As
President Donald Trump prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu next week, a group of U.S. intelligence veterans
offers corrections to a number of false accusations that have been
leveled against Iran.
by
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
MEMORANDUM
FOR: The President
FROM:
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT:
War With Iran
Part
1 – INTRODUCTION
In our
December 21st Memorandum to you, we cautioned that the claim that
Iran is currently the world’s top sponsor of terrorism is
unsupported by hard evidence. Meanwhile, other false accusations
against Iran have intensified. Thus, we feel obliged to alert you to
the virtually inevitable consequences of war with Iran, just as we
warned President George W. Bush six weeks before the U.S. attack on
Iraq 15 years ago.
In our
first Memorandum in this genre we told then-President Bush that we
saw “no compelling reason” to attack Iraq, and warned “the
unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.” The
consequences will be far worse, should the U.S. become drawn into war
with Iran. We fear that you are not getting the straight story on
this from your intelligence and national security officials.
After
choosing “War With Iran” for the subject line of this Memo, we
were reminded that we had used it before, namely, for a Memorandum to
President Obama on August 3, 2010 in similar circumstances. You may
wish to ask your staff to give you that one to read and ponder. It
included a startling quote from then-Chairman of President Bush Jr.’s
Intelligence Advisory Board (and former national security adviser to
Bush Sr.) Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who told the Financial Times on
October 14, 2004 that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had George
W. Bush “mesmerized;” that “Sharon just has him wrapped
around his little finger.” We wanted to remind you of that
history, as you prepare to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu next week.
FOR
THE STEERING GROUP, VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY
William
Binney, former NSA Technical Director for World Geopolitical &
Military Analysis; Co-founder of NSA’s Signals Intelligence
Automation Research Center (ret.)
Kathleen
Christison, CIA, Senior Analyst on Middle East (ret.)
Graham
E. Fuller, Vice-Chair, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
Philip
Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.)
Matthew
Hoh, former Capt., USMC Iraq; Foreign Service Officer, Afghanistan
(associate VIPS)
Larry C.
Johnson, former CIA and State Department Counter Terrorism officer
Michael
S. Kearns, Captain, USAF; ex-Master SERE Instructor for Strategic
Reconnaissance Operations (NSA/DIA) and Special Mission Units (JSOC)
(ret.)
John
Brady Kiesling, Foreign Service Officer; resigned Feb. 27, 2003 as
Political Counselor, U.S. Embassy, Athens, in protest against the
U.S. attack on Iraq (ret.)
John
Kiriakou, Former CIA Counterterrorism Officer and former senior
investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Edward
Loomis, Jr., former NSA Technical Director for the Office of Signals
Processing (ret.)
David
MacMichael, National Intelligence Council, National Intelligence
Estimates Officer (ret.)
Ray
McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA
analyst; CIA Presidential briefer (ret.)
Elizabeth
Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Near East (ret.)
Todd E.
Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (ret.)
Coleen
Rowley, FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal
Counsel (ret.)
Greg
Thielmann, former Director of the Strategic, Proliferation, and
Military Affairs Office, State Department Bureau of Intelligence &
Research (INR), and former senior staffer on Senate Intelligence
Committee (ret.)
Kirk
Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA
ret.)
Lawrence
Wilkerson, Colonel (USA, ret.), former Chief of Staff for Secretary
of State; Distinguished Visiting Professor, College of William and
Mary (associate VIPS)
Sarah G.
Wilton, CDR, USNR, (ret.); Defense Intelligence Agency (ret.)
Robert
Wing, former Foreign Service Officer (associate VIPS)
Ann
Wright, Colonel, US Army (ret.); also Foreign Service Officer who,
like Political Counselor John Brady Kiesling, resigned in opposition
to the war on Iraq
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