Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate intelligence committee on Wednesday that US strikes on Iran had been a strategic success, despite acknowledging that Iran's conventional military projection capabilities had been 'largely destroyed' and its strategic position 'significantly degraded'. Gabbard, who in 2019 sold 'No War With Iran' T-shirts, emphasized that her briefing reflected the intelligence community's assessment, not her personal views.
Iran's retaliatory strikes have killed 13 American service members, wounded approximately 200 more, and cost taxpayers billions of dollars, while disrupting global supply chains. When Donald Trump asked allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the call was not answered. Gabbard noted that if Iran survives, it would likely seek to rebuild its military, missiles, and UAV forces over years.
Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff pressed Gabbard on Iran's nuclear program. She confirmed the intelligence community assessed it had been 'obliterated' during last June's strike—a finding she omitted from her opening statement—and that Iran had made no effort to rebuild. However, when asked whether Iran posed an imminent nuclear threat before the strikes, she deflected, stating it was not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine imminent threats, but the president's.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia noted that the annual global threat assessment, for the first time since 2017, contained no mention of adversary attempts to influence American elections. 'I don't believe this omission means that the threat has disappeared,' Warner said. 'It means that the intelligence community is no longer being allowed to speak honestly about it.'
Warner also questioned Gabbard about her presence at an FBI seizure of 2020 election documentation in Fulton County, given that the warrant showed no foreign interference. Gabbard said she was there at the president's request to observe, and asserted her directorate had authority to investigate foreign election interference.
