4w ago

America's spies say Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon. Trump dismisses that assessment

www.pbs.org

Tulsi Gabbard left no doubt when she testified to Congress about Iran’s nuclear program earlier this year.

The country was not building a nuclear weapon, the national intelligence director told lawmakers, and its supreme leader had not reauthorized the dormant program even though it had enriched uranium to higher levels.

But Donald Trump dismissed the assessment of U.S. spy agencies during an overnight flight back to Washington as he cut short his trip to the Group of Seven summit to focus on the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.

“I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters. In his view, Iran was “very close” to having a nuclear bomb.

159 comments

He's an idiot who has never been able to distinguish between his fantasies and reality
He's spent a lifetime making shit up, and never being held to account for it
He's a child, and what's worse, he has dementia.
He also lies as easily as he breathes. Truth means nothing to him. He sees being honest as a weakness
- Just the person to entrust the most powerful military of the world with.
  
  "But what choice do we have? Entrust the military to a lady? We'll take the dementia-addled toddler instead"
  
  Yeah? Well my pop tart fell on the floor this morning. I think I'll sit out 2028.
- He is. She is a Russian asset.
  
  Who's "she" here? I'll assume in good faith that this is a typo
why tf would a fascist dictator give a rat's ass about "reasons" to plunge multiple countries into war? he wants war, that's what's going to happen
- Tbh this is not specific to trump. Gulf wars happened the same way.
  
  the difference is bush 1 & 2 made an effort to convince everyone their bullshit wars were justified. diaper fascist is literally saying "don't care"
  the thing that'll shock me is if we're NOT at war within a month
  edit: it took less than a fucking week....
First, weaken the commercial aviation in your country. Second, start calling everything terrorism. Third, start yet another war in the middle east.
Your guy is desperately looking for another 911.
- I’m expecting a false-flag attack here soon to give him an excuse to officially pull the US into it
  
  Or maybe a real attack from the guillotine squad. It'd amount to the same thing.
- Tronald would likely abuse the fuck Out of it to do more "emergency measures". We've seen this in Germany in the 30s with the Ermächtigungsgesetz after the Reichstag burned.
- *9/11
The truth doesn't really matter. Israel will get their war, and the US will lumber into it behind them.
What's crazy to me is apparently the US has become so polarized, so used to division that pointing out Israel is acting like bloodthirsty psychos is somehow supporting Iran, or Hamas before that. It's like their whole culture has evaporated any nuance at all. Only diametrically opposed good and evil battling forever. Professional wrestling stories with Heels and Faces divided by clear black lines.
- It is the only thing conservatives/fascists have left.
  
  And shitlibs.
- God vs Satan doesn't leave room for nuance.
That's fine. Iraq didn't have WMDs either. They just need a lie to sell it to the public.
- What’s the context for this photo?
Quick, dust off the "weapons of mass destruction" propaganda.
- Came here to say the exact same thing.
  It doesn't matter if it is true or not (not just this topic) but if you repeat the lie enough and gaslight the public it becomes true, and if it doesn't so what, what are you going to do about it.
  NOTHING that is what they are counting on.
  Keep up the protests, the No Kings protest was huge even if MSM is downplaying it.
In [Trump's] view, Iran was “very close” to having a nuclear bomb.
Those are clearly Netanyahu's words in his mouth. Netanyahu has been loudly and confidently saying that at regular intervals since 2012. Iran is always weeks away.
- At the same time Isreal is like the only country that probably has nukes yet refuses to acknowledge it.
  
  Imagine Iran did a "preventive strike" against Israel because they might have nuclear bombs.
  
  They're pretty open about it
- Since the 90's
- They’ve been saying “any day now” for twenty-some years
- You mean 2002?
  
  1995 actually
Are we now choosing to believe what Tulsi says because it fits the narrative?
- The alternative is believing Israel's government...
  And they're an openly genocidal far right government made up of violent religious extremists...
  Like, America is bad right now
  But Israel has been on some straight up Nazi shit for a while now, because both Biden and Trump let Israel do whatever
  Saying Iran isn't building nukes is the most pushback Israel has gotten since Obama was in office
  
  This alternative is to believe the assessment that nuclear regulators made that they were stockpiling 60% enriched uranium and installing new centrifuges that could further enrich to weapons grade even faster. AFAIK there is no other plausible explanation for doing this, nuclear reactors only need 5% enrichment or so:
  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-iran-have-been-close-to-making-a-nuclear-weapon-uranium-enrichment/
  https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/25/06/gov2025-24.pdf
  It's also not a great look Iran immediately talks about testing a nuke a day after the attack. Despite that obviously being a lie, it at least makes it clear they don't seem to be trying very hard to hide it.
  I'm sure Netanyahu has all kinds of nefarious reasons for doing this and with this timing, but this pretense at least seems pretty solid unlike Gaza and I'm sure there is genuine concern throughout their citizenry over how Iran would use them against them.
  
