Latest news with #JohnRatcliffe
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Report: Trump's four key advisers on bombing Iran
President Donald Trump has been coached through the Iran and Israel war by four crucial confidants, but they are surprisingly not all top military brass. Though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has played a public role in the Trump administration's defense strategy, he is not among the advisors closest to the president on the Iran matter, current and former White House sources say. Neither is Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the sources told the Washington Post. Though sources close to the intelligence director push back, saying she's been in regular contact with the president this week and at important meetings. The most influential figures in Trump's orbit as he weighs a U.S. strikes to take out Iran's nuclear technology are Vice President J.D. Vance , Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, an outside White House advisor told the outlet. The group of four is referred to as the 'Tier one' group of decision makers, the advisor shared. These are the men making critical decisions on whether to get involved in the war. These sour advisors are now helping the president sort through contingency plans for U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities that are buried deep under mountains. Israeli military officials have called on the U.S. to use GB-57 'bunker buster' bombs on the nuclear sites - a weapon that can only be delivered by U.S.-made planes that are captained by American pilots - a move that risks escalating the conflict further. The Pentagon pushed back on the Post report, telling the Daily Mail that Hegseth has not been sidelined amid Caine's rising influence. 'This claim is completely false,' Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. 'The Secretary is speaking with the President multiple times a day each day and has been with the President in the Situation Room this week. The DNI has been in critical meetings with the president on Iran this week, a senior intelligence official told the Daily Mail on Thursday, saying she's taking part in National Security Council meetings and impromptu White House sessions. The Gorilla vs. The Gram Trump has also been consulting with General Michael Erik Kurilla, the four-star head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) who has earned the imposing nickname 'The Gorilla.' Multiple U.S. officials have said Kurilla has been a more influential voice than the defense secretary and he routinely gets his requests for additional resources approved, making CENTCOM one of the most fortified commands. Meanwhile, at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), several longtime staffers expressed concern over Gabbard's priorities. Sources inside the ODNI accuse Trump's spy chief of focusing on her appearance rather than her intelligence work, CNN reports. These staffers pointed to her polished Instagram making her appear more like a fitness influencer than a Cabinet member.
Roya News
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Roya News
US intelligence believes Iran still undecided on building nuclear bomb: report
US intelligence agencies continue to assess that Iran has not yet decided to build a nuclear weapon, despite possessing enough enriched uranium to do so – according to senior officials cited by the New York Times. This assessment remains unchanged since March, even as 'Israel' steps up attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. Senior officials caution that Iran may pivot toward bomb production if provoked by military action against key sites like Fordo or in the event of the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The debate over Iran's nuclear intentions has reignited amid pressure from hawkish voices in the US and 'Israel'. CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly told the White House that Iran is nearing the technical threshold for a weapon. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt echoed this, saying Iran needs only a political decision to begin building a bomb, which could take as little as two weeks. Some US officials cite 'Israeli' intelligence, particularly Mossad's estimate that Iran is just 15 days away from producing a bomb. However, others within the American intelligence community challenge that timeline, maintaining that Iran would likely need several months to a year to complete a functional weapon Officials also note that no new intelligence has been collected, only new interpretations of existing data – said the NYT report. Iran's current uranium stockpile, enriched to 60%, must reach 90% purity to become weapons-grade. Beyond that, Iran would need to assemble and potentially miniaturize a bomb for missile deployment. While Iran has the technical capacity to build such a device, US officials say there's no clear evidence it has begun doing so. Some experts believe Iran could opt for a simpler, less advanced bomb akin to the Hiroshima-era design, which would not require missile capability. Despite these assessments, concerns persist. General Michael E. Kurilla told Congress that Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one bomb in a week, and enough for 10 bombs within three weeks. Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has warned that Iran's uranium stockpile is at an unprecedented level for a non-nuclear state.
New York Times
17 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
U.S. Spy Agencies Assess Iran Remains Undecided on Building a Bomb
U.S. intelligence agencies continue to believe that Iran has yet to decide whether to make a nuclear bomb even though it has developed a large stockpile of the enriched uranium necessary for it to do so, according to intelligence and other American officials. That assessment has not changed since the intelligence agencies last addressed the question of Iran's intentions in March, the officials said, even as Israel has attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. Senior U.S. intelligence officials said that Iranian leaders were likely to shift toward producing a bomb if the American military attacked the Iranian uranium enrichment site Fordo or if Israel killed Iran's supreme leader. The question of whether Iran has decided to complete the work of building a bomb is irrelevant in the eyes of many Iran hawks in the United States and Israel, who say Tehran is close enough to represent an existential danger to Israel. But it has long been a flashpoint in the debate over policy toward Iran and has flared again as President Trump weighs whether to bomb Fordo. White House officials held an intelligence briefing on Thursday and announced that Mr. Trump would make his decision within the next two weeks. At the White House meeting, John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, told officials that Iran was very close to having a nuclear weapon. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Fox News
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
CIA releases declassified documents on Robert F Kennedy assassination
