MESOP NEWS INTEL ABOUT IRAN : “WE DON’T KNOW” – CIA ! – Front-Row Seat to a CIA (Veteran) Briefing on Iran

30 Jan 2018 – Cipher Brief experts General (ret) Michael Hayden and former CIA senior officer Norman Roule have had many conversations on the subject of Iran and the broader Middle East—but not usually in front of a public audience.On Monday, Hayden hosted Roule at George Mason University’s Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security for a wide-ranging conversation covering Iranian history, the Islamic regime’s current destabilizing activities and U.S. regional policy.

Here are a few highlights of Roule’s comments: • On Iran’s influence on the broader Middle East: “Iran has injected into the region this sense of surrogates that follow an Iranian lead—some to greater or lesser extent—and has provided them with advanced weapons technology. This has changed the DNA of the region. Can the DNA be changed back? I don’t know.”

• On recent protests in Iran: “What you had in December, and what you’re having today… is unrest in…at least 6 or 7 cities. Crowds are in the thousands, not the millions. They are rudderless. They are brought together by a common thread of unhappiness with their standard of living, but they don’t actually have something they’re running towards—they’re running away from something.”

Read more highlights of their conversation.   – https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/exclusive/middle-east/front-row-seat-cia-veteran-briefing-iran?utm_source=Join+the+Community+Subscribers&utm_campaign=f9cab404f4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02cbee778d-f9cab404f4-122492169&mc_cid=f9cab404f4&mc_eid=7382055310