Was Ebrahim Raisi's death really an accident?
A review of what we know so far... plus a quick glance at the ICC application for arrest warrants against Israeli PM and Defense Minister as well as Hamas leaders.
It is certain now that all the passengers of the helicopter that crashed yesterday (Sunday 19th May 2024) in Iran are dead. Among them were:
the Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi (pictured above),
the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian,
the governor-general of Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, Malik Rahmati,
the imam of Tabriz (Iran), Muhammad Ali al-Hashem.
As per BBC, “Iranian authorities have so far not given a cause” of the helicopter crash. However, it is very likely that the accident was due to bad weather, considering photos and videos that have been circulating since yesterday afternoon - see for instance the video within the BBC article or the photos above (from yesterday) and below (from this morning, capturing the rescuers covering the bodies at the site of the helicopter crash, near Varazqan, in East Azerbaijan).
There is also some speculation about poor maintenance of the helicopter that was carrying Iran's president and foreign minister, a Bell 212, due to its age (~40 years) and Western sanctions, which make maintenance and procurement of spare parts more difficult - see for instance this EuroNews article.
However, in such cases it is difficult not to suspect sabotage. In fact, Ebrahim Raisi was the protagonist of a sensational gesture when he ordered a more-than-symbolic attack against Israel in response to the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus (Syria)… and the subsequent Israeli counter-response was quite mild.
Add to that the following tweet on X (formerly Twitter) by Israel War Room just a few minutes after the news of the helicopter crash started circulating, at 15:58 EEST (Eastern European Summer Time) - bear in mind that Al Mayadeen reported the breaking news at 16:08 EEST, i.e. 10 minutes AFTER that tweet!
However, earlier this morning Israel War Room tweeted the following post, maybe realizing their mistake:
Doesn’t it remind you of something?
In case you need a hint, please see the image below:
The above is a tweet that Radek Sikorski, a Polish Member of the European Parliament (MEP), posted soon after the sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines, but then deleted a couple of days later.
It is also worth reporting the following tweet by Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, who is suggesting a regime change in Iran, instead of expressing condolences, like his other European colleagues (e.g. Vitkor Orbán):
As if the above was not enough, The Jerusalem Post today has reported that this morning an anonymous Israeli official felt the urge to tell them that Israel was not involved in Raisi's death:
Israel was not involved in the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash that also killed several members of his entourage, an Israeli official told Reuters on Monday.
"It wasn't us," said the official, who requested anonymity.
Rumors circulated throughout social media Sunday night into Monday morning alleging Mossad involvement in the helicopter crash.
Why would an Israeli official felt the need to respond to rumours circulating on social media? I would understand if there were accusations from Iranian officials, but this smells fishy. There is a Latin proverb of medieval origin that says “Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta”, which literally means “Unsolicited excuse, manifest accusation”, i.e. “He who excuses himself, accuses himself”.
So, to respond to the question in the title of my article, the helicopter crash looks like an accident, however there are clues, but no proof/evidence, that Israel is behind a potential sabotage of the helicopter that was carrying, among the others, the Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi.
I will conclude with Pepe Escobar’s recent post on his Telegram channel:
IRAN: WHAT REALLY MATTERS
Amidst all the sadness and grief, let’s cut to the chase.
Eurasia integration and the drive towards multipolarity is being fundamentally conducted by three major actors:
Russia, China - and Iran.
Which happen to be the three top “existential threats” to Exceptionalistan.
The heart of the matter: Putin essentially invited Iranian ambassador to Russia, Jalali, to be on the table at an impromptu Sunday, 10 pm meeting of the cream of the crop of Russia’s Defense Team. [This was confirmed also by Jalali himself - source: Al Mayadeen]
That reaches way beyond the realm of discussion between "accidental crash" or targeted downing of the Iranian presidential helicopter.
Everyone was there: Defence Minister Belousov; Secretary of the Security Council Shoigu; Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov; Emergencies Minister Kurenkov; Special Assistant to the President, Levitin.
The message: Russia’s got Iran’s back.
And Russia completely supports stability and continuity of government in Iran - which is anyway already fully guaranteed by Iran’s constitution.
We are deep into total Hybrid War mode, bordering on Hot, on most of the planet.
Three civilization-states shaping a new world could not be more clear.
Interlinked as they are via bilateral strategic partnerships, plus membership of BRICS and SCO, and following up on Putin-Xi in Beijing last week, none of the three will allow the other partners to be destabilized by the usual suspects.
On a side note, Karim Khan, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has announced today that he is filing applications for arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, on the basis of this Peport of a Panel of Experts on International Law. In particular, the following people are wanted in the dock:
the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
the Israeli Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant,
the Head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar,
the Commanderin-Chief of the al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, known more commonly as Mohammed Deif,
the Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh.
The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict”.
The charges against Hamas leaders are “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention”.
I will not delve more into this other hot topic to keep this article brief, as it has already neared email length limit; however, if you are curious, you can read the 13-page report in the link above or this Al Mayadeen article and/or this Guardian article. In any case, as reported by Al Mayadeen…
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters that this decision “equates the victim with the executioner,” adding that it also encourages “Israel” to continue its “war of extermination” in Gaza.
…while, as you can imagine, senior figures in the Israeli government, including Netanyahu himself, have gone berserk, with Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, comparing Hague court to “Nazi propaganda”, as reported by The Guardian.
I wonder what will happen next…
UPDATE (21/05/2024): The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has been interviewed by CNN “journalist” Christiane Amanpour. You can find the full interview in the video below; however, the most important part, in my humble opinion, starts at 19:01, when Karim Khan admits the following (all emphasis mine):
I’ve had some elected leaders speak to me and very, you know, very blunt: “this court is built for Africa and for thugs like Putin” was what one senior leader told me.
So, now we have the definitive proof from the mouth of the ICC Chief Prosecutor himself that:
“someone” applies undue political pressure to the ICC,
the ICC was created for prosecuting only certain crimes and criminals, while other war criminals, such as George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, can sleep peacefully.
We had a US senator who was an annoying problem for the permanent war party. He went on a chartered twin engine plane with a professional pilot in IFR weather. For no apparent reason, the plane flew into a forest and all in board were killed, including his wife.
Much like this latest helicopter crash, the Wellstones were flying in poor visibility, where a pilot must trust his instruments to fly, rather than looking at the horizon & ground. Under such conditions, a sophisticated actor can compromise flight instruments/spoof GPS and cause a pilot to crash- The CIA has had this capability for quite a while, if attacking a "fly by wire" aircraft, they don't even need to convince the pilot to crash, they can just take control and do what they like. Naturally, Mossad is at least as capable.
In the case of Senator Wellstones crash in MN, a team of federal people showed up at the crash site and took over, sending the local responders away while they investigated. It has been pointed out by some that these federal investigators arrival time would have required their departure to the crash site SEVERAL HOURS BEFORE THE CRASH. But nobody would print such a crazy thing at that time-
They blamed pilot error and weather. Nobody else got to physically investigate site or access whatever data might have been recoverable from the aircraft electronics. And a nice dependable R then won his seat, so problem solved.
Mel Carnahan, who looked likely to take the US Senate seat of hard-line neocon John Ashcroft died very similarly.
A lot of "difficult" USA politicians have died in aircraft crashes since the end of the Carter Administration. Oddly enough, none were great friends of the CIA.
Thanks, Ismaele.
I appreciate your quick updates.