US pays $2M a month to protect Pompeo, aide from Iran threat

[demmiblue]

Source: ABC/AP

WASHINGTON -- The State Department says it’s paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a former top aide, both of whom face “serious and credible” threats from Iran.

The department told Congress in a report that the cost of protecting Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook between August 2021 and February 2022 amounted to $13.1 million. The report, dated Feb. 14 and marked “sensitive but unclassified,” was obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday.

Pompeo and Hook led the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran and the report says U.S. intelligence assesses that the threats to them have remained constant since they left government and could intensify. The threats have persisted even as President Joe Biden's administration has been engaged in indirect negotiations with Iran over a U.S. return to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

As a former secretary of state, Pompeo was automatically given 180 days of protection by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security after leaving office. But that protection has been repeatedly extended in 60-day increments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to “a serious and credible threat from a foreign power or agent of a foreign power arising from duties performed by former Secretary Pompeo while employed by the department,” the report said.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-pays-2m-month-protect-pompeo-aide-iran-83407630

[Dan]

1. If they're not in government service, why should we pay? This is a Trump problem...

Besides, everyone says that Pompeo was a true asshole.

[ruet]

25. Huh?

If his need for security is a result of his employment then he deserves the protection. Whether or not you like what he did while he was employed and without regard to him being an asshole. That's a pretty basic liberal tenet.

[melm00se]

26. You are talking to a crowd

infected with bloodlust.

No matter how right (and you are right) you are, it will not penetrate.

[Dan]

27. Refresh my memory...

We’re the actions that he took - did they constitute a war crime?

[Turbineguy]

2. That's one of the tenets of terrorism.

Make it expensive to your target.

[Wuddles440]

3. Absolutely Obscene!

Let these turds pay for their own security! After all they only have themselves to blame for putting a target on their backs. I'm tired of my tax dollars being squandered for this type of shit.

[Beakybird]

4. Who believes in a million years that Pompeo would have extended this protection for his predecessor?

[monkeyman1]

5. trade dufuss & pompous to Iran for a case of beer & we will come out ahead !

[mahina]

9. Or send him to the Kyiv zoo to help

Feed the animals. Tigers especially

[monkeyman1]

10. that's animal abuse !

[Lonestarblue]

6. Waste of taxpayer money. Pompeo probably send the threats to himself.

[milestogo]

7. He's not worth $2 a month

[Rebl2]

8. Our government

should stop this now and use this money elsewhere. Let them pay for their own protection.

[Biophilic]

11. How on earth is it costing 2 million a month? Maybe 50,000 or even 100,000

a month, but 2 million? This is crazy. Something has to be off.

[AleksS]

28. I wondered that too.

That’s a lot of $$$. How many guards does that cover? Extra security vehicles? Per month?

What adds up to 2Mil in one month?

[monkeyman1]

12. that's like trump golfing !! that would feed a lot of people !

[ificandream]

13. Send the bill to Dumb Donald!

Make him pay!!

[keithbvadu2]

14. He is not a senior gov't employee anymore. Provide him with top security at home only.

He is not a senior gov't employee anymore.

Provide him with top security at home only.

He can leave home if he wants but that is his choice.

[gab13by13]

15. I flipped on Fox tonight, just to see some propaganda,

their narrative, one of their main talking points is bashing Iran. It seems to me they don't want a peace plan worked out, nor allowing Iran to export more oil. The attack on the embassy in Iraq was perfect timing, now this.

[peppertree]

17. For $2 million a month, they can turn him into shish kabob if they want to

Last edited Sun Mar 13, 2022, 12:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Although I understand pig meat might be a problem for them.

[onetexan]

21. K&R

[Hulk]

18. A waste of money....

Pull the plug on these fascist shit bags.

[SunSeeker]

19. We could protect him, and us, better & much cheaper if we just PUT HIM IN JAIL.

[Sgent]

20. Assassinating him

may draw us into war and is a casus belli. If the Biden administration thinks there is a legitimate threat to his safety due to his service as Sec State, then we should provide the protection. If he committed crimes we should prosecute him and protect him in prison, but that's a different discussion.

[FreepFryer]

22. Same guy who refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power here in the US

Fuck him

[Hotler]

23. For his own safety, we should put him in GITMO. I hear it is a very secure location. nt

[llashram]

24. what a waste

of good tax dollars...

[Ziggysmom]

29. Put him in the Witness Protection Program with a new identity & give him some plastic

surgery. Buh bye asshole. Send him someplace cold and bleak.

[Tanuki]

30. I hate him as much as everyone else does, but he has knowledge of highly classified

national security secrets. If kidnapped, he would spill what he knows in a second if physically coerced. That's what is worth protecting, not his own seditious personal safety. Same goes for Trump.

[MOMFUDSKI]

31. I say pay the guards.

You only have to pay them once.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

33. I bet somehow most of this money is ending up in Pompeo's pockets.

I don't know how it's being done, but he's got a direct line to the Master Grifter, T****.