Allegedly, classified intelligence assessments from earlier this month indicate that “Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities,” the N.Y. Times’ Adam Entous, Maggie Haberman, and Jonathan Swan report.
“The findings undercut months of public assurances that the Iranian military was ‘decimated’ and ‘no longer’ a threat.”
Anonymous Leaker Claims Iran Has Most Prewar Missile Capability
The assessments claim:
- There’s evidence that Iran restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz.
- They suggest Iran has retained roughly 70% of its prewar missile stockpile and 70% of its mobile launchers.
- It has regained access to about 90% of its underground missile storage and launch facilities.
A White House spokeswoman, Olivia Wales, responded. She repeated Mr. Trump’s previous assertions that Iran’s military had been “crushed.” Wales said that Iran’s government knows that its “current reality is not sustainable.” Anyone who “thinks Iran has reconstituted its military is either delusional or a mouthpiece” for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Ms. Wales pointed to a social media post from Mr. Trump on Tuesday declaring that it was “virtual treason” to suggest that Iran’s military was doing well.
Joel Valdez, the acting Pentagon press secretary, responded to questions about the intelligence by criticizing news coverage of the war. “It is so disgraceful that The New York Times and others are acting as public relations agents for the Iranian regime to paint Operation Epic Fury as anything other than a historic accomplishment,” he said in a statement.
The Times report also claimed we are running out of munitions.
As The New York Times previously reported, the United States expended roughly 1,100 long-range stealth cruise missiles in the war—close to the total supply that remains in the American stockpile. The military also fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles, roughly 10 times the number the Pentagon procures in a year. And it used more than 1,300 Patriot interceptor missiles during the war, which accounts for more than two years of production at 2025 rates.
In testimony on Tuesday to a House appropriations subcommittee, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “We have sufficient munitions for what we’re tasked to do right now.”
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said the military has everything it needs to carry out its mission. “We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests,” he said in a statement to The Times.
This so-called report is another leak from an anonymous source. John Brennan admitted that the Resistance is in every agency. I’m not buying it. Iran’s navy consists of gunboats. We should be very skeptical of these leaks. Anything involving Maggie Haberman should be viewed with the utmost cynicism.