Mary Beth Long@LongDefense
FMR Asst Sec Defense, Chair NATO’s HLG, CIA Clandestine Service, Successful Entrepreneur, Republican for strong national defense, lawyer, PSU grad.
1. Suleimani took command of the Quds Force over 20 years ago and his job is to reshape the Middle East in Iran’s favor: thru military force, by assassinating rivals and arming allies.
2. His twenty year focus is directing a network of militant groups that has killed hundreds of U.S in #Iraq and others.
3. I know of only ONE American who has ever met him, John Maguire, describing him as soft-spoken yet the most powerful man in the MidEast. Thoughtful, strategic, smart, charismatic – 100% dedicated
4. He personally runs #Iran’s war in #Syria and brought in thousands of #Quds Force when #Assad’s army began to fail.
5. Suleimani and #Nasrallah of #Hezbollah #Lebanon are old friends and cooperate globally where Hezbollah has performed terrorist acts at Iran’s behest.
6. His power comes from his impeccable revolutionary credentials and his close relationship with #Khamenei, The Supreme Leader, who has referred to Suleimani as “a living martyr of the revolution.” Suleimani is a hard-line supporter of Iran’s authoritarian system but is rich and has built the #IRGC into an economic powerhouse.
7. He hates #Israel and Jews and is well known to its intelligence services as a superbly effective operative; in some ways, he is both hated and admired
8. #Suleimani has orchestrated terrorist attacks in places as far flung as #Thailand, #New Delhi, #Argentina, #Lagos, and #Nairobi— at least fifty attempts in the past 20 years. The most notorious was in 2011 against #KSA Ambass #AdelalJubeir when #Iran hired a drug cartel to blow him up at in D.C. Suleimani’s agent turned out to be a #DEA informant .
9-#Suleimani was pragmatic. He worked indirectly with #RyanCrocker of State Dept in helping the U.S target the #Taliban and in selecting Shia officials for the new #Iraqi Gov’t.
10. That cooperation was short lived, however. In 2004, the Quds Force began flooding Iraq with“explosively formed projectiles “ that accounted for nearly twenty per cent of U.S Iraq combat deaths. Roadside E.F.P.s were made by skilled technicians in Iran and were supplied by #QodsForce. They also resulted in tens of thousands of maimed U.S and Iraqi soldiers.
11. In recent years, the #IRGC has posted social media videos of #Soleimani directing attacks in #Mosul and against #IraqiKurd forces. He has traveled widely and has unprecedented autonomy in carrying out his military-terrorist mandate.
12. Those who refer to his death as “political assassination” of a “foreign official” are either grossly ill-informed or willfully blind. In my experience, his involvement in targeting U.S military personnel alone has made him a legitimate target of at least TWO U.S Presidents, although@realDonaldTrump is the first to have succeeded. On at least two occasions in which I am aware, previous operations in other administrations were canceled due to intel or other complicating factors.
13. Given the prominence of #Soleimani in all of #Iran’s extra-territorial operations, both military and civilians have considered the implications of directing operations aganist him on multiple occasions, including 2nd and 3rd order impacts/retaliation from various adversaries.
14. I hope this is useful. There is an excellent profile of #Soleimani from Dexter Filkins@NewYorker from 2013 that gave a good feel for #Soleimani using excellent sources.
Related
-READ. As always, MK is correct. https://twitter.com/mikeknightsiraq/status/1213626492724371457 …
Michael Knights@MikeknightsiraqI know everyone is having fun being outraged, but there would not be «cultural» targets on any US target list. Such sites are on a «no-strike list» and/or a «restricted target list» including all UNESCO sites and many others, incl mosques, schools, etc.