Latest / The President's Daily Brief / September 8th, 2026: Navy SEALs’ Secret Hormuz Mission & Israel-Hezbollah Escalation

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September 8th, 2026: Navy SEALs’ Secret Hormuz Mission & Israel-Hezbollah Escalation · The President's Daily Brief

0:13
It's Tuesday,
0:13
the 8th of September.
0:15
Welcome to the President's Daily Brief.
0:17
I'm Mike Baker,
0:18
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:20
All right,
0:21
let's get briefed.
0:23
First up,
0:23
while the US and Iran traded missiles and drones above the Strait of Hormuz,
0:28
another effort was unfolding beneath the surface of the waterway.
0:32
We'll reveal the covert mission
0:34
that Navy SEALs and others carried out for months.
0:38
Later in the show,
0:38
the fighting along Israel's northern border is escalating again.
0:43
A deadly wave of strikes in southern Lebanon
0:45
is raising new questions about whether the fragile ceasefire,
0:49
such as it is,
0:50
can hold.
0:51
Plus another look at the chaos and violence that has engulfed Haiti.
0:55
Now some of the country's armed self-defense groups
0:59
are accused of becoming part of the problem.
1:02
And in today's back of the brief,
1:03
Russia closes Germany's consulate in Saint Petersburg as fallout grows
1:08
from the suspected Russian drone plot
1:11
in Leipzig.
1:12
But first,
1:13
today's PDB spotlight.
1:15
For months,
1:15
the US and Iran have been fighting a battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz.
1:19
But according to new reporting from the Financial Times,
1:22
another US military operation was unfolding largely out of sight.
1:27
Beneath the surface of the water,
1:29
the report says the US Special Forces spent roughly 4 months carrying out a
1:34
covert mission to clear Iranian mines from the Strait
1:38
using Navy SEALs,
1:39
divers,
1:40
unmanned vessels,
1:40
and underwater robots
1:42
to make one of the world's most
1:43
important shipping routes safer for commercial traffic.
1:47
It was a dangerous job,
1:48
but as a statement of the obvious,
1:50
made even more difficult
1:51
by the fact that the US and Iran were
1:53
actively trading strikes in and around the same waterway.
1:57
Iran has acknowledged laying mines in international
2:00
and Omani waters after the war began,
2:03
and the International Maritime Organization estimated in June
2:07
that roughly 80 mines had been deployed along important shipping routes.
2:11
Now the US publicly announced back in April
2:14
that it was beginning efforts to establish a safe passage through the strait,
2:18
and they said at the time that underwater drones would take part in that operation.
2:22
But the details of how that mission unfolded,
2:25
well,
2:26
remained largely hidden,
2:28
according to the Financial Times.
2:29
Now small teams of Navy divers operated from inflatable boats,
2:33
frequently working at night.
2:35
They were supported by unmanned surface vessels and underwater vehicles
2:39
equipped with advanced sonar that could search
2:42
for suspicious objects beneath the water.
2:45
Once a suspected mine was located,
2:47
unmanned technology though could only go so far.
2:50
Retired Navy Captain Bill Hamblett told the Financial Times that in some cases,
2:54
A diver still had to enter the water,
2:56
approach the mine,
2:57
place an explosive charge on it,
2:59
and destroy it.
3:00
In other words,
3:01
active bomb disposal under water
3:04
while a war was taking place around them.
3:06
As of now,
3:07
no American casualties have been reported in
3:09
connection with the mine clearing operation.
3:12
And there was another unusual element to the mission.
3:15
The 3 American ships normally assigned
3:18
to mine countermeasure operations in the Gulf
3:20
had reportedly been operating elsewhere since at least early June.
3:25
That left maritime observers wondering
3:27
exactly how the US was clearing the strait.
3:31
By late August of this year,
3:32
President Trump announced that mines in
3:34
the Strait's international waters had been removed
3:37
or destroyed,
3:38
and CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper
3:40
followed with a more precise assessment,
3:43
saying internationally recognized transit routes
3:45
had been cleared
3:47
of Iranian sea mines.
