U.S. official resigns and reveals explosive information

What uncommunicated information lies behind the resignation of AI’s Joe Kent?

According to reports from American media such as CNN on March 18, Joe Kent, the recently resigned director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, stated in an interview that there is no intelligence indicating that Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons, and Iran does not pose a so-called “imminent threat” to the United States.

On March 17 local time, Kent issued a strongly worded resignation letter, publicly condemning the United States and Israel for waging war against Iran. He later reiterated during an exclusive interview with journalist Tucker Carlson that the claims made by U.S. officials regarding Iran posing an “imminent threat” are unfounded.

In the interview, Carlson asked him whether Iran is close to obtaining nuclear weapons, to which Kent replied, “No, they were not in that state when this conflict broke out three weeks ago, nor were they in that state in June of last year.” He mentioned that Iran’s Supreme Leader issued a religious edict years ago prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons. “The intelligence we possess does not indicate that this religious edict has been violated or is about to be repealed,” Kent stated.

Kent also said that the U.S. has no intelligence showing that Iran planned a surprise attack against the U.S. He remarked, “There is no intelligence indicating—say on a certain day, hypothetically March 1—that the Iranians would launch a large-scale surprise attack, creating something akin to a ‘9/11’ or ‘Pearl Harbor’ event, or attack one of our bases. There is absolutely no intelligence of that nature.”

He further stated that before the military action against Iran on February 28, “many key decision-makers in the U.S. government were not allowed to express their opinions to the president.” In contrast, there was “intense debate” prior to last year’s airstrike on Iranian nuclear facilities in June. He believes that the ability of U.S. intelligence agencies to provide “rational assessments” to the president was “severely suppressed” in the decision-making process this time.

Kent explained that he decided to resign and speak out because he strongly felt that his voice was “stifled” before it could reach the White House, stating, “Our message simply did not get out.”

Reviewed by | Lu Changyin

Edited by | Wang Xiaojiao

Proofread by | Xu Xuan