US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unleashes on the media as he defends US strikes on Iran

Australia Broadcast Center

6 hours ago

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has unleashed on journalists in a bizarre briefing at the Pentagon, saying their "hatred" of Donald Trump was behind efforts to verify the extent of the damage to the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran.
Mr Hegseth appeared emotional over earlier reporting by CNN and the New York Times based on a leaked intelligence report that cast doubt on Mr Trump's assertion that Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated".
There had been hopes Mr Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine would provide evidence of the impact of the strikes.
Since the attack on Saturday night, local time, media organisations across the world have been scrambling to verify claims from the White House that the site had been obliterated, using satellite imagery to get a sense of the visible damage as well as Iran's preparation.
But in the press briefing, organised for 8am Thursday morning, local time, Mr Hegseth singled out the press corps, as well as individual reporters in the room.
He even slammed Fox reporter Jennifer Griffin saying she had been "about the worst".
"Specifically you the press corps, because you cheer against Trump so hard, it's in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump, because you want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes," he said.
"You have to hope maybe they weren't effective, maybe the way the Trump administration has represented them isn't true.
"There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that because of the hatred of this press corps are undermined because your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful. It's irresponsible."
Several experts cautioned that Iran may have moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of Fordow before the strike and could be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, the US and UN nuclear inspectors.
Mr Hegseth said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from the US strikes.
"I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise," he said at the briefing.
They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday, local time, most of the near weapons-grade 60 per cent highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the attack.
Head of the UN nuclear agency Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday, local time, his inspectors' top priority was returning to Iran's nuclear facilities to assess the impact of recent military strikes on Tehran's nuclear programme.
The preliminary assessment, leaked to US press, reportedly found the weekend strikes only set back the country's nuclear program by a few months.
Mr Hegseth said that leaked initial assessment was low confidence and said it had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran's nuclear program was severely damaged by the strikes and that it would take years to rebuild.
"You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated, choose your word. This was a historically successful attack and we should celebrate it as Americans," he said.
General Caine spoke at length about the crew involved in Operation Midnight Hammer and about the young team responsible for the protection of the US base in Qatar that was hit with retaliatory strikes.
He talked about the experience of military members responsible for intercepting missiles inbound from Iran at the Al Udeid base, saying: "You know you're going to have approximately two minutes, 120 seconds either to succeed or fail."
As well as the US air defender weapons, General Caine detailed the planning that went into the so-called "bunker busting bombs" that were dropped on Iran.
He said In 2009 an officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran.
"He was shown some photos and some highly classified intelligence of what looked like a major construction project in the mountains of Iran. He was tasked to study with this facility, work with the intelligence community to understand it. And he was soon joined by an additional teammate," General Caine said.
"For more than 15 years this officer and his teammate lived and breathed this single target Fordow - a critical element of Iran's covert nuclear weapons program.
"He studied the geology, he watched the Iranians dig it out, he watched the construction, the weather, the discard material ... where the materials came from, he looked at the vent shaft ... the environmental control systems, every nook, every crater, every piece of equipment going in and every piece of equipment going out."
General Caine said from the first days of their mission, the officers believed they knew with the facility was for: "You do not build a multi-layered underground bunker complex with centrifuges and other equipment in a mountain for any peaceful purpose."
He said then, more than 15 years later, the president had been ready to use the weapon.
General Caine was pressed on whether he agreed with Mr Trump's use of the word "obliterated" to describe the impact on Iran's nuclear facilities, but deferred, saying it was not his role to make that assessment.
The operation has been widely reported as being a precision strike that was executed according to plan, including sophisticated aerial manoeuvres throughout the 18-hour flight from the Missouri base from where the B2 bombers launched to their targets over Iran.
Members of the media have been seeking verification of the impact once the bombs were dropped.
The American media's coverage of leaked assessment reports have said it was preliminary and a clear picture was yet to form.
Mr Trump attacked CNN as "disgusting and incompetent" in a post on Truth Social overnight, Donald Trump said the press conference was designed to "fight for the dignity of the American pilots" involved in Operation Midnight Hammer.
Afterwards he wrote that Mr Hegseth's performance at the press conference was "professional".
"One of the greatest, most professional, and most 'confirming' News Conferences I have ever seen!" the president wrote on social media," he wrote.
"The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!"
Mr Trump also emphasised his belief that Iran did not remove nuclear material from its facilities before the US attacked.
"Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" he wrote.
ABC/Reuters