Analysis
Admitting to downing Ukraine jetliner will cost Iran regime dearly

Iran admits IRGC shot down Flight 752, ending regime's Soleimani PR bonanza


Evan Dyer · CBC News · Posted: Jan 10, 2020 

A rescue worker shows pictures of a girl that were recovered

 from the crash site southwest of Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, 

Jan. 8, 2020. The crash of Ukraine International Airlines 

Flight PS752 killed all 176 people on board. 

(Ebrahim Noroozi/The Associated Press)


It was a short-lived honeymoon for the Islamic Republic regime — a rare wave of popular support, drowned out by a bigger tide of government neglect and recklessness.

Much as Iran's authorities may hate admitting the destruction of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 to other governments, they are almost certainly more concerned about the reaction from their own people.

The regime's hopes of turning the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani into a moment of renewal for its flagging fortunes were destroyed along with Flight PS752.

From the point of view of the Ayatollahs' regime, this situation is a nightmare scenario of incompetence, hypocrisy and lost opportunity.
Remember the Vincennes

More than almost any other event, the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS Vincennes in 1988 underpins the regime's narrative of American malignancy.

The Islamic Republic has used the U.S. Navy's 

downing of Iran Air Flight 655 as a mainstay of 

its propaganda for over 30 years, as seen on

 this postage stamp. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)

Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, makes a point of referencing the crash on every anniversary.

And when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with strikes over the weekend, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani immediately responded with a tweet about the 290 people killed on that flight.

But within 48 hours his own side would also shoot down a jetliner full of innocent civilians, 147 of whom were citizens of Iran, according to the country's head of emergency operations.

A public relations victory undone

Just weeks ago, the Iranian government faced yet another popular revolt on its streets.

The slogans of the protesters (such as "No to Gaza, no to Lebanon. We sacrifice our lives for Iran," or "We have no money or fuel, to hell with Palestine") linked their economic hardship directly to the costly military adventurism of the regime and the crippling sanctions it's brought.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which was the vanguard of that foreign military mission, also played a leading role at home in suppressing those protests, which saw hundreds of protesters shot in one of the most violent crackdowns since the early years of the Islamic Revolution.

The regime's hopes of turning the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani into a moment of renewal for its flagging fortunes were destroyed along with Flight PS752. (Nazanin Tabatabaee/West Asia News Agency/Reuters)

The assassination of Gen. Soleimani gave the regime a golden opportunity to rehabilitate the IRGC in Iranian public opinion by focusing on its role in defeating Sunni jihadist organizations outside of Iran, such as ISIS and al-Nusra/al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria.

Those brutally sectarian organizations, which murder Shia and destroy their shrines, are even more unpopular in Iran than the IRGC. Suddenly, the crowds on the street were celebrating an IRGC commander, in scenes reminiscent of the 1980s when the revolution was new.

But the honeymoon proved extremely short-lived. The Ayatollahs' regime began to blow their golden opportunity before Gen. Soleimani's body was in the ground.
A deadly stampede

One of the hallmarks of the Islamic Republic regime is its tragic indifference to life. This is the same regime that, during the Iran-Iraq War, sent human waves of school-age boys to clear landmines with their own bodies in advance of regular Iranian troops.

The youngsters were given metal keys to hang around their necks and told they would open the doors to paradise. Sometimes they were roped together to prevent them escaping. Their lives were wasted by the tens of thousands in futile offensives like the 1982 Operation Ramadan.

The regime's incompetence and indifference was evident on Tuesday morning as massive crowds gathered in Soleimani's hometown of Kerman. The government wanted the crowds to be as large and as emotional as possible. It appears that more thought was given to the design of the giant posters that overhung the event than to managing the crowds or keeping people safe.

Iran TV says 56 killed in stampede at funeral for slain general, burial postponed

The result was a deadly crush. About 60 people died in the stampede and more than 200 were injured.

The same reckless neglect was on display again 24 hours later, as Flight 752 fell from the sky.

It is a pattern in a country that has a record of preventable deaths on its roads, rails and in the sky.

The crash of Flight 752 is the fourteenth Iranian air crash since 2000 to have caused more than 25 fatalities.
IRGC admits to role

The one shoe yet to drop was the confirmation that the plane was brought down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps itself, brutally reminding the Iranian people that the organization is more about killing Iranians than it is about killing Americans, Israelis or Sunni jihadists — although Iran's Mehr News quoted an IRGC official as claiming to have killed at least 80 US soldiers in the ballistic missile strikes on U.S. bases early Wednesday.

In its admission of responsibility, Iran stated that the plane was "in close proximity to a sensitive military centre of the IRGC and with the altitude and posture of a hostile aircraft. In these circumstances, the plane was accidentally hit by a human error, which unfortunately results in the martyrdom of dear compatriots and the death of a number of foreign nationals."