  So what? Just because she pushed back she’s now trustworthy? For fucks sake, screw your head on straight.
  Also why are you even intent on defending Iran, an openly genocidal far right government made up of religious extremists? There’s no good guys in this fight.
- If Trump doesn't believe her, then even from his demented perspective she shouldn't have the job. So which is it Donald? Does she ah, merit her position of authority and influence, or does she not?
Wmd
So we are gonna do the Iraq WMD lie again huh?
- This season's twist is that the Intelligence community is claiming that there is no weapons. Unless the Intelligence community is doing reverse psychological on us.
  
  The CIA reported no wmds before the invasion of Iraq too
- People still believe Iraq had WMDs to this day.
- I still have people telling me it wasn't Bush's fault, the intelligence was bad
  
  Well, they're half right, but not in the sense they mean...
We have done this dance before last time it cost me my 20s my sanity and most importantly a huge amount for friends I loved like brothers who died before and are still killing then selfs..
I wouldn't tryst Gabbard on this either since she's very likely a Russian agent and Iran is a partner to their war efforts.
- Reported as "misinformation" by someone blissfully unaware of Gabbard's history:
  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tulsi-gabbard-russian-connection-dni-trump-syria-b2692244.html
- On the bright side, though, if Russia is actively covering for Iran and Trump is aligning against that, then Putin might finally decide Trump has outlived his usefulness as an asset and send Trump some of his special tea....
  
  Russia only cared slightly, Trump blocked Russian sanctions already passed by Congress and stepped in to stop Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil and Russia will not burn such an asset for a minor partner catching this kind of heat (or any partner, since they "don't have the cards" as Trump would say if he wasn't a complete pushover for Putin)
Trump has always shown us he doesn't need intelligence.
This whole thing still has me scratching my head.
Such a large portion of the West gets a raging boner about coming to Israel's aide. I get it from the strange doomsday cult belief where something about Israel at war triggers the rapture or some shit. But I don't really believe that's what the western world leaders actually believe.
Trump has his own reality, and only a divine entity understands what's going on in the space between his ears.
Ignoring Trump and the doomsday cult thing, the other things I can think of:
US and Europe want an established western sympathizing military power in the middle-east. Some sort of remnant of the Cold war.
US and Europe want a military western sympathizing military power with close proximity to the Suez Canal and red Sea, as well as the Mediterranean.
The "Sampson Option" that Israel has is completely legitimate and Israel is ready to obliterate everyone if they don't get their way.
There's some economic or strategic value the West won't acknowledge.
Even with all that, attack Iran? Iran is not remotely similar to Iraq. Iran will put up much more of a fight. It also won't be a "forever war" like fascists dream about.
- Because the fatwa declares: "Israel has a right to defend itself". Denying it is haram, and infidels must be punished.
  At a certain point, it stops being about enforcing the fatwa, and becomes about defending your right to declare fatwas.
  
  Using Islamic terminology to describe the driving force of a Christian nationalist coming to the aid of Jewish Zionists to fight an Islamic Hegemony has my head hurting in new ways.
- It's really not that complicated. Trump is a bully and loves piling on to prove he's the alpha male. But he's also a coward (like many bullies) and is afraid to wade into something that will spiral out of control. So he's trying to subjugate the government of Iran using threats so he can get the satisfaction of the former without the risk of the latter.
- I imagine the answer is simpler than that. AIPAC (and a little bit of Epstein) in the US and something similar in EU. Trump for example gets a small common sense dose and backs down after a few behind-closed-door meetings (this one woman donated 100m on behalf of lobbies to Trump for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Adelson).
  https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary?cycle=All&ind=Q05&recipdetail=S
The moron just wants the war to hide his shenaningans at home. Sole reason. Everyone should know by now that he automatically denies any and every thing that runs contrary to his own personal narrative.
- other problems make for a great distraction from the original problem. i suspect that's the reason behind a lot of trump's actions
Not only is trump ignoring this, but lots and lots of shitlibs on this site are also.
We have irrefutable proof, that we can't show you, that Iran is stoning babies in the incubators with yellow cake.
The more he dismiss America's intelligence agencies, the more i believe them.
- Yep exactly. If he says something I assume the opposite is true. I'm not saying this for comedy value, I genuinely do
Why that damn bullet had to hit the firefighter instead?
I'm so fucking tired.
- What is that?
  
  That's Secretary of State Colin Powell testifying to Congress about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, during the Bush Jr. administration, I think.
  
