CIA Role in Khamenei Strike Revealed

With the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's constitution dictates a temporary leadership council assume his duties. This council is comprised of the country's president, the head of the judiciary, and a cleric from the Guardian Council. The council, currently including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, will govern until a new supreme leader is chosen. The responsibility of selecting the next Supreme Leader falls to the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body of senior Islamic jurists. While the assembly is elected by popular vote, all candidates are vetted by the hardline Guardian Council, which has historically disqualified reformist or critical voices. The assembly must choose a successor "as swiftly as possible," though no specific deadline is mandated. Potential successors to Khamenei include his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who is believed to wield significant influence within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). However, a hereditary succession is controversial in a republic founded on anti-monarchical principles, and the late Ayatollah himself was reportedly opposed to his son succeeding him. Other names being discussed include the current head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, and Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini, a reformist figure, was previously disqualified from running for the Assembly of Experts in 2016. The IRGC is expected to have a decisive influence on the final selection. This is not the first instance of the CIA being implicated in assassination plots against foreign leaders. A 1970s Senate investigation, known as the Church Committee, uncovered plots against figures like Cuba's Fidel Castro and the Congo's Patrice Lumumba. Following these revelations, President Gerald Ford issued an executive order in 1976 banning political assassinations. Subsequent administrations have upheld the ban, but its scope has been subject to interpretation, particularly in the context of counter-terrorism operations and the use of "targeted killings". The term "assassination" has never been formally defined in these orders. The legal justification for "targeted killings" often relies on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed after the 9/11 attacks. This has been used to authorize drone strikes and other lethal operations against individuals deemed to be members of terrorist organizations. Critics argue that such actions, especially when carried out by an intelligence agency like the CIA outside of a declared battlefield, amount to extrajudicial killings that violate international law and due process. Lawsuits have challenged the authority of the executive branch to maintain "kill lists," particularly when they include U.S. citizens.