Joe Kent, a top US counterterrorism official, resigned over the Iran war, saying it posed no immediate threat to the United States. (AP Photo)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing Joe Kent, the former US counter-terrorism head who has stepped down over Iran war, reports said Thursday.
According to the Guardian, Kent is under investigation by the probe agency over leak of classified information. The inquiry predates Kent’s Tuesday departure from his post at the national counterterrorism centre where he used to oversee the analysis of terrorist threats, The Guardian cited Semafor and CBS News as reporting.
In his resignation letter, shared on X, Kent said he could not support the conflict, arguing that Iran did not pose an immediate threat to the United States. He also claimed the war was initiated under pressure from Israel and its influential lobby.
What Kent said in his interview to Tucker Carlson
Not allowed to express opinion: Following his resignation, Kent spoke to the rightwing commentator Tucker Carlson in a podcast, claiming that the dissenting voices were not taken into consideration during the decision-making process that led to US airstrikes on Iran on 28 February. “A good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” Kent said on The Tucker Carlson Show podcast. “There wasn’t a robust debate.”
No evidence of Iran nearing to possess nuclear weapon: Kent also alleged that there was no evidence that Iran was close to possessing a nuclear weapon or posed an imminent threat to the US. “There was no intelligence that said, ‘Hey, on whatever day it was, March 1st, the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack – they’re going to do some kind of a 9/11, Pearl Harbor, et cetera, they are going to attack one of our bases.’ There was none of that intelligence.”
Trump forced by Israel: He claimed that Israel pressurised US president Donald Trump to join them in attacking Iran. “The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” he said. He alleged that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials from the country pressed the president with claims that were not in syncwith established intelligence channels.
US and Israel have divergent goals: “Most folks right now at the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies, they would say, us and the Israelis actually have a different objective here,” Kent said.
–with inputs from the Guardian
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