Pete Hegseth launches criminal investigation into damaging 'top secret' leak of Iran nuclear strike damage
The Pentagon has launched a criminal probe into a leaked top-secret military intelligence report alleging that the U.S. strikes in Iran were underwhelming.
The leaked report from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reportedly states that the U.S. strikes only delayed Iran from getting a nuclear weapon by a couple of months.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the FBI has taken the lead on conducting the probe after CNN, the New York Times and other outlets disclosed the report's findings.
'We're doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now, because this information is for internal purposes, battle damage assessments, and CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad,' he said during a NATO meeting alongside Trump and other top officials on Wednesday.
The Pentagon chief defended the president like an attack dog, claiming the Fordow nuclear enrichment site was 'obliterated.'
Flanked by Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Hegseth also mentioned how the classified document was only a preliminary assessment.
'It was a top secret report, it was preliminary, it was low confidence,' the Pentagon secretary explained.
'Given the 30,000 pounds of explosives and capability of those munitions, it was devastation underneath Fordow, and the amount of munitions, six per location, any assessment that tells you something otherwise is speculating with other motives.'
He added that the preliminary DIA battle damage assessment indicated 'moderate to severe' damage was done to the facility.
The administration, Hegseth continued, believes it was 'far more likely severe and obliterated.'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was sitting next to Hegseth, argued the leakers had an agenda.
'This is what a leaker is telling you the intelligence says,' he said of the report.
'That's the game these people play. They read it and then they go out and characterize it the way they want it characterized.'
He added it was 'against the law' to leak the information and told the media the leakers 'characterize it for you in a way that's absolutely false.'
Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin similarly said Wednesday that "it is still early to assess the results of the operation.'
Though he added, 'I believe we have delivered a significant hit to the nuclear program, and I can also say that we have delayed it by several years.'
Seven B-2 bombers flew from the U.S. to Iran on Saturday to carry out what Pentagon officials have said is the most sophisticated stealth airstrike in decades.
Each B-2 carried two 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs aimed at Fordow's nuclear labs hundreds of feet underground.
The 14 bunker busters dropped on Fordow weighed a total of nearly 420,000 pounds combined, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell has said.
'Fake news, CNN and MSDNC, all of these terrible people, you know, they have no credibility,' Trump slammed the outlets reporting on the intel leak.
'The document said it could be very severe damage,' Trump said at Wednesday's NATO meeting. 'But they didn't take that.'
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