US intel chief pressed on Trump claim that Iran posed ‘imminent nuclear threat’

WASHINGTON — US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is pressed by Democratic lawmakers to defend the White House’s assertion that Iran posed an “imminent nuclear threat” after she testified that Tehran had not tried to rebuild its nuclear enrichment program since the war in June between Israel and Iran.

The US struck Iranian nuclear sites at the end of that war.

“The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment,” Gabbard says in response to questioning from Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Ossoff presses Gabbard to explain how merely possessing an intention to rebuild its nuclear program can lead the White House to conclude that Iran posed an imminent nuclear threat justifying the launch of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, especially given that the US insists that it completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear program in last year’s strikes.

“The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president… based on a collection and volume of information intelligence that he is provided with,” Gabbard responds.

“That is false,” Ossoff responds, noting that the title of today’s session is the “worldwide threats hearing” and that Gabbard, in her opening statement, said she would be providing the US intelligence community’s “assessment of threats.”