By Daniel Larison

May 21, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - The Trump administration’s overhyped claims of an increased Iranian threat went over like a lead balloon with allied officials this week:

A NATO military intelligence official who was briefed on Pompeo’s claims about increased Iranian aggression in the Middle East said the substance of the intelligence that the Americans briefed was utterly unconvincing — even insulting [bold mine-DL].

“Do they think that we are stupid?” asked the NATO official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Pompeo has a record of making false and exaggerated claims about Iran and its involvement in other conflicts, especially in Yemen, so he probably didn’t have much credibility among allies going into this. It isn’t surprising that his presentation of the latest administration spin didn’t go over well. Our treaty allies don’t share the administration’s Iran obsession and don’t want to be drawn in to a new conflict, so to convince them the evidence of new and unusual Iranian behavior would have to be very strong. At the same time, the Secretary of State has been so used to getting away with making outrageous false statements to Congress and the public for more than a year that he probably didn’t expect to encounter so much skepticism when he tried to pass off weak evidence as if it were solid proof of increased threats.