Confession of spy

FORMER CIA CHIEF TELLS WOLF BLITZER QASSEM SOLEIMANI WAS NEVER ON DIRECT TARGET LIST

Friday on CNN Live, former head of the CIA Leon Panetta told host Wolf Blitzer that Qassem Soleimani was never on the direct target list which would have singled him out for termination.

Soleimani was the head of Iran's Quds Force, a division of the Revolutionary Guard, before being killed Thursday in a drone strike authorized by President Donald Trump in Baghdad, Iraq.

"We never had Soleimani on that target list," Panetta said. "We had the names of terrorists like [Osama] bin-Laden and obviously [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi and other terrorist leaders. But Soleimani was never on that list."

Panetta explained that Soleimani was not on the list because it was difficult to narrow down who should be on it.

"I think the reason was that he was a general in Iran who, along with the leadership of Iran and other generals that were involved in Iran, all were involved in planning what Iran was doing," Panetta said. "It was difficult to say that we ought to pick one general to go after and try to execute in some way when you're dealing with the entire country as a threat to the United States. ... What the United States needed to focus on was the threat from Iran, not just one particular individual."