Iraq still has no president. In a development there . . .
Sulaymani threatened the two Kurdish parties that he would choose a candidate himself for the presidency if they did not agree ...
The report says Qasem Soleimani has told the Kurds that they must have only one nominee for president or he will make choose the nominee himself. Who? The Iranian labeled a terrorist by the US government. It's amazing, isn't it, how drones are used to kill 'terrorists' -- that's what our government insists, anyway. But Qasem, labeled a terrorist by the US government as well as the UN, is apparently an untouchable. Is he a terrorist? If he is, why has the US arrested him or, as the US government prefers, killed him? They've known where he is -- during the fight against ISIS, he was repeatedly in Iraq. He is labeled a terrorist and has been for years. Why has no US president been able to arrest him?
Is he a terrorist or not? If he's not, he needs to be taken off the list. If he is, the US government needs to do their job and arrest him. Barack Obama ow he's dictating and Donald Trump have both allowed Asem Soleimani to traipse all over Iraq. Now he's dictating to the Iraqi Kurds what they can and cannot do. If the US government -- supposedly so concerned about terrorism -- had done its job, Qasem would be in a prison right now, not threatening Kurdish politicians.
Is it all just a game, a fraud against the people of the world, or does the label terrorist actually have a meaning?
Erfan Ghaneifard who was an advisor to IRGC commender Qasem Soleimani is in NewYork. He is trying to stay in the US and his solicitor's name is Jamshid Irani who is a pro Iranian regime and is helping Erfan Ghaneifard to stay in the US without getting exposed.
@CIA
@NewYorkFBI
Now the US government is interfering in Iraq as well, I'm not pretending otherwise. We've called Brett McGurk out when no one else would. We've called him out when the western press has insisted (lied) that he wasn't attempting any efforts in Iraq.
The U.S. and Iran are competing to shape Iraq’s new government. Both are failing. @TamerELG explores the rival efforts of Brett McGurk and Qasem Soleimani to put their favorites in power
From Tamer el-Ghobashy (WASHINGTON POST):
American and Iranian officials have taken unusually visible roles in trying to influence the makeup of the new Iraqi government, but both sides have so far come up short, failing to place their allies in key positions.
Since Iraq held national elections in May, White House envoy Brett McGurk and Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds force, have competed with each other to assemble support behind their favorites for parliament speaker, president and prime minister. McGurk and Soleimani have both spent much of the past few months meeting with powerful Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians in rival bids to build a parliamentary majority.
While I applaud Tamer for finally discovering that Brett has been trying to control the outcome, I am puzzled -- doesn't democracy die in darkness, according to the laughable WASHINGTON POST -- that he fails to identify Qasem, anywhere in the article, as a designated terrorist.
Here's the US Treasurey Department doing what THE WASHINGTON POST refuses to do:
Treasury Sanctions Five Individuals Tied to Iranian Plot to Assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States
10/11/2011
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the designation of five individuals, including four senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officers connected to a plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Adel Al-Jubeir, while he was in the United States and to carry out follow-on attacks against other countries’ interests inside the United States and in another country. As part of today’s action, Treasury also designated the individual responsible for arranging the assassination plot on behalf of the IRGC-QF.
Designated today pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224 for acting for or on behalf of the IRGC-QF were: Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen holding both Iranian and U.S. passports who acted on behalf of the IRGC-QF to pursue the failed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador; IRGC-QF commander Qasem Soleimani; Hamed Abdollahi, a senior IRGC-QF official who coordinated aspects of the plot and oversaw the other Qods Force officials directly responsible for coordinating and planning this operation; Abdul Reza Shahlai, an IRGC-QF official who coordinated this operation; and Ali Gholam Shakuri, an IRGC-QF official and deputy to Shahlai, who met with Arbabsiar on several occasions to discuss the assassination and other planned attacks.
Arbabsiar and Shakuri were named by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in a criminal complaint unsealed today connected with the IRGC-QF plot. Among the charges brought against them was conspiracy to engage in foreign travel and use interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. According to the criminal complaint, Arbabsiar arranged for $100,000 to be sent from Tehran to the U.S. as a down payment for the assassination of the Saudi ambassador. Two wire transfers totaling approximately $100,000 were sent from a non-Iranian foreign bank to a bank in the United States, to the account of the person recruited by Arbabsiar to carry out the assassination.
“Iran once again has used the Qods Force and the international financial system to pursue an act of international terrorism, this time aimed against a Saudi diplomat,” said David S. Cohen, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “The financial transactions at the heart of this plot lay bare the risk that banks and other institutions face in doing business with Iran.”
As a result of today’s designations, U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with these individuals, and any assets they may hold in the U.S. are frozen.
