Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that Soleimani “was actively plotting in the region to take actions — big action, as he described it — that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk.” The intelligence community assessed that “the risk of doing nothing was enormous,” he added.
O’Brien reiterated the administration’s position Tuesday, insisting Soleimani “was in the midst of that plotting” at the time of his demise.
“That’s why he was traveling in the region to Damascus and Beirut and Baghdad: To conspire with people to attack American facilities that contained diplomats, soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, coast guardsmen,” O’Brien said.
Democratic lawmakers have expressed skepticism toward the intelligence behind the airstrike against Soleimani and the administration’s assertion that he posed an imminent threat to American interests.
The White House is working to schedule a briefing on the strike Wednesday for the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leaders and other members of Congress, who were largely kept in the dark regarding Trump’s decision to authorize the assault.
Source: politico.com
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