Posted on 06/15/2025 9:44:05 AM PDT by Kazan
President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified in March that the intel community continues to assess that Iran has not resumed trying to build a nuclear weapon since the program was suspended by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2003. Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 27 to provide the Intelligence Community’s 2025 Annual Threat Assessment, Gabbard stated in no uncertain terms, the United States intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
“The IC is monitoring if Tehran decides to reauthorise,” Gabbard added.
The annual threat assessment is the consensus of the 18 U.S. intelligence elements making up the U.S. Intelligence Community.
The testimony made few waves when she gave it, and was minimally reported on in the media, but went viral on Saturday after being shared by WikiLeaks.
Gabbard did not testify that Iran presents any threat to the U.S. homeland, but did acknowledge it poses a threat to Israel, forces deployed abroad, and commercial shipping and transit.
“Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for a U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming, and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorist and militant actors, which it refers to as its ‘Axis of Resistance,'” Gabbard said. “Although weakened, this collection of actors still presents a wide range of threats, including to Israel’s population, U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and Syria, and to U.S. and international military and commercial shipping and transit.”
The Intelligence Community’s threat assessment directly contradicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Iran is months away from weaponizing enriched uranium.
Since the 1990s, Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, often citing short timelines for their capability.
In 1992, Netanyahu warned that Iran was three to five years from acquiring a nuclear bomb, a claim reiterated in his 1995 book Fighting Terrorism, where he predicted Iran would achieve this by 2000. He echoed similar warnings in congressional testimony in 1996, 2002, and at the United Nations in 2012, famously using a cartoon bomb graphic to assert Iran was less than a year away from sufficient weapons-grade uranium.
In 2018, Netanyahu presented documents, obtained by Israeli intelligence, alleging Iran’s secret nuclear program continued covertly after its 2003 suspension. In 2025, he justified airstrikes on Iranian facilities, claiming Iran could produce a bomb in “months.” These claims have consistently suggested an imminent threat, often offering deadlines that have passed without evidence of an active Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Since 2007, U.S. assessments have maintained that Iran halted its structured nuclear weapons program in 2003, with no evidence of a decision to restart it.
In 2012, Israeli intelligence, per leaked cables, aligned with U.S. findings, admitting Iran was “not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons,” despite Netanyahu’s public claims. Critics, including former Mossad chief Meir Dagan in 2011, have argued the prime minister’s warnings exaggerate the threat, potentially to justify military action or derail diplomatic efforts like the 2015 nuclear deal, which he fiercely opposed.
The non-neoconservative wing of President Donald Trump’s base and inner circle has long lobbied for the removal of U.S. troops from the Middle East, including Tucker Carlson and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
“We got American troops in Iraq? Why?” Bannon said during an episode of War Room on Friday. “Because Fox News and all of them and Bush lied to us. Lied! This was not a failure of intelligence… it was bald-faced lies.”
“Stop the forever wars because your sons and daughters are fighting them, just like your sons and daughters going to be fighting this one. So if we’re going to do it this time, let’s have an adult conversation. Do not come here and say, “Oh, we’ve got to protect America.” Then get them out. Get them out of Iraq, get them out of the embassy.”
Bannon also blasted Israel for attacking Iran and immediately expecting the United States to fight their battle, despite unilaterally making the decision to strike.
“Either you got it – if you’re going to go alone, you got – you can take care of your deal, or not,” Bannon said. “You don’t need us to decide to go alone. Decide to reject it. No, we don’t need you, we’re going to go it alone. And the go-it-alone lasts about six hours, not only do they want defense, they want us to go on offense.”
In a post to X on Friday, Carlson called out his former coworkers by name as “warmongers.”
Carlson wrote, “The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran. On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now.”
Gabbard herself has also posted a video warning that we are “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before,” because of “political elites and warmongers.”
“As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elites and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,” Gabbard said. “Perhaps it’s because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won’t have access to. So it’s up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness.”
It's another reason why we need to leave it to Israel to do what it thinks it and not get involved directly.
It doesn’t make me wonder at all.... Tulsi has always had the warm fuzzies for the Rooskies.
Not building “A” nuke. Several, yeah...
How would they know that if they weren’t allowed into certain parts of the country?
“”Not building “A” nuke. Several, yeah...””
Not building a nuke. Already have them.
“Don’t worry! Iran is at least 10 years away from having a bomb!”
-Liberal talking points 1996
This.
Ask yourself why a country would spend the money to build fortified underground facilities for their ‘peaceful’ nuclear program, and why they don’t want inspectors there. Ask yourself if a nation/regime that spreads terrorism around the world and that has a clock in Tehran that is there to count down the end of Israel would be enriching uranium for ‘peaceful’ use.
I don’t know if I trust her and her intel because our intel has been garbage for decades. The IAEA (not exactly friendly to the West) assessed that they were close as in months. Additionally, they’ve mass produced long range hypersonic missiles. Iran should have been made a wasteland decades ago. I agree, no US involvement unless they attack our troops stationed abroad. They do that, I hope Trump makes it a parking lot
“Ask yourself why a country would spend the money to build fortified underground facilities for their ‘peaceful’ nuclear program, and why they don’t want inspectors there.”
You mean like Israel? To this date they do not admit to nuclear weapons and exist outside all international treaties on nuclear weapons. They do not allow any inspections.
The actual reason Iran wants a bomb is because they saw what happens when you don’t have a bomb. Saddam, Assad, Khaddafy, etc. A bomb makes you safe from western invasions.
That is the whole story.
Who you gong to believe, Tulsi Gabbard or Benjamin Netanyahu?
And did she explain why an oil rich country would be spending so much time and effort in the nuclear arena, when they could easily buy one from any country that already uses them?
Iran and its friends (Russia, China, Qatar...) have been in overdrive with the anti-Israel propaganda the past few years. They’ve done a good job of convincing Gen Z and even some “conservatives” that Israel is the bad guy.
This is the time to get the job done. Destroy every bit of their nuclear facilities NOW. Hopefully the regime falls as well.
Iran almost certainly has explosively compressed paired steel hemispheres and determined the critical mass for the high percentage U-235 it has.
Iran has the know-how and the U-235 needed for nuclear bombs.
The high percentage U-235 has almost certainly been hidden in an area about the size of Texas.
Gradual regime decapitation will take place unless the high percentage U-235 and centrifuges are surrendered up.
All saintly folk who didn't have an aggressive bone in their body.
I refuse to share your delusions.
Probably started in April.
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