CENTCOM Offers $20M Reward for Info on Iran’s Nuclear Program

The U.S. Central Command is offering a $20 million reward for information about Iran’s nuclear program.

The reward is something of a strange development given that President Trump attacked Iran, supposedly, to stop the nation from building a nuclear weapon.

That reason for the war would seem to have meant the military knew everything about Iran’s nuclear program. So the reward belies either the reason for the war, or belies the claim that U.S. forces destroyed Iran’s nuclear program during Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025.

In either case, yesterday’s note preceded CENTCOM’s announcement of a task force to disrupt Iran’s ability to transport weapons on the ground.

Operation Midnight Hammer

CENTCOM’s note occasions a look back at myriad claims that U.S. forces vaporized Iran’s nuclear program on June 21 of 2025.

“U.S. B-2 Spirit bombers out of Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, dropped 14 of those GBU-57 bombs onto Fordow and a second nuclear facility, destroying the facilities and setting back Iranian nuclear efforts by years,” the War Department reported. 

President Trump announced that the facilities were “completely and totally obliterated.”

“New intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed,” then Director of National Intelligence Gabbard wrote on X:

If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordow, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do. The propaganda media has deployed their usual tactic: selectively release portions of illegally leaked classified intelligence assessments (intentionally leaving out the fact that the assessment was written with “low confidence”) to try to undermine President Trump’s decisive leadership and the brave servicemen and women who flawlessly executed a truly historic mission to keep the American people safe and secure.

Said CIA chief John Ratcliffe the same day:

Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes…. [S]everal key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed

On June 26, the White House published a compilation of commentary from the experts who said Iran’s nuclear capability was, as a practical matter, gone.

In March 2026, in written testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Gabbard reprised those claims.

“As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated,” she told the committee:

There has been no efforts [sic] since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. The entrances to the underground facilities that were bombed have been buried and shuttered with cement. We continue to monitor for any early indicators on what position the current or any new leadership in Iran will take with regard to authorizing a nuclear weapons program.

When he launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, Trump also said that Midnight Hammer “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capability. But unlike Gabbard, who said Iran had not resumed efforts to build a nuclear weapon, Trump strongly suggested the country had done or would do so.

“It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said: 

I’ll say it again, they can never have a nuclear weapon. That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime’s nuclear program at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal. We tried. They wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. Again they wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. They didn’t know what was happening. They just wanted to practice evil. But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told Trump to attack Iran because regime change would be the result, said the same thing. “We destroyed Iran’s nuclear infrastructure,” he averred.

Strangely, months before Operation Hammer, Gabbard’s “Worldwide Threat Assessment concluded thusly:

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.

CENTCOM Notice

Still, CENTCOM now seeks information about Iran’s non-existent-yet-destroyed nuclear program. And it’s willing to pay big money for it through the federal government’s “Rewards for Justice” initiative.

“Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $20 million and possible relocation for information about Iran’s nuclear program, including its facilities, equipment, and associated personnel, such as those in the scientific community, or the movement of any of the above,” a news release says:

In 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran is enriching uranium to 60 percent purity, a level that is a short technical step from the 90 percent required for a nuclear weapon. Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to produce uranium at such a high enrichment level. Experts estimate this quantity, if enriched further, could be enough for several nuclear weapons.

The regime’s lack of compliance with the IAEA on safeguards obligations has led to the agency’s loss of “continuity of knowledge” regarding Iran’s production and inventory of key components like centrifuges.

Today, CENTCOM announced a 20-man, civilian-military task force, based in Tampa, Florida, to track Iranian weapons movement. The task force “will coordinate with other U.S. government agencies on preventing the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea.”