Surprise, Surprise: Turns out Hunter Biden Isn’t the Only One Benefiting From His Parents’ Careers

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It turns out that Hunter Biden isn’t the only one who is rolling in the dough thanks to his parents’ political career. Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has made $9 million since 2011 for sitting on the board of IAC/InterActiveCorp, a media and internet investment company, The Hill reported. The company has stock in 150 well-known brands, like Tinder, Match, Vimeo, Angie’s List, Home Advisor and the Daily Beast.

According to Barron’s, Clinton has sat on the board of IAC since 2011. Part of her agreement is to receive “an annual $50,000 retainer and $250,000 in restricted IAC stock units.”

A December filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed Clinton “owned the equivalent of 35,242 IAC shares, consisting of 29,843 shares and 5,399 share units under a deferred-compensation plan,” which is worth almost $9 million dollars. Once a board member quits, their share units convert to stocks, Barron’s reported.

Clinton’s stock has skyrocketed. In June it was worth 7.2 million and in October 2018 that same stock was worth 6.6 million.

In addition to sitting on IAC’s board, Clinton sits on the board of Expedia Group. That position typically pays $250,000, at least as of 2015. (Read more from “Surprise, Surprise: Turns out Hunter Biden Isn’t the Only One Benefiting From His Parents’ Careers” HERE)

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Following Iraqi Parliament’s Vote to Expel U.S. Forces, Congress Should Repeal Funding for Baghdad

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Just three weeks ago, Congress voted overwhelmingly (86-8 in the Senate; 377-48 in the House) to continue shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars to the Iraqi government for security. Over the weekend, the Iraqi parliament voted to expel our forces, even as we are protecting them both from Iran and from ISIS.

We’ve needed a robust debate over our mission in Iraq for years. Yet Congress kept signing off on endless funding to maintain the chaotic, ambiguous, and conflicting status quo. Suddenly, when Trump takes useful and decisive action in killing Qassem Soleimani, members of Congress begin demanding answers about our mission. Well, almost every one of them just signed off on this mess. If they actually put their money where their collective mouths are, they would vote to repeal the National Defense Authorization Act they just passed, along with all the garbage in the bill.

Nobody read the 3,488-page NDAA conference report adopted right before Christmas as Congress was passing a 2,000-page omnibus bill they didn’t read either. That includes many of the same members, such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, claiming outrage over the president’s authority to conducts operations in Iraq. While everyone is debating the application of the 2001 and 2003 authorizations of use of force, nobody seems to remember that in every subsequent year, Congress passed a defense authorization bill codifying all of the current missions all over the globe without any examination of what we are doing. Somehow the endless nation-building operations getting our soldiers killed weren’t worth such examination, as they all rubber-stamped this bill, chock-full of harmful provisions, but when it comes to virtue-signaling on behalf of Iran, they feign outrage over a lack of congressional involvement in the use of force.

Page 1,069 of the conference report categorically authorizes the DOD to “provide support for the stabilization activities of other Federal agencies … in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia.” Nobody ever questioned what it is we are accomplishing in any of these countries and on behalf of which governments we are shedding our blood and spending our treasury. But when a man like Soleimani sacks our embassy and plots more attacks against a multitude of federal agencies in the country, Trump has no authority to act?

Not only do we spend billions propping up pro-Iranian officials in Baghdad and dubious fighting forces elsewhere, but page 1,087 of the bill authorizes the DOD to reimburse these governments for “logistical and military support provided by that nation to or in connection with United States military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria.” On page 1,100, the bill provides authority for “(1) Defending the Syrian people from attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. (2) Securing territory formerly controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. (3) Protecting the United States and its partners and allies from the threats posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, al Qaeda, and associated forces in Syria.” However, the bill is ridiculously silent about who exactly we are defending. Well, now we know: We were defending Iranian-backed Shiites from the Sunnis, while both sides were killing our soldiers.

The House bill did originally contain a provision repealing the original authorization of use of force in Iraq, but the final version left that out. The final NDAA contained $4.5 billion for the Afghani government and another $845 million for the Iraqi government.

