I sometimes wonder what we’re paying them for.<\/p>\n
US intel not aware of Hamas\u2019 plan for Oct. 7 attack on Israel, John Kirby says.<\/a><\/p>\n The US would do the \u201csame thing\u2019\u2019 Israel did if it suffered an attack like the Oct. 7 assault, a top Biden administration official said Sunday \u2014 while admitting US intelligence was unaware of a battle plan from Hamas that Israel obtained over a year before the attack.<\/p>\n \u201c[Israeli officials] have every right and responsibility to go after the terrorist group that perpetrated these attacks and planet and oh, by the way, has made clear they\u2019re going to do it again and do more,\u201d National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told \u201cFox News Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe would do the same thing \u2014 any nation would,\u201d Kirby said.<\/p>\n Kirby also referred to the recent reported revelation about Israeli security failures in the run-up to the bloody terrorist rampage.<\/p>\n More than a year before the deadly attack, Israeli officials obtained a roughly 40-page blueprint outlining Hamas\u2019 battle plan but dismissed it as unachievable for the terror group, the New York Times reported last week.<\/p>\n Kirby suggested that the US did not learn about the document, dubbed \u201cJericho Wall,\u201d when its staunch ally Israel did.<\/p>\n \u201cThe intelligence community has indicated that that they did not have access to this document,\u201d Kirby told \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have no indications at this time that they had any advance warning of this document or any knowledge of it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 onslaught led to the deaths of at least 1,200 Israelis and sparked a war that the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims has now killed more than 15,000 Palestinians.<\/p>\n Kirby underscored the complexities of intelligence gathering when pressed about why the US would not have had access to the Hamas terror-plot document.<\/p>\n \u201cIntelligence is a mosaic, and sometimes you know you can fashion things together and get a pretty good picture,\u201d Kirby contended. \u201cOther times, you know that there\u2019s pieces of the puzzle that are missing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJericho Wall\u201d did not specify a date for when the attack would take place but rather laid out an offensive strategy to blow through Israeli defenses around the Gaza Strip, the New York Times reported.<\/p>\n But the terror group \u201cfollowed the blueprint with shocking precision,\u201d according to the outlet, which obtained a copy of the plan.<\/p>\n Internally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under intense scrutiny for the intelligence failures surrounding the bloody Oct. 7 attack.<\/p>\n \u201cPrime Minister Netanyahu has already spoken pretty candidly about this and calling it, you know, a failure on their part,\u201d Kirby said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll take a look at this at the right time. They need to do that. Right now, though, the focus has got to be on making sure that they can eliminate this truly genocidal threat to the Israeli people.\u201d<\/p>\n US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also weighed in on the \u201cJericho Wall\u201d revelation Friday, pledging that there would be \u201caccountability\u201d for the run-up to the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, the focus is on making sure that they can do everything possible to ensure that it doesn\u2019t happen again,\u201d Blinken said in Dubai ahead of the COP28 climate summit.<\/p>\n Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, reports emerged that Egyptian intelligence officials also had warned their Israeli counterparts about an attack days before it took place.<\/p>\n On Nov. 24, Israel and Hamas agreed to a humanitarian pause in the war to allow aid to flow into the besieged Gaza Strip and let hostages be freed.<\/p>\n That pause ended last Friday after Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the terms of the agreement.<\/p>\n Israel then pulled out of further negotiations in Qatar, a third-party broker where many top leaders of Hamas are living.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no official negations going on,\u201d Kirby explained. \u201cThat\u2019s because of Hamas. Hamas failed to come up with yet another list of women and children to be released, and we know they\u2019re holding additional women and children.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirby stressed that the US is still seeking to get negotiations back on track.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would like that to happen today. But honestly, I just don\u2019t know,\u201d he said when asked about when negotiations could resume.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I sometimes wonder what we’re paying them for. US intel not aware of Hamas\u2019 plan for Oct. 7 attack on Israel, John Kirby says. The US would do the \u201csame thing\u2019\u2019 Israel did if it suffered an attack like the Oct. 7 assault, a top Biden administration official said Sunday \u2014 while admitting US intelligence … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goobermint","category-the-more-things-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98249,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98248\/revisions\/98249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}