CIA had ‘low confidence’ in Israeli intel on Iran threat behind Trump’s secret plane switch

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump’s last-minute plane swap as he left Turkey just got more complicated. A new report says CIA officials questioned whether the Iranian assassination threat that triggered the whole security scramble was credible.

The Washington Post reported that US intelligence saw the warning as shaky. It apparently came from Israeli sources, not their own, and officials did not put much faith in it. Israel told the US that Iran might target Trump as he got ready to leave Ankara after the NATO summit on July 8.

CIA reportedly questioned the intelligence

Citing current and former US officials familiar with the intelligence, the report said CIA analysts did not consider the Israeli-provided information compelling and communicated their skepticism to Trump administration officials.

One US official described the reporting as “Israeli-derived, not US-generated, and viewed as low confidence,” according to the Post.

The intelligence concerns add a new dimension to the elaborate security measures taken when Trump departed Turkey’s capital Ankara following the NATO summit on July 8.

Trump started out on the Boeing 747-8 that Qatar had given, which was being prepared to serve as Air Force One. After that, he switched to an older Air Force One, but the travel shuffle did not stop there. In secret, he boarded a smaller military jet, the C-32A.

The Washington Post reported that Trump got to the small plane using an airport catering truck. He then flew out to Britain’s Mildenhall air base, escorted by F-16 fighter jets.

Secret Service ultimately made the decision

Even though the CIA doubted there was a real threat, the Secret Service thought it was serious enough to ramp up security.

“As the president has said, he has faced numerous threats on his life, including ones from Iran, and every measure is taken to ensure his safety,” a US official was quoted as saying in a statement.

“The United States Secret Service’s core mission is protecting the president, which they achieved."

“The Secret Service has had three near misses with this president, so they’re not taking any chances,” one official told the Post.

Trump himself said Tuesday that the decision to use another aircraft was made by the Secret Service.

“It’s really just up to Secret Service. I just follow what they like to do,” he said, according to the Post. “They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety … I do what they say.” 

Report adds to doubts on US-Israel relationship

The reported doubts have also raised questions over why Israel shared the intelligence with Washington and whether the information was intended solely as a warning or could have been aimed at influencing US policy.

The Washington Post reported that some US intelligence officers, both current and former, think Israel might have been hoping to nudge Trump’s decisions and push Washington to take a particular approach in the region.

For Israel, Iran is still the main regional threat. But there is more to it: Israel is also uneasy about Turkey, and it has been paying close attention to how cozy Trump has gotten with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It “fit a broader pattern of Israeli intelligence reporting that some officials see as designed as much to shape presidential decision-making as to inform it,” a former official familiar with the matter said, according to the report.