MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The nation's top intelligence official, Tulsi Gabbard, said today that Iran's government still seems to be functioning, though it has been greatly weakened by the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign. Gabbard was one of several national security chiefs questioned on the war by the Senate Intelligence Committee. NPR's Greg Myre was listening and joins us now. Hey, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: So this is interesting because we haven't heard much recently from Tulsi Gabbard, the DNI, director of national intelligence. What else did she say about the state of the war?
MYRE: Yeah, Gabbard gave an upbeat assessment of the military campaign overall, which is now nearly three weeks old. But she did acknowledge that Iran's government remains very much in place. Let's have a listen.
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TULSI GABBARD: The regime in Iran appears to be intact but largely degraded, due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities. Its conventional military power projection capabilities have largely been destroyed, leaving limited options.
MYRE: So as we know, many top Iranian government officials have been killed. Israel said today it killed Iran's intelligence minister in an airstrike. Yet, Iran has been quickly replacing these officials. And Iran is still responding with attacks, though at a lower level, against Israel and Arab states in the Gulf.
KELLY: Another development, Greg, that you and I were discussing just yesterday here on the show is Joe Kent, the head, until yesterday, of the National Counterterrorism Center. And I say until yesterday because he resigned. He quit to protest the Iran war. How did they handle that at today's hearing?
MYRE: Yeah, that question was put to CIA Director John Ratcliffe. And he said he agreed with - sorry - disagreed with Kent's assessment.
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JOHN RATCLIFFE: I think Iran has been a constant threat to the United States for an extended period of time and posed an immediate threat at this time.
MYRE: So as the top spy chiefs, Ratcliffe and Gabbard don't often speak publicly. And they haven't said much, if anything, about the Iran war. But today, Democratic senators got to press them on specifically whether they warned President Trump that Iran was likely to choke off the flow of oil from the Strait of Hormuz. Both Ratcliffe and Gabbard were pretty evasive. Gabbard said the intelligence community long believed that closing the strait was a possibility. Ratcliffe declined to say whether he'd made this point in the days just before the war. But Ratcliffe did say he speaks to Trump 10 to 15 times a week on all pressing issues.
KELLY: What about Iran's nuclear program? Did we get any new information on that?
MYRE: We really didn't. But there was one interesting exchange. Gabbard skipped over part of her prepared remarks, the part that noted President Trump's comment last year that Iran's nuclear program was obliterated, in his words. Trump says the current war is necessary because Iran restarted that nuclear program and was moving toward a weapon. Democratic Senator Mark Warner pressed Gabbard on why she didn't bother to read those prepared remarks.
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MARK WARNER: Was that because the president had said there was an imminent threat two weeks...
GABBARD: No, sir. I recognized that the time was running long. And I skipped through some of the portions of my oral...
WARNER: So you chose to take, omit...
GABBARD: ...Of my oral delivered remarks, sir.
WARNER: You chose to omit the parts that contradict the president.
MYRE: So, Mary Louise, we got a good deal of this today, Democrats pressing Gabbard and Ratcliffe on explanations about the war that have been either murky if not outright contradictory.
KELLY: And in just about 30 seconds, Greg, this hearing was the worldwide threat assessment from the intelligence community, so they talked about things beyond Iran. What caught your ear?
MYRE: Yeah, Russia and China. But, Mary Louise, a lot less often and in much less detail than is often the case when you have top national security officials gathered for this rather important annual hearing.
KELLY: NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Thank you, Greg.
MYRE: Sure thing, Mary Louise. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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