This post was republished with permission from Zero Hedge.
Where is Iran’s Uranium? Truce Highlights Mystery Over Stockpile… that’s Bloomberg’s latest headline over the ‘biggest mystery’ that remains in the war.
There’s also the pressing question of whether Trump’s massive airstrikes from B-2 bombers actually truly destroyed the facilities and these stockpiles.
The Iranians aren’t dumb, and likely took drastic steps to further protect, conceal, or likely move these enriched stockpiles – some 400kg according to most reports – as wave after wave of Israeli warplanes hit Iran, significantly before the US sent its bombers this past weekend. It appears core components are still intact – though Iran has long maintained it is merely for peaceful nuclear energy development.
The NY Times is currently reporting that the US operation merely set Iran’s nuclear program back by a few months.
And early emerging intelligence also points to the stockpile having not been destroyed, which contradicts the current ‘victory lap’ claims being made by President Trump and some of his top officials. In a huge development below is fresh CNN reporting based on a leaked assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA):
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.
The analysis of the damage to the sites and the impact of the strikes on Iran’s nuclear ambitions is ongoing, and could change as more intelligence becomes available. But the early findings are at odds with President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also said on Sunday that Iran’s nuclear ambitions “have been obliterated.”
One unnamed defense official quoted in the report says centrifuges are largely “intact.” And more based on the apparently ‘Top Secret’ leaked DIA intel report:
The White House acknowledged the existence of the assessment but said they disagreed with it.
“So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” this person added.
So this appears yet another case of the White House disagreeing with its own intelligence community (IC) – in an ongoing awkward situation which has Iraq war vibes.
One obvious danger from the perspective of Western decision-makers (and Israel): if Iran was not intent on getting a bomb before, they likely are now – given their very existence is under threat. More of the WH reaction to the leak:
As we stated before, it is especially the Iranian hardliners which will understand the ‘two paths’ before Iran:
1) Become a failed state like Libya after ‘giving up’ nuclear or WMD potential (precisely as Gaddafi did when offered ‘incentives’ by Bush/Cheney/Rice.
2) Or, become North Korea and you are immune from regime change wars launched by the West.
Tehran certainly knows this, and has likely already chosen path #2 – at a moment Israeli leadership is probably worried about a future nuclear dirty bomb going off in Tel Aviv. In many ways, Trump’s brazen bombing operation – which as usual saw the commander-in-chief completely bypass Congress, took things from bad to worse.
Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.
Clearly a false report meant to cause division among the Trump base and MAGA movement at a time when we are already fragmenting over the Iran issue. If CNN is citing an anonymous source in the DIA and Trump and his administration are calling it a lie, I’m inclined to believe Trump on this one just because we have all seen how reliable the “anonymous government sources” at CNN and the rest of the MSM are… Clear disinformation.
“ So this appears yet another case of the White House disagreeing with its own intelligence community (IC) – in an ongoing awkward situation which has Iraq war vibes.”
Soooooo unlike the Iraq “vibe” … the (IC) actually is BOASTING that Iran DOES have precursors to weapons of mass destruction. Hardly an “Iraq” vibe.
1. OK (IC) … how did you acquire this knowledge? From the Iranian equivalent of the Hamas Humanitarian Foundation (official LIARS)?
2. OK (IC) … if you have this intelligence… then where are the fissile isotopes?
3. OK (IC) … looks like MORE B-2 soirées are in order.
Look out below.
Here is a mad idea, instead of poking the bear, mind your own bloody business. I dont see the lads running into china or north korea nosing around their private nuclear business. But i suppose its back to business as usual sending usa money and munitions to the synagogue of satan to murder children and shoot starving people at checkpoint while sending the same to jukraine to murder the people there too. The only reason why this iran rubbish stopped was because zion don was being warned in the back ground to back out and jisrael would have not existed in two weeks. I think zion don has multiple personalities because the other day he went from bomb iran and he was working closely with satanyahoo on the bombing and trickery and god bless ISRAEL and america and then today he was waffling about those two pesky children dont know what they are doing. The man is deranged and the worst roleback from his own direct involvement. Then you have jisrael saying they won, completely deranged. Here is another mad idea, how about you close all 60000 bases you have surrounding iran and china, bring your troops home and sort your own countries borders and stop the drugs and rampant pedophelia. The military should be removing all the pedophiles from congress, senate and just about every billionaire and pack them in a crate, float them out to sea.
Hmmmm…….
Sounds a lot like Saddam’s aluminum tubes that were never found and the always moving Covid goalposts.
Next week the IDF will find a bio lab tucked away between two big rocks.
Maybe the US should gather its own intel before the first mushroom cloud appears somewhere in a dessert.
I hate it when a mushroom cloud erupts from my dessert.