乔·肯特，前国家反恐中心主任因反对伊朗战争而辞职他告诉塔克·卡尔森，打击伊朗是“以色列推动的决定”,并否认美国面临“迫在眉睫的”威胁。
周二宣布辞职的肯特还表示，他认为唐纳德·特朗普总统知道这场战争“进展不顺利”。
“以色列人推动了采取这一行动的决定，我们知道这将引发一系列事件，意味着伊朗人将进行报复，”肯特在周三晚上播出的近两个小时的采访中说。
“以色列人感到有勇气，无论他们做什么，无论他们把我们置于何种境地，他们都可以继续采取这一行动，我们只需做出反应，”他补充说。
肯特是一名战斗老兵，在美国陆军服役超过20年，在中东完成了11次战斗部署。
肯特监督美国反恐和反毒品事业，根据他的传记，他是总统的首席反恐顾问。去年7月，他在参议院以52票对44票的微弱优势被任命为国家反恐中心主任。
在与卡尔森的采访中，肯特说，没有情报表明，在美国没有首先对伊朗发动攻击的情况下，伊朗正在计划对美国进行打击。
“没有情报说，‘嘿，不管是哪一天，3月1日，伊朗人都会发动大规模的偷袭。他们会做一些类似911，珍珠港之类的事情。他们要袭击我们的一个基地。没有任何情报，”肯特声称。
特朗普在他对伊朗开战的几个理由中，一再表示德黑兰对美国构成了“迫在眉睫的威胁”，美国“非常接近威胁”。
特朗普周二在椭圆形办公室回答记者提问时对肯特的信做出了回应，他说:“我一直认为他是个好人。”
“嗯，我读了他的声明。我一直认为他是个好人，但我一直认为他在安全方面很弱，非常弱，”特朗普说。"我不太了解他，但我觉得他看起来是个不错的人。"
“但当我读到一份声明时，我意识到它是一件好事是他是“出去，”特朗普补充道因为他说伊朗不是威胁。伊朗是一个威胁。每个国家都意识到伊朗的威胁。问题是他们是否想为此做些什么。许多人，许多最伟大的军事学者，多年来一直说，总统应该除掉伊朗，因为他们想要核武器。"
在接受卡尔森采访时，肯特说，在他辞职之前，他与特朗普进行了“不是最好的对话”，以解释他辞职的原因，但总统是“尊重的”，他认为他们保持着“良好的关系”。
肯特说:“我认为总统是一个倾听的人，所以我认为他不一定只听我和你的，但我认为他在听许多不同的人的意见，因为我认为他知道在核心层面上，这并不顺利，他需要找到一种方法让我们摆脱困境。”
这位前反恐高级官员表示，美国人还没有看到一个“清晰”的结局。
“美国人想知道我们为什么要开战，最终状态是什么，如果这一点表达清楚，他们一般会同意。这与伊朗的情况不同，”肯特说。
肯特说，他在周末做出辞职的决定，因为他对战争的不同意见没有“被接受”，并补充说，不断上升的美国军人死亡人数是他的“真正转折点”。
“我知道我们正在走的这条路是行不通的。我看了足够多的数据。是做的时候了不同的东西，”他说。
在他的辞职信中，肯特指责以色列发动了一场“错误信息”运动，以“欺骗”特朗普发动这场战争。他将华盛顿攻击的决定归咎于“来自以色列及其强大的美国游说团体的压力”
在与卡尔森的采访中，肯特就以色列向美国施压的努力提出了毫无根据的阴谋，包括暗示以色列可能是暗杀右翼政治活动人士查理·柯克(Charlie Kirk)的幕后黑手，他以反对与伊朗的战争而闻名，甚至是试图暗杀唐纳德·特朗普总统。
卡尔森以阴谋交易闻名，并直言不讳地反对伊朗战争。
Resigned Trump counterterror adviser Joe Kent says 'Israel drove the decision' to strike Iran
Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center whoresigned over his opposition to the Iran war, told Tucker Carlson that "Israel drove the decision" to strike Iran and rejected that there was an "imminent" threat to the United States.
Kent, who announced his resignation on Tuesday, also said that he thinks President Donald Trump knows the war "is not going well."
"The Israelis drove the decision to take this action, which we knew would set off a series of events, meaning the Iranians would retaliate,"Kent said in a nearly two-hour-long interview that aired Wednesday evening.
"The Israelis felt emboldened and that no matter what they did, no matter what situation they put us in, that they could go ahead and take this action and we would just have to react," he added.
Kent is a combat veteran who served more than 20 years in the U.S. Army and completed 11 combat deployments in the Middle East.
Kent oversaw the U.S. counterterrorism and counternarcotics enterprise and, according to his biography, he served as the principal counterterrorism adviser to the president. He was confirmed as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in a narrow 52-44 vote in the Senate last July.
During the interview with Carlson, Kent said there was no intel that Iran was planning a strike on the U.S. without the U.S. first launching an attack on them.
"There was no intelligence that said, 'Hey, on whatever day it was, March 1, the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack. They're going to do some kind of a 9/11, Pearl Harbor, etc. They're going to attack one of our bases. There was none of that intelligence,"Kent claimed.
Trump, in the several justifications he's given for starting the war on Iran, has repeatedly said Tehran posed an "imminent threat" to the U.S. and that the U.S. was "very nearly under threat."
Trump on Tuesday reacted to Kent's letter while answering questions from reporters in the Oval Office, saying, "I always thought he was a nice guy."
"Well, I read his statement. I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security," Trump said. "I didn't know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy."
"But when I read a statement, I realized thatit'sa good thing thathe'sout," Trump added. "Because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.And many people, many of the greatest military scholars, are saying for years that [the] president should have taken out Iran because they wanted a nuclear weapon."
In his interview with Carlson, Kent said that before he resigned, he had "not the best conversation" with Trump to explain his reason for resigning, but that the president was "respectful" and that he thinks they remain on "good terms."
"I think the president is someone who listens, and so I think he's listening not necessarily just to me and to you, but I think he is listening to a lot of different people, because I think he knows at a core level, this is not going well, and he needs to find a way for us to get out of this," Kent said.
The former top counterterrorism official said a "clear" endgame has not been presented to Americans.
"Americans want to know why we're going to war, what the end state is, and they can get on board in general, if that's clearly articulated. That's not the case with Iran," Kent said.
Kent said he made his decision to resign over the weekend because his dissenting opinions about the war weren't "getting through," adding that the rising American service member death toll was his "real breaking point."
"I know this path that we're on, it doesn't work. I've seen enough data. It's time to dosomething different," he said.
In his resignation letter, Kent accused Israel of mounting a "misinformation" campaign to "deceive" Trump into launching this war. He blamed Washington's decision to attack on "pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."
In the interview with Carlson, Kent offered unfounded conspiracies about Israel's efforts to pressure the U.S. -- including a suggestion Israel may have been behind the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, known for his opposition to war with Iran, and even the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
Carlson is known to trade in conspiracies and has been outspoken about his objections to the war in Iran.
