervene to halt a president it views as a reckless warmonger using the manifold tools it does have at its disposal: Decreasing the size of the Pentagon&#8217;s budget, going line item-by-line item and removing various offensive-oriented materiel from the Department of Defense&#8217;s arsenal, or using its more general power of the purse to defund a war effort in its entirety (as eventually happened with Vietnam).
This interpretation of the Declare War Clause should not be nearly as controversial as it is. At the 1787 constitutional convention, the Framers actually conscientiously substituted out &#8220;make War&#8221; with &#8220;declare War.&#8221; In so doing, James Madison <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/qasem-soleimani-strike-president-trump-has-constitution-precedent-on-his-side/">famously explained</a> to Elbridge Gerry that it was imperative to leave to the president the &#8220;<a href="http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_11s4.html">power to repel sudden attacks</a>.&#8221; This ought to make a great deal of sense; as Alexander Hamilton would explain only six months after the constitutional convention in <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed70.asp">The Federalist No. 70</a>, &#8220;[d]ecision, activity, secrecy, and despatch will generally characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent degree than the proceedings of any greater number.&#8221;
Finally, in Article I, Section 10, the Constitution precludes a state from &#8220;engag[ing] in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.&#8221; The Framers were therefore aware of multiple verbs — &#8220;make&#8221; and &#8220;engage&#8221; — that could have clearly conveyed the meaning of an initiation of hostilities. But they didn&#8217;t use those words, and they didn&#8217;t use them for a reason. The Framers understood that there was great merit to leaving decisions such as the commencement of hostilities to one man, and not to a fractious Congress.
To reiterate, Congress already has a number of tools at its disposal to push back against a crusading commander-in-chief. As Andrew McCarthy <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/war-powers-resolution-vote-trump-andrew-mccarthy">wrote</a> this week at Fox News, &#8220;No statute is needed to provide Congress with the power to frustrate unauthorized presidential war-making. The Constitution empowers the legislature to do so by simply refusing to appropriate funds for military action.&#8221; But the Declare War Clause means something fundamentally different than what many believe it does.
The War Powers Resolution may or may not be good policy. But it does not matter, because it runs afoul of the Constitution&#8217;s carefully calibrated separation of powers.

United States Constitution

HAMMER: The War Powers Resolution Is, And Always Has Been, Unconstitutional

Congress

Constitution

Federalist

Libya

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said on Thursday that U.S. intelligence community officials appeared to withhold sensitive information that they possessed involving the information that President Donald Trump was given when he decided to take out top Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani.
In a tweet, Brooks wrote: &#8220;USA kills Sulaimani. Kudos! After 40 years, about time USA fights back against Iran terrorists. In classified briefing, it appeared defense &amp; intelligence reps held back info out of concern too many Congressmen can&#8217;t be trusted to keep classified info from USA enemies. Sad! Mo.&#8221;
In an interview with The Daily Wire, Brooks described the meeting that Congress had with U.S. officials where Congress was briefed on the strike.
Brooks said, &#8220;There were questions asked for specific information and the people on the dais simply did everything they could to get around providing the specific information, which allowed the inference that they had reservations about sharing that classified information with Congress in that kind of setting — which in turn leads to the inference that they had a reasonable amount of distrust as to whether shared classified information would in turn be shared by members of Congress with the news media or our enemies.&#8221;
Brooks pointed to a statement that Vice President Mike Pence gave to Fox News on Thursday as further evidence that U.S. officials wanted to withhold information because they were worried about protecting sources and methods.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
USA kills Sulaimani. Kudos! After 40 years, about time USA fights back against Iran terrorists.
In classified briefing, it appeared defense &amp; intelligence reps held back info out of concern too many Congressmen can&#39;t be trusted to keep classified info from USA enemies.
Sad!
Mo <a href="https://t.co/NONrDmpEa6">pic.twitter.com/NONrDmpEa6</a>
&mdash; Mo Brooks (@RepMoBrooks) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMoBrooks/status/1215332545308565504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;To protect sources and methods, we&#8217;re simply not able to share with every member of the House and Senate the intelligence that supported the president&#8217;s decision to take out Qassem Soleimani,&#8221; Pence told Fox News. &#8220;I can assure your viewers that there was a threat of an imminent attack.&#8221;
Responding to Pence&#8217;s statement, Brooks said, &#8220;That’s very consistent with the concern that Congress cannot be trusted to keep classified information classified.&#8221;
&#8220;[It&#8217;s] also consistent with that concern is what you just got done seeing with Adam Schiff’s Intelligence Committee during the impeachment proceedings wherein that information that was collected in a SCIF was invariably leaked to the news media,&#8221; Brooks continued. &#8220;So if you just had that experience where members of Congress are quite clearly leaking information that was collected in a SCIF environment, how can you trust them not to leak classified information regarding Iran that could lead to the deaths of our intelligence sources, or empower terrorist organizations to avoid American retribution for the killing that they have done?&#8221;
Brooks concluded by telling The Daily Wire, “Quite clearly, there are some more visible members of Congress that caused greater concerns that others, but I’ll leave to you and the general public to figure out which ones those are.”
During a press conference on Thursday, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-reveals-attack-that-soleimani-was-planning-that-led-to-drone-strike">told</a> reporters: “We caught a total monster and we took him out and that should have happened a long time ago. We did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy.”
“We also did it for other reasons that were very obvious, somebody died, one of our military people died, people badly wounded, just a week before, and we did it,” Trump continued. “And we had a shot at him and I took it and that shot was pinpoint accurate and that was the end of a monster. Really, that was the second attack. We didn’t start it, they started it by killing one of our people and wounding badly other of our people. That you call retribution.&#8221;

