ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Since the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, one key question has been, did it work? Did the American attacks end Iran's nuclear program? President Trump insisted Saturday evening the attack was, quote, "a spectacular military success."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
SHAPIRO: Well, now, according to a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly, an early intelligence assessment says the damage was far less than the president claimed, and Iran's nuclear program was set back only a few months, with limited damage to centrifuges at Iran's Fordo facility. Virginia Senator Mark Warner is the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and he is here to tell us what he has seen. Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
MARK WARNER: Well, thank you, Ari.
SHAPIRO: You've read the intelligence assessment. What have you learned?
WARNER: Well, I am not going to talk about what I've seen in classified intelligence. I'm a little old-fashioned that way, but I have a whole lot of questions for this administration. I really am very disappointed they canceled the briefing that the senators deserved today. They moved it to Thursday. But if you just look over the last 12 or 13 days, when Israel first launched the attack, the administration's position was, well, we would help defend Israel as we should, but, you know, we are not going to be involved. Then the American intelligence communities reiterated a week ago, Monday, that Iran had not made a decision to move towards a weapon. And then the administration - well, let me...
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
WARNER: Then the administration went ahead and launched their attack. But they were saying at one point, you know, they were only going against the Iranian nuclear facilities and no regime change. Then the president said regime change. Now he's back.
SHAPIRO: I hear you say the goalposts...
WARNER: This is up and down.
SHAPIRO: ...Are moving. But I'm curious...
WARNER: This...
SHAPIRO: ...Just what you know, how you would answer the question. Was the attack successful?
WARNER: I'm going to wait to hear the administration's explanation, but I have more questions than I had even before the initial assessment. And again, there's - it's been in the public domain that there were large numbers of questions before any of this was - took place, whether these bunker-buster bombs alone could take out the facilities. There's also very legitimate questions of whether the Iranians moved any of their enriched uranium out of those facilities and...
SHAPIRO: Does the U.S. know where...
WARNER: ...What is next...
SHAPIRO: ...That enriched uranium is? The Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which, as you say, could have been easily moved.
WARNER: It has been widely reported and nonclassified that you could literally move that in about 10 carloads. I have not seen any indication that we know where all of that is at this moment in time. And let me be clear, Ari, you know, Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. This is a regime that has been against America, against Israel. It's been disruptive in the region. But there are reasons why previous presidents, including President Trump in his first term, didn't take these actions. Because there are a lot of - what next? I mean, are our troops fully safe at this point? Will there not be a third party of surrogates like Hezbollah or Shia militias? Has Iran agreed not to attack us on a cyber basis? And again, as we've all said, it's a lot easier to start a conflict in the Middle East than it is to end one.
SHAPIRO: Political appointees in the Trump administration have tried before to pressure intelligence agencies to change their conclusions. We saw that with intel about the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. How confident are you that the conclusions of the intelligence community on this - on the Iran attack - will be free of political interference?
WARNER: I believe they are so far, and that's why I want to hear what they're going to say on Thursday. Again, I would remind you, the intelligence community said literally eight days ago that Iran had not decided to move forward with the weaponization. It appears President Trump rejected that. Does that mean he's rejecting the conclusion? Is he accepting the intelligence from Israel? And what does that say if he's taking another country's intelligence over ours?
And you're right. I am hugely concerned, as we saw - where intelligence professionals were literally fired because they refused to bend the knee and alter intelligence, and we've seen this in the past. That's how we ended up in Iraq, you know, 20-odd years ago.
SHAPIRO: Well, let me just ask in our last minute. If it is true, as this intelligence report apparently says, that these attacks only set back Iran's nuclear program a few months, where does that leave the U.S. effort to end Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon?
WARNER: Those are the questions that need to be asked, and they - those were the questions that we wanted to ask - have answered before he took this action. What next, if you don't take them out all on the first strike? What are the next steps? How do we make sure that there's not Iran racing now to a dirty bomb? These are questions that we and, frankly, the American people deserve answers to.
SHAPIRO: That is Virginia Senator Mark Warner. He is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Thank you very much.
WARNER: Thank you, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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