Iran’s government has been degraded for the reason that war began on February 28, nevertheless it appears to be intact and Tehran and its proxies remain able to attacking U.S. and allies’ interests within the Middle East, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Wednesday.
“The regime in Iran appears to be intact but largely degraded by Operation Epic Fury,” Gabbard said, referring to the U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran, in her opening statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual hearing on Worldwide Threats to the USA.
“Even so, Iran and its proxies remain able to and proceed to attack U.S. and allied interests within the Middle East. If a hostile regime survives, it would seek to start a years-long effort to rebuild its missiles and UAV (drone) forces,” Gabbard said.
Later, Gabbard deflected questions on whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the USA, after claiming in her opening statement that there was no evidence the regime was looking for to rebuild its “obliterated” nuclear enrichment program.
The 2-1/2-hour hearing was the primary significant public appearance for the reason that start of the war by Gabbard, who has kept a low profile for months.
The hearing identified China, Russia, North Korea and Iran as top adversaries, but largely focused on the Iran war, now in its third week. Lawmakers – including a few of President Donald Trump’s Republicans in addition to Democrats – have said they need more details about a campaign that has killed hundreds of individuals, disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands and shaken energy and stock markets.
Democrats particularly have complained that Congress has not been adequately informed a couple of conflict costing U.S. taxpayers billions, and demanded public testimony moderately than classified briefings held up to now two weeks.
“The whole lack of clarity should matter to everybody,” Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado said after a testy exchange with CIA Director John Ratcliffe concerning the U.S. plan for eliminating the threat from Iran.
FIRST MAJOR RESIGNATION OVER THE WAR
The hearing with Gabbard, Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel and other intelligence officials also touched on the shock announcement on Tuesday that a top aide to Gabbard had resigned, citing the war.
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Joe Kent, who headed the National Counterterrorism Center, is the primary senior official in Trump’s administration to resign over the conflict. The Office of the DNI oversees the counterterrorism center.
“I cannot in good conscience support the continuing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is obvious that we began this war attributable to pressure from Israel and its powerful lobby,” Kent wrote to Trump.
Ratcliffe said throughout the hearing that he disagreed with Kent. “I believe Iran has been a continuing threat to the USA for an prolonged time period and posed a right away threat right now,” he said.
The threat assessment Gabbard presented to the committee added to confusion over Iran’s nuclear program. Some administration officials said within the run-up to the war that Iran was weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon, one in every of the explanations given for starting the airstrikes.
In written remarks sent to the committee before the hearing, Gabbard said Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated in U.S. and Israeli strikes in June, and Washington had seen no effort since to rebuild its enrichment capability.
Nonetheless, when she spoke to the senators, Gabbard said the intelligence community assessed Iran was attempting to get well from damage to its infrastructure in July.
She also asserted that it is just not the responsibility of U.S. spy agencies to find out “what’s and is just not an imminent threat” to the USA, and that only the president could make such a determination.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who chairs the committee, praised Trump in his opening statement, saying his actions in Iran and elsewhere had made the world safer.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee’s vice chairman, criticized the administration for failing to be clear about its motivation for what he called “a war of alternative.” He also bashed Gabbard for investigating elections in the USA, while the agency has cut staff involved in activity like monitoring Iran.
Gabbard said the U.S. intelligence community has identified no foreign threat to November’s congressional elections.
Questions have swirled around what Trump was told before he decided to hitch Israel in striking Iran. Ratcliffe told the hearing there had been “countless” meetings with Trump before the primary strikes and that he briefs the president “10 to fifteen times per week.”
Sources aware of U.S. intelligence reports have said Trump was warned, for instance, that attacking Iran could trigger retaliation against U.S. Gulf allies despite his claims that Tehran’s response got here as a surprise.
Trump’s assertion followed other administration claims which have not been backed by U.S. intelligence reporting, resembling that Iran would soon have a missile able to hitting the U.S. homeland and that it will need two to 4 weeks to make a nuclear bomb.
Trump was also briefed ahead of the operation that Tehran would likely seek to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a serious global shipping route for oil and gas, based on two other sources aware of the matter.
Gabbard declined to comment on whether she had briefed Trump or was asked to transient him on the prospect that Iran would strike adjoining Gulf nations and shut the strait if it were attacked, saying only that the intelligence community was providing Trump with “all the perfect objective intelligence available to tell his decisions.”
The House of Representatives intelligence committee is attributable to hold its worldwide threats hearing on Thursday.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Landay; additional reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Don Durfee, Cynthia Osterman and Nia Williams)