Results of US mission in Iran need more assessment: Wesley Clark
The New York Times reported the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency determined the bombings set back Iran's nuclear program by a few months instead of delivering the virtual knockout blow described by President Trump.
Clark said initial intelligence reports can be wrong and tend to change over time. There's no way to know for certain, he added, until independent observers can see for themselves.
Former Special Forces operators blast Iran bombing assessment leak
'What we have, I'm afraid, is a wounded tiger. We don't know if it's going to turn on us or not,' Clark told 'Elizabeth Vargas Reports' on Wednesday.
As for the B-2 stealth bomber mission that delivered the strikes — dubbed 'Operation Midnight Hammer' — he praised all aspects of the operation.
'It was a brilliant operation. Brilliant in conception, obviously flawless in execution,' Clark said.
Ali Vaez, Iran project director for Crisis Group, agreed that observations must be made on the ground in Iran to determine 'the extent of the damage and account for the nuclear material which is now missing.'
He said more than 800 pounds of near-bomb-grade uranium are unaccounted for in Iran, and the country stocked hundreds of advanced centrifuges separately.
'That provides it with a pathway to dash towards a nuclear weapon,' Vaez said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Vox
3 minutes ago
- Vox
Did we just lose $7 billion for solar?
This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration plans to claw back some $7 billion in grant funding for solar energy, its latest attack on renewable energy in the US. What are the grants for? The money the administration is targeting is intended to help with solar panel installation for low- and middle-income households and has been awarded to 60 entities, including 49 state agencies, as part of the Solar for All program. The program is a legacy of the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 law that dedicated nearly $370 billion to clean energy, electric vehicle tax breaks, and more. Can the administration do this? We're going to find out. While Congress successfully clawed back money from unobligated Solar for All grants in last month's recissions package, this funding has already been awarded. That makes terminating the grants less straightforward, and the move is likely to be challenged in lawsuits. The New York Times reported that grant cancellation notices could be sent out as soon as this week. How else is the administration going after clean energy? It's a long list. To name a few, the Environmental Protection Agency attempted to cancel an additional $20 billion in already-awarded climate grants earlier this year, only to be blocked by a federal judge, and Trump's reconciliation package cut clean energy subsidies and electric vehicle tax credits while adding new subsidies for coal power. What's the big picture? This latest attack on solar power, and the administration's broader assault on renewables, is bad news for efforts to move away from fossil fuels and advance a more sustainable future. But the bigger picture is still optimistic. Renewable energy buildout around the world is still strong, and even in the US, there's a lot of inertia behind the ongoing transition. Clean energy expansion will continue — despite all of the antagonistic policies coming out of the Trump administration. And with that, it's time to log off…
Boston Globe
32 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Russia says it will stop abiding by missile treaty
The US Defense Department did not immediately comment on the Foreign Ministry's statement Monday. The 1987 pact, also known as the INF Treaty, banned ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (311 to 3,418 miles). As a result, more than 2,600 Soviet and US missiles were eliminated, in what was seen as a Cold War breakthrough. In 2019, during President Trump's first term, the United States pulled out of the agreement. The Trump administration argued that Russia had long been violating the treaty with the deployment of 9M729 cruise missiles, also known as SSC-8 missiles. Russia denied any knowledge of the violations. Advertisement Accusations of Russian violations date to 2014, when the Obama administration raised them. Moscow's announcement Monday came three days after Trump ordered the repositioning of two US nuclear submarines in response to a nuclear threat made online by Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is deputy chair of the country's security council. In a post on social media platform X later Monday, Medvedev highlighted the Foreign Ministry's announcement, which he blamed on what he called the anti-Russia policy of NATO countries, and he warned, 'Expect further steps.' Advertisement The ministry's statement did not mention Moscow's use in November of the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile against a city in Ukraine. The Oreshnik has a range that violates the INF Treaty. Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Friday that the Oreshnik had entered service and would be deployed to Belarus, which shares a border with three NATO countries. The missile is capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Last year, the United States announced that Washington would begin 'episodic deployments' of intermediate-range missiles in Germany starting in 2026. Russia vowed countermeasures. The announced collapse of the INF Treaty and tensions with Russia over Ukraine have raised worries in the West of a return to a dangerous Cold War-style arms race, in which extremely fast Russian missiles armed with nuclear weapons could reach European capitals in a matter of minutes, with little warning or ability to mount a defense. Russian news media have bragged that the Oreshnik could reach Ramstein Air Base in Germany in just 15 minutes. Upon withdrawing from the INF Treaty, the United States said that, essentially, Washington had been adhering to the pact's restrictions unilaterally. By then, the Pentagon had grown uncomfortable with the treaty's limits. Adhering