New in SpyWeek: More Tulsi Tumult, Iran Intel Conflicts, as Peace Talks Open in Pakistan
Also: China mulls MANPADs for Iran, US spies contradict Trump on Tehran's missiles, DOJ attacks Russian cyber, FBI arrests Delta Force whistleblower, Orbán's UK network
Gabbard Gap: Seems like a week can’t go by without someone asking, “Where’s Tulsi?” On Friday the subject was raised by Mark Caputo at Axios. “President Trump sounded ready to dismiss top intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard until he got an earful last week from one of his oldest friends and advisers, Roger Stone,” Caputo wrote. “Trump was displeased with Gabbard when she didn’t wholeheartedly endorse the Iran war during her recent testimony to Congress about threats to the U.S., according to five advisers and confidants who spoke with the president.” Thing is, “Her fellow Cabinet officials backed her, as did Stone when the president called him last week,” according to this account. So he kept her around. “’Roger sealed the deal. He saved Tulsi,’ a source familiar with Trump’s thinking told Axios.” (Inside-the-Beltway aficionados will appreciate the subtext here: Trump called Stone. The legendary Republican dirty trickster hasn’t lost a step.)
Missile Debate: Iran has “thousands” of missiles left and can retrieve launchers buried under rubble, U.S. and Israeli officials told the Wall Street Journal this week. That’s in sharp contrast to what an increasingly erratic Pete Hegseth claimed a few days ago. The “Secretary of War” told reporters that Iran’s missile program was “functionally destroyed,” with launchers and missiles “depleted and decimated and almost completely ineffective.” And yet, they persist. Sources told the Journal that Iran’s missile inventory had been “roughly halved” since the war began Feb. 28 “yet it retains thousands of Medium–and short-Range ballistic missiles that could be pulled out of hiding or retrieved from underground sites.”