Then, in the same week, Congress passed the defense appropriations bill, which allocated roughly $1.2 billion for counter-ISIS operations in Iraq, including “training; equipment; logistics support, supplies, and services; stipends; infrastructure repair and renovation; construction for facility fortification and humane treatment; and sustainment, to foreign security forces, irregular forces, groups, or individuals participating, or preparing to participate in activities to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and their affiliated or associated groups.”

Guess who that includes? The Shiite militias being commanded by Soleimani! After all, they were “participating in activities to counter” ISIS. For the past five years, our government has indiscriminately funded everything and anything that fights ISIS, when in fact, Iran was always the bigger strategic threat, yet Iran reaped the benefit of our efforts. Between the $26 billion we spent on training the Iraqi military through September 2012, according to the inspector general on Iraq, and another roughly $10 billion more in defense appropriations since then, authorized under the guise of fighting Sunni terrorists, that is more money than we need for our own border security that was sunk into pro-Iran militias.

Overall, the defense bill contains $71.5 billion for “overseas contingency operations,” which grants the president very general authority to use it for a number of questionable activities.

Thus, members of Congress have no leg to stand on when it comes to the president engaging in operations in those countries, particularly one that is rooted in a defensive action to protect our own personnel.

But if Congress really wants to have a debate about our vision in the Middle East, now is the time to engage in such a dialogue. It should begin with repealing the NDAA and starting anew. As I reported in December, that bill contained more visas for Iraqis and Afghans, a new paid family leave entitlement for all federal workers, a provision prohibiting federal agencies from asking about criminal records on job applications, and an amnesty for several thousand Liberian illegal aliens. Those provisions should be repealed, along with the provisions continuing our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A new NDAA should define very strictly our interests in keeping open shipping lanes or protecting any other assets from Iranian aggression or from other terrorist groups. But when it comes to land battles in fractured tribal lands, the answer should be: “You’re on your own.”

Those concerned about Iran might suggest that pulling out will hand Iraq over to Iran, but that is ridiculous, because Iran already controls the Baghdad government … and we’re helping them with infrastructure and security. Were we to pull out, Iran would then have a permanent Sunni insurgency on its hands. Nobody expressed this sentiment better than Dan Caldwell of Concerned Veterans of America, who served in Iraq:

By staying out of these wars, we will actually be able to counter Iran from a position of strength. If Iraq doesn’t want to extend us the “honor” of losing thousands of soldiers, spending several trillion dollars on its nonexistent and permanently divided country, and bringing in over 200,00 of its unvetted people to our country, who loses out here? Not us.

Finally, a new defense authorization should deal with the foundation of national defense, which is homeland security. We should cut off visas from the Middle East, deploy our military to our own border to deal with the cartels, and arm our own soldiers on American military bases, not to mention refrain from bringing Middle Eastern militaries to those bases. It’s time to protect our own interests, not those who bite the hand that guards them. (For more from the author of “Following Iraqi Parliament’s Vote to Expel U.S. Forces, Congress Should Repeal Funding for Baghdad” please click HERE)

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New York’s Jailbreak Law Already out of Control

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Weak-on-crime policies are rapidly showing their worst effects, as New York’s law abolishing bail enters its first full week. The results are so bad that even Democrats are now clamoring to save face and make changes to the law. Trump and Republicans would be wise to watch and learn from New York that they should not only jump off the criminal justice so-called “reform” bandwagon, but actually push policies getting tougher on criminals while relentlessly campaigning against those who side with violent criminals, gangsters, and drug traffickers.

Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the NYPD is on high alert in light of tensions with Iran following the killing of Qassem Soleimani. However, the streets of the city are likely in greater danger from domestic criminals as a result of the jailbreak policies his party supported, and on that account, the police are actually on low alert out of fear of losing their jobs.

The NYPD announced that homicides jumped eight percent in 2019, and that is before the enactment of most of the pro-criminal laws. This comes on the heels of other data showing violent crime on the rise in parts of the city and on subways. That is very significant, given that murder rates fell every year since the Giuliani era in the early 1990s until the past few years. The great miracle of New York’s reduction in crime is being eaten away before our eyes, yet the politicians are focusing on making it tougher for police and prosecutors.

