Top US intelligence official says it's not her job to determine imminent threats
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, told lawmakers on Wednesday that it was not her job to determine what constitutes an "imminent threat" to the US, as the country's war on Iran heads into its fourth week.
Only President Donald Trump can make such a determination, she insisted at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
Democrats grilled her on how much information she supplied the president ahead of the decision to begin joint attacks with Israel on 28 February, given that Trump has repeatedly said this week how he was surprised Iran retaliated by attacking Washington's Gulf partners.
The president has also been pleading with Nato, other allies, and even China to assist militarily in reopening the Strait of Hormuz - a move that would be seen in Tehran as a widening of the war.
There have been no takers thus far.
Key to the hearing for Democrats was understanding whether Trump was made aware of the consequences at all, particularly as he seemed to sideline Gabbard, given her longtime anti-war position, both when she was in Congress as a Democrat and when she later crossed over the aisle to be a Republican.
"Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or No," Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff asked.
"Senator, the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president... it is not the intelligence community's responsibility," Gabbard responded.
Ossoff cut her off: "It is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States."
Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner pressed Gabbard on whether she provided "any intelligence that would say that it was not likely that the Iranians would try to move on the strait".
Gabbard responded that she is "not aware of those remarks" in which Trump expresses surprise at Iran's decision to choke off a waterway that funnels 20 percent of the global oil supply.
Last week, administration officials lambasted CNN for its reporting that officials were caught off guard by Iran's move.
"Historically, the Iranians have always threatened to leverage their control," Gabbard said.
"I have not, and won't divulge, internal conversations" with the president, she added.
Predictable problems
Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden pointed to a US intelligence assessment from last year that concluded Iran's "large conventional forces are capable of inflicting substantial damage to an attacker, executing regional strikes, and disrupting shipping, particularly energy supplies, through the Strait of Hormuz".
"In other words, every problem we're seeing now was...foreseeable," he said.
Gabbard only repeated her boilerplate response: "The intelligence community has continued to assess the potential threats to the region, the existing threats to the region, and providing those assessments to the policymakers and decision makers."
As questions mounted about the president's lack of awareness and preparedness, at one point, midway through the hearing, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, jumped in to offer his own clarification.
"The president gets briefings constantly about intelligence," he told lawmakers.
"The briefings to the president typically don't come at the request of the White House... when we get intelligence that we want the president to be aware of, the intelligence community brings that to the president," he said.
"What I can tell you is that Iran had specific plans to hit US interests in energy sites across the region, and that's why the Department of War and the Department of State took measures for force protection and personnel protection in advance of Operation Epic Fury."
In fact, both US troops and citizens in the Gulf bore the brunt of the war's outcome.
Six soldiers were killed in Kuwait at an unfortified, makeshift facility within a US military base during the first 48 hours.
US citizens, numbering well over a million across the region, were only told to shelter in place after the war began. There were no evacuation plans until several days later.
"The same military and intelligence professionals who delivered - not just for the administration, but for the American people - a flawless intelligence picture and flawless military operation in Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Absolute Resolve are the same folks involved with Operation Epic Fury," Ratcliffe said, referring to the June air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, and the January firefight and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"And so I hope that provides you some measure of comfort with regard to how detailed, how thoughtful the approach was to the current operation."
Americans don't agree.
A Yahoo/YouGov survey released on Wednesday shows that two-thirds of the public disapprove of how Trump is handling high petrol prices - an issue directly linked to his decision to wage war on Iran.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
Read Full Article on Middle East Eye →