{"id":166978,"date":"2026-03-18T06:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/166978\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T06:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:28:23","slug":"top-us-security-official-quits-says-iran-did-not-pose-immediate-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/166978\/","title":{"rendered":"Top US security official quits, says Iran did not pose immediate threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kent has opposed military interventionsOfficial says his resignation comes as a surpriseCriticized by Democrats for far-right tiesWASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) – A top security official in U.S. President \u200bDonald Trump’s administration resigned over the war in Iran<\/a> on Tuesday, saying the country had posed no imminent threat \u200cto the United States.<\/p>\n

Joe Kent, who headed the National Counterterrorism Center, is the first senior official in Trump’s administration to resign over the conflict, now in its third week.<\/p>\n

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“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear \u200bthat we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote in a \u200bletter posted to social media.<\/p>\n

Some experts have said an imminent threat would be required for the United \u2060States to launch a war under the international law of war.<\/p>\n

Kent’s letter to Trump included “false claims,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline \u200bLeavitt in a statement.<\/p>\n

“As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack \u200bthe United States first,” said Leavitt. “This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors.”<\/p>\n

Kent did not respond to requests for comment and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the counterterrorism center, also did not immediately respond.<\/p>\n

KENT KNOWN FOR OPPOSING MILITARY INTERVENTIONS<\/p>\n

Kent has long been known for \u200bhis “America First” beliefs and has said he opposes U.S. military interventions abroad.<\/p>\n

\"HouseNational Counterterrorism Center Director Joseph Kent attends a House Homeland Security hearing entitled “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland,” on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S. December… Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab<\/a> Read more<\/p>\n

Still, the announcement came as a surprise, one U.S. official said.<\/p>\n

Kent \u200bis close with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has kept a low profile since the Iran war began.<\/p>\n

“After carefully reviewing all the \u200cinformation before \u2060him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion,” Gabbard said on social media on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The National Intelligence Council, which is overseen by Gabbard’s office, issued several assessments both before and after the U.S. strikes began that highlighted the risks of U.S. intervention.<\/p>\n

Those reports indicated<\/a> the Iranian government was unlikely to collapse and \u200bIran would likely retaliate against U.S. \u200boutposts in the region and \u2060Gulf allies, as Reuters previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kent has been criticized by Democrats for his associations with far-right figures. Media reports have linked Kent to self-avowed white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Kent has since denounced Fuentes’ views.<\/p>\n

Senator \u200bMark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, has said he should never \u200bhave been confirmed \u2060to head the counterterrorism office.<\/p>\n

“But on this point, he is right: There was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice,” Warner said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Last year, Kent pushed intelligence analysts, opens new tab<\/a> to rework an \u2060assessment on \u200bTren De Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, that did not support the White House’s \u200bargument that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was directing its operations. The administration had portrayed the gang as a security threat to justify its immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n

(This story has been corrected to add the word ‘American’ to the quote in paragraph 3)<\/p>\n

Reporting by Katharine Jackson, \u200bSusan Heavey, Phil Stewart, Erin Banco, Idrees Ali and Jarrett Renshaw, editing by Andy Sullivan, Michelle Nichols, Rod Nickel and Don Durfee<\/p>\n

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Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a>\"Erin<\/a><\/p>\n

Erin Banco is a national security correspondent focusing on the intelligence community. She covers everything from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to U.S. covert operations overseas. She previously worked at POLITICO as a national security reporter.
\nBanco has a long history covering the Middle East region, from Cairo to Baghdad to Aleppo where she\u2019s reported on the Arab Spring and its aftermath, including the civil war in Syria and the rise of ISIS. Her 2017 book, Pipe Dreams, focuses on the development of the oil and gas industry in the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq. Banco attended The University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in Arabic and journalism. She earned a master\u2019s in public administration from Columbia University\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs in 2014.<\/p>\n

\"Phil<\/a><\/p>\n

Phil Stewart has reported from more than 60 countries, including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China and South Sudan. An award-winning Washington-based national security reporter, Phil has appeared on NPR, PBS NewsHour, Fox News and other programs and moderated national security events, including at the Reagan National Defense Forum and the German Marshall Fund. He is a recipient of the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence and the Joe Galloway Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kent has opposed military interventionsOfficial says his resignation comes as a surpriseCriticized by Democrats for far-right tiesWASHINGTON, March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[16263,7724,51389,46699,46723,68468,46734,51391,47867,46733,16267,50166,16268,50167,47868,48381,36431,50162,46700,46701,14811,16247,68471,9819,51390,46705,2710,20777,75,84,83,51387,50153,16236,16264,9,24,16252,50146,46727,68469,63,46707,50168,16269,50169,16254,16127,68470,50154,46725,51385,66078,46724,48390,51386,51388,46747,47864,46745,47865,47866,618,50914,21181,16262,68472],"class_list":["post-166978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-amers","tag-asia","tag-asxpac","tag-clj","tag-cwp","tag-def","tag-destlita","tag-destmetop","tag-destocatpm","tag-destopub","tag-destousdnm","tag-destouspom","tag-destoustpm","tag-destouswdm","tag-dip","tag-dli","tag-emea","tag-emrg","tag-ener","tag-enff","tag-eng","tag-gen","tag-hrep","tag-il","tag-ir","tag-judic","tag-law","tag-legal","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-meast","tag-mpop","tag-mtpix","tag-namer","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news1","tag-nrlinojud","tag-nrlpaopub","tag-nucl","tag-nyc","tag-oilg","tag-packageus-politics","tag-packageus-top-news","tag-packageworld-news","tag-pol","tag-potus","tag-pplmov","tag-racr","tag-reuters-legal","tag-rulesiran","tag-rulesiran-crisis","tag-secur","tag-soci","tag-swasia","tag-tglf","tag-topcmb","tag-topicbusiness-tariffs","tag-topnws","tag-trd","tag-trf","tag-us","tag-vio","tag-war","tag-wash","tag-www"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}