Mo Brooks

Mo Brooks: Officials Appeared To Withhold Soleimani Intel Due To Concern Some Might Leak To Enemies

Iraq

President Donald Trump revealed during a press conference on Thursday some details surrounding his decision to kill Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani last week, saying that Soleimani was planning to blow up a U.S. embassy.
&#8220;We killed a man who killed many, many Americans and many, many people, thousands and thousands of people,&#8221; Trump said during a press conference at the White House. &#8220;We caught a total monster and we took him out and that should have happened a long time ago. We did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy.&#8221;
&#8220;We also did it for other reasons that were very obvious, somebody died, one of our military people died, people badly wounded, just a week before, and we did it,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;And we had a shot at him and I took it and that shot was pinpoint accurate and that was the end of a monster. Really, that was the second attack. We didn’t start it, they started it by killing one of our people and wounding badly other of our people. That you call retribution.
&#8220;Iran went in and they hit us with missiles. Shouldn’t have done that,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;Fortunately for them, nobody was hurt, nobody was killed, nothing happened. They landed. Very little damage, even, to the base. They landed. But we had a chance to take out a monster, we took him out and it should have been done a long time ago.&#8221;
When asked about whether he would go to Congress to seek approval if further military action is needed, Trump responded, &#8220;It would all depend on the circumstance. I don’t have to and you shouldn&#8217;t have to because you have to able to make split second decisions. Sometimes you have to move very, very quickly. In certain cases, I wouldn’t mind doing it.&#8221;
&#8220;You know what bothers me? When I see a Nancy Pelosi trying to defend this monster from Iran whose killed so many people,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;So many people are walking around now without legs and without arms because he was the big roadside bomb guy. He was the one that sent them to Afghanistan, he send them to Iraq. That was his favorite thing. He thought it was wonderful. He doesn’t think it’s so wonderful anymore. When Nancy Pelosi of the Democrats wanted to defend him, I think that’s a bad thing for the country. I think it’s a big losing argument politically, too.&#8221;
Trump concluded his remarks about ongoing tensions with Iran by noting that the Iran nuclear deal was about to expire, so criticisms that his withdrawal from the deal sparked Iran&#8217;s aggression are not accurate.
&#8220;The JCPOA is close to expiring,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;In other words, if I didn&#8217;t terminate it, it expires in a very short period of time. One of the problems, of which there was many, there was $150 billion, $1.8 billion in cash, all that money, and then that money was used for terror. If you look at Iran, it wasn’t so bad until they got all that money. They used that money for terror. That’s when it became really bad. Take a look, it really got bad when they $150 billion, $1.8 billion in cash.&#8221;

