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‘Chilling’: Iranian Video Vowing Revenge on Trump Gets Fresh Scrutiny After Second Assassination Attempt

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A video posted to the website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2022 is under fresh scrutiny in the wake of the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) posted the video on X, adding, “This was posted on the Ayatollah’s website. Truly, terrifyingly chilling.”

Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s eldest son, also posted:

This was posted on the Ayatollah’s website. I guess we should expect nothing less from a terrorist regime. My father had Iran almost bankrupt… then the Biden/Harris administration game them billions making the world a far more dangerous place. Enough!

The video is an animation depicting a plot to assassinate Trump at his Palm Beach golf course, and vows revenge against the former president for ordering the deadly U.S. military against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

Trump ordered the strike in 2020 against Soleimani, after a series of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq in late 2019. Soleimani was also responsible for the killing and wounding of hundreds of American troops during the Iraq War. (Read more from “‘Chilling’: Iranian Video Vowing Revenge on Trump Gets Fresh Scrutiny After Second Assassination Attempt” HERE)

Questions Arise Over Would-Be Trump Assassin’s Shady Connections in Iran

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Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old man who is suspected of an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, had connections in Iran that are leading some security experts to question if there was Iranian involvement.

A New York Times reporter who had interviewed Routh last year wrote on Sunday that Routh was working to recruit former Afghan special operations soldiers who had fled to Iran to go fight in Ukraine.

The reporter, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, wrote that when he was writing an article on volunteer fighters in Ukraine last year, his former Afghan colleague and friend Najim Rahim had put him in touch with Routh, who he had learned about from a source of his in Iran, a former Afghan special operations soldier.

A number of U.S.-trained Afghan special operations forces had fled to Iran after the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Since those forces were trained by U.S. special operations forces, the Afghan commandos’ escape into Iran potentially delivered “closely guarded secrets on U.S. special operators” to Iran, according to Foreign Policy.

Neff suggested that Afghan commandos were interested in fighting in Ukraine because “anything, even war, was better than the conditions in Iran for Afghans after the Taliban retook Kabul in August of 2021.” (Read more from “Questions Arise Over Would-Be Trump Assassin’s Shady Connections in Iran” HERE)

Helicopter Crash Which Killed Iran President Ebrahim Raisi Reportedly Caused by Climate Conditions

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The May 19, 2024 helicopter crash which resulted in the death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others was caused by climatic and atmospheric conditions, an official investigation concluded, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

The Supreme Board of the General Staff of the Armed Forces released its final report attributing the crash primarily to the springtime climatic conditions in the region, according to AP. The report detailed that the helicopter encountered a sudden and dense fog, which caused it to collide with a mountain, according to the outlet.

Officials confirmed there were no indications of sabotage affecting the helicopter’s parts or systems. Raisi and his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were among the eight fatalities in the crash, which occurred in a remote mountainous area in northwestern Iran, AP reported. There were no survivors found at the scene during the search and rescue operation.

It was previously reported that the crash occurred as Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian were traveling from Azerbaijan, where they attended the inauguration of a dam with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. In response to the tragedy, the Iranian cabinet convened an emergency meeting, according to the state news agency IRNA. (Read more from “Helicopter Crash Which Killed Iran President Ebrahim Raisi Reportedly Caused by Climate Conditions” HERE)

US Intelligence Officials Confirm Iran Hacked Trump Campaign

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Top intelligence officials confirmed Monday that Iran was behind a hack of former President Donald Trump’s campaign and attempts to “access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties.”

Microsoft and Google previously revealed Iran breached a campaign. Intelligence officials surmised that Tehran was attempting to meddle in the 2024 presidential election with its cyber attacks.

“Iran seeks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions,” officials from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a joint statement.

“Protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign influence or interference is our priority,” the agencies added in a joint statement. “We will not tolerate foreign efforts to influence or interfere with our elections, including the targeting of American political campaigns.”

Google also explained that the Iranian actor also attempted to infiltrate accounts associated with people inside President Biden’ and Vice President Kamala Harris’ orbits. (Read more from “US Intelligence Officials Confirm Iran Hacked Trump Campaign” HERE)

Iranian Hard-Liners Accuse President-Elect Pezeshkian of Connections to U.S. Intelligence and “Promoting Homosexuality”

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A hardliner aligned with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has sharply criticized President-elect Pezeshkian’s cabinet formation team, accusing them of corruption, espionage, and “promoting homosexuality.”

