Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who served as a Navy SEAL commander, said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News that the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on Saturday appeared to be coordinated by America’s adversaries — led by Iran — and the Biden administration is in “intelligence denial.”
“Between Ukraine and the Middle East, I have to believe it’s orchestrated. In recent weeks, we’ve had joint naval operations with China, Iran, and Russia in the Persian Gulf. The first assault with Hamas into Gaza was well-coordinated. You had air, land, sea, you had thousands of rockets. And that takes a lot of coordination,” Zinke said.
WATCH — Israeli Victim’s Mother Says Hamas “Will Come for Americans Next”:
“It’s almost a replay of the ISIS assault,” he said, referring to the terrorist group’s lightning assault into Iraq in 2014. “We’re seeing very, very similar fingerprints on it. But what we are seeing is an indication that this involves higher coordination at a nation-state level and I would say no doubt Iran is the principal driver.”
“So two immediate questions are, what about the Israeli intelligence? And what about ours?” he added.
Asked if there was an intelligence failure on either Israel or America’s side, Zinke responded, “To me, it’s more intelligence denial.”
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) on the East Front Steps of the U.S. Capitol on November 15, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“Look at Iran. Iran hasn’t changed their behavior,” he said. “This administration continues to deny that Iran is the principal driver of terrorism in the region. And now we have reports of an envoy within the State Department itself, that that may have skirted the sanctions of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of goods and services that should be sanctioned. Evidently, they were skirted. This should not be a surprise,” he said.
“Remember, the $6 billion that we paid off — $1.2 billion a hostage,” he said. “That was also two-degrees laundered through a third party in the Middle East to skirt the sanctions. So evidently, this administration has been skirting the sanctions for a while. And now it looks to be a coordinated regional terrorist attack and Israel is under a state of siege. I think the Prime Minister exactly expressed it correctly — they’re at war.”
Zinke said the Biden administration should have never agreed to unfreeze the $6 billion to Iran in exchange for five American hostages.
WATCH — White House Won’t Commit to Freezing Billions in Prisoner Swap Funds if Iran Was Directly Involved in Attacks on Israel:
“They should never have done it. They should not only freeze it, but we should wholly look at the investigation and hold people accountable that are skirting billions of dollars in sanctions,” he said.
“We know that Iran is involved. They haven’t changed their modus operandi, that I’m aware of, at all. But this is the same administration — a lot of them are Obama retreads that formulated the Iranian nuclear deal… . And you see the consequences,” he added.
The Biden administration insisted there has been no “direct evidence” that Iran was behind Hamas’s attacks, while acknowledging that Iran has provided money and support to Hamas for many years.
Zinke, who was a former commander of Seal Team Six, said the U.S. should be coordinating with Israeli forces to rescue American hostages held by Hamas.
WATCH — Israeli Mother on Hamas Terrorists Kidnaping Her Children: “It’s Against the Laws of War”:
“It’s Israel’s home plate. What we should be doing is coordinating with the Minister of Defense, and see what augmentation they need,” he said. “We routinely work with Israeli specialized forces. And there are a lot of roles and missions that the U.S. can participate in. But I would say we should ask the Minister of Defense what resources he needs?”
He said the U.S. could help with intelligence and specialized equipment such as explosive ordnance disposal.
Zinke said in general, hostage rescue is “very difficult.” He said the American hostages are likely going to be distributed and secured by Hamas. Also, he said, Israeli forces will not have the element of surprise.
As far the administration’s handling of the crisis so far, he said, “From a naval commander’s perspective, God bless the United States Navy, because we have a lack of leadership from the commander in chief,” he said.
“We have a commander in chief that’s rudderless,” Zinke concluded.
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter, Truth Social, or on Facebook.