President Donald J. Trump

Trump Reveals Attack That Soleimani Was Planning That Led To Drone Strike

The killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq at the hands of an American drone has stirred up a partisan hornet’s nest. Republicans overwhelmingly approve of the killing of the individual responsible for the recent <a href="https://time.com/5757228/us-iran-events-timeline/">attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq</a>. Democrats, on the other hand, are overwhelmingly focused on the risks of “escalation” with Iran.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the leading Democrat for his party’s 2020 presidential nomination, acknowledged blood on Soleimani’s hands, but the main thrust of his <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1212954848666234880">statement</a> concerns the risk of escalation: &#8220;President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox, and he owes the American people an explanation of the strategy and a plan to keep safe our troops and embassy personnel, our people and our interests.&#8221; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), another 2020 presidential candidate, <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1212951889060470788">called</a> the move “reckless” and feared it would “lead to a new Middle East conflict.” Similar sentiments were <a href="https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-statement-on-us-strike-that-killed-iranian-gen-soleimani">offered</a> by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorShaheen/status/1212949251514388481">as well as</a> Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), <a href="https://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/mobile/newsreleases?ID=4A1363EF-535C-42C9-8438-2A4F2F3988FA">Patty Murray</a> (D-WA), and many others.
Some went further. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made no condemnation of Soleimani’s actions, instead <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1212959357425651713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1212959357425651713&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fpolitics%2Fpolitics-news%2Flawmakers-react-after-us-strike-kills-iranian-military-leader-933470%2F">decrying</a> President Trump for putting us on a path to “endless war.” Senator Warren later suggested that killing Soleimani was <a href="https://www.axios.com/warren-trump-soleimani-killing-impeachment-e548dbfe-f0a3-488d-8ab6-3303c61fb7e1.html">motivated</a> by a desire to distract from impeachment. The usually hawkish Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, <a href="https://twitter.com/RepEliotEngel/status/1213625152937680896">said</a> he would do everything he could to prevent war with Iran — suggesting the killing of Soleimani, rather than Iran’s numerous attacks on the U.S., would be responsible for any such war. Legislation to tie the administration’s hands has <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/04/qasem-soleimani-bernie-sanders-khanna-bill-would-limit-iran-action/2812727001/">already been</a> introduced.
Republicans, on the other hand, were having none of it. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) <a href="https://www.sasse.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=DE21FF49-EBEB-4694-8E94-AEE3AE29083D">accused</a> fellow Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who largely <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1212913952436445185">echoed</a> the party line, of “<a href="https://twitter.com/SenSasse/status/1212938721387057153">drunk partisanship</a>.” Sasse <a href="https://www.sasse.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=DE21FF49-EBEB-4694-8E94-AEE3AE29083D">declared</a> that “General Soleimani is dead because he was an evil bastard who murdered Americans.” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) put it most <a href="https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=D2E041A4-B231-4743-A4EA-879A9F8EEB01">starkly</a>: “For too long, this evil man operated without constraint, and countless innocents have suffered for it. Now his terrorist leadership has been ended.”
In short, to paraphrase a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK0_Ob9qCI0">popular film</a>, most Democrats are critical of the Trump administration risking “open war,&#8221; while Republicans insist that “open war” is already upon us.
The Republicans have the better argument. There has been a steady escalation of tensions in recent months — by Iran, not the U.S. In addition to the previously mentioned attack on the American embassy in Iraq, which was not a “protest,” but an attack perpetrated by Kataib Hezbollah, one of <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-01-03/kataib-hezbollah-attacked-us-embassy-baghdad-who-are-they">Soleimani&#8217;s most loyal terrorist proxy militias</a> in Iraq, Soleimani was responsible for repeated escalation.
