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← The Nuclear Case vs. the Intelligence

Gabbard's March 2025 Testimony: "Iran Is Not Building a Nuclear Weapon"

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED. The words are on C-SPAN video and in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's published report.

Eleven weeks before Israel attacked Iran, the head of America's intelligence community told the Senate, on behalf of all 18 US intelligence agencies, that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. This is the single most important document for understanding the June 2025 war, because it is what the American government itself believed before the war was sold.

What she said​

On March 25, 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard presented the intelligence community's Annual Threat Assessment to the Senate Intelligence Committee:

"The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003."

Video: C-SPAN, March 25, 2025. Text confirmed by FactCheck.org.

"IC" is the intelligence community: the CIA, the DIA, the NSA and the other agencies, speaking together. The 2003 date refers to the judgment, first published in the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, that Iran halted organized weapons design work that year.

In her oral testimony she also said "Iran's enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons," and noted that "Tehran has shown a willingness" to act against US forces, citing the 2020 attack on US forces in Iraq (testimony text as posted by @lamps_apple). In June 2025, one post quoting her testimony was seen by more than 70,000 people as the bombing began (@MJTruthUltra, June 17, 2025).

What the written report says​

The unclassified 2025 Annual Threat Assessment puts both halves in one paragraph: "We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003, though pressure has probably built on him to do so." It adds that "Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei continues to desire to avoid embroiling Iran in an expanded, direct conflict with the United States and its allies" (ODNI, 2025 Annual Threat Assessment, PDF). The report states it reflects "information available as of 18 March."

Read that second sentence again. America's intelligence agencies said Iran's leader wanted to avoid a direct war with the United States. Three months later, America was in one.

It was the long-standing view​

This was not a new or unusual judgment. CIA Director William Burns said in October 2024 there was no evidence Khamenei had reversed his decision (as noted in the research captures). One critic of the war summarized the record as: every Director of National Intelligence since the Bush administration concluded Iran was not working toward a weapon (per the research captures). The IAEA reported in May 2025 that it had no credible indications of a current weapons program (same).

Nothing had changed by June​

  • On June 17, Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee: "Director Gabbard stated publicly in March that the Iranians were not actively pursuing a bomb. I've seen nothing in recent intelligence that contradicts what Director Gabbard said" (AP, June 17, 2025).
  • On June 19, the New York Times: "None of the new assessments on the timeline to get a bomb are based on newly collected intelligence, according to multiple officials" (as quoted by The Column).
  • The conservative outlet The Dispatch checked the transcript: "At no point did Gabbard communicate that Iran was 'very close' to having a nuclear weapon" (The Dispatch, June 19, 2025).

What changed was not the intelligence. It was Israel's attack, and the President's answer when asked about his own intelligence chief: "I don't care what she said" (Axios, June 17, 2025). What happened to Gabbard's position next is on Gabbard's June Reversal.

What a citizen can do​

Watch the C-SPAN clip. It is under a minute. Then ask your representative one question: what new intelligence, between March 25 and June 21, 2025, showed Iran had started building a bomb? The officials quoted above say there was none.

Status: Tulsi Gabbard, Mark Warner, William Burns and Donald Trump are alive, as far as these sources show.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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