In an article published on Saturday, Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of Iran’s flagship hardliner newspaper Kayhan, funded by Khamenei’s office, criticized President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian’s Strategic Council for Transition. Shariatmadari argued that the council, responsible for identifying and recommending ministerial candidates, is made up of individuals who are incompetent and unfit for their roles. He also accused them of fraud and purported liberal leanings without providing any concrete evidence to support his claims.

The Council for Transition is a new development in Iranian politics, intended to demonstrate Pezeshkian’s commitment to his campaign promise of using varying experts to tackle important issues. Currently, there is intense competition for ministerial roles, with various factions striving to secure cabinet positions. This period is particularly significant due to concerns about Khamenei’s advancing age, potentially tumultuous times, and the likelihood that this administration may act as a transitional government if a new leader takes over. . .

[Hard-liner Shariatmadari also wrote,] “Many members of the council and its subcommittees have a history marked by collaboration with enemy intelligence services, security convictions, corruption, and defense of homosexuality. Their track records reveal disbelief in the system and the revolution, and they have openly aligned and collaborated with the US, UK, and Israel during riots and uprisings”. . .

Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, is replacing hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May. He will be sworn in before parliament on Tuesday. (Read more from “Iranian Hard-Liners Accuse President-Elect Pezeshkian of Connections to U.S. Intelligence and “Promoting Homosexuality” HERE)

Iranian Leader’s ‘Revenge’ Threat Against Trump Comes Into Sharp Focus

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On Jan. 22, 2021, Ali Khamenei, the religious dictator of Iran, posted a photo on his official website of President Donald Trump on a golf course with the bold caption: “Revenge is inevitable.”

Two years later, on Feb. 25, 2023, Brigadier Gen. Hossein Hajizadeh, commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, listed on the U.S. terror blacklist, stated: “God willing, we will be able to kill Trump and Pompeo. That night (during the missile attack on the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq), we could have killed a thousand Americans if we had wanted to, but they were just soldiers, and it would not have mattered. However, Trump, Pompeo, and McKenzie need to be killed,” as reported by the Tasnim News Agency, Iran’s semi-official news agency associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Ahmad Hamzeh, a member of parliament, announced during a public session of the parliament that “on behalf of the people of Kerman, we offer a three-million-dollar cash reward to anyone who kills Trump,” reported the semi-official ISNA news agency on Jan. 21, 2020.

After a 2022 assassination attempt in New York on novelist Salman Rushdie – the longtime object of Iranian assassination threats and fatwas going back to the 1988 publication of his book “The Satanic Verses” – the Kayhan newspaper, which publishes Ali Khamenei’s positions, noted that “taking revenge on the perpetrators and criminals on American soil is not difficult and after this [attempted assassination of Rushdie], Trump and Pompeo will feel more threatened.” Many other threats have been made against Trump by the highest officials of the Iranian regime, speaking of severe revenge for Trump’s killing of Qasem Soleimani, a key architect of terrorism in the Middle East.

Before the failed assassination attempt on Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former vice president of the European Parliament and president of the International Committee in Search of Justice on Nov. 9, 2023, the theocratic regime of Iran had placed him on the foreign ministry’s sanctions list. Immediately after the attempt on his life, and before being transferred to the hospital while unable to speak due to a bullet hitting his lower jaw, he communicated with the police by writing on his cellphone that his only enemy was the Iranian regime. Subsequent investigations showed that the mastermind of this crime was indeed traceable back to Iran. The fugitive criminal had been hired to assassinate Vidal-Quadras. (Read more from “Iranian Leader’s ‘Revenge’ Threat Against Trump Comes Into Sharp Focus” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

‘They’re Out to Kill Me!’: Trump’s F-Bomb Tirade on Spy Agencies Who Didn’t Tell Him of Iranian Assassination Plot

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After surviving one assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump is furious that he was kept in the dark about another plot on his life.

A source inside the campaign exclusively told RadarOnline.com: “Trump is flipping mad and behind-the-scenes, he isn’t sugar coating how he feels to his closest aides.