Manssor Arbabsiar
Arbabsiar met on a number of occasions with senior IRGC-QF officials regarding this plot and acted on behalf of senior Qods Force officials – including his cousin Abdul Reza Shahlai and Shahlai’s deputy Gholam Shakuri – to execute the plot. During one such meeting, a $100,000 payment for the murder of the Saudi ambassador was approved by the IRGC-QF. After this meeting, Arbabsiar arranged for approximately $100,000 to be sent from a non-Iranian foreign bank to the United States, to the account of the person he recruited to carry out the assassination.
Qasem Soleimani
As IRGC-QF Commander, Qasem Soleimani oversees the IRGC-QF officers who were involved in this plot. Soleimani was previously designated by the Treasury Department under E.O. 13382 based on his relationship to the IRGC. He was also designated in May 2011 pursuant to E.O. 13572, which targets human rights abuses in Syria, for his role as the Commander of the IRGC-QF, the primary conduit for Iran's support to the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID).
Hamed Abdollahi
Abdollahi is also a senior IRGC-QF officer who coordinated aspects of this operation. Abdollahi oversees other Qods Force officials – including Shahlai – who were responsible for coordinating and planning this operation.
Abdul Reza Shahlai
Shahlai is an IRGC-QF official who coordinated the plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Adel Al-Jubeir, while he was in the United States and to carry out follow-on attacks against other countries’ interests inside the United States and in another country. Shahlai worked through his cousin, Mansour Arbabsiar, who was named in the criminal complaint for conspiring to bring the IRGC-QF’s plot to fruition. Shahlai approved financial allotments to Arbabsiar to help recruit other individuals for the plot, approving $5 million dollars as payment for all of the operations discussed.
Shahlai was designated by Treasury in September 2008 pursuant to E.O. 13438 for threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and the Government of Iraq.
Ali Gholam Shakuri
Shakuri is an IRGC-QF officer and deputy to Abdul Reza Shahlai who acted on behalf of Shahlai in support of this plot. Shakuri provided financial support to Arbabsiar and met with Arbabsiar several times to discuss the planned assassination and other attacks. With Shakuri’s approval, Arbabsiar arranged for the $100,000 down payment to be sent from a non-Iranian foreign bank to the United States.
Background on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force
The IRGC-QF is the Government of Iran’s primary foreign action arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist organizations and extremist groups around the world. The IRGC-QF provides training, logistical assistance and material and financial support to militants and terrorist operatives, including the Taliban, Lebanese Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
IRGC-QF officers and their associates have supported attacks against U.S. and allied troops and diplomatic missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The IRGC-QF continues to train, equip and fund Iraqi Shia militant groups – such as Kata'ib and Hizballah – and elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan to prevent an increase in Western influence in the region. In the Levant, the IRGC-QF supports terrorist groups such as Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas, which it views as integral to its efforts to challenge U.S. influence in the Middle East.
The Government of Iran also uses the IRGC and IRGC-QF to implement its foreign policy goals, including, but not limited to, seemingly legitimate activities that provide cover for intelligence operations and support to terrorist and insurgent groups. These activities include economic investment, reconstruction, and other types of aid to Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, implemented by companies and institutions that act for or on behalf of, or are owned or controlled by, the IRGC and the Iranian government.
The IRGC-QF was designated by Treasury pursuant to E.O. 13224 in October 2007 for its support for terrorism, and was listed in the Annex to E.O. 13572 of April 2011 as the conduit for Iran's support to Syria’s GID, the overarching civilian intelligence service in Syria which has been involved in human rights abuses in Syria.
Indentifying Information:
Individual: Manssor Arbabsiar
AKA: Mansour Arbabsiar
DOB: March 15, 1955
Alt. DOB: March 6, 1955
POB: Iran
Citizenship: United Staes
Driver’s License: 07442833 (United States); expires March 15, 2016
Passport: C2002515 (Iran)
Alt. Passport: 477845448 (United States)
Individual: Ali Gholam Shakuri
DOB: 1964
Alt. DOB: 1965
Alt. DOB 2: 1966
Location: Tehran, Iran
Individual: Abdul Reza Shahlai
AKA: Abdol Reza Shala'i
AKA: Abd-al Reza Shalai
AKA: 'Abdorreza Shahlai
AKA: Abdolreza Shahla'i
AKA: Abdul-Reza Shahlaee
AKA: Hajj Yusef
AKA: Haji Yusif
AKA: Hajji Yasir
AKA: Hajji Yusif
AKA: 'Yusuf Abu-al-Karkh'
DOB: Circa 1957
Location: Kermanshah, Iran
Alt. Location: Mehran Military Base, Ilam Province, Iran
Individual: Hamed Abdollahi
AKA: Mustafa Abdullahi
DOB: August 11, 1960
Passport: D9004878
Citizenship: Iran
Individual: Qasem Soleimani
AKA: Ghasem Soleymani
AKA: Qasmi Sulayman
AKA: Qasem Soleymani
AKA: Qasem Solaimani
AKA: Qasem Salimani
AKA: Qasem Solemani
AKA: Qasem Sulaimani
AKA: Qasem Sulemani
DOB: March 11, 1957
POB: Qom, Iran
Passport: 1999 Diplomatic Passport 008827 (Iran)
These are serious issues and they're issues that the Congress is discussing, so why is THE WASHINGTON POST so reluctant to address them? Bryant Harris (AL-MONITOR) reports:
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on bipartisan legislation that would block the assets of Iranians found to pose a threat of violence in Iraq. Meanwhile Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., has introduced a bill to sanction two Iran-backed Shiite militias in the upper chamber.
