Iran under stress after losing its terror leader

Michael Ledeen:
The elimination of Qassem Soleimani has produced surprising results. It turns out that the United States received intelligence on Soleimani’s movements from a variety of sources, some within his Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, others from Israel’s vaunted intelligence apparatus.

The operation against Soleimani and his ilk was so well-organized that leading terrorists in Iraq ran for the hills:

U.S. officials have intercepted chatter and received confirmation that terrorist leaders in Iraq have been fleeing the region and have gone into hiding fearing United States intelligence capabilities after the successful airstrike that killed Iranian Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani.

Undoubtedly some of the terrorist leaders are cutting deals with U.S. intelligence, and the events of this weekend suggest that at least some of that information has made its way to Iraqi demonstrators. The anti-Iranian demonstrations continue, and the divisions within the regime are becoming ever more intense:

Far from a unifying national symbol as some supposed, Soleimani has become a deeply divisive figure within the Middle East region. Fractures over the late Commander also reveal deep-seated divisions within Iran and the failure of the Islamic Republic’s brand of culture and identity politics. Like Iran’s official identity, the country’s regional role and Soleimani’s image have left Iranians disunited. Internal unrest, decades of mismanagement and regional adventurism are revealing the limits of Islamic Republic’s Shiite-based rhetoric and its failure of combining that with a viable notion of nationhood.

Scores of IRGC officials have been arrested by their comrades. Most of the arrestees are said to be Soleimani loyalists, and there are reports of missing officials very far up in the Quds Force. According to the ongoing reports from the Free Iran Herald, carried by the Gateway Pundit,

A source inside IRGC tells me that since yesterday evening, 56 of IRGC commanders have been arrested by the IRGC’s intelligence organization. According to the source, knows as Haj Vahid, one of Soleimani’s most trusted in Iraq is missing since the strike on Soleimani.

Is Haj Vahid helping Soleimani’s enemies? And where is he?

Wherever he and his colleagues may be, the Iranian people, after the days of public celebration of the life of Soleimani, are not celebrating him anymore. It was one thing when he was viewed as untouchable, but quite a different matter once his vulnerability to U.S. Special Forces was exposed.
...
The Iranian regime appears discombobulated after the death of Soleimani.  The world is a safer place without him.

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