Republicans have eagerly pointed this out. Sen. James Risch (R-ID), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted that Soleimani had been actively involved in an attack that <a href="https://www.risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=B77D9F0A-D077-437B-B66C-7E3198C60A92">killed</a> an American contractor and wounded four American troops just days before the embassy attack. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) pointed out that there had been <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/qassem-soleimani-iran-marco-rubio-transcript-on-face-the-nation-january-5-2019/">over 10 rocket attacks</a> against Americans since October. Moreover, Iran’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/15/middleeast/saudi-oil-attack-lister-analysis-intl/index.html">attack</a> on Saudi oil fields, <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9550516/royal-navy-captains-frantic-call-urging-brit-tanker-ignore-iran-threats-change-course/">attack</a> on a British ship in the Persian Gulf, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/iran-us-drone-shot-down-latest-intl/index.html">downing</a> of a U.S. drone are all part of Iran’s provocations. These events were seen as escalations by both sides of the isle.
All this is not even considering that, according to the State Department, Iran, and thus Soleimani, its chief unconventional warfare strategist, is <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/iran-responsible-for-deaths-of-more-than-600-american-troops-in-iraq">responsible</a> for the deaths of over 600 American soldiers in previous years — nor is it even considering Soleimani’s <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/qasem-soleimani-s-disastrous-syria-legacy-lives-on-32762">boundless support</a> for Bashar al-Assad in Syria vis-à-vis proxy groups. Nor, still, is it considering Soleimani’s part in Iran’s support of the <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/yemen-houthis-protest-killing-of-iranian-iraqi-chiefs/1694428">radical Houthi </a><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-blast-yemen/yemen-government-backs-soleimanis-killing-minister-idUSKBN1Z2209">movement </a>in Yemen, resulting in one of the bloodiest civil wars in recent history. The list goes on.
Unlike the killing of Osama bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the killing of Soleimani presents significant risk. Soleimani was at the height of his power, and while the Quds Force he oversaw is indisputably a terrorist organization, it is also a branch of a state actor. This creates a more complicated, and dangerous, situation.
However, the focus on U.S. “escalation,” ignoring recent history, is a potentially catastrophic mistake. The word “appeasement” is overused, but no other word accurately describes the position of most Democratic politicians, who are ignoring the pattern of increasingly bellicose Iranian behavior. As Garry Kasparov recently said, appeasement kills <a href="https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1213576615780847617">because</a> it “raises the stakes, postpones the inevitable, and encourages aggressors to assume they can act with impunity.”
Moreover, Democratic worries about endless escalation seem unwarranted. Iran’s recent “retaliation,” launching missiles that resulted in <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2020/01/08/no-us-casualties-in-iran-missile-strike-preliminary-reports-say/">zero U.S. or Iraqi casualties</a> and even giving the Iraqi government <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-fires-missiles-at-military-bases-iraq-used-by-us-coalition-troops-today-live-updates-2020-01-08/">advance notice</a>, seems aimed at face-saving more than a desire to escalate further.
The temptation to take a partisan stance on such a major issue, during an election year, may be almost irresistible. But that doesn’t make it right. Leader McConnell was indignant, asking in a <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/01/06/mcconnell_on_impeachment_and_iran_senate_must_put_national_interest_ahead_of_factionalism.html">rousing speech</a>, “Can we not maintain a shred, just a shred, of national unity for five minutes … before deepening the partisan trenches?” As former Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-and-iran-11578262553?redirect=amp&amp;fbclid=IwAR3TRr4mMZTInU3PDRqBpPOWlpuyf9RwYvVbesc3vmBUasQ7aeZykIo1lWs#click=https://t.co/PBOkugbjBe">recently wrote</a>, “In their uniformly skeptical or negative reactions to Soleimani’s death, Democrats are … creating the risk that the U.S. will be seen as acting and speaking with less authority abroad at this important time.”
The late Sen. Arthur Vandenberg’s (R-MI) maxim that “politics stops at the water’s edge” has always been more aspirational than real. But in preaching what amounts to appeasement, Democrats are endangering the country.
&nbsp;
Cliff Smith (<a href="https://twitter.com/cliffsmithzbrdz?lang=en">@CliffSmithZBRDZ</a>) is Washington Project Director for the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/">Middle East Forum</a>.

Neville Chamberlain

SMITH: Republicans, Democrats And The Killing Of Soleimani: Is Appeasement Back In Style?

