Tag: assassinations

Iran’s new supreme leader is named as Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba – Iranian TV network reports

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly been appointed Iran‘s new Supreme Leader.  

Mojtaba, 56, Ali Khamenei’s second oldest son, has strong links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and was chosen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts ‘under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards’, according to Iranian opposition outlet Iran International.

Mojtaba is not a high-ranking cleric, has never held office and does not have an official role in the regime. 

But he served in the Iranian armed forces during the Iran-Iraq war and is believed to wield considerable influence behind the scenes. He has been touted as a possible successor to his father for years.

However, he was not included in a list of three senior clerics Ali Khamenei reportedly identified last year. 

And his father is said to have indicated opposition to his candidacy because it would resemble the hereditary rule enacted by the US-backed Shah monarchy before it was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

Father-to-son succession is also viewed negatively in the Shiite Muslim clerical establishment in Iran.   

But much of Iran’s top brass has been decimated in the latest conflict and Mojtaba has close ties with the powerful IRGC and the Basij volunteer paramilitary force.

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How Israel and the FBI manipulated assassination plots to goad Trump into Iran war

The FBI manufactured plots to convince Trump that Iran sought to kill him, while Israel and its administration allies exploited the president’s deepest fears to keep him on the war path.

“I got him before he got me,” an ebullient President Donald Trump remarked to a reporter when asked about his motives for authorizing the killing of Iran’s Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on February 28, 2026.

With his off-the-cuff remark, Trump revealed that anxiety about his own assassination at the hands of Iranian agents influenced his decision to initiate a US-Israeli regime change war that has already resulted in American casualties, the bombings of schools and hospitals inside Iran, devastating Iranian retaliatory strikes on US military bases and embassies, and a spiraling global economic crisis.

Trump’s generalized fears of assassination were well-founded. He was nearly killed in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024 by a 20-year-old engineering student named Thomas Crooks who managed to fire eight rounds at the former president from a rooftop, slicing his ear and missing his head by a hair’s breadth. Two months later, a drifter named Ryan Routh was arrested after hiding for hours in the shrubbery outside the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida. Routh had been spotted after pointing an assault rifle toward a Secret Service agent as Trump played golf 400 yards away. 

Officials have yet to produce any evidence that Iran played a role in either of these attempts on Trump’s life. Yet since those fateful events, Israel-aligned Trump advisors, Israeli intelligence, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself have gone to extreme lengths in order to tie Tehran to the plots. More shocking still is the fact that the FBI has manufactured a series of assassination plots, successfully convincing Trump that Iran was hunting him on US soil with highly sophisticated teams of hit men.

The man accused of leading the most significant of these operations, Asif Merchant, is currently on trial in a Brooklyn, NY federal court. After the US granted him a visa despite his presence on a terror watchlist, Merchant was in the constant company of an FBI confidential informant who ultimately steered the contrived plot to its conclusion. He never stood a chance of realizing his plans, and did not appear serious about doing so.

Independent journalist Ken Silva puts it succinctly in his forthcoming investigative book, “The Trump Assassination Plots”: “A closer look at the Merchant case reveals that at the very least…it was a highly controlled FBI sting operation that never posed a threat to Trump. More nefariously, records and whistleblower disclosures indicate that Merchant may have been the patsy in a case totally fabricated by the undercover agents.”

Authorities arrested Merchant on July 12, 2024 – just one day before Crooks attempted to kill Trump in Butler. Hours after the failed Butler assassination, FBI agents interrogated Merchant about whether it was in fact Iran that had Crooks under its control. 

At that point, Trump was still campaigning to be a “President of Peace. On the campaign stump, he warned that his opponent, Kamala Harris, “would get us into World War III guaranteed.” Trump vowed to resolve the war between Ukraine and Russia in one day, and distanced himself from pro-war Republicans who sought regime change in Iran. 

Pro-war elements in Trump’s coterie exercised multiple points of leverage to reverse the president’s anti-interventionist instincts. Ultra-Zionist billionaires supplied vital and well-documented influence over Trump’s policies by keeping his campaign war chest flush. But Trump remained an erratic personality whose petty grievances kept his aides in a perpetual state of uncertainty.

It was only by exploiting Trump’s deepest psychological vulnerability – his fear of an assassin’s bullet – that Israel and its cutouts in his administration were able to secure their influence over the president, keeping him on the warpath against Iran. 

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A trial seeks to tie Iranian paramilitary to alleged assassination plot in US

While the U.S. fights a widening war in Iran, American prosecutors are airing claims that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was entangled in a foiled 2024 assassination plot that eyed then-candidate Donald Trump as a possible target.

The alleged scheme is at the center of a criminal trial that started in a federal court in New York last week, days before the Mideast combat that now looms in the background.

“This trial is happening in interesting times,” Judge Eric Komitee told lawyers this week in the case of Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national accused of trying to hire hit men to kill a U.S. politician. Merchant didn’t name a target but searched online for Trump rally locations, according to prosecutors, who introduced evidence Tuesday that Merchant’s laptop contained photos of both Trump and then-President Joe Biden at a time when they were rivals for the presidency.

