NOV. 11, 2017— Former CIA director James Woolsey stated that “The US should destroy virtually all of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps infrastructure as well as Iran’s nuclear facilities to reduce its terrorist and nuclear threats.”
Woolsey, who was CIA director from 1993 to 1995 during the Clinton administration said during an interview that “The next time the IRGC looks cross-eyed at us… we should turn loose six to 12 MOAB [GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast] bombs on their facilities.”
Carrying 18,000 pounds of TNT, MOAB bombs are the second-largest conventional weapon in the US arsenal, and the largest ever used. Last April one was dropped on a suspected Islamic State target in Afghanistan.
“Given what a source of terrorism the IRGC is… instead of talking and proportionality – the hell with proportionality. We should destroy virtually everything we can that has to do with the IRGC,” Woolsey said, adding, “I think their seizing of a US ship [in January 2016] was an act of war. We went to war on less than that in the War of 1812.”
The former CIA director qualified that he “would not use MOABs against civilian facilities, but against military facilities… and we would be wise to take out everything related to their nuclear program.”
When asked if this approach might drag the US into a highly volatile and unpredictable war with Iran, he suggested that taking a strong approach might correct what he saw as a failure of the Reagan administration, when in 1983 the US responded to the 1983 Hezbollah bombing of a US barracks by withdrawing from Lebanon.
Woolsey said that he was disappointed that Trump did not scrap the Iran nuclear deal entirely, saying that “the Iran nuclear deal is worse than worthless.”
He claimed that “the US or the IAEA got recordings from overflying airplanes or satellites that there is a spot 100 miles north of Tehran which is highly radioactive.” He continued, “You tell the Iranians you are going to inspect the next day. The next morning they say you cannot go, because it is a military facility. You respond that it was not a declared military facility yesterday. They say, ‘We can make it a military facility anytime we want.’”
In regards to what Woolsey believes Trump should do, he said, “I would deal with the deal under American constitutional law. Any really major international agreement must be a treaty. You are committing the entire American people to something. This should have been a treaty. Its executive agreement status should be canceled, and it should be submitted to the Senate. If approved, it goes into effect, and if not, not.”
He claimed that if the US and its allies “want to damage Iran and keep them from running the Gulf, they need to break Iran’s economy, and getting the price of oil down is the only thing that does that.”
Woolsey believes that financially attacking adversaries is also a major part of fighting terrorism.
He discussed current CIA Director Mike Pompeo, saying, “So far, so good.” Regarding allegations that Pompeo has politicized aspects of intelligence related to Iran, Woolsey said that “it will go away with time… and people can discount what someone’s views were.”
Woolsey said, that in intelligence you need to “speak softly, carry a big stick and sometimes use the big stick.”
