A second intelligence leak has undermined President Donald Trump’s claim that the Iranian nuclear program has been “totally obliterated.”
Intercepted audio captured Iranian officials describing damage at three nuclear sites as “less devastating than expected” despite 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs and Tomahawk cruise missiles being used, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
The audio marks the second time this week that leaked intelligence contradicts Trump’s claims that Iran’s nuclear program was “blown up to kingdom come.” Trump, 79, repeated similar lines as recently as Sunday morning in an interview on Fox News.
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U.S. intelligence paints a different picture.
“The communication, intended to be private, included Iranian government officials speculating as to why the strikes directed by President Donald Trump were not as destructive and extensive as they anticipated,” the Post reported, citing four people familiar with the classified intelligence.
The White House did not deny the existence of the intercepted audio. Instead, it attacked the Post for publishing details about the recording, which it said were taken out of context.
“It’s shameful that the Washington Post is helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Post. “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”
A senior U.S. intelligence official also slammed the Post’s report, telling the paper that “one slice of signals intelligence on its own does not reflect the full intelligence picture.”
The report did not specify what the Iranian officials expected the damage to be.
Trump has attacked Democrats and the media for casting doubt on the efficacy of last weekend’s attack. He was peeved with an intelligence leak from the Pentagon that claimed the bombing set Iran’s nuclear program back months, not years. He has also shut down reports that say Iran evacuated much of its enriched uranium before B-2 bombers released their payloads, calling them untrue.
“I don’t think they did, no,” Trump said Sunday about Iran moving uranium ahead of the attack. “It’s very hard to do; it’s very dangerous to do … they didn’t know we were coming until just then.”
Experts disagree with Trump’s repeated claim that transporting uranium is particularly difficult.
Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear nonproliferation expert and former vice chair of the Center for International Policy, told CNN last week that Iran could have moved its enriched uranium with just “three or four trucks.”
United Nations inspectors also believe Iran was likely able to move uranium. The head of its nuclear watchdog told CBS News this weekend that it expects Tehran will be able to restart enriching uranium again “in a matter of months.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