An FBI agent testified Tuesday that Merchant told her he had a Revolutionary Guard “handler” and believed the handler would help bankroll the plan. Merchant’s lawyer suggested the purported statements might not be accurate.

Merchant, 47, has pleaded not guilty to attempted terrorism and other charges. His attorneys say prosecutors are trying to wedge evidence into a narrative that doesn’t fit.

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Top Hezbollah Political Chief Muhammad Ra’ad Assassinated in Beirut — Major Blow to Iran’s Terror Proxy Network in Lebanon

Top Hezbollah political leader Muhammad Ra’ad, head of the group’s parliamentary faction and one of Iran’s most prominent proxies in Lebanese politics, has reportedly been assassinated in Beirut.

According to the Israeli war room, Ra’ad, who led the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc in Lebanon’s Parliament since 2000 and was a key figure rejecting disarmament and advocating for Hezbollah’s armed domination, was killed in precision strikes early Monday.

According to MTV Lebanon (Murr Television), a leading independent Lebanese television station:

“Event”: Assassination of MP Muhammad Raad in an Israeli airstrike

According to Al-Hadath, a Saudi Arabian state-owned, Arabic-language satellite news channel:

Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath sources reported on Monday morning that the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, was killed in the Israeli raids. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported an initial toll of 31 dead and 149 wounded from the Israeli raids on Lebanon.

This comes as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun asserted that launching rockets at Israel harms efforts to spare Lebanon from regional conflict, while our correspondents reported the closure of all schools and educational institutions in Lebanon by a decision of the Ministry of Education.

Aoun stated in a statement that “the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory at dawn today targets all the efforts and endeavors made by the Lebanese state to keep Lebanon away from the dangerous military confrontations taking place in the region.”

Hezbollah had previously claimed responsibility for missile and drone attacks on Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

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SCATHING: CBS Contributor and Target of an Iranian Assassination Plot Masih Alinejad SHREDS Radical Rep. Ilhan Omar for Sympathizing with Terrorist Regime

Masih Alinejad, the courageous Iranian-American journalist and current CBS News contributor who has survived multiple Tehran-backed assassination plots, took to X to expose the staggering hypocrisy of “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).

Alinejad, who recently faced her would-be assassins in a New York federal court, did not hold back.

She issued a “letter from an Iranian woman wounded by the regime,” accusing Omar of maintaining a cozy ambiguity toward the Islamic Republic while the regime systematically slaughters its own people.

The heart of Alinejad’s message centered on the tragic story of Sara Saeidi, a 39-year-old mother of two who was executed by the regime while peacefully protesting.

At the time of her death, she was reportedly wearing a sweatshirt that said “MANHATTAN” with an American flag, which some activists claim symbolized her desire for freedom.

Following her death, Iranian authorities allegedly falsified her death certificate, listing the cause of death as a “collision with agricultural machinery” to mask the shooting.

Alinejad’s critique highlights a growing frustration among Iranian dissidents who see far-left U.S. lawmakers as “anti-war” only when it benefits the mullahs in Tehran. She slammed Omar’s “No War With Iran” campaigns as a shield for the regime’s internal massacre of over 30,000 civilians.

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Iranians flood streets in mourning as Tehran confirms assassination of supreme leader

Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran and other cities across the country on 1 March, hours after state television confirmed the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic. 

Video footage showed millions of people on the streets of the capital and other cities, waving Iranian flags and mourning the leader’s death.

Protests against the US and Israel have also erupted in Pakistan and Iraq. 

Angry protesters in Pakistan’s Karachi attempted to storm the US consulate on Sunday morning. At least ten have been shot dead by Pakistani security forces and US consulate personnel. Thousands protested in Kashmir as well.

Iraqis also stormed the Green Zone in Baghdad, where the US embassy is located. The popular movements coincided with continued US-Israeli strikes on Iran and retaliatory drone and missile operations targeting Israel and Washington’s assets across the region. Iraqi resistance groups have also begun drone operations against US bases. 

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‘Charlie Kirk Wasn’t Assassinated, He Died From White on White Gun Violence’: Florida State Dem Rep

Ashley Viola Gantt criticized efforts to commemorate Charlie Kirk, arguing that he should not be honored in Florida and that discussions surrounding his death should be framed with more precise language.

Speaking about proposals to mark a day of remembrance, Gantt said the First Amendment already protects free speech and questioned the need for additional recognition.

“We want to talk about exercising free speech. Let’s ball so the First Amendment protects free speech. We don’t need this day of remembrance for a man that was mediocre and racist, and I say mediocre at best, he was not a Floridian,” Gantt said.

“He had no ties to Florida other than owning property.”

Gantt added that Florida is home to individuals and organizations who promote what she described as non-divisive free speech.

“We have a number of Floridians, both individuals and organizations that promote free speech that is not divisive, like this individual was,” she said.

Addressing how Kirk’s death has been characterized in public discourse, Gantt emphasized the importance of word choice.

