US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was moved from his Washington DC home to a military base this week after US intelligence assessed the threat to his life from Iranian hitmen was growing.
asserted
threat → move → hitmen
As the cabinet minister responsible for toughening economic sanctions against the regime in Tehran, he’s long been an Iranian target.
asserted
he → toughen → Tehran
Now it has been decided he needs enhanced protection.
asserted
he → decide → protection
The Iranian suspected of plotting to murder John Bolton, a former US national security adviser, has just been placed on the FBI’s ‘most wanted’ list, with a $20million bounty on his head.
asserted
Iranian → suspect → head
Again, Bolton has been an Iranian target for some time but the FBI’s move indicates a new urgency in catching the man out to kill him.
asserted
move → indicate → him
Mohammed al-Saadi, accused of being an operative for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (the IRGC), was arrested in Turkey in May and extradited to America on eight terrorist charges.
uncertain
Saadi → accuse → charges
He’s believed to have headed up a group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or Hayi, an IRGC front which Western intelligence says was behind a wave of 20 terrorist attacks in Europe earlier this year.
asserted
intelligence → believe → Europe
Seven of these were in Britain, including the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green and arson attacks on UK synagogues.
asserted
Seven → include → synagogues
Ever since Donald Trump ordered the execution of the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force by drone in January 2020, he has been paranoid about being assassinated by Iran
Mohammed al-Saadi, was extradited to America on eight terrorist charges after being accused of being an operative for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard
This week he was indicted for involvement in multiple acts of terrorism, among them the attempted attack on RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, where American B-I bombers were based.
asserted
bombers → order → Gloucestershire
He’s believed to have orchestrated this and many other attacks by passing coded messages via his family in Iran to two IRGC operatives in Tehran, even (to America’s embarrassment) from his prison cell in Brooklyn.
asserted
He → believe → Brooklyn
One of these operatives, Mohammed al-Hassini, who used to live in Britain, is believed to have paid his UK contacts to scout potential bases to attack and buy vans, fuel and shrapnel-type items.
asserted
who → use → vans
He is even said to have been the man who ordered the three vans loaded with barrels of petrol to head for RAF Fairford.
asserted
who → say → Fairford
They were apprehended near the base’s perimeter only because one of the would-be terrorists panicked when he came to believe the consignment included a bomb and called the police.
asserted
consignment → apprehend → police
Two of the men subsequently arrested await trial charged with assisting Iranian intelligence.
asserted
Two → arrest → intelligence
The US Justice Department has released a photograph of al-Hassini and his sidekick, Mohsen Mohajeri, sitting in front of a laptop showing a map of Greater London.
asserted
Department → release → London
In a video of the meeting one of them is heard to say: ‘We need to get focused on London.’
asserted
We → hear → London
US intelligence is in no doubt that al-Saadi, al Hassini and Mohajeri were the trio orchestrating recent Iranian terrorist acts on British soil.
asserted
Saadi → orchestrate → soil
Senior defence and security officials in Washington, from where I write these words, are also increasingly concerned about Britain’s capacity to protect vital US assets based in our country.
asserted
I → write → country
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting muttered about spending more to defend the military bases.
asserted
Streeting → mutter → bases
But it’s a pittance, spread over several years
That’s why all 12 B-1 bombers were immediately evacuated from Fairford in the aftermath of the abortive attack and sent back to their home bases in America.
asserted
bombers → ’ → America
This week 10 KC-135 refuelling tankers were removed from RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and re-positioned in Germany and Spain.
asserted
tankers → refuel → Germany
It speaks volumes for America’s assessment of our ability to protect its assets that it reckons its military planes will be safer in Spain, run by an anti-American socialist, than the UK.
asserted
planes → speak → UK
It’s not just the Labour Government’s continued failure to spend anything like enough on defence that dismays the US government.
asserted
that → ’ → government
It’s an apparent unwillingness to recognise the scale of the Iranian threat and respond accordingly.
asserted
It → ’ → threat
The head of MI5 says British intelligence has been tracking more than 20 ‘potentially lethal’ Iran-backed plots in the UK and that over 50 arrests have been made in the past 12 months in connection with ‘Iran-linked operations’.
asserted
arrests → say → operations
Yet even that hasn’t shaken the Government out of its torpor.
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that → shake → torpor
I found the dismay with Britain in Washington to be palpable.
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dismay → find → Washington
‘We are in receipt of copious intelligence that increased Iranian-backed terrorist activity is more than likely,’ a senior US security source told me.
asserted
source → increase → me
‘We know it will be varied, extensive and potentially deadly.
asserted
it → know → ?
Yet your government acts as if it’s just business as usual.
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it → act → ?
‘Instead of telling the Iranian ambassador in London to pack his bags and head home,’ he added, ‘your foreign secretary [Ed Miliband] shakes hands with the Iranian foreign minister at the UN.
asserted
secretary → tell → UN
Not one senior British Government minister has spoken out forcefully against what Iran is up to.
asserted
Iran → speak → what
All Andy Burnham could bring himself to say in the aftermath of the RAF Fairford incident was that there were ‘strong indications’ of Iranian involvement.
uncertain
Burnham → bring → involvement
No rallying call to unite the nation against those who would do us harm.
asserted
who → unite → harm
Wes Streeting, our ineffectual defence minister, muttered about spending more to defend the bases.
asserted
Streeting → mutter → bases
But it’s a pittance, spread over several years.
asserted
it → ’ → years
He doesn’t have the money to do anything effective.
asserted
He → have → anything
No wonder the Americans have taken it on themselves to declare a ‘Charlie’ threat level at the bases they use in the UK (one below ‘Delta’, the highest, indicating an imminent attack).
asserted
they → take → attack
Yet the scale of the Iranian danger can hardly be denied – and it’s not just human.
asserted
it → deny → danger
Iran is mobilising cyber capabilities against us and our allies too.
asserted
Iran → mobilise → us
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
