Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / CIA Dir. Confirms Iran’s Nuclear Program Crippled

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CIA Dir. Confirms Iran’s Nuclear Program Crippled · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: We're ruling with common sense. You know, whether you're a
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  Speaker 1: conservative or liberal, or as they like to say, progressive.
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  Speaker 1: They don't like the word liberal anymore. Progressive I think
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  Speaker 1: it's a beautiful word too. That's why I call him liberal.
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  Speaker 1: It's too nice a word. I don't know how you
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  Speaker 1: can be progressive when you're turning the country backwards.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: Good Friday morning. So nice to have you with us
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  Speaker 3: on the forty seven Morning Update. And here are the
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  Speaker 3: big stories we're talking about today. First up, classified report
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  Speaker 3: is now out suggesting that Iran's nuclear program still intact,
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  Speaker 3: was likely well all faulty info and where to come from,
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  Speaker 3: directly from the Iranian government. Yet the media went with it. Well,
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  Speaker 3: the DoD chief Pete Headseth, he's coming out and having
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  Speaker 3: a lot to say about the media telling this story
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  Speaker 3: that is Iranian propaganda. Also, a former Biden official has
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  Speaker 3: now come out on TV saying that Iran's nuclear program
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  Speaker 3: was in fact set back significantly, again, the complete opposite
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  Speaker 3: of what the media has been trying to sell you on.
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  Speaker 3: We have the receipts and we'll play it for you.
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  Speaker 3: It's the forty seven Morning Update, and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: Story number one.
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  Speaker 3: In a scathing report, the CIA director John Radcliffe ripping
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  Speaker 3: Democrats during a closed door briefing of senators on Thursday
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  Speaker 3: by comparing President Donald Trump's successful airstrikes eliminating Iran's nuclear
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  Speaker 3: program to former President Barack Obama's failures with his rand
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  Speaker 3: nuclear deal. A source in the room saying that Radcliffe
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  Speaker 3: and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Secretary's
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  Speaker 3: Defense Pete Headseth had all the senators there for a
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  Speaker 3: closed door briefing on Thursday. They said that the Democratic
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  Speaker 3: senators repeatedly pressed them about the effectiveness of the strike,
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  Speaker 3: pushing for more proof than they had been offered on
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  Speaker 3: the matter. In response, Radcliffe told them, per the source
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  Speaker 3: president in the room, the way he knows how effective
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  Speaker 3: they were was how quickly they folded to Trump versus
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  Speaker 3: how long they dragged out negotiations with Obama. You know
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  Speaker 3: how you know the strikes were devastatingly effective, Radcliffe told
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  Speaker 3: the Senate Democrats and the briefing, per one source quote,
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  Speaker 3: Iran has been fighting Israel for decades. They strung along
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  Speaker 3: the Obama administration for twenty months while negotiating the JCPOA,
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  Speaker 3: but Trump made them accept the ceasefire with their mortal
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  Speaker 3: enemy in twenty minutes. Radcliffe wasn't done there. He also
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  Speaker 3: said during the briefing that the contents of a statement
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  Speaker 3: he previously released publicly in which he said the CIA
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  Speaker 3: can confirm that Aaran' nuclear program had been severely damaged
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  Speaker 3: by the strikes Trump ordered last weekend, saying quote, this
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  Speaker 3: includes new intelligence now from an historically reliable and accurate
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  Speaker 3: source and method, that several ki Iranian nuclear facilities were
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  Speaker 3: destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course
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  Speaker 3: of years. Now, Radcliffe was obviously speaking to the centers
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  Speaker 3: in a private room, but that didn't stop the DoD
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  Speaker 3: Secretary Pete Hedgseth from telling the world exactly what happened
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  Speaker 3: in these attacks and just how wrong the media actually was.
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  Speaker 3: Take a listen to his statement at the Pentagon, specifically
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  Speaker 3: speaking to the media that's been lawing about the effectiveness
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  Speaker 3: of the attack.
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  Speaker 4: Some of the assessments that have been provided, because whether
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  Speaker 4: it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC, or The New York Times,
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  Speaker 4: there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment. I've had
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  Speaker 4: a chance to read it. Every outlet has breathlessly reported
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  Speaker 4: on a preliminary assessment from DIA. I'm looking at it
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  Speaker 4: right now. Again, it was preliminary, a day and a
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  Speaker 4: half after the actual strike. When it admits itself in
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  Speaker 4: writing that it requires weeks to accumulate the necessary data
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  Speaker 4: to make such an assessments preliminary, it points out that
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  Speaker 4: it's not been coordinated with the intelligence community at all.