Ukrainian plane was 'unintentionally' shot down, Iran says

Iran's ballistic missile program is under IRGC control, and its "Shahid Tehrani-Moqaddam" Ballistic Missile Research Centre is near to the spot where Flight 752 fell, says Babak Taghvaee, an aviation expert who worked in Iran's military aerospace industry and is author of two books on Iranian military aviation.

"Only the IRGC has the Tor M1 missile system. They received them new from Russia almost 15 years ago to protect their ballistic missile bases," he told CBC News when reached by phone in Malta a few hours before the IRGC confessed to its role.

Dominic Raab, the UK's Foreign Minister, was asked during his Montreal news conference with his Canadian counterpart Francois-Philippe Champagne on Thursday what he hoped to learn from the investigation into the crash. He said he wanted to know what happened, why it happened and who was responsible.

Watch: Purported video of missile strike

Video recording appears to show a missile making impact on an aircraft over Tehran. The New York Times says visual and sonic clues in the footage match flight path information and satellite imagery of the area near where Flight PS752 crashed. (Video courtesy of the New York Times) 0:20

A crash investigation, even one not hampered by an uncooperative Iranian regime, would only have been able to answer the first question.

With this confession, Iran answers all three. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps shot down the aircraft. They did it because it flew close to a sensitive base, almost certainly the Shahid Tehrani-Moqaddam Ballistic Missile Research Centre.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division, said his unit accepts 'full responsibility' for the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed near Tehran. (Atta Kenare/file photo/AFP via Getty Images)

As far as responsibility goes, Taghvaee says two names immediately.

"Ali Abedzadeh, the head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization, should have grounded all flights, knowing that the air defences were all active. And Brig.-Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the IRGC air defence commander, should have coordinated with them to make sure that happened."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Evan Dyer
Senior Reporter
Evan Dyer has been a journalist with CBC for 18 years, after an early career as a freelancer in Argentina. He works in the Parliamentary Bureau and can be reached at evan.dyer@cbc.ca.

Vancouver police chief defends handcuffing of Indigenous man and granddaughter

'The bank was adamant that a fraud had been committed,' says Adam Palmer

Joel Ballard · CBC News · Posted: Jan 10, 2020

Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says it's standard 

police procedure to take charge of the situation based on 

the available information, addressing questions about why

 an Indigenous elder and his 12-year-old granddaughter 

were recently handcuffed at a Bank of Montreal. 

(CBC/Ken Leedham)

Police officers followed standard procedure when they handcuffed an Indigenous man and his 12-year-old granddaughter after they tried to open an account at a Vancouver bank, according to the city's chief of police.

Chief Adam Palmer defended the officers' actions, saying they were responding to a report of a fraud in progress from a reputable source.

"The bank was adamant that a fraud had been committed and they were providing information that led our officers to believe that," he told CBC News.

"The world that we live in as police officers, we are responding to things in real time, and we have to take the facts as we have them."

Palmer says it's standard police procedure across Canada to take charge of the situation based on the available information, and that's why 56-year-old Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter were handcuffed.

WATCH | Protesters gather outside Bank of Montreal:


Once the situation was under control, he says, officers were able to speak with both sides and determine that no crime had been committed.

"This isn't magical, like on a TV show, where things are instantaneously determined. It takes a while to get to the bottom of the story. Our officers did a very thoughtful job of this investigation," he said.

The Bank of Montreal and the Vancouver Police Department have faced allegations of racism and over-reaction since the Dec. 20 incident was reported earlier this week. Protesters gathered outside the branch in downtown Vancouver on Friday.

But Palmer is adamant the officers acted in good faith and are not racist — noting that both come from diverse communities themselves. He also said the 911 call described the girl as being 16 years old, and South Asian.

"Regardless of somebody's ethnic background, if [the officers] were going into that situation, they would still have to respond to it and deal with [it] accordingly based on the crime that was alleged to be committed," he said.

WATCH | Chief Adam Palmer says officers followed procedure:


He also says he understands it's difficult to hear that a 12-year-old was placed in handcuffs and he understands the impact it has on both Johnson, his granddaughter and the public.

"It's a terrible thing for anybody to go through," he said.

Johnson told CBC News the officers apologized and the Vancouver Police Department later called the incident "regrettable."

WATCH | Palmer says he understands the impact of the incident:


The bank apologized and said the employee's actions have "been addressed." The bank also said Friday it will work with its Indigenous employee resource group and Indigenous stakeholders to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action in its corporate policies.

It says it will also establish an Indigenous Advisory Council to support further education and awareness.

But Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, says there is no excuse for subjecting a child to that kind of treatment.

WATCH | Palmer responds to allegations of racism:

Watch

VPD chief says officers weren't profiling during bank incident
10 hours ago
0:32


Vancouver Police chief Adam Palmer says the officers involved in the Bank of Montreal incident both come from diverse backgrounds and aren't racist. 0:32

"It's totally unacceptable and disgusting," said Phillip.

