Former US National Counterterrorism Center Director Details How Israeli Officials Manipulate US Decisions
Joe Kent, the recently resigned director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, told Tucker Carlson that Israeli officials manipulate US decisions, "they are usually very cunning."
Question: I thought US politicians made decisions based on intelligence collected and verified by the country's intelligence agencies. We spend billions of dollars a year on intelligence agencies for this purpose. But are you saying that Israeli officials bypassed the entire US system and went directly to US politicians, saying, "No matter what your country's intelligence says, this is what we know to be true"? Is that what you mean?
Joe Kent:
I mean that they are indeed usually very cunning. Of course.
They say, "This intelligence hasn't reached your intelligence channels yet because it still needs time."
Then they present a narrative: Iran is about to build a nuclear bomb, they are doing this and that.
They usually try various narratives until they find one that hits the right nerve with US politicians.
The general narrative is:
"Iran is going to launch a preemptive strike, which means building a nuclear weapon. If we don't stop them now, they will build a nuclear bomb. Uranium enrichment is the path to a nuclear bomb. They will keep increasing the enrichment level."
Thus, "uranium enrichment" became a fixed talking point, directly ruining all negotiations - because Iran clearly stated:
"If the negotiation starts with 'no enrichment', then we won't talk."
But this has nothing to do with nuclear weapons, as Iran actually accepted related restrictions.
But Israeli officials came in and kept moving the red line forward, constantly stoking:
"They are enriching uranium, do you know what that means - in X time they may have a nuclear bomb, we must act now."
Then this system started to operate:
Commentators on TV, such as Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, would repeat the same words that night;
Or articles with highly similar arguments were published in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
But if you look at the classified intelligence itself, we didn't see these (Israeli claims).
Original: toutiao.com/article/1860049773948940/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.