CIA Director John Ratcliffe stated Wednesday that Iran‘s nuclear program “has been severely broken” by current strikes on its key enrichment services, and pushed again on reporting about an preliminary U.S. intelligence report that means in any other case.
Ratcliffe’s assertion doesn’t particularly point out U.S. bombs when he says that “current, focused strikes” destroyed the Iranian targets, so it was unclear if was additionally together with the influence of per week of strikes by Israel’s army.
He cited “a physique of credible intelligence,” together with “new intelligence from an traditionally dependable and correct supply/methodology” as components within the spy company’s evaluation that “a number of key Iranian nuclear services had been destroyed and must be rebuilt over the course of years.”
The assertion got here hours after President Donald Trump doubled down on his administration’s declare that U.S. bomb strikes over the weekend “completely obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.
Ratcliffe delivered his assertion by way of social media, the place he wrote that the CIA evaluation “contradicts illegally sourced public reporting concerning the destruction of key Iranian nuclear services.”
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of nationwide intelligence, wrote on X later Wednesday that “new intelligence” confirms Trump’s declare that “Iran’s nuclear services have been destroyed.”
“If the Iranians selected to rebuild, they must rebuild all three services (Natanz, Fordow, Esfahan) fully, which might doubtless take years to do,” wrote Gabbard.
She additionally accused “the propaganda media” of distorting “illegally leaked categorised intelligence assessments” with the intention to “attempt to undermine President Trump’s decisive management.”
The statements from Ratcliffe and Gabbard had been the most recent strikes within the Trump administration’s full-bore effort to undermine any reporting that doesn’t help the president’s description of what the U.S. army achieved within the Center East.
Late Wednesday, Trump introduced that Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and different army officers will maintain a information convention Thursday morning at 8 a.m. ET, “with the intention to combat for the Dignity of our Nice American Pilots.”
Talking at a NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, earlier Wednesday, Trump aggressively lashed out at journalists who first reported on the Protection Intelligence Company’s preliminary evaluation that American strikes had not utterly destroyed their targets.
That evaluation discovered that the bombings doubtless set Iran’s nuclear program again by just a few months, however not by years.
The report itself has not been made public. However it was described to journalists by folks acquainted with it, together with NBC Information. The evaluation was first reported Tuesday afternoon by CNN.
“The report stated what it stated, and it was positive,” Trump instructed reporters at The Hague, after defending his declare that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been “obliterated” by U.S. strikes.
The injury to Iranian websites “was extreme, they assume, however that they had no thought. They should not have issued a report till they did,” Trump stated.
The president additionally advised that the info which knowledgeable the DIA evaluation had been inadequate.
“They did a report, nevertheless it was like, when you take a look at the dates, it is only a few days after, so that they did not see” the websites, Trump stated.
“The report was not an entire report,” he added.
The Pentagon has launched a “leak investigation” with the FBI, Hegseth stated Wednesday. He additionally famous that the report was preliminary and had been labeled “low confidence.”
Talking alongside Trump on the NATO information convention, Hegseth criticized “faux information” and defended the strikes.
U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks between U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, throughout a press convention at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025.
Yves Herman | Reuters
“If you wish to make an evaluation of what occurred at Fordo, you higher get a giant shovel and go actually deep, as a result of Iran’s nuclear program is obliterated,” he stated.
The White Home additionally despatched reporters a screenshot of an announcement from Israel’s Atomic Power Fee, declaring that the U.S. strike on Fordo “destroyed the positioning’s crucial infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.”
Again in Washington, Ratcliffe, Gabbard and different high officers, together with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees Dan Caine and deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, had been scheduled to take part in categorised briefings Tuesday for Congress, NBC reported.
However that very same morning, each briefings had been abruptly postponed. The Senate briefing was rescheduled for Thursday, and Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., stated his chamber’s briefing might be held Friday.
However Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stated Wednesday that the lineup of individuals briefing the senators had been modified on the final minute.
Now solely Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are slated to temporary senators on Thursday, he stated.
“Sending intelligence officers to briefings in Congress is an extended standing bipartisan apply,” Schumer stated on the Senate ground.
If Hegseth and Rubio are “the one ones in attendance, they’ll solely parrot regardless of the president desires them to say,” he stated.
“Congress is entitled, because the representatives of the American folks, to listen to from the administration about issues of nationwide intelligence and nationwide safety,” stated Schumer.