U.S. Deploying More Patriot Missiles To Counter Iran Threat.
KEILAR: Breaking news in our "WORLD LEAD." The U.S. military deploying additional patriot missiles to the Middle East right now to counter the accelerating threat from Iran. Let's get right to CNN's Barbara Starr. She's at the Pentagon for us. Tell us what you're learning, Barbara.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Brianna. We were briefed a short time ago that Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has now approved an order to send additional Patriot missiles to the Middle East because of the Iranian threat. Why is this so significant? Patriot missiles have the capability of shooting down adversarial ballistic missiles that have flight a very high trajectory, cruise missiles that could be sent against commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf, and missile said Iran could potentially threaten U.S. military aircraft flowing through the region. So this is to beef up the existing Patriot missiles that are there. The Pentagon has been working for a couple of days now on the orders to get this all out to the Persian Gulf. CNN first reported on Tuesday that they were considering it. Here's the problem at hand. Right now it has been one week since the intelligence showed the Iranians were beefing up their aggression and one week later the Iranians have not reduced their efforts at all. Brianna?</s>KEILAR: All right, Barbara Starr, thank you so much. We want to bring in former CIA and FBI Analyst Phil Mudd. When you see that the U.S. deploying an additional Patriot missile battery to the Middle East, and you see this back and forth happening with Iran, how do you read this?</s>PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Boy, I think there's two categories. You got to put this into two baskets. Number one, what we're doing and number two how we think about it and talk about. What we're doing seems prudent. If you get ballistic missiles going for example to Yemen, you've got a Saudi ally out there, the prudent measure would be let's send out some Patriot missile batteries and ensure we're aware of this. How we talk about this, the hotter it gets the cooler you get, pros stay cool, amateurs sweat. When we look at 40 years of dealing with a revolutionary regime in Iran, we got to chill out here. They've done a lot of stuff over that 40 years. Let's keep our rhetoric cool. Act but stay cool in the kitchen. I think that's what I'd be watching.</s>KEILAR: Do you worry about a possible confrontation?</s>MUDD: I do because you don't understand intent. When you see capabilities, missiles are moving. We know missiles are moving. I presume we're seeing intercepts or maybe satellite photographs of a ship carrying missiles. We don't know what the Iranians are thinking. We don't talk to them very much. They don't know what we're thinking. The president is a little bit of an unguided missile himself. So when you look at this situation, if you're not talking to the adversary in a way for example that we're talking in the North Koreans. You've got to worry that neither side really understands each other.</s>KEILAR: When you say it's important how you talk, that this is how you would endorse acting, what do you want to see change?</s>MUDD: Chill. We are the big --</s>KEILAR: Specifically, what is the thing that you think is sending a bad message that could actually be dangerous?</s>MUDD: Well, when you look at the reputation of the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the National Security Adviser, they're talking about -- aggressively about how we intervene in Iran. The Secretary of State is saying we don't want war. Why would you even say that? Why wouldn't you just get out and say look we're taking prudent defensive measures? We can handle this. We've been dealing with this adversary for 40 years. What's the big deal. If you're a pro, you don't sweat. If you're an amateur you get nervous. Chill out.</s>KEILAR: The U.S. Navy is putting out some images of the Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier going through the Suez Canal. We don't often see images like this, right. They're putting them out for a region -- a reason. There's this time-lapse image that we're seeing now of it pulling through the Suez Canal. This is to send a message. There is normally a carrier in the area, but this is being moved. How significant is that?</s>MUDD: I think it's significant because you know the adversary's going to read it and the bottom line is are we sure we understand how they're going to read it. We don't know.</s>KEILAR: All right, Phil Mudd, thank you so much for your insight. How will the White House respond to these subpoenas for President Trump's taxes? We'll have more on our breaking news next.