Iran Threat Exaggerated by GOP Hawks: US Congressman
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – US Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego said the intelligence information bent to justify war in the Middle East against Iran “does not show threats to US interests”.
Gallego, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called for restraint among lawmakers and the White House in dealing with intelligence manipulated into exaggerating the threat that Iran poses to the United States and its allies.
Gallego said he received a classified briefing Friday.
“What I saw was a lot of misinterpretation and wanting conflict coming from the administration and intelligence community,” Gallego told The Washington Post by phone Saturday.
“Intel doesn’t show existential threats. Even what it shows, it doesn’t show threats to US interests.”
Gallego said the two main drivers of what he described as a false narrative are national security adviser John Bolton and Sen. Tom Cotton. Both men have been lobbying for a military escalation against Iran, in media appearances and behind closed doors. Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, appeared on cable news discussing “multiple and credible sources of increased threats” from Iran.
“I get the same intel as Cotton,” Gallego wrote Saturday on Twitter. “He is greatly exaggerating the situation to spur us to war. Don’t fall for it.”
A spokesman for Cotton, who is himself a veteran of Iraq as well as Afghanistan, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the National Security Council did not immediately respond to a similar request.
Gallego said both committees get similar, if not the same, briefings from military and State Department officials.
US President Donald Trump has reportedly grown frustrated with Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for what appears to be an escalation beyond his own preference for diplomatic talks and harsh sanctions. And during the presidential campaign, he promised to keep the United States out of costly foreign wars.
Gallego said the temperature has lowered in recent days after skepticism with the American public and in Congress over the credibility of a threat from Iran. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, frequent Trump defender, said this week that he felt lawmakers had not been “well-informed” or thoroughly briefed on Iran.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff told the Atlantic, “We may be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of conflict with Iran — and without any endgame in mind.”
Gallego voiced similar concerns about miscalculations or willful misrepresentations of intelligence to justify military strikes against Iran.
This month, a US aircraft carrier deployment was expedited and bombers were dispatched to the region in response to alleged reports of increased activity by Iranian military forces.