"We are supposed to be in the year of reconciliation here in the country and yet these kinds of racist actions continue to happen."

Phillip added the union is prepared to support Johnson in any legal matters should he pursue them.

Senator calls for staff training after Indigenous grandfather, 12-year-old wrongfully arrested at B.C. bank

'All kids deserve respect': Protesters demonstrate outside of BMO branch after 12-year-old handcuffed

No wage increases for Alberta nurses and teachers, arbitrators rule
Decision unfair to workers, say United Nurses of Alberta and Alberta Teachers’ Association

WELL NO KIDDING
ARBITRATOR'S ARE AGENTS OF THE STATE
THE LABOR RELATIONS BOARD IS AN AGENT OF THE STATE
LABOUR NEEDS TO ABANDON BOTH AS ILLEGITIMATE 
AND CALL A GENERAL STRIKE 

Teachers have received zero wage increases in seven of the last eight years, said ATA president Jason Schilling. 
BUT NO WAGE CUTS THAT KENNEY WANTED

Josee St-Onge · CBC News · Posted: Jan 10, 2020  

Arbitrators have ruled that United Nurses of Alberta and Alberta Teachers' Association members will not receive a wage increase in the last year of their provincial contract. (David Bajer/CBC)


Alberta's teachers and nurses will not receive a wage increase in their current contracts, after two arbitration decisions were handed down Friday.

The arbitration board decisions affect members of the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) and Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA). Both unions were in the final year of their contracts and were seeking wage increases, while the provincial government was seeking wage rollbacks.

The UNA represents more than 30,000 members and the ATA has about 46,000 members.

"We're obviously disappointed. We've already taken two years of zero and so we're not keeping up with inflation," said David Harrigan, director of labour relations with the UNA. 

Hundreds voice concerns over Alberta public sector cuts during town hall

Teachers have received zero wage increases in seven of the last eight years, said ATA president Jason Schilling.
"Members are angry and frustrated," Schilling said. "They were hoping for better and received this.

"They are being asked to do more and more within their classrooms with less, and then to turn around and see that their salaries are frozen yet again is extremely disappointing."

The UNA's provincial collective agreement is set to expire on March 31, 2020. The ATA's agreement expires Aug. 31, 2020.

Alberta government wants 2 to 5 per cent wage rollbacks for public sector workers

The provincial government had entered arbitration asking the UNA to take a three per cent wage rollback. The ATA was asked to accept a two per cent salary reduction.

The arbitration board opted to freeze wages.

"These independent public sector wage arbitration outcomes reflect the current economic realities in the province," said Finance Minister Travis Toews, in a news release Friday.

"Even with these decisions, fiscal restraint and discipline must continue as we enter into new collective bargaining negotiations in 2020."

Bill to delay wage arbitration for Alberta nurses, teachers, government workers coming Thursday

The ATA will begin negotiations in March.

"The stakes are going to be higher than ever," Schilling said. "Frankly, Alberta teachers are tired of having to pay for the continuing failure of successive governments to adequately fund public education."

Negotiations between the UNA and the province will begin next week in Edmonton, said Harrigan.

Harrigan said the comments from Toews give him hope that the province will not be seeking to cut salaries this time around, he said.

"If the Minister of Finance is stating today that zero is appropriate and meets the economic reality, then obviously we're not expecting him to be proposing rollbacks," said Harrigan.

---30---

RIP RUSH DRUMMER NEIL PEART

Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for prog-rock band Rush, has died aged 67. 
According to reports, Peart died on 7 January in Santa Monica, California, three years after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Elliot Mintz, a spokesperson for the Peart family, confirmed the news to Rolling Stone.

Peart, who retired from Rush and professional drumming in 2015, was considered as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time, known for his virtuosic playing and lyrics that drew on science fiction books and the works of Ayn Rand.

(I HAVE SEEN THIS CLAIM BEFORE ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF AYN RAND LISTEN TO THEIR SONG THE WORKINGMAN AND SEE IF THAT SOUNDS LIKE AYN RAND TO YOU, IT IS THE SCIENCE FICTION ASPECT OF RAND, YES SHE HAS AN SF CULT FOLLOWING, AND RUSH HAD A CLASSICAL LIBERAL INTERPRETATION OF LIBERTARIANISM, VERY CANADIAN, EH )

According to the Detroit Free Press, he dominated the annual “best-of” polls in Modern Drummer so often during the Eighties that he was eventually removed and placed on a special honour roll, instead.
The Canadian musician, who grew up in Port Dalhousie, Ontario, joined Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in Rush in 1974. He wrote several books about his life, including the memoir Traveling Music: Playing Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times.

