Translating Rudy Giuliani’s statement

President Trump’s lawyer believes that when enough people issue threats against sovereign nations, they are legal

Steve Bannon is long gone. However, the methods and strategies of the White House still borrow from the Nazis. The “Big Lie” propaganda tool that Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf talked about; of the use of a “colossal” lie “and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it” is a Trump favourite.

President Trump lies big but does not always stick to it. First there were no contacts with the Russians, then there were but they weren’t collusion, and then it was collusion but it was not a crime. So a “Big Lie” with some modifications since the modern-day Nazi cannot control his Twitter outbursts.

President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani believes that when enough people in the US government, including the president, issue threats against sovereign nations, they cease to be illegal. Giuliani was speaking to members of the biggest opposition group to Iran’s Islamic regime: the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). “So I say to the Iranian government, you must truly be afraid of being overthrown,” Giuliani said. “We will not forget that you wanted to commit murder on our soil.”

Issuing threats against another state is a violation of Article 2 (4) of the UN charter. The language hints at revenge retaliation by the US against Iran because of the murder Iran ‘wanted’ to commit on the American soil. To pick just one case, what should then Iraq do as revenge retaliation for the countless murders the US committed (not just wanting to commit) on Iraqi soil?

While Nikki Haley said that the US “is not looking to do regime change in Iran,” the fact of the matter is that if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Giuliani said, “a group of outlaws and murderers and people who pretend to be religious people and then have so much blood on their hands is almost unthinkable.” and that “Iran is entitled to freedom and democracy.” Changing one’s government is the right of only the citizens in a country. Last time I checked, Giuliani wasn’t an Iranian citizen. Furthermore, as a clear illustration of working towards a regime change, he said, “I don’t know when we’re going to overthrow them,” adding “It could be in a few days, months, a couple of years. But it’s going to happen.”



This is pure and simple regime change advocacy just like there is no doubt that regime change is illegal under international law. Regime change either using an outright attack against a nation or through the use of a revolution or a coup, is doubtlessly illegal, many experts in international law believe. The Mujahideen-e-Khalq or MEK is a political-militant organisation in exile that advocates the violent overthrow of the current regime in Iran. The MEK is a violent non-state actor and was considered a terrorist organisation by the United States until 2012. In 1973, the MEK bombed 10 major buildings, including those of Pan-American airlines and Shell Oil Company. In 1976, the MEK attacked a car carrying three American employees of Rockwell International, killing them. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, they supported the US Embassy takeover in Tehran. The group also targeted Brig Gen Harold Price in a road bomb attack, crippling Price for the rest of his life. The MEK is politically linked to the NCRI. Maryam Rajavi, leader of the MEK, is also the declared president-elect in exile of the NCRI. It was these people Giuliani was talking to about overthrowing the Iranian regime.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2018.

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