3:49
On the tactical level,
3:50
that's a significant achievement,
3:52
but clearing the mines
3:54
and returning the Strait of Hormuz to normal
3:56
are proving to be two very different things.
3:59
According to new shipping data reported by Reuters.
4:02
Traffic through the strait has now fallen to its lowest level since May.
4:06
Over the past 10 days,
4:07
an average of just 10 commodity vessels per day have crossed Hormuz.
4:13
On Saturday,
4:14
only 2 passed through.
4:15
On Sunday,
4:16
6.
4:17
And most of those ships used the Iranian route through the Strait.
4:20
A tanker carrying refined fuel from Saudi Arabia attempted
4:24
to leave through the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday
4:26
but turned back,
4:28
and according to shipping data,
4:29
no very large crude carrier has successfully exited the Strait
4:33
since Wednesday.
4:35
Now those are the publicly observed crossings.
4:38
It is possible that additional vessels are moving through the strait
4:41
without appearing in the available tracking data.
4:45
Still,
4:45
the point being,
4:46
while the mines may have been cleared from the recognized shipping lanes,
4:49
the fear and concern from the shipping and insurance industries
4:53
remains.
4:54
And mines are no longer the only danger.
4:57
British maritime authorities have reported 27
4:59
incidents involving projectile strikes against vessels
5:02
operating in or around Hormuz since early July.
5:06
Over the weekend,
5:07
the US struck 3 Iranian oil tankers
5:10
after Tehran fired ballistic missiles
5:13
at US naval warships.
5:15
Iran then claimed attacks against additional vessels that it accused
5:19
of using unauthorized routes through the Strait.
5:22
So for commercial shipping companies and their insurers,
5:26
they're still dealing with a very difficult set of questions.
5:29
Are the mines fully cleared?
5:31
Will the Iranian regime resort to laying additional mines?
5:35
The reality is mine warfare creates an enormous imbalance.
5:39
Finding a mine can
5:40
require sophisticated sonar,
5:42
underwater robots,
5:43
highly trained divers,
5:44
and
5:45
hours of dangerous work.
5:47
Putting another mine into the water,
5:49
though,
5:49
well,
5:50
that's considerably easier.
5:52
One tanker industry executive told the Financial Times that with the
5:55
amount of small boat traffic moving across Hormuz every night,
5:58
quote,
5:59
it doesn't take much
6:00
to put a mine back in the water,
6:02
end quote.
6:03
And Iran may not even actually need to do that because
6:07
Tehran's strategic advantage
6:09
comes partly from uncertainty.
6:11
If shipping companies,
6:12
crews,
6:12
and insurers believe there could be another mine waiting beneath the water
6:16
or another Iranian missile flying toward them,
6:20
The strait can remain disrupted even
6:22
after American forces clear a safe path through it.
6:25
Other questions facing ship operators include
6:27
will the IRGC target their vessel with a missile or drone?
6:31
Will Tehran continue to threaten vessels traveling through
6:34
what the regime considers an unauthorized route?
6:37
Or could their tanker or vessel simply become caught in the next exchange
6:42
between the US and Iran?
6:44
The US appears to have accomplished an extraordinarily difficult
6:47
mission beneath the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,
6:49
removing the regime's mines,
6:52
but removing the fear,
6:53
the doubt and concern that remains,
6:56
that's proving to be equally difficult.
6:58
All
6:59
right.
6:59
Coming up next,
7:00
the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire,
7:02
such as it is,
7:03
faces new strain after deadly strikes in southern Lebanon,
7:06
and Haiti's anti-gang vigilantes are
7:09
increasingly becoming a security problem of their own.
7:13
I'll be right back.
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Welcome back to the PDB.
8:21
The situation in southern Lebanon is getting considerably more dangerous,
8:25
with Israel hitting Hezbollah hard and
8:27
ramping up its military campaign.
8:29
And after several days of deadly strikes,
8:31
fears are growing
8:33
about just how far this latest escalation could go.
8:37
Lebanon's South Ministry says Israeli strikes killed at
8:39
least 12 people in the south early Monday.
8:42
The deadliest attack hit a residential building in the town of Kafar Ruman,
8:46
killing 11 people,
8:47
including 2 children and 4 women.
