Biden and Harris have paused the supply of certain weapons to Israel, and demanded its military pull their punches in Gaza, where Israeli and American hostages were taken.
Now, as the anniversary of Oct. 7 nears, we find from the State Department’s inspector general that the administration
grossly mishandled the suspension of its virulently anti-Israel Iran envoy Robert Malley, who had his security clearance revoked last April.
Malley, a childhood friend of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his old classmate from École Jeannine Manuel, a bilingual school in Paris, was improperly allowed to access classified materials after his suspension pending an ongoing investigation by the FBI for security breaches, according to accounts of the IG report in the Washington Free Beacon and The Associated Press.
Investigative reporter Lee Smith wrote in Tablet last year that Malley allegedly had helped “fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments” and helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence “into some of the most sensitive positions in the US government — first at the State Department and now the Pentagon.”
Pro-Tehran analysis
Among the policy analysts Malley hired was Ariane Tabatabai, who has been identified as a member of a pro-Tehran advocacy network run by Iran’s foreign ministry and remains a senior Pentagon official with top-secret security clearance.
Despite the obvious concerns, Malley was allowed to participate in a classified White House call on Iran one day after his suspension, but before he was informed about it.
He was still performing official duties after his security clearance was pulled, in breach of State Department protocol, says the IG report.
A month after his suspension, he was included in an email with then-undersecretary for political affairs Victoria Nuland discussing talking points for Blinken, the Free Beacon reported.
“Special Envoy Malley’s advice was also regularly sought and provided on issues including media talking points and Congressional testimony,” the IG found.
In other words, Blinken and his bosses Harris and Biden treated the potential national security threat posed by Malley as a joke.
So did Yale and Princeton, which offered him prestigious teaching roles after he was suspended.
It’s no wonder that Israel didn’t trust Harris or Biden enough to inform them about the Hezbollah pager operation until the last minute.
What a terrible indictment of American leadership.
At least 12 people were killed and nearly 3,000 people were injured in Lebanon Tuesday, and a similar detonation of Hezbollah walkie-talkies the next day killed another 20 people and injured 450.
nypost.com