The Biden administration's Iran screw up

 National Review:

The source of last week’s leak of U.S. intelligence about Israel’s plans to strike Iran, which has occasioned an investigation, isn’t yet known. What should be obvious, though, is that no individual who has had extensive contact with Iranian intelligence and diplomatic officials, and who has deferred to the direction of those officials before, should have ever been put in a sensitive position in the first place.

The Biden administration has ignored this rather simple rule.

The most glaring example of its questionable handling of the Iran portfolio is Biden Iran envoy Robert Malley’s continued employment by the State Department amid a probe into his handling of classified materials and the possibility that he shared information with the regime. Though Malley has since been suspended, it’s noteworthy that the administration has opted to technically keep him in the role, no doubt wishing to avoid the political fallout that would come with terminating him.

Possibly worse than Malley’s appointment is that of Ariane Tabatabai, an academic turned State Department and Pentagon official. She was part of the now-infamous Iran Experts Initiative — a program used by Tehran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cultivate relationships with foreign academics who could carry water for the regime.

At one point, according to reporting from Semafor, which revealed the program’s existence, Tabatabai opted to skip a conference in Israel after an Iranian official instructed her not to go. She also consulted with this same Iranian official regarding how she should testify in hearings before Congress. Her job today — chief of staff to the Pentagon official who oversees special operations.

It’s true that the leak of documents from the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency could have come from any number of places. According to a former official who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon last week, they appear to have been available to “thousands upon thousands” of U.S. officials via a classified system.

But it’s also true that since October 7, pro-Hamas ideologues within the State Department have labored to leak information that would help their cause and damage Israel’s war effort.

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Once the source of the leak of Israeli plans to strike Iran is known that person should be terminated and could face charges of treason.  Iran launched missile attacks against Israel and Israel has every right to respond to that attack.  Iran is a hostile power not only to Israel but to the US and other of its allies.  The Biden administration needs to clean house of those who support the Iranian regime.

See also:

The Pentagon is melting down after a devastating leak put America in danger

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 “This weekend’s leak of the US assessment of Israel’s readiness to conduct the attack was damaging because it provided the status of the readiness but also what wasn’t ready,” Plitsas warned, explaining that Israel’s adversaries now have valuable insight into gaps in their military preparation.

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