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Trump, Who Accused Spies of Fabricating Evidence, Pressures Spies to Fabricate Evidence

The president blamed the intelligence community for the war in Iraq but expects them to do the same for Iran.

The same Donald Trump who accused America’s spies of fabricating evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) now expects America’s spies to fabricate evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear program.

The Guardian reports that the president has put pressure on intelligence analysts to give him an excuse to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Trump is legally required to certify to Congress every three months that Iran is meeting its obligations under the multilateral agreement. The next time will be in October.

If he declares Iran noncompliant, lawmakers would have sixty days to restore sanctions.

“Same people”

Trump earlier dismissed the spy agencies’ assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election in order to help him, saying, “These are the same people who said Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.”

But unlike in 2003, when there was division in the intelligence community over evidence for Iraqi WMDs, there is now a consensus both in the United States and among Western allies that Iran is holding up its end of the bargain.

The only person unhappy with this is Trump.