Top US intelligence officials on Wednesday issued a strong rebuttal to leaked media reports suggesting limited damage from recent US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, asserting that the targeted facilities were in fact severely hit and would take years to rebuild.Director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused what she described as the “propaganda media” of selectively leaking classified assessments in a bid to discredit President Donald Trump’s handling of the strikes. In a post from her official X account, Gabbard said new intelligence confirms the “complete destruction” of Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan during American airstrikes earlier this week.“If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities entirely,” she wrote, adding that such a reconstruction process “would likely take years.”Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who now serves in Trump’s cabinet, also criticised the credibility of recent news reports that downplayed the extent of the damage. She claimed that these stories were based on illegally leaked classified assessments written with “low confidence” and selectively leaked to mislead the public.Echoing her remarks, CIA director John Ratcliffe also issued a statement on X confirming that the agency had “credible intelligence”, including from trusted sources, showing that the Iranian nuclear programme had sustained serious setbacks. “Iran’s nuclear facilities have been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” Ratcliffe said, noting that the CIA continues to monitor the situation and will update officials and the public as more information becomes available.Both officials directly challenged initial leaks reported by some US media outlets that suggested the strikes had left core components of the Iranian nuclear facilities intact and had set it back only by a matter of months. Ratcliffe dismissed those reports as based on illegally obtained intelligence that does not reflect the CIA’s current assessment.The statements from Gabbard and Ratcliffe mark the most assertive public response from the intelligence community since the strikes were carried out.