Democratic Party

Republican Party

This week, President Donald Trump launched a global round of teeth gnashing when he ordered the killing of the greatest terrorist leader in the modern Middle East, Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani was unquestionably responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq and thousands of others throughout the Middle East — mostly Muslim. His global terror network ran from South America to Europe to Africa to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. Soleimani was an unparalleled organizer and a pitiless murderer. His death was richly earned.
But for many in the media and on the domestic and international left, Trump&#8217;s action was precipitously &#8220;provocative.&#8221; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Soleimani&#8217;s killing — which came directly after a Soleimani-approved terror assault on America&#8217;s embassy in Baghdad and amidst reported further plans for escalated terror against American targets — &#8220;disproportionate.&#8221; Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., suggested that Trump, not the Iranians, had &#8220;escalated&#8221; the situation. Former Vice President Joe Biden said that Trump had &#8220;just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox.&#8221;
This reaction has been magnified by the media, many of whom have been speculating about the possibility of all-out war between the United States and Iran. Think pieces have been written about whether the United States will reactivate the draft (spoiler alert: No, we won&#8217;t). Musings have filled the newspapers about the supposed conflagration prompted not by Iranian evil but by Trumpian reactivity.
All of this smacks less of legitimate concern about what comes next than it does of sheer panic that Trump has overturned a decade of American and European appeasement of the Iranian regime. Ben Rhodes, former President Obama&#8217;s deputy national security adviser, architect of the Iran deal and an overt liar who told the American public that Iran was on its way to moderation if only the United States would loosen economic restrictions on the terror state, has placed blame for volatility squarely before Trump. Susan Rice, Obama&#8217;s national security adviser during the Iran deal and another overt liar who told the American public that Islamic terror against our Benghazi embassy was rooted in anger over a YouTube video, soberly informed Americans that &#8220;Americans would be wise to brace for war.&#8221; Biden suggested that in throwing out the Iran deal, Trump had paved the way for war — and, oh, by the way, the Iran deal was &#8220;airtight.&#8221;
This is a deliberate misreading of history designed to absolve the Obama administration of its Iran policy debacle. The administration pursued a policy of strengthening Iran economically — and did so while openly acknowledging that Iran would use that newly gained economic strength to pursue terrorism and ballistic missile testing. In speaking of the sanctions relief given to Iran, then-Secretary of State John Kerry explained in January 2016, &#8220;I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists.&#8221;
That&#8217;s precisely what happened. In March 2016, then-U.S. Central Command nominee Army Gen. Joseph Votel said that Iran had become &#8220;more aggressive&#8221; since the advent of the nuclear deal. Indeed, Iran has built up Hezbollah in Lebanon, propped up Bashar Assad in Syria, increased its presence in Iraq and bolstered its war in Yemen. In the past few months, Iran and its proxies have attacked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi oil facilities, an American drone and an American embassy, among other targets. All of this occurred while the Trump administration did little or nothing in response.
Then Trump ordered the killing of Soleimani. Suddenly, we have been informed by dishonest Democrats and their media allies, Iran has gone rogue.
Nonsense. Iran has been rogue for decades. The Iran deal was simply an attempt to whistle past the graveyard with the terror regime — to pay it off long enough so that President Barack Obama could declare the problem handled. This was, after all, the Obama strategy in Crimea and Syria: Declare a red line; run away from it; pretend that pusillanimous inaction is bravery and deterrence provocation.
Trump thought differently. Now Iran has come face to face with the prospect that actions have consequences — and those consequences don&#8217;t involve pallets of cash being shipped over to fund terror organizations that span the globe.

John Kerry meets Javad Zarif

SHAPIRO: Trump’s Iran Policy Isn’t the Problem. Barack Obama’s Was.

