Joe Kent, former director of President Donald Trump’s National Counterterrorism Center, said Wednesday that information on Iran originating from Israeli officials and amplified through U.S. media and policy circles played a central role in shaping the president’s decision to carry out military action.
Kent, speaking on the Tucker Carlson Show following his resignation on Tuesday, argued that there was no U.S. intelligence showing Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States and suggested U.S. action was influenced by “an ecosystem of information” tied to Israeli interests and bogus intelligence.
“I know the Israeli officials, some in intelligence, some in government, will come to [U.S.] government officials, and they will say all kinds of things that we know from our intelligence just simply isn’t true,” Kent said, adding that there is an “ecosystem of information that’s laundered through a lot of prominent neoconservative types that are very sympathetic to the Israeli cause.”
Kent argued that this “ecosystem” helped shape the information reaching Trump, contributing to what he described as a gap between intelligence assessments and the justification for striking Iran.
“There was no intelligence that showed they were on the cusp of building a nuclear weapon,” Kent said, adding that Iran posed no imminent threat.
He described Israeli officials and allied voices as promoting a narrative that Iran was an imminent threat that ultimately shifted U.S. policy discussions. He described a small group of advisers shaping the discussions that briefed Trump on the situation in Iran.
“The circle … was very, very tight and very small,” Kent said, adding they were “getting their information from the ecosystem that I described.”
Israel needed the U.S. to join forces in attacking Iran, Kent said, pointing to his larger distaste for a close relationship with the Jewish state.
“The Israelis couldn’t do any of this without us,” he said. “That’s where the relationship is just way off kilter.”
Tucker Carlson asked Kent about the homeland security implications of the attack on Iran, pointing toward the worry of “sleeper cells” inflicting violence in the U.S.
Kent said the idea of covert Iranian spies in America is unlikely because the U.S. is adept at intercepting communications. He said the real danger is terrorists’ ability to inspire people already residing in the U.S.
“The real threat, and most major terrorist organizations have kind of moved to this model, is the lone actors. It’s inspiring people that are already in place by using the media,” Kent said.
Kent said the idea of sleep cells likely came from inside the house.
“That was an … intelligence product that we worked up on our own, I bet, and coordinated throughout the intelligence community,” he said.
Trump had previously said “I guess” when asked if Americans should be concerned about Iranian sleeper cells. He later said authorities know the location of most such spies.