8:50
A woman who said she was related to at least 3 of those killed,
8:53
told Reuters the building was hit as children were getting ready for school.
8:58
Reuters reporters later saw children's schoolbooks
9:00
scattered through the rubble as rescue workers
9:03
worked to recover bodies.
9:05
A separate Israeli strike on a vehicle killed
9:08
a paramedic and wounded two other medics.
9:11
Now Israel says civilians were not the intended targets here.
9:15
The Israeli military says it was going after Hezbollah infrastructure
9:18
and what it described as several terrorists transferring weapons in the area.
9:23
It says precautions were taken to reduce civilian casualties,
9:26
including
9:27
aerial surveillance and precision guided weapons.
9:30
The IDF says
9:31
that it's now reviewing reports
9:33
that say civilians were killed.
9:35
But there's some important context here.
9:37
Hezbollah is once again also attacking
9:40
Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon,
9:43
according to the Israeli military.
9:44
The Iran-backed terrorist group launched two explosive drones overnight
9:48
toward troops positioned near the Ali al-Taher ridge in southeastern Lebanon.
9:54
Ali al-Taher is a strategically important position where Hezbollah
9:57
is believed to have built an underground military complex
10:00
with command facilities and weapons stores.
10:03
Its elevation gives Hezbollah commanding views of the surrounding territory
10:07
in an advantageous position for launching short range
10:10
missiles as well as drones toward northern Israel.
10:14
And that's why Israel has made taking this
10:15
ridge away from Hezbollah such a priority.
10:19
Last week,
10:20
the IDF announced that
10:21
it had established operational control over Ali al-Taher
10:25
and cleared Hezbollah fighters from tunnels beneath the ridge.
10:29
Now Hezbollah hasn't commented on that claim,
10:32
and the battlefield situation has not been independently verified,
10:36
but the terror group is not leaving Israeli forces there unchallenged.
10:40
Its latest drone attack reveals Hezbollah is still trying to contest an area
10:44
that Israel considers critical to keeping the group's fighters,
10:47
weapons,
10:48
and infrastructure
10:49
away from Israeli communities along the northern border.
10:54
The Israeli military is trying to prevent Hezbollah
10:56
from rebuilding the military presence along its border.
10:59
That Israel has spent months working to dismantle.
11:03
And as the fight around Ali al Tahir intensifies,
11:06
the strikes on surrounding towns are becoming considerably deadlier.
11:10
The strikes on Kafar Ramman came without an Israeli evacuation warning,
11:15
so did the strikes that killed 4 people Friday.
11:18
Lebanese security officials told Reuters
11:20
they're already preparing for the possibility that the
11:22
escalation will continue over the coming weeks.
11:25
As some of you will remember,
11:27
the June ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese government
11:31
dramatically reduced the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah,
11:34
but it never completely ended it.
11:36
Hezbollah continues to refuse to disarm,
11:39
which is a key requirement for Israel's
11:41
agreement to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
11:44
Israeli troops remain inside portions of southern Lebanon
11:47
that Israel considers part of its security zone
11:50
while the IDF
11:51
continues striking Hezbollah targets both inside that area and farther north.
11:56
The danger now is that Israel's effort to enforce that
12:00
security zone and prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding along its border
12:03
is producing increasingly deadly strikes
12:06
in populated Lebanese towns
12:08
where civilians had begun returning after the ceasefire.
12:12
But Ali al Taher is quickly becoming an important test
12:15
of what happens when
12:17
Hezbollah tries to challenge Israel's control along the security zone
12:21
and just how far Jerusalem is prepared to go
12:24
to keep the terrorist group away from its northern border.
12:28
OK,
12:28
shifting now to Haiti,
12:30
where the country's security crisis
12:32
continues to worsen.
12:34
Some of the armed groups that Haitians once looked to for protection from gangs
12:39
are now accused of terrorizing their communities,
12:41
complicating the U.S.backed effort on the ground
12:44
to restore some semblance of order.
12:47
Now,
12:47
for those of you who haven't been following Haiti's collapse into chaos,
12:51
this latest problem starts with the security vacuum
12:54
that these groups originally stepped in to fill.