Rush released 19 studio albums and have sold more than 40 million units worldwide. The band rank third, after The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, for most consecutive gold or platinum albums by a rock band.

Former Police drummer Stewart Copeland said of Peart in 2015: “Neil is the most air-drummed-to drummer of all time. [He] pushes that band, which has a lot of musicality, a lot of ideas crammed into every eight bars – but he keeps the throb, which is the important thing. And he can do that while doing all kinds of cool s**t.”

Peart first retired from Rush in the late Nineties, following the death of his daughter, Selena, in a car crash, and after losing his first wife, Jacqueline, to cancer. 

His second wife Carrie Nuttall, whom he married in 2000, persuaded him to return to the band, which led to something of a career renaissance for Rush. 

In 2013, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The ceremony included a tribute performance by the Foo Fighters, who wore wigs and flowing satin robes similar to what Rush’s members wore in the Seventies. Foos’ frontman Dave Grohl said he cried after meeting Peart for the first time.

“The highest possible compliment is if someone that you admire respects your work,” Peart said in 2017. “To those that have said I inspired them to start drumming, the first thing I say is: ‘I apologise to your parents.’ But it’s wonderful just to be a little part of someone’s life like that.”

In a statement, Lee and Lifeson called Peart their “friend, soul brother and bandmate over 45 years” and said he had been “incredibly brave” in dealing with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

“We ask that friends, fans, and media alike understandably respect the family’s need for privacy and peace at this extremely painful and difficult time,” they said. “Those wishing to express their condolences can choose a cancer research group or charity of their choice and make a donation in Neil Peart’s name. Rest in peace, brother.”

Brian Wilson tweeted: “I feel real bad about this - he was way too young. Neil was one of the great drummers and he’ll be missed.”

Peart is survived by his wife, Carrie, and his 10-year-old daughter, Olivia.

---30---

Neil Peart, drummer and primary lyricist for Rush, 

dead at 67

Canadian rock icon died earlier this week after years-long battle with brain cancer

GREAT INTERVIEWS 

Jessica Wong · CBC News · Posted: Jan 10, 2020 3:58 PM ET | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

Watch
The influential musician, author and lyricist died Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., after having been diagnosed with brain cancer, according to a statement by a family spokesperson.

Neil Peart, the virtuoso drummer of iconic Canadian band Rush who was revered by fans and fellow musicians as one of the greatest drummers of all time, has died at age 67.

The influential musician and lyricist died Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., after having been diagnosed with brain cancer, according to a statement issued Friday by family spokesperson Elliot Mintz.

His death was confirmed by Meg Symsyk, a media spokesperson for the progressive rock trio comprising Peart, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.

"It is with broken hearts and the deepest sadness that we must share the terrible news that on Tuesday our friend, soul brother and bandmate of over 45 years, Neil, has lost his incredibly brave three-and-a-half-year battle with brain cancer," his bandmates said in a statement.

They also called for privacy for Peart's family and urged fans wanting to express their condolences to make a donation in his name to a cancer research group or charity of their choice.

"Rest in peace, brother."

Rush members Neil Peart, from left, Alex Lifeson and 

Geddy Lee were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of 

Fame in 2013. 

(Danny Moloshok/Invision/The Associated Press/The Canadian Press)

Along with penning impressive lyrics, Peart was renowned for his remarkable proficiency on drums (he famously employed a complex drum kit that completely surrounded him) and expertly weaving together techniques from different musical genres, blending jazz and big band with hard rock.

After the Hamilton, Ont.-born, St. Catharines, Ont.-raised Peart joined bandmates Lee and Lifeson in 1974, his virtuoso drumming helped lift Rush to new musical heights.

The band attracted a loyal, worldwide fanbase, sold millions of records and influenced a multitude of rock musicians with its complex, literary music.

Watch: Legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart performs solo

Legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart performs solo
Neil Peart, the late drummer for Canadian rock band Rush, performs a drum solo. 0:45

The band was much honoured at home, including with an induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1994, Canada's Walk of Fame in 1999; a lifetime achievement honour at the 2012 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards; and an Order of Canada — the first time that a group was chosen to receive the honour.

The trio was inducted into the U.S. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, after years of lobbying by devoted fans.

The band played its last tour in 2015, with Peart revealing the following year in the Rush documentary Time Stand Still that he had fought intense physical pain during that final run.

Watch: Peart on the early days of Rush

Neil Peart on the early days
Neil Peart reflects on Rush's early days in this 2014 interview with CBC Music. 1:05

Peart's writing also extended beyond music: He penned a number of memoirs exploring his life and travels, including Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, in which he opened up about the death in 1997 of his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, in a car accident and his wife, Jackie, who died of cancer just 10 months later.

His survivors include his wife Carrie and daughter Olivia. Funeral plans are pending.

