When the Pentagon offered President Trump a series of potential responses to missile strikes on a U.S. base in Kirkuk, Iraq, by an Iranian-backed militia, they "tacked on the choice" of killing Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Quds Force commander and the second most powerful figure in Iran, "mainly to make other options seem reasonable," The New York Times reports. Trump opted to strike back at the militias.

But as those airstrikes, which killed about two dozen militamen on Dec. 29, led to angry pushback in Baghdad, Trump watched TV footage of militia supporters storming the outer perimeter of the U.S. Embassy and "became increasingly angry," the Times reports. And when he subsequently "stunned" Pentagon officials late Jan. 2 by embracing "the option of killing Gen. Soleimani, top military officials, flabbergasted, were immediately alarmed about the prospect of Iranian retaliatory strikes on American troops in the region."

"Trump's decision to target Soleimani came as a surprise and a shock to some officials briefed on his decision, given the Pentagon's long-standing concerns about escalation and the president's aversion to using military force against Iran," The Washington Post reports. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "first spoke with Trump about killing Soleimani months ago." Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence pushed most aggressively for Trump to order Soleimani killed, officials told the Post and the Times. And "one significant factor" in Trump agreeing, the Post reports, "was the 'lockstep' coordination for the operation between Pompeo and [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper, both graduates in the same class at the U.S. Military Academy, who deliberated ahead of the briefing with Trump."

Looking back "the Trump administration may have began laying the legal groundwork for the strike as early as April," USA Today reports. "That's when the State Department designated the Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization."

For years, "Pompeo has tried to stake out a maximalist position on Iran that has made him popular among two critical pro-Israel constituencies in Republican politics: conservative Jewish donors and Christian evangelicals," the Post explains. "Since his time as CIA director, Pompeo has forged a friendship with Yossi Cohen, the director of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad," and "at the State Department, he is a voracious consumer of diplomatic notes and reporting on Iran, and he places the country far above other geopolitical and economic hot spots in the world." Read more at The Washington Post. Peter Weber

President Biden is trying to tackle a number of big problems, and he pretty clearly was hoping Mideast peace wasn't going to be one of them. But the long-simmering conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted again last week, more than 200 Palestinians and 10 Israelis are dead, and the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and Hamas rockets for Israel show no sign of letting up.

Biden said Monday that he had voiced support for a ceasefire in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he isn't publicly pressuring Israel to accept a pause in fighting and Netanyahu has made clear he's not currently interested. Instead, Biden and his top aides have used some version of urging "calm" or a "sustainable calm" or de-escalating "tensions" more than 40 times over the past week, Politico reports. "What about 'peace,' 'peace talks,' or even 'ceasefire'? Not so much."

Biden and his team "have devoted relatively little time and staffing to the Israeli-Palestinian issue." Politico reports. "The administration, and many other observers, for that matter, also concluded that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians have the political will to engage in serious negotiations." White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said "every statement we make is with the objective of reducing the violence and bringing an end to the conflict on the ground."

Ilan Goldenberg, a former Obama administration official, said calm may be the most realistic hope right now. "Honestly, every Israeli and Palestinian I talk to tells us not to use the word 'peace,'" he told Politico. "They tell us nobody in both societies thinks that is possible right now."

But advocates for Palestinians say Biden is aiming too low. Khaled Elgindy, director of the Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs at the Middle East Institute, said calls for "calm" benefit Israel, because Israelis will resume relatively normal lives when the violence ends while Gazans, still under Israeli occupation, will return to bombed-out buildings and heavy casualties. Peter Weber

Rudy Giuliani is arguably a lot of things, but he isn't the "head of a drug cartel" or "a terrorist," his lawyers say, and shouldn't be treated as such.

In a redacted letter made public on Monday, Giuliani's attorneys asked a Manhattan federal judge to unseal the affidavits in support of a November 2019 search warrant that prosecutors used to secretly obtain files from Giuliani's Apple iCloud account. At the time, Giuliani was serving as the personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump, and his attorneys say the iCloud files collected likely included "material relating to the impending impeachment, the welfare of the country, and to national security."

The judge is deciding whether a "special master" should be appointed to Giuliani's case to protect attorney-client privilege. Giuliani's attorneys have asserted that the unsealed affidavits will help prove their argument that "this unilateral, secret review was illegal," The Associated Press reports.

Giuliani's legal team described him in the letter as a "distinguished lawyer," and accused prosecutors of treating him "as if he was the head of a drug cartel or a terrorist, in order to create maximum prejudicial coverage of both Giuliani and his most well-known client — the former president of the United States."

