Published 12:40 IST, January 14th 2020
Trump says "doesn't matter" whether Soleimani was 'imminent' threat or not
US President Donald Trump said that it doesn’t really matter whether the slain Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was an imminent threat or not
US President Donald Trump took to social media site Twitter and said that it doesn’t really matter whether the slain Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was an imminent threat or not.
Trump mentioned that Democrats and journalists have been repeatedly enquiring about the credible information regarding ‘imminent threat’ posed by Soleimani that forced the Trump administration to order the killing. Calling such journalists “Fake News Media”, the US President evoked Soleimani’s “horrible past” to justify his killing.
'Imminent threat' controversy
Trump administration’s ‘imminent threat’ reasoning came under a cloud after the officials kept shifting the definitions saying they didn’t know the precise details of the threat.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been inconsistent with the threat information and said they were unaware of the exact date and time of the potential attack but claimed that Soleimani was plotting a broad, large-scale attack against American interests and those attacks were imminent.
During a press briefing on January 10, Pompeo was asked whether the attack was planned against an embassy to which he replied it was planned against US facilities throughout the region including American embassies, military bases.
A journalist even went on to ask Pompeo about his definition of ‘imminent’. The former CIA director said, “This was going to happen, and American lives were at risk... we would have been culpably negligent had we not recommended to the President that he take this action at Qasem Soleimani.”
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said that the Trump administration can not take military action against another nation without congressional consent unless to defend against an imminent attack. “It’s clear now this was an illegal action. That also has made America less safe,” he tweeted.
Updated 12:40 IST, January 14th 2020