New in SpyWeek: Intel Chaos Over Iran War as Russia Helps Target U.S. Warplanes, Ships
Puzzle over war aims; Little hope for Iranian democracy, NIC said before strikes; CIA-Kurds plan dumped; White House buries warning on Iran-linked terror in U.S.
From Moscow With Love: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Russia’s help is nothing new.”It’s not a secret. It has been in the past, and it’s still there, and will continue in the future,” Araghchi told NBC News’s Kristen Welker on Meet The Press. It’s “a very good partnership.” On Friday, The Washington Post, citing “three officials familiar with the intelligence,” exclusively reported that “Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East,” including “the locations of U.S. military assets, including warships and aircraft.” Trump and other administration officials brushed off the import of the report. “If you take a look at what’s happened to Iran in the last week, if they’re getting information, it’s not helping them much,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. When Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked him about it, Trump called it a “stupid question.”
Room at the Top: Iran’s democracy-minded opposition was “unlikely” to take power “following either a short or extended U.S. military campaign” against the Islamic Republic, according to a classified National Intelligence Council (NIC) report produced a week before President Trump ordered an airstrike that eliminated Iran’s leadership. “Iran’s clerical and military establishment would respond to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by following protocols designed to preserve continuity of power,” sources told The Washington Post’s John Hudson and Warren P. Strobel. The NIC, an arm of the Office of National Intelligence, distills the views of the 18-member U.S. intelligence community. Ali’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, named Sunday to be his father’s successor, was “unacceptable,” Trump declared last week. “They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment,” he said. “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me.”
