Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 3/18

[SVPete]

HOW KENT WENT

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/03/how-kent-went.php

We must have been paying insufficient attention to the appointment of Joe Kent as head of the National Counterterrorism Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Yesterday Kent made himself a hero of the mainstream media when he resigned in protest over President Trump’s leadership in the Iran conflict. One has to read the fine print, however, to discover there is a little more to it. The guy is a barking dog of the Tucker Carlson school.
...
At Tablet’s daily newsletter The Scroll, Park MacDougald cruelly wonders: if Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States, how was it justified to kill Qassem Soleimani? At the time of the strike, Kent wrote in an op-ed for Fox News that Iranian retaliation for the killing would “most likely escalate into a full-scale U.S.-Iran war.”

Kent has gone full Tucker. According to Kent, while Trump once understood the value of restraint, he has since been bamboozled by, well, the wily you know who:

Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that you should strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.

As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.

The article notes that Kent's wife was killed in 2019 by an ISIS suicide bomber during Trump's anti-ISIS campaign, which had zero to do with Israel. With that clarification:

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooossssssssss!!!1111111

[SVPete]

Gabbard Backs Trump's Iran Threat Assessment After Kent Resignation

https://www.newsmax.com/us/gabbard-trump-kent/2026/03/17/id/1249834/

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard backed President Donald Trump’s authority and judgment on Iran in a post on X following the resignation of National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, reinforcing the administration’s stance amid internal dissent.

Gabbard wrote on X that Trump, “overwhelmingly elected by the American people,” serves as commander in chief with the responsibility to determine “what is and is not an imminent threat” and to take action to protect the country and U.S. troops.

She said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence exists to support that role by coordinating intelligence and delivering “the best information available” so the president can make informed national security decisions.

Gabbard added that after reviewing the intelligence, Trump determined that “the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat” and acted decisively based on that conclusion, according to her post on X.

It should not be necessary to point this out, but "imminent threat" is much bigger/broader than Iran having ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US.

[SVPete]

US intel hid Chinese 2020 election meddling from Trump because they opposed his policies, memo says

https://justthenews.com/government/security/analysts-hid-chinese-2020-meddling-intel-vulgarian-trump-over-opposing-his

Analysts inside the U.S. intelligence community sought to conceal evidence of Chinese influence efforts from President Donald Trump during the 2020 election, with analysts saying they didn’t want their intel used by “that vulgarian in the Oval Office” to pursue policies toward China they personally disagreed with.

The revelation is found within a January 2021 report written by — and never before reported upon comments by — analytic ombudsman Barry Zulauf, who conducted a review of the spy community’s handling of Russian versus Chinese meddling efforts during the 2020 election. Among his conclusions was that intelligence analysts downplayed China’s actions because they had disdain for the “vulgarian” Trump and did not want to support the policies and priorities of the Trump administration toward China with which they “personally disagree.”

Just the News reported this week that the U.S. intelligence community has known since early 2020 that Beijing also gained access to American voter registration data and used that information to conduct opinion analysis related to the presidential election between Trump and then-former Vice President Joe Biden.

[Sarcasm] Gee, I wonder why Trump has been cleaning house in the intelligence community. And why this POs Dems. [/Sarcasm]