Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated that U.S. strikes on Iran were effective in hindering the country’s nuclear program, despite reports suggesting the operation only delayed Iran’s progress by a few months.
“New intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed. If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordow, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do,” Gabbard wrote on the social platform X.
CNN, The New York Times, and other news organizations reported Tuesday that an internal government assessment concluded the weekend strikes on three Iranian facilities only delayed the country’s nuclear program by a few months, contradicting earlier claims by Trump administration officials that the sites had been destroyed.
The report also noted that Iran had relocated much of its enriched uranium prior to the attacks, according to multiple sources. But Gabbard addressed those reports too while taking verbal potshots at the selective media reporting.
“The propaganda media has deployed their usual tactic: selectively release portions of illegally leaked classified intelligence assessments (intentionally leaving out the fact that the assessment was written with ‘low confidence’) to try to undermine President Trump’s decisive leadership and the brave servicemen and women who flawlessly executed a truly historic mission to keep the American people safe and secure,” she added in her post.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that the FBI has launched an internal investigation to identify the individual responsible for leaking a classified assessment on the impact of U.S. airstrikes on Iran to the media.
Hegseth said the Pentagon, working alongside the FBI, will investigate who had access to the report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency. “When you talk to people who built the bombs, understand what those bombs can do and deliver those bombs, they landed precisely where they were supposed to,” Hegseth said in a post-attack interview.
“So it was a flawless mission … Any assessment that tells you something otherwise is speculating with other motives. And we know that because when you actually look at the report — by the way, it was a top secret report — it was preliminary, it was low confidence. All right. … And we believe far more likely severe and obliterated. So this is a political motive here,” he added.
“Of course, we’re doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now because this information is for internal purposes. Battle damage assessments,” Hegseth added. “And CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success.”
