Trump is strategizing means to seize Iran's nuclear stockpiles, sources say
Source: CBS News
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Politics
Trump is strategizing means to seize Iran's nuclear stockpiles, sources say
By Jennifer Jacobs, James LaPorta, Eleanor Watson
Updated on: March 20, 2026 / 9:50 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington The Trump administration has been strategizing methods and options to secure or extract Iran's nuclear materials, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions, as a U.S.-Israel led military campaign against Tehran enters a more uncertain phase.
The timing of any such an operation if President Trump were to order it remained unclear Friday night. One source said he has made no decision yet.
But planning has centered on the possible deployment of forces from the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, the elite military unit often tasked with the most sensitive counter-proliferation missions, two of the sources told CBS News.
Spokespeople for the White House and Pentagon didn't immediately comment.
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Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-is-strategizing-means-to-seize-irans-nuclear-stockpiles-sources-say/
RockRaven
(19,256 posts)of the nation being invaded, wouldn't there be a fairly high likelihood of nuclear materials being blown up (and thereby scattered around) by someone or other in all that shooting and bombing and whatnot?
How are you going to get in, get it, and get out without being blown up?
We're not talking about an amount of material that one human can pick up and carry. It's not a briefcase from a James Bond movie. The number bandied about in news articles is 440.9 kg of highly enriched uranium. A thousand pounds. And that's just the uranium itself (obviously it isn't stored in one giant zip lock baggie).
Cheezoholic
(3,702 posts)to prevent a viral infection to think its a good idea. Nobody's tried it, but nobody's as good as him and he has the guts to do it, or so some voice echo's in his head. Hell maybe some of his bootlickers are telling him to do it. They're all insane.
Diraven
(1,883 posts)If the mission to seize it is in danger of failing they'll certainly blow it up to make it unrecoverable, which would be worse than Chernobyl.
Brother Buzz
(39,859 posts)Is in a van down by the river.
Does the idiot know how many hidey-holes there in a country the size of Alaska?
Deminpenn
(17,465 posts)Iranians were shown on satellite imagery moving material from where it was to elsewhere. It could be scattered all over the country and probably is. Oh, and Russia will be monitoring US troop movements and letting Iran know. That;s if Trump or Hegseth don't announce them weeks in advance.
Prairie Gates
(8,079 posts)Honestly, the press should stop publishing these admin source fantasies.
LudwigPastorius
(14,657 posts)He's fired anyone at the Pentagon who will say "no" to such a suicide mission.
If Trump goes through with this, he's just going to get a bunch of our elite personnel killed.
Mysterian
(6,424 posts)Delta Force versus a battalion of Iranian infantry will not end well for Delta.
Ford_Prefect
(8,592 posts)And NO One in the pentagon will stop it from happening because the leadership are F**King Neo Christian fanatics who imagine this is their Crusade for God.
EarthFirst
(4,125 posts)The word they are looking for here is monetizing.
littlemissmartypants
(33,151 posts)When does it get its official destination as State TV and start vacuuming up our tax dollars? Did not the FCC just cut them a sweet deal?
I don't believe anything from them henceforth is more than propaganda!
Deminpenn
(17,465 posts)If there's anyone who relies completely on their "gut feelings" to do anything, it's Trump. He's like putting a nickel in the gumball machine, whatever the next color out is, that's what you get, completely random and unplanned.