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Early US intelligence report suggests US strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new U.S. intelligence report found that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months after a U.S. strike and was not “completely and fully obliterated” as President Donald Trump has said, according to two people familiar with the early assessment.
The intelligence report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran’s nuclear facilities. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to the people, the report found that while the Saturday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, they were not totally destroyed.
The assessment found that at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was moved out of multiple sites before the U.S. strikes and survived, according to the people, and it also found that Iran’s centrifuges are largely intact.
At the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant, the entrance collapsed and infrastructure was damaged, so that will take time to fix, but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, according to one of the people. The person also said that previous assessments had warned of this outcome at Fordo.
The White House strongly pushed back on the assessment, calling it “flat-out wrong.”
“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”
Trump has said in comments and posts on social media in recent days, including Tuesday, that the strikes left the sites in Iran “totally destroyed” and that Iran will never rebuild its nuclear facilities.
Netanyahu said in a televised statement on Tuesday that, “For dozens of years I promised you that Iran would not have nuclear weapons and indeed … we brought to ruin Iran’s nuclear program.”
He said the U.S. joining Israel was “historic” and thanked Trump.
The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the DIA assessment. ODNI coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the Defense Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries.
The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and David Klepper contributed to this report
Roy
June 24, 2025 at 5:18 pm
Could be and worth looking into but, more likely an attempt by Trump’s enemies to cast doubt on a historic military mission.
It apparently came from an unidentified “leak,” the source of which will never be verified or named, making it’s legitimacy beyond checking, but a good source for conjecture among Democrats who wish no success to The President.
Solem will want to check this out with Ivan Garcia to see if there’s anything to it.
Kevin
June 25, 2025 at 6:35 am
Intelligence says little blue masks keep you from contracting COVID or any other virus as well, intelligence also says that getting the whiz-bang COVID vaccine will prevent you from getting COVID. Intelligence says that the border is secure, that there are no bad-actors coming across the border. Intelligence says that the riots on 6Jan were all organic, that there were no false flag actors fanning the flames of chaos in the group. Intelligence says that burning down neighborhoods, burning cars, beating up police officers and other people is ‘mostly peaceful’, intelligence says that the infamous laptop was a russian plant.
Not really sure what the definition of Intelligence is in the article above, who is the group providing said intelligence (anonymous?), what is the mission statement of that group (foster discontent and doubt), who is paying the group that is providing this ‘whiz-bang’ intelligence that says our big bombs didn’t do the job they were intended to do (soros and son, chamber of commerce republicans, dimwit democrats)?
The article is a joke, you know it, we know it, everyone knows it….but keep sowing disunity and distrust.