Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Source” that he was “convinced” the U.S. military strikes in Iran caused “profound damage” to the Iranian nuclear program.
Clapper said, “Typically in all intelligence sequence of events the first reports are are preliminary. And I’m sure this one was caveated with some words about this is subject to the acquisition of of additional information that will cast light on the actual damage. That seems to be what’s happening. I thought Director Daniel Radcliffe’s statement was was helpful. This is kind of the typical sequence. I think as a people we are consumed with instant gratification. So we want to know, you know, immediately and we want to know completely. Those two terms in intelligence context can be antithetical. So as as time goes on, we’re going to acquire more information and we’ll have greater fidelity on the actual extent of the damage. I’m personally convinced that profound damage was done to the totality of the Iranian nuclear enterprise.”
He added, “I think we’ll as as time evolves you know, we’ll we’ll know more. But I do think it points out the danger in using absolutist terms like obliterated, which implies that the totality, the total enterprise, nuclear enterprise in Iran has been destroyed. Well, it really hasn’t. There are still scientists, there is probably equipment out there. We don’t know if some things were stored away in a hidden facilities or open or out in plain sight that we haven’t identified yet. So there’s a range of possibilities here that that will affect the ultimate assessment.”
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