Slash (@slash) on Instagram: “RIP #NeiPeart

Trump reportedly told associates he killed Qassem Soleimani because he was under pressure from GOP senators before his impeachment trial
Eliza Relman BI

OF COURSE HE DID
 HE ANNOUNCED IT AT MAR A LAGO TO IMPRESS
 HIS TRUMPETTE CROWD OF PEROXIDE BLONDE
 1%ERS AND HE WOULDN'T WANT TO BREAK A
 PROMISE TO HIS REAL BASE 

WHO UNLIKE DON ARE NOT TEETOTALERS, SO 
THEIR ENTHUSIASM FOR ASSASSINATION AND 
WAR CRIMES WERE WELL LUBRICATED 

 

President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader 

Mitch McConnell, accompanied by Vice President 

Mike Pence. Associated Press/Alex Brandon

President Donald Trump told associates that he assassinated Iran's top military leader last week in part to appease Republican senators who will play a crucial role in his Senate impeachment trial, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

In a lengthy piece detailing how the president's top advisers coalesced behind the strike on Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, The Journal reported that Trump had told associates he felt pressure from the senators.

One of Trump's most outspoken supporters, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, appears to be the only congressional lawmaker Trump briefed about his plan to assassinate Soleimani in the days leading up to the strike.

Graham has criticized the president's foreign-policy choices in the past — most notably Trump's withdrawal of troops from northern Syria and his handling of Saudi Arabia.

Publicly, Trump has said he approved the strike on Soleimani because the general was plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Iraq. The administration has not provided evidence to support this claim.

President Donald Trump told associates that he assassinated Iran's top military leader last week in part to appease Republican senators who'll play a crucial role in his Senate impeachment trial, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

In a lengthy piece detailing how the president's top advisers coalesced behind the strike on Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, The Journal reported that Trump had told associates he felt pressured to satisfy senators who were pushing for stronger US action against Soleimani and who will run defense for him on impeachment.

One of Trump's most outspoken supporters, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, appears to be the only congressional lawmaker Trump briefed about his plan to assassinate Soleimani in the days leading up to the strike.

"I was briefed about the potential operation when I was down in Florida," Graham told Fox News. "I appreciate being brought into the orbit."

The South Carolina Republican, an Iran hawk, celebrated the controversial strike, which the administration did not seek congressional authorization to carry out. After Iran retaliated by hitting US-occupied Iraqi bases on Tuesday, Graham called the move "an act of war."

Graham has criticized the president's foreign-policy choices in the past — most notably Trump's withdrawal of troops from northern Syria and his handling of Saudi Arabia following the country's murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident.

Trump said on Thursday that he approved the strike on Soleimani because the general was plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Iraq.

But the administration hasn't released any evidence to support the claim that Iran was planning such an attack on the embassy, or any other imminent attack.

During an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Trump administration didn't know "precisely when" or "precisely where" an attack would have targeted.

Democratic lawmakers — and a few Republicans — were infuriated by a classified briefing they received from the Trump administration on Wednesday concerning the US strike that killed Soleimani and a top Iraqi militant leader.

The lawmakers said they weren't provided any evidence of an imminent and specific threat posed by Soleimani — evidence of which is required to legally launch an attack without congressional authorization.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee called the briefing, which Pompeo helped lead, "probably the worst briefing, at least on a military issue, I've seen in nine years I've been here."

SEE ALSO: After Trump claimed Iran was plotting to blow up the US embassy in Iraq, Mike Pompeo says the administration didn't know 'precisely when' or 'where' the attack would happen

Associates: Trump Said Key GOP Senators for Impeachment Trial Pressured Him to Strike Soleimani
by Matt Naham | 10:43 am, January 10th, 20


You don’t have to scour the internet for very long to find people asking “Why kill Qassem Soleimani now?” and answering “To distract from impeachment, of course.” The “wag the dog” theory, though, just got a bit of a boost from an unlikely source in the Wall Street Journal.

Buried in a lengthy Thursday story on how the Trump administration ultimately decided to take out the Iranian general was a nugget saying that President Donald Trump told associates he was under pressure to placate GOP Senators who will be key players once his impeachment trial in the Senate begins.

Per the Journal:

The way the strike was handled has drawn scrutiny from Democrats and some Republicans. Critics say the decision was hasty, considering the risk of all-out war. They also question whether the intelligence that prompted the action was as clear-cut and alarming as the White House has said, and see the move as doing little to further U.S. interests in the region.

Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said.


A remarkable line that represents, to our knowledge, the first sourced claim that impeachment was, to some degree, on the president’s mind or a factor when he ordered the Soleimani strike.

Quite the nugget in this WSJ story —>

"Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said" https://t.co/3xxLFJ6XTk

— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) January 10, 2020

Who might those “important supporters” be? We can assume that, whoever it is, they’re hawkish. This is purely speculative, but Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) seems to neatly fit into the category of important impeachment trial supporter/Soleimani strike advocate.