Obama Administration

On Wednesday, far-left activist director Michael Moore praised terrorist and Iranian general Qassem Soleimani for accumulating so many &#8220;mourners&#8221; at his funeral and took a swing at American military figures for never being able to acquire so many attendees.
&#8220;Just wondering — is there an American General for whom millions of us would turn out for his funeral?&#8221; questioned an impressed Moore, captioning a photo of Soleimani&#8217;s funeral procession.
&#8220;Mad Dog [General James Mattis]? Kelly [General John Kelly]? Colin Powel [sic]? William Westmoreland? Can anyone even name the chair of the Joint Chiefs?&#8221; the activist rhetorically asked. &#8220;We all support those who serve but would we pour into the streets like this?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Just wondering &#8211; is there an American General for whom millions of us would turn out for his funeral? Mad Dog? Kelly? Colin Powel? William Westmoreland? Can anyone even name the chair of the Joint Chiefs?We all support those who serve but would we pour into the streets like this? <a href="https://t.co/L1Y5Bb9iys">pic.twitter.com/L1Y5Bb9iys</a>
&mdash; Michael Moore (@MMFlint) <a href="https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/1214881961564606464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Folks <a href="https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/1214881961564606464">online</a> were quick to point out that some Iranians are pressured to publicly &#8220;mourn&#8221; the death of Soleimani, as outlined in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/06/dont-believe-iranian-propaganda-about-mourning-soleimani/">Washington Post</a> opinion piece earlier this week.
<div class="teaser-content">
<section>
&#8220;Over the next few days, it will be hard to escape footage of huge crowds gathering in Iranian cities to mourn the death of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed by a U.S. drone strike. For anyone watching, I have one piece of advice: Don’t take what you’re seeing at face value,&#8221; Iranian journalist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/06/dont-believe-iranian-propaganda-about-mourning-soleimani/">Masih Alinejad</a> offered.
&#8220;The media in the Islamic Republic is heavily controlled. Public gatherings are allowed only if they are pro-regime. Critics are jailed or shot. (Even I, living outside the country, have received a death threaton Iranian national TV for my coverage of Soleimani’s killing.) So it’s not hard to use all the tools and resources of the state to stage a funeral,&#8221; Alinejad explained. &#8220;I have more than 4 million followers on various social media networks, and I have received thousands of messages, voice mails and videos from Iranians in cities such as Shiraz, Isfahan, Tehran and even Ahvaz, who are happy about Soleimani’s death. Some complain of the pressure to attend services for him.&#8221;
&#8220;There are many Iranian voices who think Soleimani was a war criminal, but Western journalists rarely reach out to them,&#8221; the Iranian journalist added.
Here were some of the reactions to Moore online:
<blockquote>&#8220;Probably not, but if anything happened to the leader of North Korea I bet there will be just as many &#8216;mourners&#8217;. I wonder why.&#8221;
&#8220;Is there any politician for which we would publicly mourn hysterically like these grief-stricken North Koreans.&#8221;
&#8220;Depends on if we had guns to our heads like they do.&#8221;
&#8220;You’re one sick puppy, [Michael Moore]!&#8221;</blockquote>
Over the weekend, Moore made a “personal appeal” to Iranian leadership to spare the United States and allow him and fellow progressives to work out a peace deal.
“I have just sent the Ayatollah of Iran a personal appeal asking him not to respond to our assassination of his top General with violence of any kind, but rather let me &amp; millions of Americans fix this peacefully,” Moore <a href="https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/1213688506305957888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1213871504804515842&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2020%2F01%2F05%2Fmichael-moore-writes-a-letter-to-the-ayatollah-of-iran-but-its-really-just-an-ad-for-his-new-podcast%2F">tweeted</a> Saturday.
&#8220;In the announcement of his appeal to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the self-promotional Moore pointed followers to his podcast, &#8216;Rumble with Michael Moore,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michael-moore-issues-personal-appeal-to-iran-gets-pummeled-online">The Daily Wire</a> noted.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/delete-your-network-msnbc-shares-iranian-propaganda-on-american-casualties-gets-ripped">‘DELETE YOUR NETWORK’: MSNBC Shares Iranian Propaganda On American Casualties, Gets Ripped</a>
</section>
</div>

