New in SpyWeek: Iran Damage Doubts, CIA-Russia Kerfuffle, Tulsi Prays to God
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IRAN DAMAGE CONTROL: Despite President Trump’s claim that U.S. airstrikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, a recent intelligence assessment tells a different story.
NBC News led The New York Times and The Washington Post in reporting that of the three enrichment facilities bombed in June—Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow—only Fordow was “mostly destroyed” (according to NBC News) or “potentially destroyed” (per the New York Times) with operations likely delayed by at least two years of intensive work.
The other two sites, which were also buried deep underground, were not as badly damaged and could be operational again within months, although such efforts would be detected by U.S. intelligence. That lines up with an initial Defense Intelligence Agency report, to which Trump responded with characteristic bluster by threatening to sue the journalists who reported it.
Even as Trump’s White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly continues to claim total destruction of the targets, there have been discussions within the U.S. and Israeli governments about whether additional strikes could be necessary.
RATCLIFFE’S VERSION: NBC News’ reporting pried loose some details about a closed-door briefing that CIA Director John Ratcliffe gave lawmakers about the Iran strikes in June. Ratcliffe told lawmakers that the only metal conversion facility—located at Natanz and critical for converting enriched uranium gas into uranium metal—was destroyed and would take “years to rebuild.” Ratcliffe also reported that the strikes buried the vast majority of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles at Isfahan and Fordow.
TULSI VS DEEP STATE: Trump’s intelligence community leader continued to fuse politics and spying this week, as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard delivered a fiery keynote at the Turning Point USA summit, the nation’s leading conservative youth gathering.
“We have to expose their tactics and the playbook of the deep state so that we, the people, can make sure this never happens again,” Gabbard told a cheering MAGA crowd in Florida on July 12. This, of course, is the language of authoritarian regimes that dismantle internal checks in the name of rooting out disloyalty.
Gabbard vowed to declassify a Biden-era memo she claims directed intelligence agencies to target dissenters—such as anti-COVID mandate Americans and vaccine-wary parents—as “domestic violent extremists.” She added, “In my work as the director of national intelligence, the deep state is fighting us every step of the way.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, blasted Gabbard for “breaking decades of precedent to attack her own workforce and weaponize American intelligence at a political rally.” He added, “When will my Republican colleagues, who claim to care about national security, finally speak up?” Tick, tick, tick…
On Friday, Gabbard declassified documents that she claimed in a post on X revealed how the Obama administration set the stage for a “years-long coup” against Trump. It did nothing of the sort. The documents show that an item drafted December 8, 2016, for the President’s Daily Brief reporting that Russia "did not impact recent U.S. election results by conducting malicious cyberattacks against election infrastructure,” was pulled. The Intelligence Community Assessment that concluded Vladimir Putin tried to help elect Trump (partly by denigrating Hillary Clinton) was launched the next day. The ICA was silent on whether Russia’s meddling affected election results. But Gabbard sees it as evidence of a “treasonous conspiracy.”
TULSI’S HOLY WAR: SpyWeek watched the speech DNI Tulsi Gabbard gave on July 12 at Turning Point USA so you didn’t have to—you’re welcome—and we heard what others seem to have missed: a full-throated religious appeal. While the speech started with the disturbing denunciations of the deep state, Gabbard began to veer into new terrain, casting her mission as divinely inspired. She described her life’s work as “being of service to God’s children” and striving to be “pleasing to Him.” (She meant God, not Trump.)
Things really started to get weird when Gabbard framed her recent struggles as a spiritual battle. The DNI says when she’s having a tough day, it’s her “opportunity” to borrow a phrase from Isaiah 6:8 and say, “Here I am, Lord, send me.”
There have been plenty of tough days for Gabbard lately. Trump apparently sidelined her from at least one intelligence briefing after she released a bizarre personal video warning of a nuclear holocaust. She also fired the National Intelligence Council’s leadership after it released a memo that undercut the administration’s narrative on the Venezuelan “invasion.” Meanwhile, she fired the Freedom of Information Act officer who released the memo. She also attacked a journalist from The Washington Post in an unhinged post on X.
In case anyone didn’t get the message, Gabbard, a member of the Hindu faith, uncorked a political homily, wrapped in the language of evangelical Christianity. “It is inspired by God's unconditional love that we are charged to live and lead, and serve in a reflection of His love for all of us with this eternal gratitude in our hearts for the blessings and the freedoms that He has and continues to bestow upon every one of us,” she said. Very Christian Nationalist, that.
Holy cow. We’ve entered strange new territory when the head of the U.S. intelligence community attends a hyperpartisan rally and casts public service—and implicitly, allegiance to Trump—not as a duty grounded in the Constitution or the rule of law, but as a divine calling “inspired by God’s unconditional love.” Is the “deep state” anti-God or anti-freedom? Is that where we are headed?
GOING TO THE DOGS: In the pettiest of petty twists in Trump’s war with the “deep state,” former DNI James Clapper was barred from attending the CIA graduation ceremony of Susan, a bomb-sniffing Labrador Retriever that he sponsored and named after his late wife. Though the event was unclassified and open to guests, The Atlantic reported that Clapper was disinvited by executive order, reportedly under Trump's directive.
RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA: Don’t miss SpyTalk’s interview with Susan Miller, a former CIA chief of counterintelligence who was the principal author of the agency’s report about Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Miller called CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s production and release of a critical analysis of her team’s work a “100 percent” political move designed to mollify Trump. “He's doing Trump's bidding to go after those of us who dared to write a report that simply said the Russians tried to influence the election towards Trump,” Miller told Jeff Stein and Michael Isikoff. (The degree to which they succeeded cannot be measured, she said.) Contradicting Ratcliffe’s claims, Miller insisted there was no pressure from then-Director John Brennan to influence her team’s conclusions.
Over on The Cipher Brief, Miller warned that Chinese companies have infiltrated power grids across the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Asia, giving Xi Jinping potential wartime leverage to shut off electricity in key regions. She says the access was obtained through low-bid infrastructure contracts that Western governments failed to block until recently.
STATE INTEL AXED: Two offices inside the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), often called the IC’s best analysts, have been eliminated, according to a source in the unit. Sasha Ingber at the HUMINT Substack reported that the Analytic Outreach office, which hosted interagency and international speakers, was expected to be cut. But staff in the Intelligence Policy and Information Sharing Center—responsible for sharing intel with foreign governments—were blindsided.
GRAND CONSPIRACY: The FBI has reportedly opened a high-level “grand conspiracy” investigation into alleged political “weaponization” of the DOJ and FBI—reviving, once again, the well-worn grievances of the Russia-Trump era. That’s according to John Solomon, a once-respected journalist now running the pro-Trump outlet Just the News. Earlier this week, Solomon floated two “bombshells” that he said Trump should declassify: decade-old materials related to Hillary Clinton, that could help “boost” the FBI’s probe. Then, days later—surprise!—Trump agreed … in an interview with Solomon. This isn’t journalism. It’s a press release with bylines.
SALT TYPHOON, AGAIN: A Department of Homeland Security memo reveals that China’s Salt Typhoon hacking group “extensively compromised” a U.S. Army National Guard network in an unidentified state for nine months in 2024. During that time, the group exfiltrated administrator credentials, network traffic diagrams, maps, and personal data of service members. The memo obtained by NBC News stated the hack “likely provided Beijing with data that could facilitate the hacking of other states’ Army National Guard units, and possibly many of their state-level cybersecurity partners.” Salt Typhoon is said to have targeted the phones of Donald Trump, JD Vance, as well as officials in the Kamala Harris campaign. They also gained access to the “Lawful Intercept” system that the U.S. government uses to monitor communications under court-authorized wiretapping requests. Given Beijing’s prior thefts of U.S. telecom data and OPM federal employees’ files and infiltration of U.S. power grids, you have to wonder whether there’s anything important left to steal.
STEALTH EDIT: A sharp-eyed reader flagged a quiet but telling revision in The Washington Post’s front-page piece on the latest JFK declassifications. The original, with its sensational headline—“Documents Show CIA Had Connection With JFK’s Assassin”—ran in Tuesday’s print edition and early online versions. In it, reporter Tom Jackman wrote that a covert CIA officer ran an “operation” that “interacted” with Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination, raising “further questions about the agency’s awareness—or involvement in—the plot.” On Tuesday, SpyTalk’s Michael Isikoff and Gus Russo wrote a takedown of Jackman’s piece and the conspiracy claims undergirding it, which were circulated by former Postie-turned-conspiracy entrepreneur Jefferson Morley on his JFKFacts Substack. Meanwhile, the linked article was quietly revised Monday evening, according to archived versions on the Internet Archive. The more damning phrase “awareness—or involvement in—the plot to kill the president” was softened to a generic nod about “long-simmering questions” and potential secrets.”
Pocket Litter:
Ukraine’s SBU security service said it had tracked down and killed alleged Russian agents accused of assassinating a senior Ukrainian intelligence officer. A man and a woman suspected of killing SBU officer Colonel Ivan Voronych were located and killed in a shootout with Ukrainian forces. (The Moscow Times)
The chairs of the House and Senate Intelligence panels this week asked DNI Tulsi Gabbard to scrutinize any intelligence information the U.S. shares with Spain after the disclosure that the country’s wiretap system is underpinned by Huawei technology. (The Record)
The U.K. sanctioned 18 Russian GRU officers for a “sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity,” including online reconnaissance for the Mariupol theater bombing and hacking the phone of the daughter of Sergei Skripal, the Russian defector whom the GRU tried to poison. The United States is reportedly considering parallel measures. (Cyberscoop)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has firmly denied that Jeffrey Epstein was ever affiliated with Mossad, calling the accusation “categorically and totally false” in a post on social media on July 14. We’ll see.
Jeff Stein contributed to this story.
Is there something we missed? Or something you would like to see more of? Send your tips, corrections, and thoughts to SpyTalk@protonmail.com.
another good issue covering a whole lot of issue. Eye opening. Excellent report, keep it up bro
Tulsi, Tulsi, Tulsi. I will pray for you. How about a little more China and a lot less religion?