The CIA released 54 declassified documents related to the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) on Thursday, providing an additional 1,450 pages of material for the public to scour through for answers to their conspiracies. CIA Director John Ratcliffe released the documents in response to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to declassify files on the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK. According to the CIA, the latest batch of documents complements the thousands of pages the agency provided to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) as part of their public releases related to JFK earlier this year. The most recent release shows for the first time that RFK, as a senator, shared his experiences traveling to the former Soviet Union with the CIA while reflecting his patriotic commitment to serving his country. "Today's release delivers on President Trump's commitment to maximum transparency, enabling the CIA to shine light on information that serves the public interest," Ratcliffe said. "I am proud to share our work on this incredibly important topic with the American people." Along with sharing information about RFK's Soviet Union experiences, the files also dive into the psychological assessments of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who shot and killed RFK in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. In a personality assessment memo on July 8, 1968, federal authorities declared that "under no circumstances would we have predicted that [Sirhan] was 'capable' of doing what he did." In the same memo, the feds said the odds of Sirhan being successful were "tremendous." "Obviously, we cannot see him as part of a conspiracy," the memo read. "He could be a tool of a conspiracy in the sense that the attempted assassin of Secretary of State [William] Seward and the assigned assassin of Vice President Andrew Johnson [George Atzerodt] were tools of the [John Wilkes] Booth conspiracy. It is very likely, however, that he could have effectively acted under precise instructions." It goes on to say that most people of the type of attack Sirhan was accused of at the time attack their mother or their girlfriend. "Occasionally they will lash out against an employer or colleagues (a case in point is the recent Pennsylvania case of the 'quiet' man who killed his car pool and then himself)," the memo read. "Sometimes they will pick public figures and make abortive attempts to get at them. Essentially, we see Sirhan as being more like the impulsive assassins of [former presidents James] Garfield and [William] McKinley than the calculating assassins of [Abraham] Lincoln and President Kennedy." The file release is what the CIA said was a collaborative effort directed by Trump and led by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard with coordination from the CIA, Department of Justice, FBI and NARA. "Today's release is another important step in fulfilling President Trump's commitment to maximum transparency. Thank you to those at the CIA, ODNI, and NARA who worked hard to locate, review, and digitize these documents, many of which have never been released publicly before," Gabbard said. "We will continue coordinating with our partners across the Intelligence Community to fulfill President Trump's promise of maximum transparency." The documents are available to the public and can be viewed by visiting and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a guest on Fox News' "The Story" on Thursday and told host Martha MacCallum that he did not know his father was reporting back to the CIA during his trip to the Soviet Union in 1955, when he was a Senate aide. "My mother was on that trip," RFK Jr. said. "She joined him in St. Petersburg, and she actually was working for the CIA at that time, and she was wearing a carnation in her lapel that was attached to a little bubble where she could take pictures." RFK Jr. continued by saying the Soviets had brought artwork back to now-St. Petersburg after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Germans, he explained, had confiscated the artwork from some of the Jewish families and that the CIA was interested in that. "I don't think it was anything of grave national security interest, but it was, you know, it's an interesting fact that I didn't know about my dad," he said.
Fox News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
CIA releases declassified documents on Robert F Kennedy assassination under Trump order
The CIA released 54 declassified documents related to the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) on Thursday, providing an additional 1,450 pages of material for the public to scour through for answers to their conspiracies. CIA Director John Ratcliffe released the documents in response to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to declassify files on the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK. According to the CIA, the latest batch of documents complements the thousands of pages the agency provided to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) as part of their public releases related to JFK earlier this year. The most recent release shows for the first time that RFK, as a senator, shared his experiences traveling to the former Soviet Union with the CIA while reflecting his patriotic commitment to serving his country. "Today's release delivers on President Trump's commitment to maximum transparency, enabling the CIA to shine light on information that serves the public interest," Ratcliffe said. "I am proud to share our work on this incredibly important topic with the American people." Along with sharing information about RFK's Soviet Union experiences, the files also dive into the psychological assessments of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who shot and killed RFK in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. In a personality assessment memo on July 8, 1968, federal authorities declared that "under no circumstances would we have predicted that [Sirhan] was 'capable' of doing what he did." In the same memo, the feds said the odds of Sirhan being successful were "tremendous." "Obviously, we cannot see him as part of a conspiracy," the memo read. "He could be a tool of a conspiracy in the sense that the attempted assassin of Secretary of State [William] Seward and the assigned assassin of Vice President Andrew Johnson [George Atzerodt] were tools of the [John Wilkes] Booth conspiracy. It is very likely, however, that he could have effectively acted under precise instructions." It goes on to say that most people of the type of attack Sirhan was accused of at the time attack their mother or their girlfriend. "Occasionally they will lash out against an employer or colleagues (a case in point is the recent Pennsylvania case of the 'quiet' man who killed his car pool and then himself)," the memo read. "Sometimes they will pick public figures and make abortive attempts to get at them. Essentially, we see Sirhan as being more like the impulsive assassins of [former presidents James] Garfield and [William] McKinley than the calculating assassins of [Abraham] Lincoln and President Kennedy." The file release is what the CIA said was a collaborative effort directed by Trump and led by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard with coordination from the CIA, Department of Justice, FBI and NARA. "Today's release is another important step in fulfilling President Trump's commitment to maximum transparency. Thank you to those at the CIA, ODNI, and NARA who worked hard to locate, review, and digitize these documents, many of which have never been released publicly before," Gabbard said. "We will continue coordinating with our partners across the Intelligence Community to fulfill President Trump's promise of maximum transparency." The documents are available to the public and can be viewed by visiting and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a guest on Fox News' "The Story" on Thursday and told host Martha MacCallum that he did not know his father was reporting back to the CIA during his trip to the Soviet Union in 1955, when he was a Senate aide. "My mother was on that trip," RFK Jr. said. "She joined him in St. Petersburg, and she actually was working for the CIA at that time, and she was wearing a carnation in her lapel that was attached to a little bubble where she could take pictures." RFK Jr. continued by saying the Soviets had brought artwork back to now-St. Petersburg after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Germans, he explained, had confiscated the artwork from some of the Jewish families and that the CIA was interested in that. "I don't think it was anything of grave national security interest, but it was, you know, it's an interesting fact that I didn't know about my dad," he said.
