Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, claimed that US strikes on Iran were effective in reducing the country’s nuclear capabilities, despite reports that the attack only slowed their program by a few months.
“New intelligence confirms what @POTUS has said repeatedly: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed. If the Iranians choose to rebuild, they will have to completely rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordow, and Esfahan), which will most likely take years,” Gabbard wrote on the social media platform X.
CNN, The New York Times, and other news outlets reported Tuesday that an internal government report found that strikes on the three facilities over the weekend only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by a few months, despite initial claims by Trump administration officials that the sites had been destroyed.
Multiple outlets reported that Iran had moved much of its enriched uranium prior to the strikes.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe also issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, claiming that the strike had “severely damaged” Iran’s nuclear program.
“The CIA can confirm that a credible body of intelligence indicates that the recent targeted strikes have severely damaged Iran’s nuclear program.
That includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities have been destroyed and will need to be rebuilt over the next few years,” he wrote in a statement posted on social media platform X.
Gabbard’s statement did not clarify what new intelligence she was referring to. According to media reports, the initial damage assessment in Iran was preliminary and classified.
“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,” Gabbard told reporters Wednesday.
President Trump and other top officials have insisted that the nuclear facilities were “obliterated,” despite experts saying it would take days to assess the extent of the damage.
They’ve also promoted an Israeli intelligence assessment that concluded the US strikes “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.”
“Interesting how the narrative changes,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote on X, referring to reports that Trump described the initial assessment as “inconclusive.”
“One way or the other, the extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear program will come out,” he said following the meeting.
“I trust the analyses of the men and women of our brilliant intelligence community over Donald Trump spiking the football.”
Gabbard’s comments come after she spent days at odds with the White House after Trump questioned her testimony from months ago, in which she stated that Iran was not as close to developing nuclear capabilities as Israel claimed.
“I do not care what she said. “I believe they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters last week.
