The United States ‘shares the blame’ for failing to predict the Hamas attack on Israel, a former CIA official has said, as it turned its attention away from the terror group after September 11 and focused instead on Al-Qaeda focused.
Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA operations officer with extensive counterterrorism experience, said The Wall Street Journal The US was wrong to leave control of Hamas to the Israelis.
“When it comes to the failure of the intelligence services, which in fact is mainly Israel’s fault, I think we also have to share some blame for missing this event,” he said.
“Giving the target over to the Israelis now appears to have had consequences.”
Hamas militants kidnapped 230 hostages from kibbutz communities, a music festival, towns and military bases in southern Israel during the October 7 attack.
Hamas terrorists are seen driving towards the border fence with Israel in Gaza on October 7
Hamas terrorists are pictured taking selfies in front of a burning Israeli tank near the Gaza border wall on October 7
Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA operations officer with extensive counterterrorism experience, told The Wall Street Journal that the US was wrong to leave oversight of Hamas to the Israelis.
The United States kept an eye on Hamas, while a pair of CIA analysts were tasked with monitoring the group – which was elected in 2006 to control Gaza.
But most of their efforts went toward monitoring al-Qaeda and then Islamic State, as U.S. officials calculated that those two in particular posed a threat to the United States.
It should have been “a well-placed gamble,” a senior counterterrorism official told The Wall Street Journal.
US intelligence agencies have a budget of $90 billion, but must still prioritize their objectives.
Demands in recent years have shifted toward oversight of China, with less emphasis on the Middle East, officials say.
Jonathan Schanzer, who followed Hamas as a U.S. Treasury Department terrorist financing analyst, said the focus on Hamas financing waned after September 11, as first Barack Obama, and then Biden, tried to build trust with Iran.
Schanzer, who now works at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said there needed to be a review of what the US was doing to combat Iranian-backed terror groups.
“There should be one. If not, there is foreign policy malpractice,” he said.
Intelligence experts said it was not easy to determine where to allocate the money and resources.
“There is a very difficult prioritization that needs to be done,” said a second former counter-terrorism official.
“The reality is that you don’t have collection resources that you can exploit around the world.
‘We depend on partners for areas where we think we can take a small risk.’
One source told The Wall Street Journal that Hamas was not on the “bottom rung” of the priority list, but not in the top half either.
Some defended the U.S. approach, pointing out that al-Qaeda posed a significantly greater threat to American lives after September 11.
The terrorist group killed nearly 3,000 Americans in September 2001, bombed American embassies and carried out many other deadly terrorist attacks.
“I don’t recall anyone saying at the time that you were focusing too much on al-Qaeda,” said a former senior CIA official.
The debate within the US intelligence community comes at a time when Israel’s own spy services are facing serious questions about the colossal misstep.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the early hours of Sunday appeared to blame security and intelligence officials for failing to detect signs of this HamasThe organization’s devastating invasion was imminent, and it was subsequently forced to apologize.
“Never, under any circumstances, was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of Hamas’s intention to start a war,” Netanyahu wrote in the now-deleted post.
“On the contrary, all security officials, including the head of military intelligence and the head of Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service), believed that Hamas had been deterred.
“This was the assessment that was submitted to the Prime Minister and the (security) Cabinet again and again by all security officials and the intelligence community, until the outbreak of war.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to blame security and intelligence officials for failing to detect signs of Hamas’ devastating invasion
The message was published X hours after Netanyahu gave a press conference late on Saturday in which he was asked whether he had been warned of the danger of an attack.
Netanyahu said there had been a “terrible failure” before the attacks, with Hamas militants also taking 230 hostages from kibbutz communities, a music festival, towns and military bases in southern Israel.
“There has been a terrible failure and it will be looked at intensively,” he said at the press conference.
‘No stone will be left unturned. Right now, my mission is to save the country and lead the soldiers to total victory over Hamas and the forces of evil.”
His post was deleted Sunday morning and replaced a few minutes later.
“I was wrong,” he stated in the new post.
“Things I said after the press conference should not have been said, and for that I apologize.
“I fully support all heads of the security establishment. I support the Military Chief of Staff and the commanders and soldiers of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) who are on the front lines fighting for our home. Together we will win,” he wrote.
Benny Gantz, a retired general and member of Israel’s war cabinet, urged Netanyahu to withdraw the statement.
Israeli opposition politician Yair Lapid also criticized Netanyahu, saying the prime minister has “crossed a red line.”
Lapid criticized the government for not being “present” and “failing to overcome the shock of October 7.”