[Jake Tapper, Cnn:] Is Iran backing down, or are they just taking the fight underground? THE LEAD starts right now. Breaking now, Iran tells the U.S. via back channels that their response is over, as President Trump claims the regime is standing down following last night's attack by Iran on bases housing U.S. forces. So, why is the FBI warning us about another kind of attack? The president also vowing Iran will never have a nuke, and that he will strangle the country with new tough sanctions. Is this the way to handle decades of aggression from the regime? A presidential candidate who served in Iraq weighs in live. Plus, the Senate majority leader essentially telling Speaker Pelosi to butt out, as pressure mounts on the House speaker from members of her own party to deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We begin with our world lead today. The escalating conflict between Iran and the United States looks to be on hold, at least for now. President Trump today said that Iran appears to be standing down after firing more than a dozen missiles on sites in Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed. CNN has just learned that Iran sent multiple messages through three different back channels to U.S. officials, all indicating the same thing, Iran saying, hey, we're done. But U.S. officials remain concerned about ongoing threats from Iranian proxies. Mr. Trump also confirmed today there were no Americans injured or killed during last night's attack. The Iraqi military says the same about its personnel. Multiple administration officials tell CNN that they believe Iran intentionally avoided hitting U.S. troops, hitting, as one Pentagon official told me quote "deliberate targets with minimum damage and maximum warning." President Trump today tried to blame President Obama for the Iranian attacks, repeating the lie that the U.S. gave Iran billions of dollars as part of the Iran nuclear deal. In actuality, that money consisted of frozen assets that already belonged to Iran. The president also claiming, with no proof, that that money was used to fund a terror spree. The White House has presented no evidence to back that claim. And experts say that, in fact, Iran's aggression accelerated significantly after President Trump withdrew from the Iran deal. The president today also claiming, falsely, that 100 percent of ISIS had been destroyed. According to his own Pentagon, that's not true. Either way, as CNN's Alex Marquardt reports, the 16 missiles that Iran launched might only be a retaliation in the short term.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] The American people should be extremely grateful and happy.
[Alex Marquardt, Cnn Senior National Security Correspondent:] Surrounded by his national security team, the president today announcing a de-escalation, for now, in the crisis with Iran.
[Trump:] Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world.
[Marquardt:] The Pentagon waited until there was daylight in Iraq to determine officially that the Iranian missiles harmed no Americans and left no major damage at either of the two areas targeted. According to the Pentagon, over a dozen ballistic missiles were launched from inside Iran toward two parts of Iraq, in the west and north, where U.S. troops are stationed, in Irbil, at least one missile landing at the international airport, but didn't explode, and another hitting near the U.S. Consulate. Most were directed at the sprawling Al Asad Air Base 140 miles west of Baghdad, home to hundreds of U.S. troops. Satellite images obtained by CNN show the before and after. Here, a number of buildings appear to have been destroyed or damaged next to a row of helicopters. Other buildings were also hit. Of 16 missiles launched, sources say that four appeared to have failed in flight. The president gave credit to an early warning system that the short-range missiles were incoming. U.S. intelligence satellites had picked up early signs that they'd been fueled up and then launched. Iran had also warned the Iraqi government, likely knowing that it would be passed on to the Americans, which gave U.S. troops a chance to take cover. Some Trump administration officials now telling CNN that they see Iran's strike as intentionally missing areas where Americans were housed, so that they weren't killed, but a clear message was sent.
[Sen. Tom Udall:] We have a pause. We should be trying to de- escalate in any way we can, de-escalate the situation on both sides.
[Marquardt:] Immediately following the attack, Iran's foreign minister tweeting that Iran had concluded its response, but the regime later warning of crushing responses in case of new U.S. aggression. And, today, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, claiming, "We slapped them in the face," but saying it wasn't enough. And right after last night's attack, Iran did reach out to say they were done retaliating, a source now telling our colleague Pamela Brown that Iran used at least three of those back channels, including the Swiss and other countries, to convey that message. But multiple U.S. officials are also telling CNN that they're still concerned about Iran's proxies in the Middle East. And now the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the FBI, have just put out a bulletin about potential cyberattacks Jake.
[Tapper:] All right, Alex Marquardt, thank you so much. Joining me now to discuss is retired Four-Star Marine General John Allen. He served in 2007 in Iraq and Fallujah, but near the base that was attacked last night, one of the bases. He also visited Irbil, I imagine. And you were deputy commander at CENTCOM, and led the formation of an Iraq War contingency plan. Thanks so much for being here. So, the president said today Iran is standing down. Is that how you see it? Do you expect further response from Iran or its proxies in the future?
[Gen:] Sure. First, let me say how glad all of us are, Jake, that none we had no casualties yesterday.