What can New York expect this year? Well, given that most crimes are committed by repeat offenders, and the repeat offenders will now roam the streets, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to foresee the results. While many of those released without bail under the new law have just committed terrible crimes, what is often overlooked is that many are repeat offenders who have committed much worse crimes in the past.

For example, last Thursday, Tyquan Rivera of Rochester was released from jail after he was arrested on drug charges. The political system now treats drug trafficking as a minor crime, but the reality is that many people picked up for drugs had prior convictions for violent crimes. Locking them up on “lower”-level crimes is how we’ve kept the violent crime rate down for over two decades. Rivera is no different. In 2009, he was convicted of shooting Rochester police officer Anthony DiPonzio in the back of the head. Thanks to weak sentencing, he was out on the streets in 2016 to commit more crimes. Now that he has been picked up on drug charges, the new anti-bail law doesn’t take into account his serious criminal record. He will remain free indefinitely.

“Courts have been stripped of much of their discretion in determining whether a defendant should be held pending disposition of his/her case,” said Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley in a statement to CR. “Rather, the court now looks to a structure of Qualifying vs. Non-Qualifying offenses where dangerousness or threat to public safety cannot be considered. If a defendant is accused of a ‘non-qualifying’ offense, the court must release the defendant on his/her own recognizance or set non-monetary conditions of release.” Thus, in the case of Rivera, even though he was previously convicted for attempted murder of a cop and was arrested this time for allegedly selling fentanyl to undercover officers on two separate occasions, he walked out of the courtroom back to the streets.

How many more people as violent as Rivera will be let back onto the streets? It could be thousands. Think about all those people who rang in the new year with drunk driving and killed pedestrians or motorists. They are all out of jail. Farkell Hopkins was arrested for killing a pedestrian on New Year’s Eve while driving at twice the legal drinking limit. He was immediately released.

The jailbreak law applies retroactively to some of the worst criminals already in jail awaiting trial, too. In July, Paul Barbaritano was arrested in Albany for allegedly strangling a 29-year-old woman with a karate belt and then slitting her throat. However, because he is only charged with second-degree murder, he was released on January 2, despite his rap sheet, which includes a conviction for robbery.

Likewise, in North Westchester, a 27-year-old man who was caught last week breaking into a girl’s bedroom and was later found to have committed theft earlier that night was released. Under the current law, those crimes are considered low-level felonies.

Democrats are already facing such backlash from the bail “reform” bill that they are talking about modifying it. But rather than granting them cover to very partially fix one aspect of a more systemic problem, American citizens need to keep up the pressure and focus on the broader picture. Liberals in both parties are promoting radical leniencies across every part of the criminal justice system, not just in the context of pretrial jail time, but even in post-conviction prison time.

Last Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo freed Monica Szlekovics, a woman who was convicted of a brutal murder in 1996. He pardoned her 23 years before she was even eligible for parole, citing her “extreme, ongoing physical and psychological abuse from her husband” as an excuse for her violent past, which include helping her husband with several kidnappings and murder. But the problem with liberals in states like California and New York is that they want to have it both ways with the plea of mental illness. They want to say criminals can’t be held culpable for their heinous crimes because they are incorrigibly ill, but at the same time they want to abolish confinement in psychiatric hospitals. They want them released on the streets to commit more crimes that they supposedly just can’t help committing.

This is the nightmare we will all live through in every major city unless we find a party willing to champion the victims and law-abiding citizens the way Reagan did. Several years’ worth of weak-on-crime policies are beginning to take their toll in many parts of the country.

At present, 100 percent of the focus on criminal justice issues, even in GOP-run states, is all about the criminal and how we can further reduce the prison population. We must remember Reagan’s admonishment that “for too long, the victims of crime have been the forgotten persons of our criminal justice system.” “Rarely do we give victims the help they need or the attention they deserve,” said Reagan in an April 8, 1981, proclamation creating National Crime Victims Week. “Yet the protection of our citizens — to guard them from becoming victims — is the primary purpose of our penal laws. Thus, each new victim personally represents an instance in which our system has failed to prevent crime. Lack of concern for victims compounds that failure.”

