| Резюме: |  MPI10/MediaPunch/IPX via Associated Press
- Members of the Trump administration have repeatedly said that Iran's top military general, Qassem Soleimani, posed an "imminent threat" to American lives in Iraq while explaining the justification for his assassination.
- But there are some huge loopholes in those claims.
- If there actually was an "imminent" threat to US interests in the region, that presumably means there were already cells in place in Iraq that were ready to carry out attacks on American personnel, Brett McGurk, a national-security veteran and Middle East expert, told MSNBC.
- "I assume those cells are still in place ... So removing Soleimani does not necessarily remove that threat at all," he added.
- Additional reporting from The New York Times' Rukmini Callimachi indicated that even the underlying intelligence the Trump administration has cited as necessitiating the strike against Soleimani is "razor thin."
- And one legal expert told the Washington Post that the phrase 'imminent threat' did not appear in the Pentagon's initial statement, suggesting "the lawyers realized that they had a problem on their hands."
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was unequivocal on Friday, saying that President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful military official, because of "imminent threats to American lives."
The Pentagon also called the strike a "defensive" action, and Trump said he gave the order to "stop a war," not start one.See the rest of the story at Business Insider NOW WATCH: A law professor weighs in on how Trump could beat impeachment See Also: SEE ALSO: Trump: Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani was 'hated and feared within the country' and 'should have been taken out many years ago!'  |