US Press
The CIA doubted Israel's warning of an Iranian plot against Trump
Graphic: Times of Palestine
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The intelligence that moved an American president between aircraft in the middle of the night came from Israel, and the CIA did not believe much of it.
Agency analysts held low confidence in the Israeli-supplied warning of an Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump in Turkey, and told the administration so, the Washington Post reported. The material was Israeli-derived rather than American-generated, and the analysts did not find it compelling.
The Secret Service acted on it anyway. Leaving the NATO summit in Ankara on 8 July, Trump was moved from the Qatari-donated 747 to the older Air Force One, then out of it — through an airport catering truck — onto a smaller C-32A that flew to Britain under fighter escort. Two close aides went with him. No cabinet officer did.
Some American officials, in the paper's account, read the warning as part of a pattern: Israeli intelligence arriving at moments when Israel wants a particular American decision, in this case over Iran and over Washington's warming relations with Ankara.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, has demanded a briefing, saying the White House kept Congress in the dark. Trump has said publicly that the Secret Service told him to switch planes, and played down the risk to the journalists and staff left aboard.
For Palestinians the question underneath is familiar. Washington's decisions on Gaza rest on assessments it does not generate, supplied by the government those decisions are meant to restrain.
