The Defense Intelligence Agency has produced a 5-page preliminary report on the strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities which concludes the strikes were partially successful but failed to destroy the underground sites. That report seems to have leaked instantly to ever major news agency, starting with CNN.
The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said…
Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifuges are largely “intact.”
“So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” this person added.
The White House disagreed with the DIA assessment and noted the contents of the report were top secret.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement: “This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community. 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. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”…
Hegseth also told CNN, “Based on everything we have seen — and I’ve seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons. Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.“
Brit Hume has a note about the lead author on the byline of this CNN story.
Bear in mind that the CNN correspondent who broadcast this story swallowed the infamous Steele dossier hook, line and sinker. https://t.co/FVlzZu9peo
— Brit Hume (@brithume) June 24, 2025
So does Drew Holden:
Also, this same Natasha Bertrand making claims about the Iran strike kicked off the “Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian disinfo” conspiracy. https://t.co/Le1RYdOtjW pic.twitter.com/cYPrfrDQWW
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) June 24, 2025
That might explain why CNN got this first. Meanwhile, the same leaks appear to have been given to the NY Times. Both sites got this before congress was even briefed.
Congress had been set to be briefed on the strike on Tuesday, and lawmakers were expected to ask about the findings of the assessment, but the session was postponed. Senators are now set be briefed on Thursday.
There’s also an assessment of the question I asked here. What happened to the enriched uranium?
The report also said much of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes, which destroyed little of the nuclear material. Some of that may have been moved to secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran.
Some Israeli officials said they also believe that Iran has maintained small covert enrichment facilities that were built so the Iranian government could continue its nuclear program in the event of an attack on the larger facilities.
Multiple reports have said that Iran has about 900 pounds of 60% enriched uranium. Uranium is heavy but I was curious how much space that would take up. According to Google’s AI it’s less than one cubic foot of material. Of course it’s not stored all together. The uranium is stored in smaller amounts inside steel tubes. One estimate I saw said it could all be taken away in the trunk of 10 cars. All that to say, it’s very possible they got the uranium out. It would not have been hard to do.
Despite all of this, the Times’ seems a bit more hesitant about the conclusions of the report.
Officials cautioned that the five-page classified report is only an initial assessment, and others will follow as more information is collected and as Iran examines the three sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. One official said that the reports people in the administration had been shown were “mixed” but that more assessments were yet to be done.
This is an initial report and we won’t know what really happened until someone starts digging into the damage at these sites.
It’s also pretty clear that the leak of this top secret report is partisan. Someone wanted to make sure word got to the media quickly that the strike may not have succeeded as much as the Trump administration hoped (again, we don’t even know yet) and so all the rules and norms went out the window, as they often do when Trump is the target. Democrats have been quick to jump on the leak as proof of…something.
Hakeem Jeffries launders legacy media reporting to question amount of damage to Iran nuclear sites— accuses admin of “Playing political games on questions of war and peace.”
“Is it, in fact, the case that Iran’s nuclear program has been completely and totally obliterated?”… https://t.co/wN57lOj8n0 pic.twitter.com/MIqkurvK9Z
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 24, 2025
