Trump on the Brink with Israel and Iran
Trump advisers in disarray as the president gives himself 'two weeks' to decide whether to join Israel's war on Iran with US bombs
Hey there, SpyTalkers. Just wanted to give you a heads up that former senior Obama national security aide, U.S. diplomat and CIA analyst Edward “Ned” Price joined me and my podcast co-host Michael Isikoff yesterday to discuss the ongoing crisis of the Israel-Iran war. It was a very spirited discussion, with some sharp disagreements over the secret history and current status of the Iranian nuclear program. But all agreed that Israel was driving the informational bus, with Trump looking more and more like a passenger.
“Israel obviously has a very strong point of view here. This point of view is not unique to this current moment,“ said Price, who had a catbird’s seat on the Obama administration’s successful secret negotiations with Iran to put a cap on its nuclear enrichment program—an effort that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu always opposed. “They have pushed every president in some ways since Bill Clinton to start a preemptive war against Iran to end that optionality, to end that nuclear program, that enrichment program, whether civilian or otherwise. Of course, every president, at least up until now, has resisted that effort and has not allowed the United States to be drawn into it.”
As for Trump, Price continued, ”whether the United States is now drawn into it, I think is a very open question.” Netanyahu’s “golden” intelligence, as the PM puts it, on the advanced state of Iran’s alleged drive to make a nuclear weapon may well be accurate, Price noted, “but it does seem to contradict the longstanding finding of the U.S. intelligence community that Iran does not have an active weaponization program.”
Indeed, the most recent official U.S. intelligence assessment, as delivered by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to Congress in March, was that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”
U.S. intelligence is standing by that assessment, according to reports. Asked about that this week, Trump said, “I don’t care what she said—I think they were very close to having them.”
And so it goes. Do watch or give a listen to our fast paced and lively discussion here, or wherever your preferred platform.
Turning to the clown car for advice scares me to death. These are serious issues they are discussing and they don't eve know that it is a bad idea to use their cell phone when it comer to sensitive information. From where I sit the Prime Minister is playing the President for a fool.
Dozens of times, and vitally important subjects Trump has said he would make a decision within two weeks and he never does. He is never called on this.