The administration in Washington believes that the official who leaked preliminary US intelligence data on the results of US strikes on Iran to CNN should be sentenced to prison, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said.
As she told reporters, “CNN's publication was fake news“. “They took excerpts from a leaked top-secret intelligence report“, Leavitt added. According to her, “The FBI is investigating to find out who leaked it“. “This is an illegal leak“, the White House press secretary added. When asked what punishment should be imposed on the culprit, Leavitt replied: “He should go to prison“.
As CNN reported on June 24, citing its sources, the US intelligence community believes that the US military strikes on Iranian facilities (in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan) on the night of June 22 did not destroy the main components of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. According to preliminary intelligence assessments, the attack most likely only delayed Tehran's acquisition of a nuclear bomb by several months, the channel noted.
According to the channel, such data was presented by officials of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) based on an analysis conducted by the US Central Command after the US strikes. Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles were not destroyed, and the centrifuges were mostly “undamaged”, the channel's source said. Similar reports soon appeared in other American media outlets.
The White House and the Pentagon said the data provided by CNN was incorrect. As CIA Director John Ratcliffe and US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard assured on Wednesday, the data obtained showed that Iran's nuclear program had been seriously damaged as a result of US military strikes. Ratcliffe and Gabbard stressed that the Islamic Republic would need years to restore its destroyed nuclear facilities. US President Donald Trump stressed in The Hague that the DIA findings, which were “leaked“ to the press on June 24, were preliminary.