to the pact meant the United States could not deploy any midrange missiles in Asia, which would be a crucial part of any effort to defend Taiwan, the self-governing island that China has long claimed as its own. In its statement Monday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said that as the United States and its allies were moving toward the deployment of intermediate-range missiles in Europe and Asia, conditions for what it called its 'unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons' were no longer in place. Advertisement The statement came as Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, prepared to visit Moscow this week to discuss possibilities for peace with Ukraine. Trump has threatened to apply tariffs on Russia and secondary tariffs on its oil buyers if Putin doesn't agree to a ceasefire by the end of the week. The Kremlin has refrained from issuing threats in response, in contrast to the remarks by Medvedev, who regularly makes bombastic comments online and isn't seen as speaking for Putin. On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov played down Trump's decision to reposition submarines. 'Russia treats the issue of nuclear nonproliferation with great care, and we believe everyone should be extremely cautious with nuclear rhetoric,' Peskov told reporters. He noted that US submarines were regularly on combat duty. 'We don't believe this is a case of any sort of escalation,' he said. The only major arms control agreement left in place between Moscow and Washington is the New START Treaty, but Putin announced in 2023 that Russia was suspending its participation in that pact. The treaty expires next year. Phil Breedlove, a retired US Air Force general who led US European Command from 2013-16, said he wasn't surprised that Russia had announced the move shortly after Trump threatened to get tough on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. 'This is a fairly standard approach Russia takes when they're trying to deter or intimidate the West,' Breedlove said. 'Every time the West considers a change, like giving new weapons to Ukraine, this is what happens.' Advertisement
Boston Globe
3 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Ion Iliescu, Romania's first freely elected president after 1989 revolution, has died at 95
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Romania's government said it would announce plans for a state funeral soon. Advertisement In a statement on its official website, Romania's Social Democratic Party, which Mr. Iliescu founded, called it 'a very sad day for Romania.' 'A prominent figure of the Romanian Revolution and the history of contemporary Romania, Mr. President Ion Iliescu will remain for all of us a symbol of the politician and statesman,' the statement read. 'He had the courage to confront Ceausescu and his dictatorship, and directed Romania irreversibly on the Euro-Atlantic path.' 'He was a strong leader, loved by most, contested by others, as happens in democracy,' it added. In 2018, military prosecutors charged him with crimes against humanity for failing to prevent 'numerous situations' in which civilians were needlessly killed during the revolution. Prosecutors alleged he had spread false information through state media, creating a 'generalized psychosis' that fueled chaos and bloodshed. Advertisement The charges against Mr. Iliescu, who served as a minister in the communist government until he was sidelined in 1971, refer to a five-day period during the uprising, after Ceausescu had fled Bucharest on Dec. 22, 1989. At the time of Mr. Iliescu's death, he had never been convicted, and the case remained open. In January this year, his legal woes mounted when prosecutors charged him with crimes against humanity in a second case. Prosecutors allege he implemented policies that led to a violent 1990 crackdown on civilian protesters who were demanding the removal of former communists from power. Mr. Iliescu had called on coal miners from the Jiu Valley to 'restore order' in the capital. At least four people were killed. Despite maintaining good relations with the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991, Romania became a member of the NATO military alliance in 2004 during his last presidential term. After his last term ended, he served as a lawmaker in the Social Democratic Party, Romania's most dominant political party since communism ended 35 years ago. Dominic Fritz, president of the governing coalition partner Save Romania Union party, said in a post on Facebook that Mr. Iliescu's passing 'is painful not because of his departure, but because it leaves us with so many open wounds.' 'Many are still waiting for justice,' he said. 'And Ion Iliescu took with him answers to questions that still plague society.' For two decades after the revolution, Mr. Iliescu was Romania's most consequential political figure who helped define the country's new democratic institutions and its Constitution, said Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant. Advertisement 'His legacy spans from the one to oust Ceausescu to being himself a break in Romania's development and transition to full functioning democracy and market economy,' he said. 'He was later accused by a growing number of Romanians of being the continuator of the Communist apparatus … trying to hold on to power in an authoritarian-communist style.' After President Nicusor Dan's victory in Romania's tense presidential rerun in May, Mr. Iliescu congratulated the pro-Western leader in a blog post, noting that Romania 'is going through a complex period' and faces economic, social, and geopolitical challenges. 'Romania needs coherence, dialogue and a firm commitment to strengthening democratic institutions and its European path,' he said. 'I am convinced that you will exercise this responsibility with dignity and a sense of duty to the nation.' Dan described the late president on Tuesday as 'the central figure of the 1990s transition' and said that 'history will judge Ion Iliescu.' 'It's our duty to clarify the major cases of that era, so we can move forward with accountability,' he said.
