Top US intelligence officials set to testify about Iran war, threats confronting the homeland
WASHINGTON– Top Trump administration national security officials who face back-to-back congressional hearings starting Wednesday are expected to be pressed on the war in Iran, including a deadly strike on a school, as well as the FBI’s ability to prevent terrorist attacks inside the United States.
The annual global threat hearings involving the government’s top intelligence officials come at a time of intense scrutiny of the U.S. military campaign in the Middle East and growing concerns about terrorism at home following recent attacks on a Michigan synagogue and a Virginia university.
Testimony before the House and Senate intelligence committees is expected to focus on the war and particularly the revelation that outdated intelligence likely led the United States to fire a missile that hit an elementary school in Iran and killed more than 165 people. The outdated targeting data allegedly came from the Defense Intelligence Agency, whose director, Lt. Gen. James H. Adams, is among those expected to testify. The White House says the strike remains under investigation.
The hearings, which begin Wednesday in the Senate and continue Thursday in the House, are also expected to deepen the internal administrative debate over the war, given the resignation this week of Joe Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent said Tuesday that he could not “in good conscience” support the war being waged by the Trump administration and that he disagreed that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States.
Hours later, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose office oversaw Kent’s work and who is expected at the hearings this week, wrote in a carefully worded social media post that it was up to Trump to decide whether Iran posed a threat. She did not mention her own views on the strikes.
Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe could also be asked about recent intelligence assessments on Iran, including one that said U.S. strikes were unlikely to result in regime change in Tehran, and another that cast doubt on claims that Iran was preparing to strike first.
The hearings are also expected to focus on Kash Patel’s leadership of the FBI. It will be his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since a video surfaced last month showing him partying with members of the U.S. men’s hockey team after their gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
He fired dozens of agents in his first year on the job, sparking concerns about an exodus of national security experience at a time when the United States faces an elevated terrorist threat.
Just this month, a gunman wearing clothing with an Iranian flag and the words “Property of Allah” killed two people in a Texas bar; two men who authorities say were inspired by the Islamic State were arrested on charges of bringing powerful homemade explosives to a protest outside the New York City mayor’s mansion; a man with a previous terrorism conviction opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University in Virginia; and a Michigan man of Lebanese descent drove his car into a synagogue.
The FBI said it was working around the clock to protect the country.