“He feels an obvious sense of relief after what happened in Butler, but when it emerged on Tuesday that intelligence agencies were tracking a potential Iranian assassination plot against him, he melted down and said in no uncertain terms: ‘They’re out to kill me.’”

Trump did not refer to whom he meant when saying “they’re” out to have him killed.

The campaign insider added: “If you know Donald Trump, you know it wasn’t as pleasant as ‘they’re out to kill me.’ It was laced with profanity, and rightly so. He dropped f-bomb after f-bomb. (Read more from “‘They’re Out to Kill Me!’: Trump’s F-Bomb Tirade on Spy Agencies Who Didn’t Tell Him of Iranian Assassination Plot” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Conservatives Raise Questions After Secret Service Reveals Alleged Iranian Plot to Assassinate Trump

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Conservatives on social media expressed deep skepticism on Tuesday after the U.S. Secret Service agency revealed it had ramped up security for former President Donald Trump after it had learned in recent weeks that Iranians planned to assassinate him.

The news comes on the heels of the attempted assassination of Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, though the timing may be coincidental. National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson insisted that authorities had “not identified ties between the shooter and any accomplice or co-conspirator, foreign or domestic.”

The Secret Service indicated that it had recently uncovered a possible Iranian threat against Trump and “added protective resources and capabilities to the former President’s security detail” as a precaution, said spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi. The agency has also repeatedly warned the former president about the inherent dangers of outdoor campaign rallies in general.

Iran, authorities claim, is still seething from Trump’s assassination of Qasem Soleimani in 2020, when Trump was still in office, but many conservatives on social media have questions about the latest reports regarding the foreign adversary.

Many, for example, suggested federal agents may be using the supposed Iranian plot as a pretext for another war. (Read more from “Conservatives Raise Questions After Secret Service Reveals Alleged Iranian Plot to Assassinate Trump” HERE)

DNI Confirms Iranian Operatives Give Financial Support to Pro-Hamas Groups in the U.S.

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Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines released a statement on Tuesday confirming foreign assets from Iran are not only encouraging the ongoing anti-Israel protests within the United States, but they are also providing financial support to keep the movement going.

Protests against Israel and the United States have been ongoing since Hamas’ attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. Various groups have been behind the college encampments and street protests that have happened in the months since. Some of them have taken a violent turn, including organized protests ending with attacks on the White House.

“As I noted in testimony to the Congress in May, Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions, as we have seen them do in the past, including in prior election cycles,” Haines explained.

“They continue to adapt their cyber and influence activities, using social media platforms and issuing threats. It is likely they will continue to rely on their intelligence services in these efforts, as well as Iran-based online influencers, to promote their narratives,” she continued. “In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years. We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”

Haines went on to say that “Americans who participate in protests are, in good faith, expressing their views on the conflict in Gaza – this intelligence does not indicate otherwise,” but that they may be unaware of how they are being used by the Iranian regime.

(Read more from “DNI Confirms Iranian Operatives Give Financial Support to Pro-Hamas Groups in the U.S.” HERE)

Here’s How the Biden Administration Is Reportedly Handling Iran Nuclear Deal

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In case there’s any doubt how weak President Joe Biden is on dealing with Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported in the early morning hours of Monday that “Biden Administration Presses Allies Not to Confront Iran on Nuclear Program.” Not only is the United States reportedly not going to tell Iran off for their nuclear program, but is urging our true allies to do the same.

As the report mentions:

BERLIN—The Biden administration is pressing European allies to back off plans to rebuke Iran for advances in its nuclear program, even as it expands its stockpile of near-weapons-grade fissile material to a record level, according to diplomats involved in discussions.

The U.S. is arguing against an effort by Britain and France to censure Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s member-state board in early June, the diplomats said. The U.S. has pressed a number of other countries to abstain in a censure vote, saying that is what Washington will do, they said.

U.S. officials deny lobbying against a resolution.

…

U.S. officials say that material could be converted into weapons-grade enriched uranium in a matter of days. It would then be enough to fuel three nuclear weapons.

Some U.S. officials say they fear Iran could be more volatile as the country moves toward elections for a new leader after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash earlier this month. The Biden administration has long said it is seeking a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program.

(Read more from “Here’s How the Biden Administration Is Reportedly Handling Iran Nuclear Deal” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr