GOP senator 'panics and discloses' US intel sources during 'strong' interview with CNN host: analyst
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins (left) and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) (right), Images via CNN / Screengrab.
A CNN national security analyst and Kennedy School professor claims Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) may have divulged U.S. spies on the ground in Iran while trying to dismiss Department of Defense intelligence to a reporter.
“This interview was so strong that Mullin, in order to throw DOD intel report under the bus, panics and discloses that the U.S. has human intelligence sources on the ground that will be able to tell (how effective the bombings were),” professor Juliette Kayyem posted on X. “Not sure that's true but if it is it is highly classified.”
A U.S. intelligence report shook the White House by assessing airstrikes ordered by President Donald Trump against Iran’s nuclear facilities only set Tehran’s nuclear program back months rather than eliminate it. This contradicted Trump’s claim about the mission’s success.
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Anonymous sources speaking with reporters say the classified Defense Intelligence Agency report is based on the Pentagon’s early bomb damage assessment of the strikes on nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan using earth-penetrating munitions carried by B-2 bombers and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles.
The report indicates the strikes did not destroy the core components of Iran’s nuclear program, however, according to anonymous sources. Intelligence reports also indicate Iran moved whole batches of highly enriched uranium out of the nuclear sites prior to the strikes. And another anonymous source familiar with the report told reporters that some of Iran’s centrifuges remain intact and capable of enriching uranium.
Mullin sough to undermine the report, claiming it was written by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which he says doesn’t “have eyes on the ground” to personally make assessments in Iran.
“This is a report that was incomplete, that wasn’t supposed to be released, and we don’t even know where they were finding their findings,” Mullin told CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins.
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Collins took issue with the dismissal. “The DIA is part of the Pentagon, and the Pentagon is what carried out these strikes, sir. And the director of the DIA is a three-star military officer who is the principal advisor to the secretary of defense, is he not?”
“That doesn’t mean they have eyes on it,” Mullin countered.
“So, you don’t trust their report at all?” Collins prodded.
“Absolutely, 100 percent do not trust this because the report wasn’t a collective of the [intelligence community]," Mullin replied.
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“You sat on the [Senate] Armed Services [Committee] and you just said that you do not trust the Defense Intelligence Agency report. Is that something you’re going to bring up with the Pentagon?” Collins asked.
“No, what I have said is I don’t trust this report,” Mullin insisted, while conceding that he could not provide Collins intelligence that contradicted the DIA report. “… I’m just saying this report is not an accurate report. I don’t even know where this report came from.”
“This report came from the DIA,” Collins pointed out.
“Well, there’s multiple people inside the DIA,” Mullin said. Trump has referred to the unknown people who leaked the report as “real scum.”
See the full interview below or at this link.
