Public Alert: FBI hunts for Iranian assassin targeting Trump-era officials

Iranian-Assassin

Important Takeaways:

  • The U.S. government is intensifying a manhunt for an Iranian intelligence operative who the Federal Bureau of Investigation believes has been plotting to assassinate current and former American officials, including one-time Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
  • The FBI’s Miami field office on Friday issued a public alert seeking information on Majid Dastjani Farahani, a suspected member of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, who the Bureau alleged has been recruiting “individuals for operations in the U.S., to include lethal targeting of current/former USG officials.”
  • The Iranian government has repeatedly vowed over the past four years to avenge the 2020 death of Major General Qasem Soleimani – a commander of Iran’s elite Qods Force – whom the Trump administration assassinated in Baghdad using a drone strike on his convoy.
  • The DoJ indicted members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) in 2022 for allegedly plotting to murder Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton
  • U.S. officials told Semafor they believe Pompeo and Trump’s special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, are also on Tehran’s hit list. The U.S. government is currently providing both men with around-the-clock security due to the severity of the threat.

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Iran’s concerning test of ballistic missiles as preparation for strikes on Israeli military sites housing F-35’s

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Important Takeaways:

  • Iran test fired advanced ballistic missiles on Tuesday in a series of war drills meant to prepare the Islamic Republic for a strike on Israeli military sites that house American-made F-35 fighter jets, according to the country’s state-controlled media.
  • Iran claims its missiles are capable of striking deep into Israel and are capable of traveling more than 1,000 miles.
  • A massive explosion Tuesday at an Iranian gas line also heightened the possibility of an Israeli confrontation with Tehran, as the hardline regime claimed the incident was a “terrorist act of sabotage.”

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CBS confirms plans for US strikes on Iranian targets

US-Strikes-Iran

Important Takeaways:

  • Plans for U.S. strikes on Iranian personnel and facilities in Iraq, Syria approved after Jordan drone attack
  • U.S. officials have confirmed to CBS News that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over a number of days against targets — including Iranian personnel and facilities — inside Iraq and Syria. The strikes will come in response to drone and rocket attacks targeting U.S. forces in the region, including the drone attack on Sunday that killed three U.S. service members at the Tower 22 base inside Jordan, near the Syrian border.
  • Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters that the U.S. won’t tolerate attacks on American troops.
  • “This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East,” Austin said, noting that Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea were also happening in the region. “We will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people, and we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose.”
  • Weather will be a major factor in the timing of the strikes, the U.S. officials told CBS News, as the U.S. has the capability to carry out strikes in bad weather but prefers to have better visibility of selected targets as a safeguard against inadvertently hitting civilians who might stray into the area at the last moment.
  • Iran’s Reaction…any strike on Iranian territory or personnel would escalate tension in the tumultuous region, not make U.S. forces safer.

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The Plot Thickens: Iran threatens to target Americans across the middle east if US strikes Iranian soil

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Important Takeaways:

  • Tehran warns Biden that if US strikes Iranian soil in retaliation for death of three soldiers the Islamist regime will hit back at American targets across the Middle East – sparking all-out war between the foes
  • Tehran has told Washington, via intermediaries, that it will attack U.S. targets in the Middle East if the Pentagon launches strikes on Iranian soil
  • The grim warning came as the world holds its breath to see how Joe Biden will respond to the killing of three U.S. soldiers by Iranian-backed militias.
  • Joe Biden on Tuesday said that he had made up his mind about how to respond to Sunday’s killing of three U.S. service members by an Iranian-backed militia
  • The strikes are expected to take place over time, and in waves: targets could include Iranian naval vessels in the Persian Gulf, or a cyberattack
  • The Pentagon has existing plans for potential strikes on Iranian missile sites and air bases, in case a conflict broke out between Iran and Israel. Israel has been carrying out high-profile bombing runs, practicing attacks on the Natanz nuclear site and the underground facility at Fordow.
  • The cyberattack would disable Iran’s air defenses, communications systems and crucial parts of its power grid.

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Serious talks in Washington to target Iran: Hitting Iranian proxies won’t stop them from shooting at commercial shipping and hurting innocent people

Mitch-McConnell

Important Takeaways:

  • GOP hawks press Biden to target Iran directly over soldiers’ deaths
  • “Last night, three U.S. service members were killed —and many wounded — during an unmanned aerial drone attack on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan near the Syria border,” Biden said in a statement on Sunday morning.
  • Biden said the U.S. is “still gathering the facts of this attack,” but “we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”
  • According to U.S. central command, 25 service members were wounded in the attack.
  • What they’re saying: Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for “serious, crippling costs” to Iran, “not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honor.”
  • Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said in a statement the attacks the U.S. has carried out on Iranian proxies outside Iran “will not deter Iranian aggression,” calling to “strike targets of significance inside Iran.”
  • “The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief.”
  • John Cornyn, in a post on the social media site X, said: “Target Tehran,” later specifying that he wants the U.S. to strike Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. and its Quds Force branch.

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Israel’s economic minister says Iran is a ‘legitimate target’ ‘head of the snake’

Nir-Barkat

Important Takeaways:

  • Top Israeli minister says Iran is a ‘legitimate target’ for missile strikes as fears grow of an all-out war between the countries
  • Iran is now a ‘legitimate target’ for missile strikes, a top Israeli minister has said, as fears grow of an all-out war between the countries.
  • Israel’s economy minister, Nir Barkat, told The Telegraph that Palestinians from the West Bank would never be permitted to work in the country again and imported foreign workers would take their place.
  • He also argued that the war against Hamas has not been aggressive enough
  • Barkat, who is the favorite to take over from Benjamin Netanyahu as head of the ruling Likud party, said Israel has the means to pursue the conflict and open up a new front with Lebanon.
  • Barkat told the newspaper: ‘Iran is a legitimate target for Israel. They will not get away with it. The head of the snake is Tehran.

