CIA says Iran severely diminished from US bombing
CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday took the rare step of publicly defending President Donald Trump, claiming that the bombing of Iran “severely damaged” its nuclear enrichment program.
Ratcliffe, who was appointed by Trump and is a former Republican member of Congress, has played a less prominent role in the administration’s public relations rebuttal of reporting suggesting that the bombing did little to stifle Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
On Thursday, however, he cited a “body of credible intelligence” suggesting that President Trump is correct to characterize Iran’s nuclear program as being “totally obliterated.”
“CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes. This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.
The agency is working with Israeli partners and confidential sources to further assess the long-term consequences on Iran’s nuclear program, he explained.
“CIA continues to collect additional reliably sourced information to keep appropriate decision-makers and oversight bodies fully informed. When possible, we will also provide updates and information to the American public, given the national importance of this matter and in every attempt to provide transparency,” he added.
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This should not be too surprising because I suspect the CIA was Trump's source of information about the result of the attack on Iran's nuclear sites. While it is not clear why Democrats were challenging Trump's positions, I suspect they were just trying to be political opponents. There is literally no evidence that President Trump made up the results of the US attack.
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