Fact-checking Trump’s Iran Bombing Claims
Nailing down precise details and facts can be difficult during the fog of war, but this week FactCheck.org Assignment Editor Alan Jaffe aired out some dissenting expert perspectives on two narratives put forth by President Donald Trump related to the bombing of three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 21 by American B-2 aircraft.
By all accounts, those bombs inflicted serious damage to the facilities and set back Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
But there has not been expert consensus regarding Trump’s claims that the U.S. airstrikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program and whether Iran had moved some of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium to different facilities prior to the U.S. attack (Trump said the administration did not think Iran had done so).
Alan cited not only White House claims but also assessments from the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as experts at the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan organization that provides analysis on arms control and national security issues, the Institute for Science and International Security and the nonpartisan Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
Alan also quoted reports from CNN and the New York Times about a classified report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the intelligence arm of the Pentagon, which concluded that while the U.S. bombing of Iran’s three sites sealed off entrances of two facilities, it didn’t destroy their underground buildings. The bombings set back Iran’s nuclear program by just a few months, the report said. Alan noted the report was preliminary and disputed as “flat-out wrong” by the White House.
As the news unfolded as the week progressed, Alan also added updates from CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, which said the U.S. bombing "combined with Israeli strikes" had "set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.".
Unless or until independent inspectors are able to assess the situation on the ground, it may be impossible to know the precise extent of the damage and whether Iran had moved a meaningful amount of its nuclear materials prior to the attack. We provided readers with nonpartisan experts' assessments and the publicly available intelligence sources at this time.
For more, read our full stories, Iranian Nuclear Program Damaged, Not 'Obliterated’ by U.S. Attack and Questions Linger About Iran’s Enriched Uranium Stockpile After U.S. Airstrikes.
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