We heard a lot from the Democrats and media when the Trump administration launched Operation Epic Fury, arguing that there was no real threat.
Now, there's a story from "60 Minutes" that actually points to how real the threat was because of the concern about the highly enriched uranium (HEU).
It’s believed Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to make at least 10 nuclear bombs. What would it take for the U.S. to secure it? Sunday, 60 Minutes reports on a past covert mission code-named Project Sapphire that could be a blueprint for a similar operation in Iran.… pic.twitter.com/9qYUCnlXQJ
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 19, 2026
It's believed Iran currently has enough HEU to eventually make 10 atomic bombs. But international inspectors have not been allowed to verify Iran's stockpile since last June, when the U.S. and Israel struck three nuclear sites.
60 MINUTES: Iran still has nearly 1,000 pounds of highly-enriched uranium — "enough material, if you enrich it just a little bit more, for 10-11 nuclear bombs."
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 20, 2026
"Iran has been lying about its nuclear weapons effort for over 20 years now." pic.twitter.com/8StUWPID0R
Dr. Matthew Bunn, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and former White House nuclear advisor, said that almost 1000 pounds would be "enough material, if you enrich it just a little bit more, for 10-11 nuclear bombs."
He also explained how "Iran has been lying about its nuclear weapons effort for over 20 years now." He said their claim that they weren't working on pursuing a weapon was a lie.
That information about the HEU alone would show the huge problem and why Trump acted. It puts paid to the anti-Trump claim, pushed by some on the left, that there was no threat. And the fighting has only revealed even more how unhinged the Iranian regime is, from killing thousands of their own people, to firing missiles and launching drone attacks on their Gulf neighbors. Plus, we learned they may be able to fire missiles farther than previously claimed when they targeted Diego Garcia. So if they have that capability, they could hit U.S. bases in Europe.
Now, the "60 Minutes" story speaks about a prior operation to secure HEU in Kazakhstan. It seemed to be pushing the merits of cooperation to secure it, versus a military operation. That's all well and good if you have a cooperative or trustworthy country, which you don't in Iran. They had on Vice Admiral Robert Harward, who was a deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. He said that if you tried to seize it, it could take weeks and take a lot of personnel on the ground.
But it would be a lot more challenging, one would think, if you just let it go unchecked, didn't deal with the problem, and the unhinged regime with the terrorist proxies used it.
Iran’s Regime Can’t Stop Making Its Own Problems Worse
This is why the highly enriched uranium has been the focus of the U.S. negotiations with Iran. You would have to ensure you accounted for it all, and that you had very real monitoring to make sure that they weren't trying to resurrect the program that the regime could not get around. But that would be much easier to determine if the IRGC were no longer in power.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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