The director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle, a retired Inexperienced Beret and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, says he has resigned over the conflict in Iran.
“I can not in good conscience assist the continued conflict in Iran. Iran posed no imminent menace to our nation,” Joe Kent mentioned in a press release posted on X on Tuesday. “It’s clear that we began this conflict resulting from stress from Israel and its highly effective American foyer.”
The Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle oversees U.S. authorities intelligence on terrorist threats and retains a database of all recognized and suspected terrorists.
Kent labored below Tulsi Gabbard, the director of nationwide intelligence and the 2 had been political allies. Gabbard has saved a low profile because the conflict began and has beforehand criticized U.S. army interventions overseas.
Kent wrote in a letter to Trump posted on X that he supported the president’s values throughout his first time period. However he mentioned Trump had been wrongly swayed by the Israelis and he couldn’t assist “sending the subsequent technology off to battle and die in a conflict that serves no profit to the American folks nor justifies the price of American lives.”
Kent served within the Military Particular Forces, endeavor 11 fight deployments throughout a 20-year profession, and later labored on the CIA. His spouse, Shannon Kent, a Navy cryptologist, died in a terrorist bombing in Syria in 2019.
Trump and his supporters have mentioned the intelligence group sought to undermine the president prior to now and wanted a radical overhaul.
Kent’s placement on the heart was a part of a wider effort by the administration to place trusted loyalists and partisan activists in senior authorities positions in intelligence, legislation enforcement and diplomacy. He referred to as rioters “political prisoners” and has had ties to a person police say was a member of the Proud Boys far-right group.