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UK and European leaders call for War Preparations: Russian invasion of European states by 2025

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Important Takeaways:

  • U.K. Govt Warns: Be Ready for War with China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea in Five Years
  • Speaking at Lancaster House on Monday, British Minister of Defense Grant Shapps said the West is facing a “much more troubled world” and could no longer consider itself post-war, with considerable new investment in military spending needed. He said:
  • …now is the time for all allies and democratic nations across the world to… make sure their defense spending is growing too. Because as discussed, the era of the peace dividend is over. In five years time we could be looking at multiple theatres including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
  • …we find ourselves at the dawn of this new era. [The] Berlin Wall a distant memory but we have come full circle, moving from a post-war to a pre-war world. An age of idealism has been replaced by a period of hard-headed realism.
  • Illustrating actions taken by Britain to prepare itself for this multifaceted conflict the British government apparently believes is coming, Shapps cited the UK’s support to Ukraine, the country leading the largest NATO deployment since the end of the Cold War this year, the signing of a new UK-Japan-Italy fighter coalition, and the creation of the Australia-UK-U.S. submarine coalition. He said the government was moving to putting 2.5 per cent of GDP into defense spending as soon as it could afford to.
  • Estonia, one of Ukraine’s most enthusiastic allies and a state which has a land border with Russia said through their Prime Minister on Monday that their intelligence states NATO has “three to five years” to prepare for a Russian attack on NATO itself.
  • Sweden warned its citizens last week to be prepared for war.
  • Germany is reportedly of the same mind, with the best-selling newspaper in Europe Bild splashing this week on leaked war plans anticipating Russian invasions of European states by the summer of 2025.

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Pakistan targets separatists in Iran

Iran-Pakistan-border

Important Takeaways:

  • Pakistan carries out military strikes on separatist targets in Iran following deadly attack on its own soil by Tehran
  • Pakistan carried out a series of deadly military strikes on what it said were separatist militant hideouts inside Iran, in the latest incident across their shared border that has sent tensions between the two neighbors soaring.
  • The new strikes mean both Pakistan and Iran have now taken the extraordinary step of attacking militants on each other’s soil this week at a time of expanding conflict in the Middle East and wider region.
  • Islamabad said Thursday its forces launched a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes” in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province as part of an operation called “Marg Bar Sarmachar” — a phrase which loosely translates to “death to the guerrilla fighters.”
  • It said the hideouts targeted in the operation were used by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Baloch

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Defense expert cautions that Iran launching attacks across the Middle East is the biggest threat to world peace

Important Takeaways:

  • Pentagon insider warns ‘we are on the brink’ of World War 3 after latest Iran attack
  • A source inside the US Pentagon has warned the world is on the brink of a major conflict as Iran and its allies continue to launch attacks across the Middle East.
  • The warning comes as Iranian-backed proxies destabilize the Middle East by attacking Israel and US targets, as well as international shipping in the region.
  • Iran itself has also carried out strikes in neighboring Iraq and Pakistan as well as Syria sending tensions soaring.
  • Defense expert Nicholas Drummond echoed concerns that the conflict in the Middle East could potentially escalate but warned that if Tehran directly attacked Israel, the ensuing war would be “the end of Iran”.
  • Speaking to Daily Express US, he said: “Iran’s agenda in the region, and globally, has been exposed. And Iran is on the back foot.
  • “The West is saying to Iran ‘behave yourself, or we will attack you directly’.
  • He added: “I think Iran has to be very, very careful. It has been playing a dangerous game. And it’s about to get punished if it doesn’t step back.
  • “You saw that [Iran] fired a missile into Syria and… it was ostensibly taking out rebel targets but it was [also] demonstrating, it has a missile capable of reaching Israel from Iran that could have with a nuclear warhead – it could target Tel Aviv.
  • That’s the message it’s sending. And, of course, if Iran did that, it would be the end of Iran, frankly.”
  • Drummond branded Iran as “the biggest threat to world peace” at the moment.

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Iran and the so called ‘Axis of Resistance’ don’t seem to give a hoot what Washington thinks and Russia, China, and North Korea are taking note

Global-Threats-Sinking-Biden

Important Takeaways:

  • Joe Biden ‘is struggling to keep his head above water’ as US is challenged by Iran and Russia – ‘and China and North Korea are taking notes’, experts say as they warn inaction now ‘will cost American lives later’
  • Joe Biden ‘is struggling to keep his head above water’ as the US ‘ignores’ threats from Iran and continues to be challenged by Russia – while North Korea and China are ‘taking notes’, experts have warned.
  • Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed yesterday that their forces launched ballistic missiles close to the US consulate in Erbil, northern Iraq – a move condemned as ‘reckless’ by the US State Department.
  • Former military intelligence officer Colonel (Ret) Jonathan Sweet and foreign policy expert Mark Toth labelled the US response ‘as perfunctory as it was lacking’, saying it is just the latest example of the Biden administration’s inaction in the region.
  • Iran’s so-called ‘Axis of Resistance’ – including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels – has been increasing its attacks on Israel and commercial shipping routes, prompting the US and UK to launch devastating strikes by air and sea.
  • But the experts told MailOnline: ‘For all the US military might put on display throughout the Middle East, Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden right now, Iran and their proxies have not been deterred.’
  • Meanwhile, as the war in Ukraine approaches its third year, Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric has become more aggressive, threatening Ukraine’s statehood and warning that Russia would ‘never’ abandon the gains it has made.

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