Israel Claimed Iran Was Targeting Trump, But The CIA Isn’t Buying It
The CIA reportedly had "low confidence" in Israeli intelligence claims that Iran was going to attack Air Force One.
The CIA reportedly had “low confidence” in Israeli intelligence claims that Iran was going to attack Air Force One.
Israeli intelligence informed U.S. intelligence officials of the supposed Iranian threat — but CIA analysts were skeptical of the country’s claims, The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing anonymous current and former U.S officials.
After officials were informed of the threat, President Donald Trump was moved off Air Force One and onto a smaller military aircraft in a clandestine evacuation, according to the officials cited by the Post. The alleged threat came as Trump was leaving the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey on July 8.
The threats were “Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence,” the Post reported, citing an anonymous U.S. official.
The CIA, the White House, the Israeli Embassy in Washington, the Turkish Embassy in Washington and the State Department all did not respond to requests for comment by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Questions are circulating about the safety of the new Air Force One jet, which was given to Trump as a gift from Qatar.
“The standard Air Force One fleet carries a sophisticated suite of protections, including anti-missile systems, but the White House appears to have accepted a lower baseline of protection for the Qatari jet in order to get it flying quickly,” Douglas Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said according to Reuters.