A covert operation to overthrow the Iranian regime had been catastrophically compromised - Former UN weapons inspector and intelligence analyst Scott Ritter

Former UN weapons inspector and intelligence analyst Scott Ritter laid out a damning allegation: a covert operation to overthrow the Iranian regime had been catastrophically compromised. He asserted the plan “was something that was cooked up at Mar-a-Lago,” noting that “Lindsey Graham has admitted it.” According to Ritter, “this is something that Netanyahu and Trump cooked up when Netanyahu was visiting Mar-a-Lago,” and “this was all planned.”

He detailed “extensive planning going on between the Mossad, the CIA, British intelligence, Dutch intelligence, and every intelligence agency in the world that has been lined up against the Iranians.” Yet, he stated, “the United States didn’t pull the trigger until it was too late.”

Reflecting on the failure, Ritter was blunt: “Trump knew what he was doing.” In his view, “it seems to me that Trump set up Lindsey Graham, set up Netanyahu—set them all up—because they shot their bolt.” The result was the total destruction of a critical asset: “The Mossad network that was used is gone, finished.” He described an Israeli panic, explaining that “when they lost communication with them, they tried to shove in a whole bunch of new Starlink communication kits, and the Iranians were just sitting there waiting for them to come in. Go, ‘Thank you very much. Thank you very much.’”

Ritter credited the Iranian counter-operation to a compromised code, claiming, “the Iranians broke the code, got in there thanks to the help of Russia, by the way.” The consequence, he said, was absolute: “So it’s all over. That entire network’s gone. It took decades to build that network up. It’s gone.”

He argued that Senator Graham is now covering for this failure, stating, “Graham knows what happened. There is no capacity to replicate the opportunity that was lost.” Ritter dismissed Graham’s excuses, insisting, “Now he’s trying to be nice and say it’s not Donald Trump’s fault. It’s 100% Donald Trump’s fault.”

Ritter concluded by framing the episode as a potential deliberate sabotage, posing the central question: “And you have to ask yourself: was this deliberate? Is it just incompetence, which I can also accept? Or was this deliberate—a setup—so that Netanyahu and Graham and everybody else stop talking to him about overthrowing the Iranian regime, because they no longer have the tools to do so?”

There’s no doubt in my mind that Trump set them up (and probably with Russia’s help).

The strategy is brilliant. Check mate.