“I’m proud to introduce this legislation and send a strong message that we will not tolerate the destabilizing efforts of the Iranian regime when it comes to the government of Iraq,” the House bill's sponsor, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said in a statement when he introduced the Preventing Iranian Destabilization of Iraq Act in December.
The House unanimously passed similar legislation to Perdue's earlier this year as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. But the provision from Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, was dropped when the bill was merged with the Senate version.
“My amendment sanctioning Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Harakat Hezbollah Nujaba, two of the most destabilizing Iranian-backed militias in Iraq with American blood on their hands, passed the House unanimously,” Poe told Al-Monitor in an emailed statement today. “Removing the provision was a mistake and only emboldens these Iranian-backed terrorist groups.”
That's the US Congress. As for Iraq and the issue of their president, Ali Jawad (ANADOLU AGENCY) reports, "The Iraqi parliament will choose the country’s next president on Oct. 2, Assembly Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi said Tuesday."
- Protests are continuing in Basra, Iraq as residents demand basic services and drinking water #Iraqprotests #Basraprotests
- 'we shouldn't have to beg for water' - protest rallies in Basra, Iraq https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-45626170/water-shortages-fuel-ongoing-protests-in-basra-iraq …
- Water shortages fuel ongoing protests in Basra, Iraq https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-45626170/water-shortages-fuel-ongoing-protests-in-basra-iraq …
- Water shortages fuel ongoing protests in #Basra, #Iraq https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-45626170/water-shortages-fuel-ongoing-protests-in-basra-iraq …
- "We shouldn't have to beg for water" ...shortages fuel ongoing protests in Basra, Iraq https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-45626170/water-shortages-fuel-ongoing-protests-in-basra-iraq …
- "Those seeking to frame the protests in a broader historical perspective are trying to rediscover the unique past of the governorate, differentiating it not only from the rest of Iraq but from the rest of Shi‘a Iraq as well." @harith_hasan writes. http://carnegie-mec.org/p-77284 #Basra
- .BBC News - Water shortages fuel ongoing protests in Basra, Iraq https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-45626170/water-shortages-fuel-ongoing-protests-in-basra-iraq … - this is what we have achieved!!!!!!!!!!
- Water shortages fuel ongoing protests in Basra, Iraq https://ift.tt/2QUYEGm
- Water shortages fuel ongoing protests in Basra, Iraq Stop the terrorists blowing up power lines & water pipes then! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-45626170/water-shortages-fuel-ongoing-protests-in-basra-iraq …
- Water shortages fuel ongoing protests in Basra, Iraq http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45626170 …
Yes, water is an issue.
- Some #Basra residents haven’t received water in 15 days. When they went to meet the water director today, he exited the building through the back door. Residents promised a march from Hayaniah to Qiblah tomorrow. Others called for protests at Al-Arosah roundabout. #BasraProtests
But there are other issues -- including the attacks on the protesters.
- Human rights activist Dr. Souad al-Ali was assassinated in #Basra. At this point, whatever the people of #Basrah decide to do would be completely justified. #BasraProtests #البصرة_تنتفض #البصرة_لن_تسكت #هنا_البصرة
- For those unfamiliar with #Basra and its districts, here is a good reference point to track events. #BasraProtests #البصرة (Schatt=Shatt; Fao=Faw)
- Mass surveillance, random arrests, and even reports of torture & forced confessions are not stopping #BasraProtests. In fact, these measures are fueling the anger of the streets. Protests will begin in few hours. May the Almighty protect the brave men of #Basra. #احذروا_البصرة
- I can’t emphasize enough: Several men who participated in #BasraProtests are still missing. Their families don’t know their whereabouts, arresting authority, or charges against them. Activists in #Basra are being targeted through their social media accounts. #البصرة_تنتفض #البصرة
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