IMPEACHAPALOOZA
Report: Trump Ordered Iran Strike Because of Impeachment Fears
Was there actually an “imminent” threat, or was it a political calculation?
Inae Oh
News and Engagement Editor Bio | Follow

Tasos Katopodis/Getty

To justify its drone strike against Qassem Soleimani, the White House claimed last week that the top Iranian military leader had been preparing “imminent” attacks against American diplomats in the region. That claim has since evolved, as various Trump administration officials struggled on multiple occasions to explain what exactly defines an “imminent” threat.

“We don’t know precisely when and we don’t know precisely where, but it was real,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Thursday, remarks many interpreted as an admission that Soleimani did not actually pose a grave and immediate threat to American lives.

But while the White House continues to be all over the map on this, a new report appears to confirm a sneaking suspicion held by Trump critics for why Trump ordered the strike at this very point in his presidency. From the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate.

The New York Times reported something similar this week, stating that Trump had said in a phone call that “he had been pressured to take a harder line on Iran by some Republican senators whose support he needs now more than ever amid an impeachment battle.”

If this reporting is true, it’s hard to overstate how explosive it would be that the president of the United States nearly started a war in order to appease a handful of Republican senators before impeachment arrives in the Senate. 


Assassination ‘was a Mar-a-Lago decision’: Here’s how generals could have blocked it if Trump had been in DC

Published on January 10, 2020
By Bob Brigham


The hostilities with Iran may have been averted if President Donald Trump had not been vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort, an expert on his Florida compound explained on MSNBC on Friday.

“Donald Trump goes down to Mar-a-Lago a lot — especially during the winter,” MSNBC anchor Katy Tur said. “As the owner, he’s always been vetted as a rock star there, but my next guest now it’s different, now he’s being treated to something more akin to a God.”

For analysis, Tur interviewed journalist Laurence Leamer, the author of the 2018 book Mar-A-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace

“So Larry, you say it’s taken on more of a cult-like atmosphere,” Tur said.

“It’s this atmosphere of endless stroking which I think is unhealthy for the leader of our country,” Leamer said.

“In fact, the assassination of General Suleimani in a way is a Mar-a-Lago decision. I’m not sure if he’s been in the Oval Office and his aides and generals had talked about the consequences of killing this evil man if he would have gone ahead. But that’s what Mar-a-Lago is for him and he needs it, he’s hungry for it.”

“It’s more like a cult the longer he’s there,” Leamer added.

The host also examined whether there might have been insider trading connected to Mar-a-Lago in the hours between when the strike was conducted and when the Pentagon claimed credit for the assassination.

The Wall Street Journal accidentally reveals the unbearable truth about Soleimani’s assassination

Published on January 10, 2020
By John Stoehr, The Editorial Board
- Commentar


The plain truth can often be so obvious as to be invisible. That’s my more charitable interpretation of the press corps’ coverage of Qassem Soleimani’s assassination. My less charitable interpretation? Reporters and editors in Washington, D.C., will find a way to avoid seeing the plain truth because the plain truth is too unbearable to see.

This article was originally published at The Editorial Board

It would be unbearable to think the president ordered a man dead in order to give Republican Senators a means of defending him against an indictment for abuse of power and obstruction. It would be unthinkable for him to bring America to the brink of war in order to create an image of a “war president” too indispensable to remove.

As a result, the press corps has been busy this week reporting in granular detail virtually every aspect of Donald Trump’s decision last week to target and kill Iran’s top general in Baghdad. Everything, that is, short of reporting the plain, obvious and unbearable truth: the president ordered a man’s death because he was impeached.

That reporters and editors in Washington, D.C, find ways to avoid seeing the plain truth was brought to mind by this morning’s Wall Street Journal. In a piece about the president’s new national security team—how its “cohesion” resulted in Soleimani’s assassination—seven esteemed reporters committed one of journalism’s professional sins. They buried the lede. Nearly 30 paragraphs into a 2,200-word story, they said:

Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said (my italics).

Now, these are unnamed sources. They were speaking on background. In isolation, I wouldn’t make much of this. But in context, it matters—so much so, it warrants its own reporting, which we have not yet seen. That context would be the absence of legitimate non-political reasons for ordering Soleimani’s death. In all the reporting I’ve read, administration officials can’t keep their stories straight. On the one hand, that suggests no good reason. On the other, that suggests the most obvious one.

The buried lede suggests something else worth exploring. The president may not have been alone in seeking to please Republican senators who will sit in judgement of him during the impeachment trial. It may be that a Republican senator—Lindsey Graham comes to mind—encouraged the president to act on Soleimani. In that case, we would have to face yet another unbearable truth: some Republicans in the United States Senate are conspiring with the president in defrauding the people to maintain power.