12:57
Now I've talked before on the PDB about how heavily
13:00
armed gangs now control an estimated 90% of the capital,
13:04
Port au Prince,
13:05
and they've increasingly pushed into the countryside.
13:08
They've shut down airports,
13:09
blocked major roads,
13:10
disrupted the movement of food and fuel.
13:13
More than 1400 people were killed in gang-related violence during April,
13:17
May,
13:18
and June alone,
13:19
according to the UN.
13:21
At least 320 people were subjected to sexual violence,
13:24
while more than
13:24
1.4 million Haitians
13:27
have been forced from their homes.
13:29
So as the gangs expanded
13:31
and Haiti's police proved unable to protect many communities,
13:35
ordinary Haitians increasingly turned to armed
13:37
civilian groups to fill the vacuum,
13:40
and those groups became known as self-defense brigades.
13:43
Their numbers grew as the gangs became more powerful,
13:46
and some even received government support,
13:48
including from the Justice Ministry and support from the Haitian police.
13:53
But as the brigade's role expanded,
13:55
so did their power.
13:57
The UN says self-defense groups and vigilante mobs have
14:00
become significant contributors to violence and human rights abuses.
14:04
Between mid-April and mid-July.
14:06
Nearly 90 people were killed by
14:08
self-defense groups,
14:09
or
14:09
local mobs in Artibonite,
14:12
north of the capital and west,
14:14
the region that includes Port au Prince.
14:16
Brigade members have been accused of extortion,
14:19
kidnapping,
14:19
trafficking weapons and drugs,
14:21
sexual assault and murder,
14:23
while some
14:24
reportedly collect protection money and exercise
14:26
growing control over their communities.
14:29
One case from Artibonite,
14:31
Haiti's largest administrative region,
14:33
shows just how far that transformation has gone.
14:36
A 26-year-old woman who spoke anonymously to The Washington Post says
14:40
she once viewed a powerful local self-defense group known as the Coalition
14:44
as protectors.
14:46
Then in January,
14:47
the group allegedly turned on her.
14:49
She says four coalition members,
14:51
two of them armed,
14:52
arrived on motorcycles and abducted her.
14:54
According to the woman
14:56
and human rights advocates familiar with her case,
14:58
a coalition leader known as Woody then ordered the men to sexually assault her.
15:04
She says she later identified her attackers to police,
15:06
but
15:07
they remain free
15:08
while videos of the assault have circulated online
15:11
and she has received threats.
15:13
She told the Post,
15:14
quote,
15:15
Both do the same things.
15:16
The brigades
15:17
have become gangs themselves.
15:20
Now Haiti has seen this before.
15:23
Several of the armed gangs terrorized in the country today
15:26
actually began
15:27
as neighborhood self-defense organizations.
15:29
In some cases,
15:30
brigades and gangs
15:31
are now working together.
15:33
The UN says several gangs received support from brigades
15:37
during clashes north of Port au Prince.
15:39
Meanwhile,
15:39
Haiti's gangs and brigades are increasingly locked in an arms race,
15:44
with both sides seeking more powerful military-style weapons.
15:48
And all of this is of course complicating the
15:51
U.S.backed effort
15:52
to restore order.
15:54
Back in 2023,
15:56
the Biden administration helped create the
15:58
UN authorized Multinational Security Support Mission
16:01
to assist Haitian police and improve security.
16:04
The Trump administration later helped transform that mission
16:07
into the gang suppression force,
16:10
doubling its authorized strength
16:11
and giving it more aggressive rules of engagement.
16:14
The US has provided more than $970 million in planning,
16:19
logistics,
16:19
and funding.
16:21
The State Department says the broader goal
16:22
is to create conditions for safe elections
16:25
while helping Haiti rebuild security forces
16:27
capable of eventually protecting the country.
16:31
But even if the international force succeeds in pushing back the gangs,
16:35
Haitian authorities still have to figure out what to do with the armed groups
16:39
that filled the vacuum while the government was failing.
16:42
No one expects the brigades to simply hand over their weapons and disappear.
