A bombshell classified assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency stating that Iran’s nuclear program was not majorly affected by U.S. and Israeli bombings, leaked in the chaotic aftermath of U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, is being ripped apart by current and former intelligence officials as a deeply flawed product built on lies peddled by Iran itself.

The top-secret report, which claimed the strikes caused only “moderate damage” to Tehran’s nuclear program, triggered headlines in CNN and the New York Times portraying the mission as a half-success. But veteran intelligence sources told the Washington Free Beacon the DIA’s conclusions were so riddled with Iranian deception that one former officer dismissed it as “worthless.”

“The DIA basically repackaged propaganda,” fumed Michael Pregent, a former U.S. Central Command intelligence officer with nearly three decades in the region. “The Iranians knew their phones were tapped, they deliberately gave fake reports to their own leadership, and somehow DIA turned that into gospel.”

According to sources speaking to the Washington Free Beacon, including a current U.S. official, intercepted Iranian communications — known in the trade as SIGINT — fed directly into the DIA’s hasty report, even though it was rated “low-confidence” from the start.

Israeli intelligence quickly poked holes in the narrative, reporting that Iranian military officers were feeding false damage estimates to their political bosses. Those same phony figures appear to have made their way into DIA’s assessment, said multiple former operatives.

“It’s basically IRGC messaging,” Pregent said, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “NSA scoops it up, DIA slaps a label on it, and CNN runs with it. That’s not intelligence — that’s a joke.”

A senior U.S. official confirmed the damage report has since been “completely debunked,” including by international inspectors. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the official said, determined Iran’s nuclear centrifuges were “completely destroyed,” requiring years to rebuild.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe backed up those findings, citing “an historically reliable and accurate source/method” showing catastrophic damage to Iran’s uranium enrichment sites.

One former intelligence officer, speaking on background, described the DIA’s performance as “embarrassing,” noting that analysts failed to grasp the realities of a bunker-busting strike on the deeply buried Fordow facility.

“You’re not going to see a giant hole,” the source said. “The bombs penetrate, then explode underground. But apparently these analysts didn’t understand what they were looking at.”

Another ex-official who worked the Iran portfolio agreed, calling the DIA product nothing more than “Iranians repeating propaganda to each other,” which was then packaged by over-eager analysts.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)