‘I Get the Same Intel:’ Iran Threat Exaggerated by GOP Hawks, Rep. Gallego Says

Intelligence information bent to justify war in the Middle East is eerily familiar ground to Rep. Ruben Gallego. The Arizona Democrat served as a Marine infantryman in Iraq in 2005, after the George W. Bush administration’s most criticized reason for invasion — stockpiled weapons of mass destruction — vanished in the desert.

Now Gallego, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has called for restraint among lawmakers and the White House in dealing with what he has said is intelligence manipulated into exaggerating the threat that Iran poses to the United States and its allies.

Gallego said he received a classified briefing Friday.

“What I saw was a lot of misinterpretation and wanting conflict coming from the administration and intelligence community,” Gallego told The Washington Post by phone Saturday. “Intel doesn’t show existential threats. Even what it shows, it doesn’t show threats to U.S. interests.”