Pressed Friday on how he knew the Soleimani threat was „imminent“ if he did not know when or where the Iranian general planned to attack, Pompeo insisted that his two sets of statements represented „completely consistent thoughts.“
„I don’t know exactly which minute. We don’t know exactly which day it would have been executed, but it was very clear: Qassem Soleimani himself was plotting a broad, large-scale attack against American interests, and those attacks were imminent,“ Pompeo said.
Soleimani’s targets included „American embassies, military bases [and] American facilities throughout the region,“ he said.
Later in the briefing, when Pompeo was asked to provide his definition of the word „imminent,“ he contended that administration officials „would have been culpably negligent had we not recommended to the president that he take this action“ against Soleimani.
„This was going to happen, and American lives were at risk,“ he said.
At a campaign rally in Ohio on Thursday evening, President Donald Trump addressed his decision to kill Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite paramilitary Quds Force, in a U.S. drone strike last week near Baghdad’s international airport.
„Soleimani was actively planning new attacks, and he was looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad,“ Trump said. „But we stopped him, and we stopped him quickly, and we stopped him cold.“
The president elaborated on his claim in an interview with Fox News’ Ingraham scheduled to air Friday. „I can reveal that I believe it would have been four embassies,“ he said of Soleimani’s targets.
At the White House, Pompeo was questioned as to why he and Trump could publicly discuss the threats to the American embassies — at the secretary’s news conference and at the president’s rally — when congressional lawmakers had complained they were not told of such threats during a classified administration briefing.
„We did,“ Pompeo said, contradicting the lawmakers. „We told them about the imminent threat. All of the intelligence that we’ve briefed, that you’ve heard today, I assure you in an unclassified setting we’ve provided in the classified setting, as well.“
But Pompeo offered a less definitive response when asked specifically if administration officials had informed the lawmakers that Soleimani planned to target the embassies.
„I’m not going to talk about the details of what we shared in the classified setting,“ he said. „But make no mistake about it: Those leaders, those members of Congress who want to go access this same intelligence can see that very same intelligence that will reflect what I described to you and what the president said last night, as well.“
Hogan Gidley, the White House’s principal deputy press secretary, also defended Trump’s order in a tweet Friday, arguing that former President Barack Obama did not offer evidence of an imminent threat posed by Osama bin Laden when he authorized the operation that killed the Al Qaeda leader in 2011.
„Soleimani was, in fact, planning ‘imminent attacks,'“ Gidley wrote. „While Democrats and the media quibble over its definition, quick point: When Obama killed bin Laden, al-Awlaki and Gaddafi, without Congressional approval, there were NO ‘imminent attacks’ and Democrats did not ask or care.“
Tommy Vietor, the former National Security Council spokesman under Obama, replied to Gidley online, writing that bin Laden and Anwar Al-Awlaki „were senior, operational Al Qaeda leaders“ and that „Congress authorized war against [Al Qaeda] back in 2001.“ Former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi „was killed by members of the [Libya’s National Transitional Council] – not by US forces,“ he wrote.
„But [with respect to] imminence – you have agency here,“ Vietor added. „Release the intelligence. Prove it.“
Immediately following the secretary’s session with reporters, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) accused Pompeo of inaccurately characterizing the administration’s congressional briefing on Iran.
„I can tell you, he wasn’t at the same briefing I was. I did not — I did not — hear what he just said at that press conference,“ Menendez, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told MSNBC.
„I don’t know what the secretary is talking about,“ he added. „I stayed for the entire briefing, including after I asked my questions. I stayed there even as he left because they abruptly ended the briefing. I didn’t hear what he just said.“
Several Democratic lawmakers previously challenged the administration Thursday after Trump said during a White House event that U.S. forces killed Soleimani to halt a plot „to blow up our embassy.“ Those lawmakers said a possible embassy bombing was not mentioned in their intelligence briefing Wednesday.
House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said that while he had „seen no evidence“ of such an attack, „that doesn’t mean that the evidence doesn’t exist.“
Still, he continued, „nobody that I’ve talked to in any setting — and I’ve talked to quite a few people in the White House — has said that.“
Moreover, Smith said, he had been given the impression by administration officials that the U.S. was unaware of any „specific targets“ threatened by Soleimani.
„It’s news to me, in particular, because it has been communicated to me that there weren’t specific targets — that the intel that we had did not cite specific targets. Just more of a broad thing,“ Smith said. „So if the president had evidence of the specific target, that has not been communicated to us.“
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said Trump’s assertion was „news to me“ and that Soleimani „has always been trying to attack“ the American embassy in Baghdad, which Moulton said „received much more regular attacks from Iraqi militias 10 years ago than they do today.“
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called the alleged plot described by the president „inconsistent“ with the information presented to lawmakers Wednesday.
„The Trump Administration keeps Congress & the American people in the dark under the guise of ‘classification’ & then the President throws it away—making a claim inconsistent with the meager information provided at yesterday’s Senate briefing,“ Blumenthal tweeted.
Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.
Source: politico.com
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