Former Chief-of-Staff to Colin Powell:The US is Laying Groundwork for War with Iran

Two days after President Trump  took the unprecedented step of labelling the a wing of a foreign military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a “terrorist organisation” US secretary of state Mike Pompeo claimed there were “very real” connections between the Shia-Islam-dominated Iranian government with the Wahhabi-Islam fundamentalist al-Qaeda.

 The linkage means the White House could use the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which the US Congress passed to go after those who committed 9/11 attacks, to attack Iran.

 Former chief-of-staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson said that Pompeo’s attempts to link al-Qaeda with Iran is one of the last building blocks "in setting the stage for a war with Iran; for the use of military force against Iran."

 Wilkerson told The Real News Network that "my experience, as well as my research over the last 15 years in academia, leads me to believe… there is almost no contact [between Iran and al-Qaeda]...

 "Iran has been a receptor… of terrorist attacks just like the United States, Europe, and other places have been. So Iran is not a sponsor of terrorism...

 "The greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the region, and indeed in the world, is Saudi Arabia—our ally."

 -RW