Kerry must be investigated for the Zarif tape
1ews that former secretary of state -ohn .erry may have shared classified intelligence with Iranian )oreign 0inister -avad =arif about Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria has elicited yawns from the media and among congressional Democrats. The revelation which .erry denies was buried 22 paragraphs deep in a 1ew Democrats have rallied around .erry, while the press has all but ignored or dismissed the controversy. But it was a very different story four years ago, when a media firestorm broke out over news that President Donald Trump had shared details of an Islamic State plot with Russian diplomats during an Oval Office meeting. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, called Trump’s actions “dangerous” and “reckless.” Then-Senate 0inority /eader &harles Schumer, D-1.<., accused Trump of risking “the lives of $mericans and those who gather intelligence for our country.” Sen. 0ark :arner, D-9a., then-vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence &ommittee, said on Twitter, “If true, this is a slap in the face to the intel community. Risking sources methods is inexcusable, particularly with the Russians.” It turned out that Trump did not reveal sources and methods to anyone. The Times found out that that Israel was the source of the intelligence from “a current and a former $merican official familiar with how the 8nited States obtained the information.” )ormer &I$ director -ohn Brennan later said that “the real damage that was done is what was leaked in the aftermath, what was put in the media” ± ± not what Trump said to the Russians. 0oreover, as a sitting president, Trump had full declassification authority. $s secretary of state, .erry did not ± ± and certainly not after he left office. If he shared classified intelligence with an Iranian official, it would be a serious offense. :e don’t know for certain what .erry told =arif, or when he told him. $ll we have is =arif’s word that “it was former 8.S. foreign secretary -ohn .erry who told me Israel had launched more than 200 attacks on Iranian forces in Syria.” Some, including Secretary of State $ntony Blinken, have defended .erry by saying that this intelligence was in the public domain by the time .erry allegedly disclosed it in contrast to .erry’s blanket denial . This seems implausible, since =arif says on the recording that he was astonished by what he claims .erry revealed. Perhaps 4uds )orce commander 4asem Soleimani kept =arif out of the loop on Iran’s intelligence about the Israeli strikes. But how could he keep him in the dark about published news reports of Israeli strikes against his own country’s targets in Syria" It is likely that what astonished =arif was not the fact of the strikes, but the significant escalation in Israeli attacks on Iranian targets. In -uly 2017, Israeli Prime 0inister Benjamin 1etanyahu was caught telling world leaders behind closed doors that Israel had struck +e]bollah do]ens of times in Syria in remarks that were accidentally transmitted to the ear buds distributed among reporters. $fter this inadvertent disclosure, the head of the Israeli air force confirmed in $ugust 2017 that Israel had struck Syrian and +e]bollah arms convoys nearly 100 times in the previous five years ± ± adding, “+appily, this goes on under the radar.” It was not until a year later, in September 2018, that Israeli Intelligence 0inister Israel .at] publicly acknowledged that there had been 200 strikes in the previous two years. This jump in operational tempo is what seems to have taken =arif by surprise. So, if .erry revealed that Israel had carried out 200 strikes before September 2018, he was sharing still-classified intelligence about an intensification in Israeli military strikes with an official of the target country. That would be a significant transgression. )our years ago, Senate Democrats demanded an investigation of Trump’s alleged disclosures to Russia. But now that it is .erry who stands accused, the silence from Democrats is deafening. The Iranian foreign minister has said he learned this intelligence information from .erry. That cannot simply be ignored. Democrats have a responsibility to conduct oversight over the Biden national security team. .erry should be called to &apitol +ill to explain under oath what he said to =arif ± ± and when he said it.