Still, not all skepticism about Mr. Obama’s Iran policy came from outside the building, and not everyone felt that their opinions were necessarily welcome inside the building. Dennis C. Blair, who served as director of national intelligence until he was pushed out, described a meeting that was advertised as looking for fresh insights on Iran.
“When it came my turn to speak at this meeting,” Mr. Blair recalled, “I said, ‘Mr. President, you really just have one decision to make. It’s really important, but it’s only a single one. Are you going to tolerate Iran having a nuclear weapon or not?’” If no, he said, then that would prompt certain espionage and military options. If yes, then it would require ways to contain and deter a nuclear-armed Iran.
But evidently, Mr. Blair’s contribution peeved the slow-to-anger president. “The president took me aside after that meeting and said, ‘Denny, don’t ever put me on the spot like that again,’” Mr. Blair recalled. “I said, ‘What?’ I mean, I didn’t say, ‘What?’ but I said, ‘Yes, sir, Mr. President. I certainly won’t.’” But Mr. Blair said, “I was kept out of meetings from that time forward.”
Other former advisers told stories about Mr. Obama’s support for his team. Ray LaHood, a Republican who served as transportation secretary, recounted how the president worked behind the scenes to liberate his son Sam LaHood when he was barred from leaving Egypt for two months. The younger Mr. LaHood was the director of the International Republican Institute in Egypt and targeted by the government in a crackdown on foreign groups.
“Obama didn’t make a lot of noise about it publicly, but I was told that every day, he talked to his staff about, ‘What are we doing? How are we going to get him out of there?’” Ray LaHood recalled. “I never really placed a call to Obama and said, ‘Hey, come on.’ They just — they told me, ‘He’s taking care of it.’ That was it.”
