WASHINGTON—Senators received a confidential briefing from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe on June 26 regarding the recent “Buster Bomb” strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The meeting came after what has been called a preliminary report credited to anonymous sources of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that was leaked to CNN, which stated that the strikes likely only set Iran back a couple of months, while an additional assessment was released by the CIA reporting that the Iranian facilities have been severely damaged and will take years to rebuild. President Donald Trump and other top U.S. officials have dismissed the leaked report as false.
While the administration officials did not disclose any classified details to the press, and a final damage assessment has yet to be released, the lawmakers emerged from that meeting expressing differing opinions on just how much damage they felt the United States’ efforts had done to Iran’s facilities.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), for instance, appeared to side with the CIA’s assessment that the destruction set Iran’s program back at least a year, if not years.
“I think that’s a good documented source from the CIA that they’ve released publicly, that you could look at, and that they stand behind,” he told members of the media after the briefing. “That’s pretty firm.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) came out of the meeting affirming that the sites were, as Trump put it, “obliterated.” He did not say how long he thought it would take the Iranian regime to recover, but said that further military strikes against any rebuilt facilities needed to be on the table so long as the Islamic regime stands by its position to destroy Israel.
Others were not so convinced of the level of destruction. Democratic senators affirmed that the leaked assessment reported by CNN was a preliminary one, and significant damage was indeed done to the nuclear program. However, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) maintained the view that the damage only set the Islamic regime back a few months, and he and his fellow Democrats continued to criticize Trump for saying that the sites were “obliterated” before an assessment was released.
“To me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said. “There’s no doubt there’s damage done to the program, but the allegations that we have obliterated their program just don’t seem to stand up to reason.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said that while he hoped that the final assessment showed obliteration, he also voiced concern that Trump’s description could “end up providing a false sense of comfort” to the American people and the world.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) appeared inclined to reserve his opinion until a final assessment is released.
“The point is, we don’t know,” he said. “Anybody who says we know with certainty is making it up because we still don’t have a final damage assessment.”
Murphy and Warner also expressed concerns that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was absent from the meeting.
Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he is concerned that Iran’s nuclear recovery remained a question at the meeting.
“What was clear is that there was no coherent strategy, no end game, no plan … no detailed plan on how Iran does not attain a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“Anyone in that meeting, anyone, if they’re being honest with themselves, their constituents, their colleagues, would know that we need to enforce the War Powers Act and force them to articulate the answer to some specific questions,” he added.
The lawmakers’ comments follow statements made by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency Director General, Rafael Grossi, stating that the United States completely destroyed Iran’s facilities just by looking at the satellite imagery.
“Given the power of these devices and the technical characteristics of a centrifuge, we already know that these centrifuges are no longer operational, because they are fairly precise machines: there are rotors, and the vibrations [from the bombs] have completely destroyed them,” he said.
All lawmakers appeared to be united in their hope that diplomacy would prevail going forward, while some expressed more skepticism than others on how easy it would be to get Iran’s current regime to cooperate.
“Iran has never lived up to any agreement they’ve ever made,” Hoeven said. “They are not a trustworthy negotiator. So, how are we going to have something that is truly verifiable?”