[Tapper:] Yes, absolutely.
[Allen:] And Iraqi casualties as well. And my thoughts and prayers are with the passengers on that airplane that went down, because it was not just Iranians. It was an international passenger list. So we should all be thinking about and praying for them as well. Look, the Iranians should know that the president has all the cards right now. The contingency capabilities of the United States gives him the capacity both to de-escalate, but, if necessary, to escalate in a very major way very quickly with overwhelming force. I think the Iranians know that. They had to do something. Whether those missiles were in fact targeted to not damage or kill any Americans, or they were just lucky that they didn't land on those targets, I think, remains to be determined. But they are the fact that they came through a series of multiple back channels trying to stand down any American retaliation for that attack, I think, indicates that they're desperate. And I think they understand that the United States has the capability of inflicting enormous battle damage on that regime. And right now, that regime can't afford to have an American slap in the face that they said that they had offered to the United States.
[Tapper:] But do you think that they purposely didn't kill anyone last night?
[Allen:] No, I don't think we know.
[Tapper:] You don't buy that?
[Allen:] No, I don't think we know.
[Tapper:] I know we don't know. But what's your suspicion?
[Allen:] My suspicions are they shut those missiles to those bases, hoping not to kill any Iraqis, but with the full intent of inflicting damage. And they have no idea in the end where those missiles are going to come down. So I don't buy the idea that they were pure in their targeting with no intention ultimately of hurting the United States or Iraqi forces.
[Tapper:] One of the ways that Iran has responded in the past has been to wait a month, and then some proxy stages some devastating terrorist attack with no obvious links to Iran. It happened when the Israelis killed the leader of Hezbollah.
[Allen:] That's right.
[Tapper:] And a month later, there was that horrible explosion, killing innocent Jewish civilians in Argentina, two years later, another one. It happened with the Israelis again when they after they killed a nuclear the Israelis are suspected of killing a nuclear scientist. They went after a month later diplomats in three different countries, a bus full of Israeli tourists. Is that what you expect?
[Allen:] I absolutely do, Jake. And you framed it perfectly. Look, the Iraqis the Iranians know that there is no way that they can compete with the United States in a conventional head-to-head symmetric conflict. So they will do what they have done always in that region, is, they will motivate the Quds Force, which is a special operations force which is largely a terrorist organization. But they will also unleash many, I think, of the Shia militia elements. Kataib Hezbollah, for example, has already threatened American troops. And we killed the commander of Kataib Hezbollah in the same blast that killed Qasem Soleimani. We should see other Shia militia elements also acting independently, or acting at the behest of Iran. We won't necessarily know. But your point is, there are unconventional capabilities available to the Iranians that we should anticipate. And the FBI warning is a good example of how that could unfold. And I will also add that the Iranian cyber army is something that we should be very focused on at this particular moment, because they can hit us in an unconventional way, but they can also hit us in the cyber domain as well.
[Tapper:] Let me play for you something that President Trump said about Qasem Soleimani.
[Trump:] Soleimani's hands were drenched in both American and Iranian blood. He should have been terminated long ago.
[Tapper:] Why wasn't he killed long ago?
[Allen:] I think there were strategic decisions that were made that were predicated on the sense that his being alive strategically was better than his being killed tactically.
[Tapper:] Because it would the situation might spiral out of control.
[Allen:] That is correct. And that's a difficult statement to make, because, of course, the president's right. His hands are covered with the blood not just of Americans, but of many Iraqis, as well as Iranians. So he, in fact as when I was the commander in Afghanistan, we perceived him as owning the foreign policy and security and defense portfolio from as far east as the western one-third of Afghanistan, all the way to the shores of the Mediterranean and into Gaza. It was an enormous portfolio. And he had largely singular sway, at the behest of the supreme leader. We had him in our gun sights on a number of occasions. And the idea of ultimately of killing him has to be taken as a strategic decision, because of, as you say, there's a potential really for the instability, the instability that would come from that, of destabilizing the region.
[Tapper:] Was it a mistake not to shoot him before, not to go after him before?
[Allen:] It's hard to say. Again, each one of those circumstances was different. Each one of those occasions provided different opportunities. The president weighed the intelligence that was provided to him for this particular attack, and decided to kill him and to take him out, but also took out a very senior Iraqi militia leader at the same time.
[Tapper:] General John Allen, always great to have you here. Thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it.
[Allen:] Thank you, Jake. Good to be with you.
[Tapper:] President Trump is now asking help with Iran from the same organization that he has called in the past obsolete. And that's not all he's asking NATO for. Plus, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will not haggle with the House over impeachment, as Nancy Pelosi starts to feel the pressure from her own party. Stay with us.