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
4 – Nuclear Weapons Thwarted
A major
concern that has undergirded much of the perception of an Iranian
threat is the possibility that Tehran will develop a nuclear weapon
somewhere down the road. We believe that the current Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, even if imperfect, provides the best
response to that Iranian proliferation problem.
The U.N.
inspections regime is strict and, if the agreement stands, there is
every reason to believe that Iran will be unable to take the
necessary precursor steps leading to a nuclear weapons program. Iran
will be further limited in its options after the agreement expires in
nine years.
Experts
believe that, at that point, Iran its not likely to choose to
accumulate the necessary highly enriched uranium stocks to proceed.
The
recent incident involving the shoot-down of a drone alleged to be
Iranian, followed by the downing of an Israeli fighter by a Syrian
air defense missile, resulted in a sharp response from Tel Aviv,
though reportedly mitigated by a warning from Russian President
Vladimir Putin that anything more provocative might inadvertently
involve Russia in the conflict.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have moderated his
response but his government is clearly contemplating a more robust
intervention to counter what he describes as a developing Iranian
presence in Syria.
In
addition, Netanyahu may be indicted on corruption charges, and it is
conceivable that he might welcome a “small war” to deflect
attention from mounting political problems at home.
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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