The time has come for Trump to jettison the Koch influence in his White House and return to his long-held view on criminal justice, which tracked closely with Reagan’s. As he wrote in his book, “The America We Deserve,” “The next time you hear someone saying there are too many people in prison, ask them how many thugs they’re willing to relocate to their neighborhood. The answer: None.”

(For more from the author of “New York’s Jailbreak Law Already out of Control” please click HERE)

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General Petraeus Reveals What Strike Did for U.S., Likely Response From Iran

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By Daily Wire. In two recent interviews, retired General David Petraeus highlighted just how significant President Trump’s killing of Iranian terrorist leader Qassim Suleimani was and revealed what the U.S. likely gained from the attack as well as what Iran’s likely response to the would be.

Petraeus, who also served as CIA Director in the Obama administration, told Foreign Policy that it was “impossible” to “overstate the importance” of the U.S. military taking out Suleimani.

“It is more significant than the killing of Osama bin Laden or even the death of [Islamic State leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi,” Petraeus said. “Suleimani was the architect and operational commander of the Iranian effort to solidify control of the so-called Shia crescent, stretching from Iran to Iraq through Syria into southern Lebanon. He is responsible for providing explosives, projectiles, and arms and other munitions that killed well over 600 American soldiers and many more of our coalition and Iraqi partners just in Iraq, as well as in many other countries such as Syria. So his death is of enormous significance.”

In a subsequent interview on CBS News’s “Face The Nation,” Petraeus noted that killing Suleimani was “the equivalent in U.S. terms of the CIA director, CENTCOM Commander, JSOC Commander, and presidential envoy for the region for Iran. And- and the most powerful figure in Iran for the solidification of the Shia Crescent and also the operational commander of the actions that they were pursuing.” . . .

“The question is now, what will Iran do?” Petraeus said. “Will they dare to respond directly with Iranian missiles against our forces, our embassies, our bases, our shipping or what have you? Or do they continue to operate through proxies, which I’m pretty confident they will do.” (Read more from “General Petraeus Reveals What Strike Did for U.S., Likely Response From Iran” HERE)

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Iran’s President to Trump: ‘Remember the Number 290’

By Newser. . .The Wall Street Journal reports the White House on Saturday provided Congress with a notification of the Friday strike that took out Soleimani as required by law. The contents—which the Journal says would cover the “circumstances necessitating” the action, the “constitutional and legislative authority” for it, and “the estimated scope and duration of the hostilities”—were classified. Top Senate Democrats including Chuck Schumer and ranking Foreign Relations Committee member Robert Menendez are calling on it to be declassified and made available to the public.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took to Twitter to respond to President Trump’s threat to target 52 sites of cultural importance if Iran retaliated for Soleimani’s killing. “Those who refer to the number 52 should also remember the number 290. #IR655 Never threaten the Iranian nation.” Trump’s 52 referred to the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for more than a year beginning in 1979; Rouhani was referring to Iran Air Flight 655, which US missiles took down in 1988. All 290 on the passenger jet perished. (Read more from “Iran’s President to Trump: ‘Remember the Number 290′” HERE)

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Republicans Introduce Resolution to Change Senate Rules in Order to Dismiss Articles of Impeachment

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By The Blaze. Republicans in the U.S. Senate introduced a resolution that would change the congressional rules in order to allow them to dismiss articles of impeachment that are not sent for a trial in the Senate.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) defended the resolution in a statement on Monday, saying that the founders did not envision the eventuality of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) refusing to send articles of impeachment to the Senate.

“The Constitution gives the Senate sole power to adjudicate articles of impeachment, not the House,” Hawley said in the statement.

“If Speaker Pelosi is afraid to try her case, the articles should be dismissed for failure to prosecute and Congress should get back to doing the people’s business,” he added.

The resolution would allow for 25 days for the House to send articles to the Senate after an impeachment vote. (Read more from “Republicans Introduce Resolution to Change Senate Rules in Order to Dismiss Articles of Impeachment” HERE)

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GOP Senators Introduce Resolution to Change Rules, Dismiss Impeachment Without Articles

By The Hill. Roughly a dozen GOP senators want to change the Senate’s rules and allow for lawmakers to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Trump before the House sends them over. . .