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  Speaker 4: There's low confidence in this particular reports, it says in
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  Speaker 4: the report. There are gaps in the information. It says
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  Speaker 4: in the report. Multiple lynchpin assumptions are what this assessment
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  Speaker 4: a lynchpin assumption? You know what that is. It means
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  Speaker 4: your entire premiss is predicated on a lynch pin. If
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  Speaker 4: you're wrong, everything else is wrong. And yet still this
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  Speaker 4: report acknowledges it's likely severe damage. Again, this is preliminary,
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  Speaker 4: but leaked because someone had an agenda to try to
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  Speaker 4: muddy the waters and make it look like this historic
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  Speaker 4: strike I wasn't successful. I'm gonna get to the chairman
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  Speaker 4: in a moment, because he's going to lay out the
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  Speaker 4: particulars for you based on his professional military experience. But
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  Speaker 4: here's what other folks are saying. THEDIA that put that
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  Speaker 4: report out says that this is a preliminary low confidence
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  Speaker 4: report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence
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  Speaker 4: becomes available. How about the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. The
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  Speaker 4: devastating US strikes on Fourdeaux destroyed the site's critical infrastructure
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  Speaker 4: and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. Have any of these
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  Speaker 4: quotes made their way into The New York Times, The
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  Speaker 4: Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN any of these quotes? How about
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  Speaker 4: this one? This is a new one from the UN,
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  Speaker 4: the United Nations. No friend in the United States or
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  Speaker 4: certainly Israel. Often. Here's the head of the UN Atomic
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  Speaker 4: Energy Agency this morning, Raphael Grossi. US and Israeli strikes
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  Speaker 4: caused enormous damage to Iran's nuclear sites. Don't take my
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  Speaker 4: word for it. How about the IDF's chief of staff.
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  Speaker 4: I can say here that the assessment is that we
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  Speaker 4: significantly damage the nuclear program, setting it back by years.
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  Speaker 4: I repeat years. The Iranian foreign minister, the spokesman, our
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  Speaker 4: nuclear instrations have been badly damaged, that's for sure. I'm
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  Speaker 4: sure that's an understatement. John Radcliffe, the director of the CIA,
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  Speaker 4: putting out a statement just last night. CIA can confirm
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  Speaker 4: that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program
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  Speaker 4: has been severely damaged by recent targeted strikes. This includes
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  Speaker 4: new intelligence from a historically reliable, very different than preliminary
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  Speaker 4: assessment with low confidence. He's saying, historically reliable and accurate
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  Speaker 4: source of method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were
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  Speaker 4: destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course
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  Speaker 4: of years. CIA continues to collect additional reliably sourced information
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  Speaker 4: to keep appropriate decision makers fully informed. How about DNA
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  Speaker 4: Telsea Gabbard yesterday, she writes, and I quote new intelligence
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  Speaker 4: confirms what POTUS has stated numerous times. Iran's nuclear facilities
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  Speaker 4: have been destroyed. Institute for Science and International Security President
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  Speaker 4: David Albright Overall Israel and US attacks have effectively destroyed
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  Speaker 4: un Iran's centrifuge enrichment program time and time again. I
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  Speaker 4: can go down the list those that understand, those that see,
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  Speaker 4: those that do proper assessments recognize that what the United
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  Speaker 4: States military did was historic.
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  Speaker 3: Isn't it nice to know that President Donald Trump has
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  Speaker 3: put people like Pete headset in positions of power to
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  Speaker 3: call out the liars and the leakers and the media
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  Speaker 3: when they try to pull these bs shenanigans lying about
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  Speaker 3: what's happening in reality, especially when it comes to foreign
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  Speaker 3: policy and the issue of our national security. Now, story
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  Speaker 3: number two, there is a new classified report that is
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  Speaker 3: suggesting that Iran's nuclear program, still intact, likely relied on
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  Speaker 3: faulty info Iranian propaganda from Iranian sources. This is when
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  Speaker 3: the media decided to run with the story, knowing that
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  Speaker 3: their propaganda was literally coming from Iran. The top secret
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  Speaker 3: Defense intelligence agency known as the DIA assessment that claimed
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  Speaker 3: Iran's nuclear sites suffered only moderate damage likely relied on
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  Speaker 3: faulty information from deceitful Iranian sources that according to several
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  Speaker 3: former US intelligence officers, one of whom described the documents
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  Speaker 3: as so unreal you can wipe your aas with it.