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OUTRAGEOUS: Florida House Democrats Oppose Bill Honoring TPUSA Founder Charlie Kirk — Insist He Was “Not Assassinated,” but Died from “Gun Violence”

The radical Left’s hatred for conservative heroes apparently follows them even to the grave.

In a disgusting display of partisan spite, Florida House Democrats spent Wednesday afternoon attempting to block a bill that would honor the late Turning Point USA founder and conservative icon Charlie Kirk.

Despite Kirk being gunned down in cold blood while exercising his First Amendment rights at a rally in Utah last September, Florida Democrats took to the floor to argue that the man who inspired millions of young patriots was “mediocre” and, wait for it, was not actually “assassinated.”

Instead, these radical lawmakers insisted that the targeted political killing of a prominent conservative leader should merely be classified as “gun violence.”

The bill, HB 125, which designates October 14 as “Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance,” was sponsored by Rep. Yvette Benarroch (R-Marco Island).

Benarroch described the bill as a tribute to a man who “encouraged a generation to read the Constitution and love this great country.”

The measure cleared the chamber by a vote of 82–31, with nearly all opposition coming from Democrats.

But during committee deliberations, Florida House Democrats took issue with language describing Kirk’s death as an assassination, instead insisting it should be categorized more broadly as an act of “gun violence.”

Democrat State Rep. Ashley Viola Gantt openly objected to the bill’s wording.

Rep. Ashley Viola Gantt:
“We want to talk about the exercise of free speech. Let’s ball.

The First Amendment protects free speech. We don’t need this day of remembrance for a man who was mediocre and racist—I say mediocre at best. He was not a Floridian. He had no ties to Florida other than owning property. We have a number of Floridians—both individuals and organizations—that promote free speech that is not divisive like this individual was.

If we want to talk about free speech, let’s talk about being precise with our words. When we hear “assassination,” that’s typically related to a person in a political position. Charlie Kirk died from gun violence. We continuously advocate for gun policy—legislation that would ensure that people who probably shouldn’t have a gun don’t have a gun.

Was his passing tragic for those who loved him? Absolutely. There is no denying that. But he was not assassinated, and words being accurate matters. It was a death by gun violence. That is an issue here in the country that we should all be on the same page about addressing.

And if we want to talk about free speech, a lot of people say, “That was some white-on-white crime.” Why aren’t we addressing it in that regard? What are we doing about white-on-white crime? So, Charlie Kirk was not someone whom children in the state of Florida should be subjected to honoring.”

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Judge Denies Tyler Robinson’s Request to Disqualify Utah Prosecutors from Kirk Murder Case

Judge Tony Graf on Tuesday denied Tyler Robinson’s request to disqualify Utah prosecutors in the Charlie Kirk murder case.

Last month Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson sought to disqualify Utah prosecutors on the case over a conflict of interest.

Robinson fatally shot TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025 during an event at Utah Valley University.

A child of one of the Utah County Attorney’s Office prosecutors was 85 feet away from Charlie Kirk and police rushed in to protect her.

Robinson was charged with:

– Count 1: Aggravated murder (capital offense)
– Count 2: Felony reckless discharge of a firearm causing bodily injury
– Count 3: Felony obstruction of justice for hiding the firearm
– Count 4: Felony obstruction of justice for discarding the clothing he wore during the shooting
– Count 5: Witness tampering for asking roommate to delete incriminating messages
– Count 6: Witness tampering for demanding trans roommate stay silent, and not speak to police
– Count 7: Commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child

Utah prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty.

Robinson, 22, has three public defenders: Kathy Nester, Michael Burt, and Richard Novak.

On Tuesday, Judge Graf denied Robinson’s motion to disqualify the Utah County prosecutors office.

“Because the defendant has not established a factual basis for a finding of a conflict of interest or an objective appearance of impropriety rising to a constitutional concern, his motion is respectfully denied,” Judge Graf said.

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UK trace found in assassination attempt on Russian general – FSB chief

Britain’s secret services were involved in the attempted assassination of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, Aleksandr Bortnikov, the Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), has stated.

Alekseyev, first deputy chief of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), was shot several times in the back earlier this month as he waited by an elevator in his apartment block in western Moscow. He survived the attack.

The Russian authorities have since detained three suspects in connection with the assassination attempt, including the alleged gunman – identified as 65-year-old Ukrainian-born Russian citizen Lyubomir Korba – who was extradited to Russia with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates.

In an interview with Vesti TV channel on Sunday, Bortnikov reiterated that the assassination attempt was orchestrated by Kiev’s intelligence services. However, they had been acting with the support of “third countries,” Bortnikov said.

“We see the UK trace here, first and foremost. That’s why the investigation continues,” the FSB chief said, without providing further details. He pledged that Russia would not allow the attack to go unanswered, describing any public discussion of specific retaliatory measures as “a delicate issue.”

“We are closely monitoring everything that is happening. Of course, we will never forget, and we will never forgive,” Bortnikov added.

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