Shortly before the United States and Israel were poised to launch an attack on Iran, the C.I.A. zeroed in on the location of perhaps the most important target: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader.
The C.I.A. had been tracking Ayatollah Khamenei for months, gaining more confidence about his locations and his patterns, according to people familiar with the operation. Then the agency learned that a meeting of top Iranian officials would take place on Saturday morning at a leadership compound in the heart of Tehran. Most critically, the C.I.A. learned that the supreme leader would be at the site.
The United States and Israel decided to adjust the timing of their attack, in part to take advantage of the new intelligence, according to officials with knowledge of the decisions.
The information provided a window of opportunity for the two countries to achieve a critical and early victory: the elimination of top Iranian officials and the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei.
The remarkably swift removal of Iran’s supreme leader reflected the close coordination and intelligence sharing between the United States and Israel in the run-up to the attack, and the deep intelligence the countries had developed on Iranian leadership, especially in the wake of last year’s 12-day war. The operation also showed the failure of Iran’s leaders to take adequate precautions to avoid exposing themselves at a time where both Israel and the United States sent clear signals that they were preparing for war.
The C.I.A. passed its intelligence, which offered “high fidelity” on Ayatollah Khamenei’s position, to Israel, according to people briefed on the intelligence.
They and others who shared details about the operation spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence and military planning.
Israel, using U.S. intelligence and its own, would execute an operation it had been planning for months: the targeted killing of Iran’s senior leaders.
The United States and Israeli governments, which had originally planned to launch a strike at night under the cover of darkness, made the decision to adjust the timing to take advantage of the information about the gathering at the government compound in Tehran on Saturday morning.
The leaders were set to meet where the offices of the Iranian presidency, the supreme leader and Iran’s National Security Council are located.
Israel had determined that the gathering would include top Iranian defense officials, including Mohammad Pakpour, the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps; Aziz Nasirzadeh, the minister of defense; Adm. Ali Shamkhani, the head of the Military Council; Seyyed Majid Mousavi, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force; Mohammad Shirazi, the deputy intelligence minister; and others.
The operation began around 6 a.m. in Israel, as fighter jets took off from their bases. The strike required relatively few aircraft, but they were armed with long-range and highly accurate munitions.
Two hours and five minutes after the jets took off, at around 9:40 a.m. in Tehran, the long-range missiles struck the compound. At the time of the strike, senior Iranian national security officials were in one building at the compound. Ayatollah Khamenei was in another nearby building.
“This morning’s strike was carried out simultaneously at several locations in Tehran, in one of which senior figures of Iran’s political-security echelon had gathered,” an Israeli defense official wrote in a message reviewed by The New York Times.
The official said that despite Iranian preparations for war, Israel managed to achieve “tactical surprise” with its attack on the compound.
The White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment.
On Sunday, Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, confirmed the deaths of two high-level military leaders whom Israel said it had killed on Saturday: Admiral Shamkhani and General Pakpour.
Israel did not strike; The US and Israel did. Together. We must always remind readers that the US is pair-bonded with Israel in a regime bent on genocide and destruction in the name of profit.
20:1 Israel is the next country to catch a nuke. I’m an optimist though
Israel struck using its American lackeys. American people couldnt care less what Iran does and didnt want war. Theres zero will for war with Iran.
Also when people throw that “we need to support our country and support Israel” in your face, (as if opposing authoritarian governments means you also oppose all Israelis and Americans, including those opposed to their own authoritarian governments), consider reminding them of the reality behind the U.S. government’s support of Israel:
U.S. staunch support of Israel can indeed be traced back to the late 1940s following WWII. However, not because the U.S. government were made up of the all American heros who wanted the world to know they stood in solidarity with Jewish people following the Holocaust (to be clear this is what I was always taught and believed was true until a few months ago).
It was because they needed an established ally in the middle east to help them control oil reserves, and to oppose socialism in Palestine they worried would lead to alignment between Israel, Palestine, and the Soviets as well as the Soviets gaining strength via control of those oil reserves.
Not to mention, the decision to “support” Israel following WWII, occured while members of the U.S. government were also secretly carrying out Operation Paperclip, and helping Nazi war criminals escape justice! Because once again, the truth has always been that the main concern of those in control of U.S. foreign policy following WWII, was to ensure the Soviets did not gain an advantage over the U.S. as a superpower. In the case of Operation Paperclip, the U.S. was concerned the Soviets would use information held by Nazi war criminals to advance the science and technology of their own governments.
