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A Minnesota woman pleaded guilty today to one count of delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government. According to court documents, Mariam Taha Thompson, 63, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, worked as a contract linguist at an overseas U.S. military facility where she was entrusted with a top secret government security clearance. ***** In December 2019, while Thompson was assigned to a special operations task force facility in Iraq, the United States launched a series of airstrikes in Iraq targeting Kata’ib Hizballah, an Iranian-backed foreign terrorist organization. These airstrikes culminated in a Jan. 3, 2020, strike that resulted in...

Iranian Chief Justice Ebrahim Raeisi on Wednesday accused the U.S. government of helping the Islamic State recover its strength in Syria and spread its operatives into countries such as Iran that oppose U.S. hegemony. According to Raeisi, only Iran and the Shiite-dominated government of Iraq truly stand against ISIS. “The U.S. claimed that it seeks to fight Daesh [ISIS] and formed a coalition for this, but we have witnessed the strengthening of Daesh in terms of weapons, logistics, intelligence, and other aspects,” Raeisi said during a meeting with Iraqi President Barhan Salih in Baghdad. “While Iraq, Syria, Iran and regional...

The US has several intelligence indications that Iran has put some of its air defense systems on high alert in recent days, CNN reported early Friday morning, citing a "US official closely tracking developments." While the official refused to specify how the US got hold of the intelligence, he or she confirmed that the Islamic Republic has changed the alert status on its surface-to-air missile batteries, in a move indicating it would fire at airborne targets perceived as a potential threat. In early 2020, Iran confirmed its air defense batteries mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian plane killing all 176 people...

Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing, said on Thursday night that the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian terrorist mastermind Gen. Qasem Soleimani was a violation of international law. The U.N. has been oddly quiet about Soleimani’s violations of international law, including activities that indisputably violated U.N. sanctions. “The targeted killings of Qasem Soleiman and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis are most likely unlawful and violate international human rights law: Outside the context of active hostilities, the use of drones or other means for targeted killing is almost never likely to be legal,” Callamard wrote on Twitter. She proceeded...

I was readying a piece about Qasem Soleimani when I got the news: President Trump ordered a game-changing U.S. military attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force, among other military officials at Baghdad International Airport early Friday, the Pentagon confirmed.Soleimani is the military mastermind whom Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had deemed equally as dangerous as Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In October, Baghdadi killed himself during a U.S. raid on a compound in northwest Syria, seven months after the so-called ISIS "caliphate" crumbled as the terrorist group lost its final swath of Syrian territory in March. Justice has been served. Iran is outraged: Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted...

‘Whistleblower’ calls out John Kerry, says he ‘knows for fact’ Obama admin sent multiple letters directly to Soleimani Middle East expert Michael Doran slammed former Secretary of State John Kerry in a series of tweets exposing the Obama administration’s dealings with Iran. “I must become a whistleblower,” Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute specializing in Middle East security issues, tweeted Friday in response to a self-serving opinion piece by Kerry published by The New York Times. Doran called out Kerry for his op-ed and the “ludicrous and reckless contention” that “diplomacy” with Iran and the nuclear deal negotiated...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) talks with CNN's Wolf Blitzer about President Donald Trump's decision to kill Iranian general Qasem Soleimani

Former Rep. Ron Paul said he wished President Trump would "flip-flop" his policy on Iran and criticized Trump's loyalty to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia. "I think our country is not doing so well. Our foreign policy is in shambles," the Texas Republican said. "Unfortunately, the one place where I wish he would flip-flop every once in a while or change his policy completely is dealing with Iran. He is steady on it, he said it on the campaign. He's very loyal to Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia." Trump authorized airstrikes that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and...

On Friday morning the United States killed General Qassim Soleimani, a top commander of Iran’s al-Quds Force, in an airstrike at Baghdad’s International Airport. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Seven people were reportedly killed in the airstrike. The Iranians are threatening retaliation against the United States following the death of their terror leader. Former Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei said on Sunday the retaliation for the killing of IRGC al-Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani will include strikes on Haifa and Defense bases in Israel.

In mid-October, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani met with his Iraqi Shi’ite militia allies at a villa on the banks of the Tigris River, looking across at the U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad. The Revolutionary Guards commander instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and other powerful Pro-Iran militia leaders to step up attacks on U.S. targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters. The strategy session, which has not been previously reported, came as mass protests against Iran’s growing influence in Iraq...

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qasem Soleimani wasn't the only major-league terrorist killed in the drone strike ordered by Trump. Also killed was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a top Iraqi paramilitary leader whose long, bloody career includes attacks on American and other Western embassies, as well as being a founder of Kata'ib Hezbollah, a group responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq. In 2009, the U.S. sanctioned both al-Muhandis and Kata'ib Hezbollah as terrorist entities. In some ways, killing al-Muhandis was more significant than the death of Soleimani. He's been an active terrorist against the U.S. since the...

raqis are celebrating the death of Iran's elite Quds Force chief, General Qassem Soleimani, by "dancing in the street", said US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo while sharing a video of people holding a rally. In the 22-second video which Pompeo shared on Twitter, people are seen running on a road carrying a several meter-long Iraq national flag. The video is of some unspecified location in Iraq. This comes hours after the United States confirmed that Soleimani has been killed in a defence strike near Baghdad International Airport. "Iraqis -- Iraqis -- dancing in the street for freedom; thankful that...