  I think he's possibly talking at the UN or some security council as they plaque in front of him says "United States", at a guess that wouldn't be necessary in front of Congress. I might be wrong though, I'm not from the US.
- "Better not drop that cake"
America loves war. Simple as that. Bushes weapons of mass destruction was a guarantee that other nations had destructive weapons when they didn’t, but was motivation to get into a conflict that had nothing, zero, nada, zilch to to with the original reason of invading in the first place (911)
America is a disgusting whore of war. Actually they are good at starting a war, but similar to almost every man over 60, they have a hard time finishing, pull out, and leave the host to clean up their mess.
yeeeah... shrug, Trump ignores them all. And why shouldn't he? They didn't prevent him from happening, what's the point of the CIA, NSA etc when they either knew about him & putin, and let hit happen, or, they didn't know, even though it's been obvious since the 80s?
Nice job Intel community, you shot us all in the face.
- The point is to be additional arms of the government that he can manipulate and abuse to his own ends.
- So we oppose US intelligence agencies overthrowing democratically elected leaders in other countries but not their own?
  
  if your own intelligence organs don't warn your gov that there's a foreign power influencing the election, yeah, I think that group isn't doing their fucking job.
- The situation could be more nuanced. Putin lost in Syria and Europe is split from Russia and massively spending on weapons. That's already a huge win, maybe big enough to accept a bleeding face.
  
  tell that to the tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians murdered.
- him & putin
  obvious since the 80s
  I can see a major problem with that timeline, but I suppose wild conspiracy theories don't have to make sense
  
  https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842/
  https://medium.com/@abbievansickle/timeline-of-trumps-relationship-to-russia-5e78c7e7f480
  https://time.com/4437403/trump-gorbachev-history/
  wish it was a wild conspiracy theory.
Pretty consistently it's been reported that Iran has been increasing its capabilities to quickly create a nuclear weapon should they need to, rather than simply embarking immediately on constructing nukes.
And honestly, at this point, they'd be stupid not to, since the main negotiator (the US) of their opposing coalition has proven to be utterly unwilling to maintain any agreements regarding denuclearization for more than 4 years at a time.
- at this point a Nuke in Iranian hands would probably calm the region down
  
  A few, maybe. One just means you have to use it or lose it, I think. One is very different from several.
The best hint that Iran has no nukes is that the US is attacking them. If they had nukes they would keep away.
weapons of mass destruction?
Tulsi has no home and has continually played herself. Congratulations.
Did Netanyahu get his hands on the pee tapes?
- They can probably use Epstein's tapes.
- I'm sure mossad has kompromat on everone in the administration.
  
  Seriously, would there be anything that's not known already that would change anything? I think that a video tape of Trump anally violating a Teletubby would just get a yawn and 5D chess comment from his base.
  
  What Israel is doing is in the interest of the current US administration (and many other western leaders). Why would you need kompromat.
  
  They have all of Epstein's recordings.
Trump is going to end up getting the spies killed like he did on his first term.
Both are Russian assets and Russia is building Iran's nuclear capabilities. Why are the fucking Saudis so quiet? They would like to destroy their largest oil competitor, Iran, like they did with Iraq.
Right from the Cheney playbook.
wasn't YET building?
I mean... Why do you even get the uranium enriched to such high levels if you don't plan to make use of it?
- So that a reason can be given to not enrich further.
- Power plants fueling desalination. There is alot of material about it. It's part of the treaties with America. But to refine to weapon grade uranium is not a technological enhancement, you simply run the same enrichment procedure multiple times is my understanding. The main difference is the tricky detonation, but come on, that's decades old tech.
  The treaties were made with the understanding they could make nukes if they wanted to.
- Despite your shitlib stance, I will concede that Iran should gave veen trying to build a nuke as a deterrent for exactly this scenario. The US never attacks nuclear powers. Trump even sucks off Kim Jong Un on weekend getaways.
Okay so we believe Tulsi Gabbard now?
- Yes she works for Russia and they're friends with Iran.
  So we can't really trust either.
Military control is power, and Trump wants to control the most powerful military in the history of the world. Nothing can stop him, except maybe the LEGISLATIVE BRANCH WHO SHOULD 25th amendment his bitch ass!
Look, having nuclear...
Where are the zionist who claimes that iran was building a nuke?
We didn’t attack Iran so it doesn’t matter what we think. Presumably Israel thought they were.
- It will matter when the USA attacks Iran, which was looking imminent last time I checked.
- Essentially, you take a bunch of radioactive material, and above a certain threshold purity and threshold amount, it just starts a chain reaction that makes it explode.
  No. That is not what enriching means. I’m sorry, you need to do a lot more research on nuclear physics; you are flatly incorrect.
Tulsi Gabbard is a well known Iranian asset. She's been on their payroll for years. Of course she said that they weren't building a nuclear weapon, that's what they paid her to say. The entire Trump regime is corrupt.
- I've heard the accusation that she's a Russian asset, but Iranian? First time I've ever heard that one.
- Well known by whom, exactly?
- Lol, she's a literal Hindu nationalist. That's about as far from an Iranian asset as possible
  I love people putting "well known" before completely baseless accusations
  
  Reddit-ass geopolitical experts.
why the fuck would a facist regime enrich so much uranium to such high levels? death to the iranian regime I say. follow reza pahlavi and not the pervy mullahs.
- The son of the source of the tragedy? You Zios are too stupid
  
  ah, everyone who dislikes the facist regime of iran is a zionist now. you are just underlining my point.

159 comments