Though unbearable, it’s plain and it’s obvious. The Republicans really are dumping constitutional principles once dearly and closely held for the sake of power. Graham and other Republicans declared their intent to violate preemptively the oath all impeachment jurors take to “do impartial justice, according to the Constitution and law.” Graham and Mitch McConnell, the current Senate majority leader, were highly principled during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Now that the defendant is a Republican, however, those principles are beside the point. Both worked hard to ensure Trump a rapid acquittal without his having to work too hard for it.

What’s good for Clinton is not good for Trump—that’s not a matter of hypocrisy. I can’t stress that enough, because that’s another unbearable truth. There are two value systems, according to the Republican theory and practice. There is one set of laws, rules and norms for Republicans. There’s another set for Democrats. One protects. One punishes. The GOP benefits enormously when the press corps sees just one.

It seemed hypocritical when Rand Paul, a Republican senator, said yesterday he was ready to debate separations of powers after administration officials told him and GOP Senator Mike Lee not to talk about military intervention in Iran. Lee said “it was un-American. It’s unconstitutional. And it’s wrong.” Their Democratic colleagues might have thought they prepared to support the conviction of Trump for the same offense. Lee made it clear he wasn’t. He told Fox News Thursday the president is the best.

Again, this isn’t hypocrisy. According to Republican theory and practice, Republicans get to be principled. Democrats do not. Republicans have the right to respect and deference. Democrats do not. When the Republicans impeached a Democrat, they stood on high moral ground. When the Democrats impeached a Republican, according to Republicans, the Democrats did no such thing. The Republican got to call witnesses. Democrats do not. There are two value systems—separate and unequal.




That, to me, is not just a plain truth. It’s not just an unbearable truth. It’s a pernicious truth. The Republican Party can and will commit unthinkable acts to maintain power—like permitting foreign interference and encouraging acts of war, not to mention suppressing the vote and enshrining minority rule in constitutional and statutory law—even if those acts slowly eat away the foundations of our democratic covenant.

Now imagine the press corps reporting the obvious truth.

I think things would be different.

THIS SHOWS THAT AGAIN THE WHITE HOUSE IS LYING AND USING CYA REASONING TO DENY THAT AMERICA JUST ENGAGED IN AN ACT OF WAR AGAINST A SOVEREIGN NATION BY ASSASSINATING ONE OF IT'S STATE OFFICIALS IN VIOLATION OF THE HAGUE AGREEMENT  THIS IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY AND A WAR CRIME WHICH IS WHY THE USA DENIES THE LEGITIMACY OF THE NUERNBERG COURT THE ICC BY ANY OTHER NAME.
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In the UK and the US, populism can’t stop a declining steel industry

By Cristina Maza December 2019

A billboard for British Steel photographed in Scunthorpe,

 England on 25 September 2019.
(Joseph M. Giordano)


Michael Murphy, 61, was born and raised in Scunthorpe, a small industrial city in the north of England that sprang up in the late 19th century following the discovery of large deposits of iron ore.

The steel industry is a vital part of the global economy that each year transforms iron ore into products worth around US$2.5 trillion. The material is used to make everything from home appliances to cars to skyscrappers.

For over 100 years, labourers flocked from around the British Isles to work in Scunthorpe’s steelworks. Michael’s late father, a manual labourer from Ireland, arrived in the city as a young man to work for the British Steel Company. The job allowed him to support his children and purchase a semi-detached house for his growing family.

When Michael was a young man, he too worked for British Steel during the summers, shoveling piles of fine steel dust. And Michael’s sister started her career as a secretary working for the company. Michael remembers his childhood in Scunthorpe fondly, and he says that British Steel played a central role in his upbringing.

“We were a working-class family,” he tells Equal Times. “I had a perfect childhood because I had loving parents. Once a year we would go on a trip to the coast organised by British Steel.”


“Almost every family in this town has some connection to British Steel,” Michael, a longtime Labour Party activist, continues. “If the company folds this town will become a ghost town, or heroin central.”

For months, this was the cloud of fear that hung over Scunthorpe after British Steel, the country’s second largest steel producer, went into liquidation in May. Between the main production site in Scunthorpe and rolling facilities in Teeside in the north-east of England, an estimated 4,000 jobs were at risk, not to mention 20,000 jobs in the supply chain. Last month, affected workers were able to breathe a sigh of relief after the Chinese firm Jingye announced plans to purchase the plant for £70 million (approximately US$90 million) and invest over £1.2 billion (approximately US$1.5 billion) in British Steel over the next decade.

