Senators repeatedly questioned CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday about the intelligence community’s assessments of possible Iranian retaliation ahead of the now-2 1/2 week conflict.
The pair, among others, appeared in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday morning for the annual threat assessments hearing, and the war in Iran was a major point of discussion.
They were forced to respond to President Donald Trump’s acknowledgement earlier this week that Iran’s response to the joint U.S.-Israeli war against them surprised him and others.
“Now, the comments that you talked about, I have not heard,” Ratcliffe said. “What I can tell you is that Iran had specific plans to hit U.S. interests in energy sites across the region, and that’s why the Department of War and the Department of State took measures for force protection and personnel protection in advance of Operation Epic Fury.”
Trump said Monday that “they weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East,” adding, “Those missiles were set to go after them. So, they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked.”
Later that day, when asked whether he was briefed on the possibility, Trump replied, “Nobody, nobody, no, no, no. The greatest experts, nobody thought they were going to hit.”
The president’s remarks put both Gabbard and Ratcliffe in a difficult position, with lawmakers questioning their level of preparedness for the conflict, especially considering that previous intelligence assessments included details about how Iran could carry out regional strikes and shut down the Strait of Hormuz if attacked.
Iran ‘imminent’ threat
Another topic they faced questions about is whether Iran posed an “imminent” threat to the United States prior to the war. That question gained additional attention on Tuesday when Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned from his position because it was his belief that Iran did not pose such a threat to the U.S.
Ratcliffe specifically said he disagreed with Kent’s assessment, while Gabbard maintained that only the president can make that determination and did not share whether she agreed.
“The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president,” she said. “It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. That is up to the president based on a volume of information that he receives.”
Through nearly three weeks since the beginning of the war, the U.S. military has struck more than 7,800 targets in Iran, costing billions of dollars, and Iran has responded by targeting roughly a dozen nearby countries with ballistic missiles and drones. Iran has also largely shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil and gas transport, leading to significant increases in energy prices.
Gabbard said, “This has long been an assessment of the IC that Iran would likely hold the Strait of Hormuz as leverage.”
Multiple lawmakers, including Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Angus King (I-ME), asked various questions trying to get Ratcliffe and Gabbard to answer directly whether they briefed the president about the possibility of Iran shutting down the strait and what impacts that would have on energy prices.
Trump has said he wants other countries to help the U.S. reopen the strait, but many have rebuffed those requests, which has frustrated the president.
The 2025 intelligence community threat assessment included a section detailing that Iran’s conventional forces “are capable of inflicting substantial damage to an attacker, executing regional strikes, and disrupting shipping, particularly energy supplies, through the Strait of Hormuz.”
It also noted that Iran has “deployed small boats and submarines capable of disrupting shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.”
The new version of the annual threat assessment, which was also released on Wednesday in coordination with Gabbard’s testimony, noted that prior to this war commencing, “Iran had developed space-launch vehicles that it could use to develop a military-viable [intercontinental ballistic missiles] by 2035 should Tehran decide to do so.”
Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed, seven of whom Iran was responsible for, while the other six were killed in an aircraft accident that was not a result of enemy or friendly fire. The U.S. military is also investigating whether it was responsible for bombing a school in Minab, Iran, that is believed to have killed more than 150 people in the opening strikes of the war.
Roughly 200 troops have been injured during the war, about 180 of whom have already returned to duty. Those troops were in Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates when they sustained their injuries. Ten service members are currently categorized as seriously wounded, according to Central Command spokesman Tim Hawkins.
