Two Senior Iranian Officials Privately Said US Strikes Were ‘Less Devastating’ Than Expected: Report
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A new Washington Post report is raising additional questions about the impact of the U.S. military strike on Iran.
The Post report published Sunday revealed that the U.S. intercepted a communication between two senior Iranian officials in which the officials said the impact of the U.S. attack was “less devastating” than expected. Post reporters John Hudson and Warren P. Strobel wrote that four people “familiar with the classified intelligence circulating within the U.S. government” confirmed the story.
“The communication, intended to be private, included Iranian government officials speculating as to why the strikes directed by President Donald Trump were not as destructive and extensive as they anticipated, these people said,” according to Hudson and Strobel.
The Trump administration did not dispute the Post’s reporting, but according to Hudson and Strobel, they “strenuously disagreed with the Iranians’ conclusions and cast doubt on their ability to assess the damage at the three nuclear facilities targeted in the U.S. operation.”
In a statement to the Post, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed the outlet’s reporting and reiterated what President Trump has stated for the past week — that Iran’s nuclear program was obliterated as a result of the attack.
“It’s shameful that the Washington Post is helping people commit felonies by publishing out of context leaks,” Leavitt said. “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”
A senior U.S. intelligence official also told the Post: “A single phone call between unnamed Iranians is not the same as an intelligence assessment, which takes into account a body of evidence, with multiple sources and methods.”
The Trump administration has vigorously disputed reporting which downplayed the impact of the strikes. CNN and The New York Times broke stories about a preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency — which found the strikes likely set Iran’s nuclear program back months, not years. Trump has threatened to sue over those reports. In an interview which aired Sunday on Fox News, he suggested he may try to pressure the journalists into giving up their sources — and then prosecute those sources.
“They should be prosecuted,” Trump said of those who leaked the intelligence. He added, “You go up and tell the reporter, ‘national security, who gave it?’ You have to do that. And I suspect we’ll be doing things like that.”
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