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  Speaker 3: The classified DIA report ignite a media firestorm in the
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  Speaker 3: days after President Donald Trump authorized those precision strikes on
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  Speaker 3: Iran's top three nuclear sites. The findings, of course, werein
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  Speaker 3: the league to CNN and The New York Times, which
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  Speaker 3: you heard about a moment ago. Then they presented them
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  Speaker 3: as facts as bombshell evidence that the US bombing run
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  Speaker 3: only set back Tehran's nuclear ambitions by you know, a
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  Speaker 3: couple of months. The US intelligence community deemed that initial
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  Speaker 3: assessment with quote low confidence a fact. CNN purposely admitted
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  Speaker 3: from its original story and based it solely on satellite
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  Speaker 3: imagery and interceptic communications known as signal intelligence from Iranian officials. Again,
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  Speaker 3: think about this. You have the Iranian government putting out
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  Speaker 3: propaganda and media companies in this country putting it out
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  Speaker 3: there as fact. Shortly after the assessment leaked, Axios reported
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  Speaker 3: that communications intercepted by Israel suggested that Iran's military officials
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  Speaker 3: have been giving false situation reports to the country's political leadership,
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  Speaker 3: downplaying the extent of the damage. Such communications likely made
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  Speaker 3: their way into the da report. According to three former
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  Speaker 3: US intelligence operatives, including a current US official and other
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  Speaker 3: veteran national security insiders, who spoke to the Washington Free
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  Speaker 3: Beacon both on and off the record, some of them
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  Speaker 3: referred to the DIA as the discount intelligence agency. It's
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  Speaker 3: basically messaging by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, messaging by Tehran.
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  Speaker 3: That is what a former intelligence officer with the US
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  Speaker 3: Central Command who operated in the Middle East for nearly
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  Speaker 3: thirty years, said, In fact, CNN actually had to report
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  Speaker 3: on this, and here's what it sounded like when a
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  Speaker 3: former Biden of official had this to say about Iran's
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  Speaker 3: nuclear program.
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  Speaker 5: Usteine, a longtime diplomat who served as President Biden's senior
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  Speaker 5: advisor for Energy and Investment. And I think one question
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  Speaker 5: that regular people will have, you know, listening to what
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  Speaker 5: came out of that briefing today on Capitol Hill from
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  Speaker 5: Republicans from Democrats, is what should they take away when
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  Speaker 5: there is such a divide between the politicians over what
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  Speaker 5: is the fate of Iran's nuclear capacity and where that
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  Speaker 5: stands tonight? What do you think?
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  Speaker 6: Well, first, Kaitlin, it's good to be with you. Look,
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  Speaker 6: I think the most important thing is to separate out
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  Speaker 6: what's politics and what is happening on the ground over
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  Speaker 6: the last year a year and a quarter. Last April,
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  Speaker 6: Iran launched a missile attack against Israel, which was one
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  Speaker 6: hundred ballistic missiles company by two hundred or so UAVs.
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  Speaker 6: The United States military coordinated a response and defeated that attack.
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  Speaker 6: But that was really the first time that Iran and
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  Speaker 6: used its own territory to attack Israel. They did it
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  Speaker 6: again in October, and again the United States supported Israel
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  Speaker 6: and with regional partners as well as European countries to
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  Speaker 6: defeat it. And now since then, Iran has lost most
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  Speaker 6: of its deterrence power. They had three things going for them.
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  Speaker 6: They had proxies meaning terrorist organizations in Lebanon, in Syria
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  Speaker 6: and Iraq and Yemen that supported them. The second was
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  Speaker 6: the missiles, and the third was the thread of a
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  Speaker 6: nuclear weaponization. Of their nuclear capabilities, most of their proxies
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  Speaker 6: are either weakened to the point they can't respond or
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  Speaker 6: are choosing now to distance themselves from Iran. Their missile
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  Speaker 6: capability has been proven to be less effective because of
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  Speaker 6: the United States ability to defend the region, and now
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  Speaker 6: their nuclear capability is likely at least set back. Now
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  Speaker 6: the whole idea of obliterated or destroyed. These are political
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  Speaker 6: terms that are not really relevant, and I would urge
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  Speaker 6: Americans not to really pay attention to those words. What
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  Speaker 6: we do know, we know that as a result of
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  Speaker 6: the both the Israeli the American strikes, the nuclear program
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  Speaker 6: was set back significantly. How much we don't really know.
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  Speaker 6: Most Israeli military analysts and generals that I've spoken to
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  Speaker 6: over the last twenty four to forty eight hours. I
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  Speaker 6: think this has gone from a six month's breakout to
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  Speaker 6: timeframe to two years, so an eighteen month or two
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  Speaker 6: year delay in their program. But here's the thing. They
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  Speaker 6: have also lost other capabilities. They've lost their command and control,
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  Speaker 6: they've lost military leaders, they've lost scientists, and they lost
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  Speaker 6: their conversion so they're clearly weakened. And lastly, Israel has
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  Speaker 6: proven that they have an intelligence caivability inside Iran that
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  Speaker 6: if they tried to reconstitute we'll we the United States, Israel,
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  Speaker 6: other European allies will know about it.
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  Speaker 3: Yet again, more proof of the propaganda coming from the
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  Speaker 3: media trying to convince you that somehow one of the
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  Speaker 3: most successful missions in modern military history was a failure,
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  Speaker 3: all because Donald Trump is the one that's said to
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  Speaker 3: do it.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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  Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
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  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here tomorrow.