Michael Moore

Michael Moore Praises Soleimani In Funeral Tweet, Takes Shot At Americans

Professional human rights champion Colin Kaepernick went to social media this week to protest the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, a man whose only crime was loving too much and murdering thousands of human beings. Kaepernick took a break from selling his new Nike shoe, which can be purchased now for the <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/colin-kaepernick-x-air-force-1-low-07-qs-cq0493-001?utm_source=google_int&amp;utm_medium=google_shopping_int&amp;utm_campaign=2070028993_82049328608&amp;utm_content=368056751951_1o1&amp;utm_term=193154673289&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiA9dDwBRC9ARIsABbedBPNlQkItGwIY2hGwJ6IYEKuv9H2YrklyjhqJ1KZbRnKH33bbZYMC9IaAtiiEALw_wcB">low price of $135</a>, to point out how America is extremely unfair to black and brown people like himself.
&#8220;America has always sanctioned and besieged Black and Brown bodies both at home and abroad,&#8221; the shoe model tweeted. &#8220;America militarism is the weapon wielded by American imperialism, to enforce its policing and plundering of the non white world.&#8221;
It should be noted here that Kaepernick&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/Kaepernick7">Twitter page</a> is adorned with no fewer than eight photos of himself. In each photo, he has the same pensive and persecuted look, as if to say, &#8220;I am pensive and persecuted eight times more than the average person.&#8221; Frankly, I think he understates the case. The world has not seen a man treated with such brutal unfairness since William Wallace was drawn and quartered.
<iframe title="Media Continues To Mourn Beloved Terrorist | The Matt Walsh Show Ep. 399" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gCF7TLEvlTA?start=795&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Kaepernick, of course, pounces on every opportunity to highlight the systemic racism and bigotry in our culture. But now he has taken a look at the problem with a wider lens and discovered that America is plundering the world by killing a war criminal. His accusation of imperialism is especially appropriate here, given that Iran was an imperialist empire for 15 centuries — and through proxies, still pursues its imperialistic ambitions today. This is all the fault of the United States, for reasons that are simply too obvious to bother explaining. Indeed, even the Persian invasion of Greece in 492 can be tied back to America. Ours is a country so meddlesome that it manages to meddle even when it doesn&#8217;t yet exist.
If any of these claims seem dubious to you, remember that Kaepernick is an authority on persecution and you are not. Kaepernick was, to use his phrase, &#8220;sanctioned and besieged&#8221; with an NFL career that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/colin-kaepernick-record-49ers-contract-2017-8">paid him almost $40 million</a>. When he left, he was further sanctioned with a <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2794022-report-colin-kaepernicks-nike-contract-worth-millions-will-get-branded-line">multi-million dollar Nike contract,</a> which was exacerbated by the added insult of a <a href="https://theweek.com/speedreads/824104/colin-kaepernicks-nfl-collusion-settlement-potentially-60-million-80-million-range">$60 million payout from the NFL</a> and a <a href="https://pagesix.com/2017/10/24/colin-kaepernick-lands-million-dollar-book-deal/">million dollar book deal</a>. Truly, his plight makes the life of a <a href="https://qz.com/1042298/nike-is-facing-a-new-wave-of-anti-sweatshop-protests/">low-wage Nike factory worker in Vietnam</a> look positively glamorous, by comparison.
Imagine what it must be like to walk in his shoes. Well, not his actual Nike shoes. You probably can&#8217;t afford those. I mean, imagine what it is like to walk in his metaphorical shoes. To be rich, famous, celebrated across the media and in Hollywood. No doubt when his book is released and then turned into a movie and he rakes in millions from the royalties and movie rights, the anger he feels about his victimization will reach righteous new heights.
I cannot explain why Kaepernick should be so angry, or why his story is proof of America&#8217;s racism rather than proof that you calling America racist is a profitable business (which it wouldn&#8217;t be if America were actually racist), or why anyone would spend $135 on a football player&#8217;s shoe — especially when that football player isn&#8217;t even a football player anymore and his career completion percentage was less than 60%. But that&#8217;s only because of my own internalized bigotry.
At least that&#8217;s what Kaepernick would tell me.
Editors’ Note: Because the internet is filled with foolish and utterly dishonest people, the editors of The Daily Wire wish to note that this column utilizes a literary device called sarcasm.

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