16:47
Haiti's disarmament commission says brigade
16:49
members who haven't committed crimes
16:51
could eventually join legitimate security forces,
16:54
while those suspected of crimes
16:56
are supposed to face prosecution.
16:59
Now figuring out who belongs in which category will be difficult,
17:02
especially in the absence of legal institutions,
17:04
and of course,
17:06
Many Haitian communities
17:07
still depend on these groups for protection against the criminal gangs.
17:11
So
17:12
yet another problem facing this troubled nation.
17:15
Haiti and its international partners
17:17
have to defeat the gangs,
17:19
while they need to also rebuild legitimate security institutions strong enough
17:24
to replace the vigilantes who stepped into the vacuum.
17:28
All right.
17:29
Coming up in the back of the brief,
17:31
the suspected Russian drone attack in Leipzig is now
17:33
triggering a diplomatic showdown between Moscow and Berlin.
17:37
More on that
17:39
when we come back.
17:41
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Mike Baker here.
17:42
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In today's back of the brief,
19:49
we've been tracking the suspected Russian drone attack at Leipzig Airport
19:53
where German authorities say an explosives-laden drone.
19:57
was found near a Ukrainian transport aircraft.
19:59
Now the diplomatic fallout is beginning.
20:02
Russia's Foreign Ministry announced Monday that
20:04
Germany's consulate in St.
20:06
Petersburg will be forced to close by the September 18th deadline.
20:10
Moscow is also ordering Germany's Goethe
20:13
Institute,
20:14
near cultural centers in Moscow and St.
20:16
Petersburg,
20:16
to shut down,
20:17
with staff told to leave the country.
20:20
The move is retaliation for measures announced by Berlin.
20:23
After German officials formally blamed Russia for the Leipzig incident,
20:27
Germany has ordered the closure of Russia's consulate in
20:30
Bonn and the Russia House Cultural Center in Berlin,
20:34
while also signaling possible additional sanctions
20:36
and tighter restrictions on Russian nationals.
20:39
Moscow denies any involvement in the Leipzig attack.
20:42
Who?
20:43
US?
20:43
What?
20:44
And has accused Germany of using the incident
20:46
as a pretext to further damage relations.
20:49
But German officials say the drone's explosives,
20:51
detonator,
20:52
and overall configuration
20:54
resembled equipment linked to previous Russian hybrid operations,
20:57
and Leipzig is not just another airport.
21:00
It's one of Europe's busiest cargo hubs
21:03
and an important logistics center for support flowing
21:06
toward Ukraine and NATO forces in Eastern Europe.
21:09
The Leipzig incident also fits into a much broader pattern
21:13
that European governments say they've been
21:14
confronting since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
21:17
Authorities across the continent have accused
21:19
Moscow of involvement in sabotage plots,
21:22
arson attacks,
21:23
cyber operations,
21:24
espionage,
21:25
and
21:25
other forms of so-called hybrid warfare.
21:28
And now
21:30
what began as a suspected sabotage attempt at a major
21:33
European logistics hub responsible for moving resources and supplies to Ukraine
21:37
is now triggering an escalating diplomatic dispute
21:41
between Germany and Russia.
21:43
And that,
21:43
my friends,
21:44
is the president's daily brief for Tuesday,
21:46
the 8th of September.
21:48
Now,
21:48
if you have any questions or comments,
21:49
just reach out to me at PDB@tv.com.
21:53
The entire PDB staff loves to hear from you,
21:56
so keep those cards and letters coming or just hit me up on my beeper.
21:59
Finally,
22:00
if you haven't already,
22:01
I hope you'll take a few minutes
22:02
to check out our BOO YouTube channel,
22:05
which makes me ask.
22:07
Do people still say BOO?
22:09
Um,
22:10
it's not as old a saying as swell.
22:12
I'm pretty sure the kids don't say swell anymore.
22:14
Anyhow,
22:15
wander on over to YouTube if you can and search up at President's Daily Brief.
22:19
If you like what you see,
22:20
and I hope you do,
22:21
please do us a favor and hit that subscribe button.
22:23
I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB
22:27
afternoon bulletin.
22:28
Until then,
22:29
stay informed,
22:30
stay safe,
22:31
stay cool.