Federal prosecutors are looking closely at Giuliani's ties to Ukraine and whether he violated federal laws regarding lobbying for foreign countries, AP reports. Before the 2020 presidential election, Giuliani went to Ukraine to try to dig up dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, and has said the work he conducted in the country was on behalf of Trump. Catherine Garcia

Thanks to the members of Girl Scout Troops 2377 and 134, kids playing at two parks in northern Illinois will now always be able to find new friends.

The Scouts spent two years collecting more than 300 pounds of plastic bottle caps, and using money raised through cookie sales, had those caps made into rainbow-colored buddy benches. When a child sits on the bench, it indicates that they are looking for someone to play with, ensuring that no one feels left out.

The benches were installed last month at Converse Park in Island Lake and Fort McHenry Park in McHenry. Troop leader Kelly Bays told The Daily Herald the benches are a "tangible way for us to share the Girl Scout law with our community. The Girls Scouts were able to use resources wisely, make the world a better place, be friendly and helpful, caring and considerate, and be a sister to every Girl Scout as two troops worked together to do this project." For their hard work, the Scouts earned their Take Action award. Catherine Garcia

A Bengal tiger was on the loose last week in Houston, America's fourth-largest city, after last being seen in a car driven by Victor Hugo Cuevas, who faces separate murder and evading arrest charges. A Houston businesswoman said Monday she arranged the handover of the tiger, India, on Saturday to Houston police and animal control.

It is a story that has almost everything — tigers, car chases, mystery, clubs licensed to display exotic animals, indicted criminals — and now it has a theme song, too. On Monday, former Survivor lead singer Dave Bickler paid homage to Houston's tiger drama by singing a revised version of his enduring hit "Eye of the Tiger" for Stephen Colbert's Late Show. Bickler's voice has aged very well, but his song has kind of a dark finale. Watch below. Peter Weber

Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman living in self-exile in New York, is at the center of a vast online network of media websites and social media accounts that spread false claims about coronavirus vaccines, election fraud, and the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, researchers from the Graphika network analysis company write in a new report released Monday.

Guo is close to Stephen Bannon, the onetime chief strategist to former President Donald Trump; last summer, Bannon was arrested on Guo's yacht on federal fraud charges. In its report, Graphika said Guo is the "linchpin" of the disinformation network, and the "leading personality" who "appears to define goals and messaging and is positioned as a wise leader who should be admired and followed."

The network includes the media websites GTV and GNews, and Guo is often featured in their videos; in April, he appeared in a GNews video calling COVID-19 vaccines "fake" and "poison," The Washington Post reports. Graphika says the network's thousands of social media accounts work in tandem to spread disinformation, and they "appear to be run by real people but solely amplify Guo-related content." These Guo supporters call themselves "ants" and are organized into local action groups called "Himalaya farms," Graphika said.

The Graphika report is "an important forensic analysis of the ways that rich and politically motivated people can manipulate social media," Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard's Shorenstein Center, told the Post. In an email to the Post, a spokesman for Guo said he does not control the content on GTV or GNews and "implying that Mr. Guo is responsible for everything that is posted on [GTV] is ludicrous." Read more at The Washington Post. Catherine Garcia

The Biden administration has cleared three more detainees at the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay prison camp for release, lawyers for the detainees and U.S. government officials told The New York Times on Monday. None of the men has been charged with a crime and all of them have been in U.S. custody since 2002 or 2003.

The three cleared men include the oldest Guantanamo detainee — Saifullah Paracha, 73, of Pakistan — and one of the first men transferred to the prison camp under former President George W. Bush, 40-year-old Uthman Abdul al-Rahim Uthman of Yemen. The third detainee is Abdul Rabbani, 54, of Pakistan.

The detainees can now be transferred to a country that will take them, usually under specified security conditions, but it isn't clear when that will happen. Six other current Guantanamo detainees cleared for release have spent years waiting for the State Department to reach agreement with a new host country.

Former President Donald Trump, who released one detainee to Saudi Arabia during his term and sought to increase the number of detainees at the prison camp, shuttered the office charged with closing the Guantanamo prison. "Despite a pledge to renew the Obama administration effort to end detention operations at the Navy base in Cuba, the Biden administration has yet to restart the transfers," the Times reports. "For now, it has not designated a senior U.S. official to negotiate the deals with other countries."

The Bush administration imprisoned about 780 men at Guantanamo, then cut that number to 242 by the time former President Barack Obama took office. Obama reduced the number to 41 and tried unsuccessfully to transfer the remaining detainees to high-security U.S. prisons.

Of the remaining detainees, one has been convicted of war crimes, 11 more have been charged, and 19 are deemed too dangerous for transfer to another country. The attorney general, defense secretary, secretary of state, homeland security secretary, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and director of national intelligence all have to sign off on a detainee's clearance for release. Peter Weber