Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned Tuesday, stating he could not in good conscience support the Trump administration’s military actions in Iran. In his resignation announcement, Kent claimed Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States and asserted that the conflict began due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt pushed back, saying President Trump had “strong and compelling evidence” that Iran intended to attack the United States first. Administration sources confirmed to reporters that Kent was not involved in Iran-related briefings.
Hal Kempfer, a retired Marine intelligence officer and national security analyst, expressed surprise at Kent’s assessment. Kempfer noted that Iran maintains sleeper cells and agents in the U.S., operates a global proxy network including Hezbollah (which also has U.S. sleeper cells), supports Houthi anti-ship attacks in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and backs Iraqi Shiite militias.
Kempfer suggested Kent might have focused narrowly on the absence of an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. or a fully assembled nuclear warhead. He described Kent as an unusual choice for the role with “very strange ideas” and indicated that elements of anti-Semitism appeared to influence the resignation, particularly discomfort with U.S.-Israel cooperation. Kempfer predicted Kent’s departure would not hinder the center’s counterterrorism efforts and that a replacement could perform as well or better.