By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) – U.S. senators get a chance on Wednesday to question top aides to President Donald Trump in public about national security nearly three weeks into the Iran war as the Senate intelligence committee holds its annual hearing on worldwide threats to the United States.
The hearing is likely to focus on the Middle East conflict that began on February 28, as lawmakers – including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats – have said they want more information about a war that has killed thousands of people, disrupted the lives of millions and shaken energy and stock markets.
Democrats in particular have complained that the administration has not kept Congress adequately informed about a conflict that has cost U.S. taxpayers billions, and demanded public testimony rather than the classified briefings held in the past two weeks.
The testimony from officials including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe is also likely to touch on the shock announcement on Tuesday that a top aide to Gabbard had resigned, citing the war.
Joe Kent, who headed the National Counterterrorism Center, is the first senior official in Trump’s administration to resign over the conflict.
The Office of the DNI oversees the counterterrorism center and Kent is close with Gabbard, who has kept a low profile since the Iran war began.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful lobby,” Kent wrote in a letter posted to social media.
The White House rejected Kent’s assertion, saying his letter included “false claims.”
REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS DIFFER
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who chairs the committee, said on Tuesday that the military campaign had been “extraordinarily successful” and it would take time to achieve the administration’s goals for Iran, but he was confident the U.S. would do so.
“In the end, we will have defanged the Iranian regime, their missile forces, their drones, their missile launchers, their manufacturing capability will be ended. Their nuclear program will once again be pulverized,” Cotton said.
Cotton said he felt the campaign was carefully planned, a contrast with Democrats and other critics who have said Trump did not seem to have planned for actions like Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a critical energy shipping lane.
Questions have swirled around what Trump was told before he decided to join with Israel in striking Iran.
Sources familiar with U.S. intelligence reports have said Trump was warned, for example, that attacking Iran could trigger retaliation against U.S. Gulf allies despite his claims on Monday that Tehran’s reaction came as a surprise.
Trump’s assertion followed other administration claims that have not been backed by U.S. intelligence reporting, such as that Iran would soon have a missile capable of hitting the U.S. homeland and that it would need two to four weeks to make a nuclear bomb.
Trump was also briefed ahead of the operation that Tehran would likely seek to close the Strait of Hormuz, according to two other sources familiar with the matter.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee’s Democratic vice chairman, called the conflict a war of choice.
“There was no imminent threat to the United States, and I don’t believe there was even an imminent threat to Israel from Iran,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
The House of Representatives intelligence committee is due to hold its worldwide threats hearing on Thursday.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee and Cynthia Osterman)
Comments