NYT—Pentagon assessment of attacks shows minor setback to Iran

Strike Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program by Only a Few Months, U.S. Report Says

Classified findings indicate that the attack sealed off the entrances to two facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings.

A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, according to officials familiar with the findings.

The early findings conclude that the strikes over the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months, the officials said.

Before the attack, U.S. intelligence agencies had said that if Iran tried to rush to making a bomb, it would take about three months. After the U.S. bombing run and days of attacks by the Israeli Air Force, the report by the Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that the program was delayed less than six months.

Former officials said that any rushed effort by Iran to get a bomb would be to develop a relatively small and crude device. A miniaturized warhead would be far more difficult to produce, and it is not clear how much damage to that more advanced research has taken place. The findings suggest that President Trump’s statement that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated was overstated, at least based on the initial damage assessment. 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.

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.

Iran was already moving stuff away from the sites in large trucks in the days prior to the US attacks. They were prepared for a US or Israeli bombing of the nuclear facilities.

Poor Leavitt.

Leavitt is testy because she’s not getting Midnight Hammered.

She's a lying idiot but you'd have to be if you threw your lot in with DJT, Head Idiot in Charge (HIIC).

No leaders take him seriously.

They know a fool when they see one.