The resolution would give the House 25 days to send articles of impeachment over to the Senate. After that, a senator could offer a motion to dismiss “with prejudice for failure by the House of Representatives to prosecute such articles” with a simple majority vote, according to Hawley’s proposal.

The resolution comes as some Senate Republicans have mulled changing the chamber’s rules to allow them to dismiss the impeachment charges against Trump, even though the articles have not been sent over from the House.

Hawley’s resolution has support from GOP Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), David Perdue (Ga.) and James Inhofe (Okla.).

“Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have made a mockery of our Constitution and abused impeachment for political gain. Now, they’re undermining the role of the Senate by attempting to dictate the terms of the Senate’s trial,” Cruz said in a statement. (Read more from “GOP Senators Introduce Resolution to Change Rules, Dismiss Impeachment Without Articles” HERE)

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Illegal Alien Muslim Religious Leader Charged With Sex Crimes Against Children; Deportation Order Not Followed (VIDEO)

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A Muslim community leader has been charged with child molestation in Fort Bend County, Texas, and police are angry that he could have been deported before the alleged crimes took place.

59-year-old Mohamed Omar Ali is a native of Somalia but he has been teaching as an Islamic leader in the United States since he entered the country in 2013.

He was arrested on Friday and charged with 3 counts of indecency with a child and one count of sexual assault of a child under the age of fourteen. . .

Sheriff Troy Nehls said in a press conference that Ali should have been deported years ago.

“If there is a deportation order on him, why wasn’t he placed into custody months ago or maybe even years ago?” Nehls asked angrily. “Because he came into Fort Bend County in 2013.” (Read more from “Muslim Religious Leader Charged With Sex Crimes Against Children” HERE)

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5 Preborn Alaskans Are Murdered Every Day – Help Stop the Slaughter

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As Christians, we must stand against the evil of our age, abortion. It’s time for the Church to speak to a lost and dying culture that seeks to murder their own children who are made in the image of God. Here’s what we can do together to stop the scourge in Alaska. Join us in Anchorage for the ChurchAriseAlaska KICKOFF:

Jan 9, 2020
Thurs., 8:00am Street preaching in love at Planned Parenthood

CONFERENCE
Jewel Lake Community Church of the Nazarene
Jan 10 & 11, 2020
Fri, Jan 10 5pm-10pm, speakers and pizza 🍕
Sat, Jan 11 noon-10pm, speakers and spaghetti dinner 🍝

Those with children are welcomed and encouraged.

Here are the sad stats for our state:

5 preborn Alaskans are murdered every day – over 1,500 a year.

And here’s legislation that can stop this nightmare:

https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Text/31?Hsid=HB0178A
(see also)
https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Text/31?Hsid=HB0179A

Section 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be known as the Life at Conception Act or the Abolition of Abortion Act of 2019.

Section. 2. (1) The legislature finds that the Constitution of the State of Alaska declares, in art. I, sec. 1, that “all persons have a natural right to life,” and the Constitution of the State of Alaska further declares in art. I, sec. 7, “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”;

(2) the preamble to the Constitution of the State of Alaska declares, “We the people of Alaska, grateful to God and to those who founded our nation,” the Declaration of Independence declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life . . . That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,” and government has a duty to protect and defend the right to life that has been granted to all human beings;

(3) to secure the natural right to life of all persons, government must recognize the right to life of all persons, without discrimination because of age, race, religion, size, sex, color, citizenship, ancestry, location, disability, deformity, stage of development, life expectancy, or condition of dependency;

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Iraqi Parliament Calls for Expulsion of Foreign Troops; Trump Warns of Sanctions

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By Aljazeera. Iraq’s parliament has passed a resolution calling on the government to expel foreign troops from the country as Iran-US tensions escalate following the killing of a top Iranian military commander and Iraqi armed group leader in a US strike in Baghdad.

In an extraordinary parliamentary session on Sunday, parliament called on the government to end all foreign troop presence in Iraq and to cancel its request for assistance from the US-led coalition which had been working with Baghdad to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“The government commits to revoke its request for assistance from the international coalition fighting Islamic State due to the end of military operations in Iraq and the achievement of victory,” the resolution read.

