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."

Confession of spy

Retired MI5 Agent Confesses On Deathbed: ‘I Killed Princess Diana’

An 80-year-old retired MI5 agent, John Hopkins, has made a series of astonishing confessions since he was released from hospital in London on Wednesday and told he has weeks to live. Hopkins claims to have been involved in 23 assassinations for the British intelligence agency between 1973 and 1999, including Princess Diana. 

Mr. Hopkins, who worked for M15 for 38 years as an operative, claims he was often used as an hitman by the agency, to discreetly assassinate individuals considered a threat to the domestic security of the United Kingdom.

Trained as both a mechanical engineer and munitions expert, Mr. Hopkins claims he also has extensive experience of less conventional methods of inflicting death and destruction, including chemicals and poisons.

The 80-year-old British man claims he was involved with MI5 assassinations between June 1973 and December 1999, during a period he says “the MI5 operated with less external oversight.” Hopkins says he was part of a cell of seven operatives who were trusted to carry out political assassinations across the UK. Most victims were politicians, activists, journalists and union leaders.