And to further emphasize why it’s always been such a bullshit bad faith argument to claim opposition to the anti-democratic fascist authoritarians who hide their crimes behind government power and claims of nationalism/patriotism, automatically means you also oppose the countries they use as shields to carry out this bullshit, guess what government agency just so happened to carry out Operation Paperclip?
The forerunner to the CIA, because of course they fucking did:
•Operation Paperclip (1945-1959): Although he officially sanctioned the operation, President Harry Truman forbade the agency from recruiting any Nazi members or active Nazi supporters. Nevertheless, officials within the JIOA and Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the forerunner to the CIA—bypassed this directive by eliminating or whitewashing incriminating evidence of possible war crimes from the scientists’ records, believing their intelligence to be crucial to the country’s postwar efforts.
•President Joe Biden’s promise for the US to “stand with Israel” continues a special relationship that dates back to 1948, when President Harry Truman became the first world leader to recognize the Jewish state, moments after its creation.
•Oil drives our Israel policy: New government documents reveal a very different history of America and the Middle East
Honestly let all of that that sink in. Truman, the POTUS in 1948, the man who held the highest (elected) office in the country, didn’t even know the extent of what the OSS/CIA was doing when Operation Paperclip began. Since the very beginning, unelected individuals within U.S. intelligence agencies, have been completely unaccountable and answered to nobody.
They did it in Vietnam, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and they’re doing it again now in Iran (while also once again being buddy buddy with Saudi Arabia on the DL … I fucking wonder why 🤔)
They do whatever the fuck they want, all in the name of “spreading democracy and protecting national security.” And if you have a problem with it, then somehow you’re being unpatriotic and unAmerican. “You’re either with us or against us” is the most anti-democratic bullshit propaganda, and it’s exactly what has enabled these people to hold an inverted totalitarian grip on power since WWII. Now they’re nakedly helping the Trump administration destroy any remaining scraps of democracy at home, while continuing to cling to their interventionist bullshit lies in their never ending quest to protect corporate interests, gain profits, and control the majority of resources and territory around globe.
•Over the past several years, significant debate has emerged regarding the role that the private sector plays in national security operations. Since 9/11, the Intelligence Community has relied heavily on private contractors for many different types of support. Given the historic and growing ties between the Intelligence Community and private corporations, the 111th Congress will likely need to assess the overall value of this relationship. This memo provides members of Congress and their staffs with an overview of the role of private corporations working with and within the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC).
You say that as if it’s a bad thing - the Soviet Union was a hostile power and the USA needs oil.
Why not just be upfront about it then? Why did they try to hide the details for decades?
NYT (2010): Nazis Were Given ‘Safe Haven’ in U.S., Report Says
They kept it hidden because they knew even then that controlling public opinion depends on controlling the narrative and the information the public receives or doesn’t receive, hence reality based communities.
The history we’re told about the collapse of the Soviet Union, and creation of modern Russia’s own Oligarchy/managed “democracy,” also seems to follow a similar narrative control pattern, and never acknowledges the fact that key members of the Heritage Foundation (the organization behind Project 2025), who openly opposed democracy, were in the Soviet Union just before the collapse, coaching Soviet politicians and holding mock elections to help spread “democratic values.”
•“You capture the Soviet Union --I’m going to capture the states.”-Thomas Roe, Heritage Foundation board member and founder of the State Policy Network to fellow Heritage Foundation board member Robert Krieble.
•In 1989, the Krieble Institute was created “to promote democracy and economic freedom in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.”
•1989: A Republican in Moscow (WaPo article about Paul Weyrich holding mock elections)
•“I don’t want everyone to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”- Paul Weyrich (1980), creator of the Heritage Foundation.
•1991: RUSSIA HOUSE, TRADING IN ITS NAME WaPo Article about the first ever go between for U.S. and Russian businesses involving Weyrich and Krieble
•PBS Documentary about Weyrich and Krieble involvement in Collapse of USSR Playing For Power (2012)
But again, it’s just one of those things that nobody talks about or acknowledges for some reason, even as we’re watching the Heritage Foundation sitting in the White House, privatizing the U.S. government, and destroying any remaining scraps of democracy left in America.
Trump’s current CIA director coincidentally also has strong ties to Heritage.
•2024: Heritage Applauds John Ratcliffe as CIA Chief in President-elect Donald Trump’s Administration
Maybe in another 30+ years, we can start to open up the dialogue on the stuff we still don’t acknowledge today?
the same soviet union who beat back and down berlin?
Utter BS. the US has plenty of useful allies in the middle east and Israel has never been a functional one. We are allies through bribery, not shared interests.