“The Iraqi government must work to end the presence of any foreign troops on Iraqi soil and prohibit them from using its land, airspace or water for any reason.” (Read more from “Iraqi Parliament Calls for Expulsion of Foreign Troops” HERE)

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Trump Warns of Sanctions If Iraq Tries to Expel U.S. Troops

By AP News. President Donald Trump insists that Iranian cultural sites are fair game for the U.S. military, dismissing concerns within his own administration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law. He also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian official.

Trump’s comments Sunday came amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds force. Iran has vowed to retaliate and Iraq’s parliament responded by voting Sunday to oust U.S. troops based in the country.

Trump first raised the prospect of targeting Iranian cultural sites Saturday in a tweet. Speaking with reporters Sunday as he flew back to Washington from his holiday stay in Florida, he doubled down, despite international prohibitions. (Read more from “Trump Warns of Sanctions If Iraq Tries to Expel U.S. Troops” HERE)

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Trump’s Strike on Soleimani Is About America First, Not Reckless Interventionism

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On New Year’s Eve, Iran-backed militias attempted to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, engaging in an unsuccessful act of war as American forces secured the compound. In the aftermath, President Trump warned Iran that it would “be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities,” and “pay a very BIG PRICE. This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!” . . .

His decision to strike Qassem Soleimani was a game-changing act with immense substantive and symbolic implications. It finally brought a modicum of justice for the hundreds of Americans murdered and thousands injured at the hands of the head of the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, his henchmen, and their proxies. . .

It represented a decisive response to Iran’s act of war in Baghdad, as well as its repeated assaults on Iraqi coalition bases including last month’s rocket attack that killed one American and injured several others, and additional imminent strikes for which Soleimani would have been responsible. It was about putting America first. . .

Critics of the Trump administration are claiming that this operation—which also resulted in the death of Hezbollah Brigades leader and Iraq Popular Mobilization Forces deputy leader Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, and may have coincided with the rumored rolling up of other Iran-backed militia leaders—recklessly risked all-out war with Iran.

The assumption among both leftist Trump haters and anti-interventionist Trump supporters like Tucker Carlson is that the United States could well be drawn into a broader conflict that will lead to another Iraq or Afghanistan, replete with a full-scale invasion and occupation. Yet this would conflict with President Trump’s word, deed, and demonstrated instinct, and almost assuredly the desires of his supporters. (Read more from “Trump’s Strike on Soleimani Is About America First, Not Reckless Interventionism” HERE)

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Iran Abandons Nuclear Deal Over Slaying of General

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By Politico. Iran said Sunday it would no longer abide by any of the limits of its unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers after a U.S. airstrike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad, abandoning the accord’s key provisions that block Tehran from having enough material to build an atomic weapon.

Iran insisted in a state television broadcast it remained open to negotiations with European partners, who so far have been unable to offer Tehran a way to sell its crude oil abroad despite U.S. sanctions. It also didn’t back off of earlier promises that it wouldn’t seek a nuclear weapon.

However, the announcement Sunday represents the clearest nuclear proliferation threat yet made by Iran since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord in May 2018. It also further raises regional tensions, as Iran’s longtime foe Israel has promised never to allow Iran to be able to produce an atomic bomb.

The announcement came Sunday night after another Iranian official said it would consider taking even-harsher steps over the U.S. killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Friday. Hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets Sunday in Iran to walk alongside a casket carrying the remains of Soleimani, the former leader of its expeditionary Quds Force that organizes Tehran’s proxy forces in the wider Mideast. (Read more from “Iran Abandons Nuclear Deal Over Slaying of General” HERE)

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Iran’s Response to Us Will Be Military — Khamenei’s Adviser

By CNN. The military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader said Sunday that Tehran’s response to the killing by the United States of its most most influential general will “for sure be military.”

In an exclusive interview with CNN in Tehran, the adviser — Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan — made the most specific and direct threat yet by a senior Iranian official following the killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

Dehghan said Iran would retaliate directly against US “military sites.” (Read more from “Iran’s Response to Us Will Be Military — Khamenei’s Adviser” HERE)

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