Top counterterrorism official Kent resigns over Trump's Iran war, says Iran posed no imminent threat

[demmiblue]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the Trump administration’s war in Iran.

Kent said on social media 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 American lobby.”

Kent, a former political candidate with connections to right-wing extremists, was confirmed to his post last July on a 52-44 vote.

As head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent was in charge of an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-iran-war-kent-resignation-e2e17a76d79617a68370f076c0291208

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. Kent was as ultra-MAGA as they come

He ran for congress a couple of times in the district in Washington state that is home to the international headquarters of the Proud Boys.

[Prairie Gates]

3. Yeah, so it's pretty meaningful that he essentially blames Israel and Republican neocons

for deceiving Trump.

That's the festering wound in the MAGA coalition leaking puss all over the damn place.

[LudwigPastorius]

25. I met an elderly German man in Kaiserslautern 40 years ago who...

maintained that Hitler was actually a decent man who had been deceived into implementing the Holocaust and losing the war.

Cultists rarely snap back to reality without deprogramming.

[maxsolomon]

19. Patriot Prayer, actually.

He got beat twice by Marie Gluesenkamp Perez - who's as Center-Right a Dem as possible, which is what's needed in WA-03, a district full of White Nationalists, farmers, and Portland-Suburb MAGAts.

[hay rick]

2. Israeli lobby.

Difficult to imagine Trump doing this without encouragement from Netanyahu, Miller and the "negotiating team" of Kushner and Witkoff.

[Sam I Yam]

27. Lobby? More like the Whole Damn Building!

With 'friends' like the State of Israel, who the Hell needs enemies?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

4. This is a major development,

expect the attacks from Trumpedo and his merry band of MAGAt's.

[orangecrush]

11. Incredible

This is a fucking nightmare.

Anyone with any sense is getting out

[Vinca]

5. Cue the indictment police.

[Javaman]

6. I guess there are degrees of acceptance by maga: pedos okay but war is just too much. nt

[LeftInTX]

26. It's a war that we can't win.

If Trump would have cut and run after the strikes that toppled the top guys, this guy would probably stay there. Iran would have back and forth and called it a victory. US and Israel would have also called it a victory.

I really thought that was what Trump would do in this case, because he doesn't like negative publicity.

You can't topple Iran in this fashion. It's too much like the Soviet Union.

Now Trump is stuck in a mess with the straits etc.

[tonekat]

7. Little Mikey Johnson trying to justify the war intelligence

We don't believe you Little Mikey!

[vanessa_ca]

8. Here is his full resignation letter

Link to tweet

[Attilatheblond]

9. Iran was no real threat to the US, but Epstein files BIG threat to Trump

And if he had copies of not, I can imagine Netanyahu making threats to release information and Trump, being a coward & guilty as hell figuring sending others into a war was safer for him.

[orangecrush]

10. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

He knows something is coming.

[dalton99a]

12. .

[orangecrush]

13. If I'm not mistaken

This is the guy responsible for preventing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

Oh fuck

[dalton99a]

15. The war is now personal with Iran's supreme leader. Trump wounded him and killed his father, mother, wife, son

[orangecrush]

16. So this ulta MAGA

Came flat out and said the attack was completely unjustified.

And furthermore, he's getting the fuck out while the getting good.

This is ominous.

[maxsolomon]

20. I wasn't really relying on him.

He's a White Nationalist jackhole.

[orangecrush]

22. I agree

However, apparently he sees something coming and is getting out ahead of it.

[CountAllVotes]

14. No kidding!

& recommend!

[Pluvious]

17. One reply I thought it was interesting...

Link to tweet

[Exp]

18. FUCK A.I.P.A.C.! FUCK NETANYAHU!! More complete Kent interview::

“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 American lobby,” he said.

He pointed to Trump’s past pledges to end US engagement abroad, writing, “you understood that wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the previous lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation”.

The resignation is the most high-profile from the Trump administration since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28.

Kent’s reference to the term “imminent threat” is also significant.

[mathematic]

21. Yet another MAGA blaming Jews, mad that people didn't understand that "America First" was code for Jew-hate.

He blames Jews, oh I'm sorry I gotta use the socially acceptable euphemism, "Israel" for 3 wars in the middle east: The current one, the Syrian Civil War, and the Iraq War.

For this I'm supposed to believe:
1) Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were agents of Israel.
2) The many factions of Syrians (including the current leader of Syria) were agents of Israel
3) Donald Trump, for the first time in his life, chose to do something he didn't want to do and that's because he was brainwashed by Israel.

Oh, I'm sure people will be happy to point out he doesn't say "Jew" once in his resignation letter, as if antisemites don't have 20 centuries of experience downplaying their true thoughts until they can act on them.

He blames Jewish (American btw) lobbyists. He blames "influential members of the American Media". His political aim is to scapegoat Jews, just the same as other MAGA critics of the administration Massie, Carlson, and MTG. They are not seeing the light. They are coordinating a message of Jew-hate.

[PSPS]

23. Just to be clear, Kent is still and always has been ultra MAGA

His beef is that his dear leader isn't turning out to be what he promised -- in this case, more foreign wars instead of less. It's the same grip most of MAGA has, that trump isn't sufficiently MAGA!

[Mr. Sparkle]

24. Trump been israel's bitch, is going to bring down maga

When Mark Levin called Trump the ‘The First Jewish President’ , you know that didn't go down well in Dixie.

[sop]

28. Netanyahu: 'America is a thing you can move very easily'

From a 15-year-old Washington Post article, before Bezos turned the newspaper into The Amazon Post:

"A newly released video of Netanyahu, speaking in an unvarnished manner in 2001 about relations with the United States and the peace process, may cause some heartburn at the White House...'I know what America is,' Netanyahu told a group of terror victims, apparently not knowing his words were being recorded. 'America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won't get in their way.' "

"Netanyahu also bragged how he undercut the peace process when he was prime minister during the Clinton administration. 'They asked me before the election if I'd honor [the Oslo accords],' he said. 'I said I would, but ... I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders. How did we do it? Nobody said what defined military zones were. Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I'm concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone. Go argue.' "

"Gideon Levy, a left-leaning columnist for Haaretz newspaper, declared: 'This video should have been banned for broadcast to minors. This video should have been shown in every home in Israel, then sent to Washington and Ramallah. Banned for viewing by children so as not to corrupt them, and distributed around the country and the world so that everyone will know who leads the government of Israel.' "

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2010/07/16/netanyahu-america-is-thing-you-can-move-very-easily/

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

29. Quelle surprise

[Turbineguy]

30. No worries, he has enough idiots in the cabinet to cover this.