On Tuesday, even Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress that Iran’s attempts to assassinate former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are real and ongoing.
In fact, there have been multiple assassination attempts against Pompeo by Iranian officials seeking revenge for the death of General Qassem Soleimani, intel reports confirmed.
Now that he’s out of the office, it has become more dangerous for him because there has been less security compared to before.
Unfortunately, Biden’s admin didn’t even bother to condemn Iran for making threats against Pompeo’s life.
Iranian officials seeking revenge for the 2020 assassination of terrorist Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani have focused much of their fury on former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose life remains in jeopardy more than a year after leaving office. https://t.co/2aOiblziof
— Newsmax (@newsmax) April 28, 2022
Sen. Ted Cruz grilled Blinken for shrugging off the threats on Pompeo’s life:
After reports of threats to former members of the Trump administration, Sen. Ted Cruz asked Sec. Antony Blinken if current U.S. officials told Iran to ‘stop trying to murder the former Secretary of State [Mike Pompeo]’ pic.twitter.com/H4xGRiMuoB
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 26, 2022
More details of this story from SCMP report:
Iran’s attempts to assassinate former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo are real and ongoing, his successor, Antony Blinken, told Congress on Tuesday. Testifying before a Senate panel, Blinken acknowledged details made public last month in a sensitive State
Department report that outlined a security arrangement for the former secretary involving round-the-clock government protection.
“I’m not sure what I can say in an open setting, but let me say generically that there is an ongoing threat against American officials, both present and past,” Blinken said. “We are making sure and we will make sure for as long as it takes that we’re protecting our people, present and former, if they’re under threat.”
Pompeo, a former US secretary of state and CIA director under President Donald Trump, was one of the architects of the Trump administration’s hard-line approach to Tehran, reimplementing sanctions after the US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal and supporting the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general.
“There is an ongoing threat against American officials both present and past” from Iran, Blinken says after Cruz asks him about a report that State is spending $2 million a month to protect ex-Secretrary Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook.https://t.co/gMrSvdfujo
— Daniel Flatley (@DanielPFlatley) April 26, 2022
Previously Iran released this video which depicted both Trump and Pompeo being attacked by a drone strike:
Watch it here: WION/Youtube
Daily Mail reported:
Pompeo was automatically given 180 days of protection by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security after leaving office. But that protection has been repeatedly extended in 60-day increments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to ‘a serious and credible threat from a foreign power or agent of a foreign power arising from duties performed by former Secretary Pompeo while employed by the department,’ the report said.
Hook, who along with Pompeo was often the public face of the Trump administration’s imposition of crippling sanctions against Iran, was granted the special protection by Blinken for the same reason as Pompeo immediately after he left government service. That has also been repeatedly renewed in 60-day increments.
The latest 60-day extensions will expire soon and the State Department, in conjunction with the Director of National Intelligence, must determine by March 16 if the protection should extended again, according to the report.
It is likely that protection will be extended ‘based upon [the] current threat reporting and the need for additional protective measures since January 2021,’ the Washington Examiner reported.