Prime US intelligence officers on Wednesday issued a powerful rebuttal to leaked media stories suggesting restricted harm from current US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear websites, asserting that the focused amenities have been actually severely hit and would take years to rebuild.Director of nationwide intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused what she described because the “propaganda media” of selectively leaking labeled assessments in a bid to discredit President Donald Trump’s dealing with of the strikes. In a submit from her official X account, Gabbard mentioned new intelligence confirms the “full destruction” of Iran’s nuclear amenities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan throughout American airstrikes earlier this week.“If the Iranians selected to rebuild, they must rebuild all three amenities solely,” she wrote, including that such a reconstruction course of “would probably take years.”Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who now serves in Trump’s cupboard, additionally criticised the credibility of current information stories that downplayed the extent of the harm. She claimed that these tales have been based mostly on illegally leaked labeled assessments written with “low confidence” and selectively leaked to mislead the general public.Echoing her remarks, CIA director John Ratcliffe additionally issued an announcement on X confirming that the company had “credible intelligence”, together with from trusted sources, displaying that the Iranian nuclear programme had sustained critical setbacks. “Iran’s nuclear amenities have been severely broken by the current, focused strikes,” Ratcliffe mentioned, noting that the CIA continues to observe the state of affairs and can replace officers and the general public as extra data turns into obtainable.Each officers straight challenged preliminary leaks reported by some US media retailers that advised the strikes had left core elements of the Iranian nuclear amenities intact and had set it again solely by a matter of months. Ratcliffe dismissed these stories as based mostly on illegally obtained intelligence that doesn’t replicate the CIA’s present evaluation.The statements from Gabbard and Ratcliffe mark probably the most assertive public response from the intelligence neighborhood because the strikes have been carried out.
