Pentagon's intelligence chief is fired over Iran nukes report

The least surprising development in the Trump world today was the sacking of Lieutenant-General Jeffery Kruse. the head of the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency. He must have known he would be fired from the moment his agency unwisely published a report too soon after the US B-2 bombing of Iran's nuclear plants in June. The DIA claimed that, despite President Trump insisting Iran's nuclear weapons programme had been blasted into kingdom come, only a small amount of damage had been done to the three nuclear sites and that Tehran's clandestine project would be up and running in a matter of months. It was a stupidly imprudent report for several reasons: first, it was premature, all the DIA was basing its report on was satellite images of the bombed plants, second, you don't contradict what the president is claiming in his face, especially someone like Trump, and third, the DIA was wrong. Substantial damage WAS done to the three plants. Even the Iranians agreed to that. Later intelligence assessments said the bombings had put back Iran's enriched- uranium programme by at least a year and probably two years. Ok, so the sites were not incinerated, some stuff survived. But basically it was a huge blow to Tehran's undeclared ambition to build a nuclear bomb. So the DIA had egg all over its face. Why the agency decided to rush into such a quick assessment is unclear but to do so when Trump was telling the world that Iran's nuke plants were obliterated was just totally stupid. If the DIA had been proved right, it wouldn't have saved General Kruse's job but it might have put a bit of gloss on the agency. All in all, Kruse's sacking was just a matter of time. BUY MY NEW SUPER SPY THRILLER, AGENT REDRUTH, PUBLISHED AS A PAPERBACK BY ROWANVALE BOOKS. ORDER FROM AMAZON