Scunthorpe’s predicament is familiar to people living in what was once the centre of the steel industry in the United States. Places like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania were, like Scunthorpe, built on the steel industry and ultimately transformed when forced to face the industry’s decline. The Bethlehem Steel steelworks in Sparrows Point outside of Baltimore, Maryland provided high wages and union-protected jobs that supported tens of thousands of families in the mid-20th century. The company shuttered for good in 2012. Places like Youngstown, Ohio and Gary, Indiana had their economies decimated in the late 1980s after steel plants closed. And these are just a few examples.

Andrew Morton, a 67-year-old former steel worker from Baltimore, was one of the last people working for Bethlehem Steel before it closed its doors in 2012, slashing the roughly 2,000 jobs that remained. He had been working for the company since he was 18 years old.

“A lot of people lost their jobs. It caused a lot of hardship,” Morton says. “Bethlehem Steel played a major part in the economy and allowed middle income families to do things like pay for college. When they lost those incomes some people adapted, but some people committed suicide. Most people didn’t do very well.”
Trump’s trade war and the UK’s Brexit-related chaos

The steel industry has been in decline in both the United Kingdom and the United States since the 1980s, thanks to shifting global markets, new technologies and governments that have been reluctant to prop up a struggling industry. China now dominates global steel production, an industry that the US and UK commanded together in the 19th century. But right-leaning populists on both sides of the Atlantic recently promised that the steel industry could be revived with the right policies.

Populists have attempted to win political points by exploiting the discontent of workers who see their wages stagnate as living costs rise. They have promised to revive struggling industries for steel and coal workers, even though economists say that their goals are unrealistic in the current global economy.

US president Donald Trump levied tariffs of up to 25 per cent on steel imports in an effort to boost the US steel industry. Meanwhile, the UK’s Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage claimed that British Steel could have avoided going into liquidation if the United Kingdom had left the European Union sooner, citing the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme – which incentivises heavy industry to cut carbon emissions – as a factor contributing to the industry’s decline.


Instead, Trump’s trade policies and the UK’s Brexit-induced political turmoil have thrown their respective steel industries into chaos. The US Steel Company lost around 70 per cent of its market value, or around US$5.5 billion, and shuttered several mills after the Trump administration levied its tariffs on steel imports.

The US Steel Company did not respond to requests for comment.

Much of the turmoil is thanks to competition from Beijing. Last year, China produced around 51 per cent of global steel output, or 928.3 million metric tons. By comparison, the US comes in fourth globally, producing 86.7 million metric tons of steel in 2018. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, only produces between five and six million metric tons annually, according to recent data. It is the fifth largest steel producer in the European Union, but it does not make the top ten list of global steel producers.

In early October, the US credit ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook for the entire US steel industry from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ and released a statement affirming that the situation is not expected to improve. Prices that hovered above US$800 a ton dropped to US$520 a ton in the last half of 2018.

Meanwhile, economists note that the uncertainty caused by Brexit has sped up the decline of the UK’s steel industry. Many buyers of British steel have opted to cancel their contracts until it becomes clear which tariffs they will pay in the wake of the UK’s eventual exit from the European Union.

Steel unions have warned that a no-deal Brexit, in which the country would leave the European Union without a deal, would leave their industry vulnerable. EU regulations against steel dumping from China have long protected British steelworkers.

“British Steel would not have gone into liquidation but for the threat of a no-deal exit from the EU. That’s an incontrovertible fact,” says Nic Dakin, who is standing to be re-elected as a Labour Member of Parliament for Scunthorpe during the upcoming UK general election on 12 December.

Hit hard by voting to leave

Still, 68.68 per cent of the people in Scunthorpe who voted in the Brexit referendum voted to leave the European Union.

Denise Thompson, who runs a hotel near the British Steel plant, says she voted in favour of Brexit because she didn’t want money that could be spent on the UK’s National Health Service to line the pockets of diplomats in Brussels. She still wants the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, but she admits that business has been bad since the Brexit referendum. The number of contractors that British Steel employs has dropped precipitously, leading to fewer guests at the hotel, she says.

“People come for one night instead of for three or four weeks,” she tells Equal Times. “We used to have a couple of thousand guest workers stay every season. Now it’s virtually none, perhaps between 40 and 50.”

Thompson says that a lot of her friends and acquaintances in Scunthorpe are reluctant to spend money because they don’t know if they’ll still have a job tomorrow. And many worry that their working conditions will become more precarious.

Gwylim Glyndwr Williams, 60, began working for British Steel at the age of 19 and rose to become a team leader and a union member on the National Trade Union Steel Coordinating Committee. He recently retired after 40 years with the company, but he voted for the UK to remain in the EU because he trusts the employment laws made in Brussels more than those established by the ruling Conservative Party, which he says has abandoned British Steel’s workers.

“Over the years, the Conservatives have been in power more times than Labour. It’s just the way it is,” Williams says. “But the European Union had some great employment laws over the years. The laws that came in were far superior to our old health and safety laws. In this country the government has always watered down the legislation, but under the European banner we’ve been protected.”

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