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The Late Debate | 26 June · The Late Debate

0:00
Speaker 1: General Man, welcome wait debate.
0:06
Speaker 2: Well, good evening and welcome to the Late Debate. I'm
0:07
Speaker 2: James Macpherson with FREYE. Leitch and Caleb Bond. As you
0:10
Speaker 2: would have heard Paul Murray say, we're waiting at any
0:12
Speaker 2: moment to go live to the Pentagon, where US Defense
0:15
Speaker 2: Secretary Pete Hegseth is due to give a report, presumably
0:19
Speaker 2: about how those bombing raids in Iran went and the
0:23
Speaker 2: damage done to Iran's nuclear facilities, which of course has
0:26
Speaker 2: been a subject of great contention. Licks from the Pentagon
0:29
Speaker 2: suggesting that the damage was only minor and set Around's
0:33
Speaker 2: nuclear facilities back just a few months, of course, Donald
0:37
Speaker 2: Trump saying that they've absolutely obliterated it.
0:40
Speaker 3: So where did it go?
0:41
Speaker 2: There any moment you can see in the bottom of
0:43
Speaker 2: your screen there that the press are all assembled and
0:45
Speaker 2: waiting for the Defense Secretary to arrive. Just while we're
0:49
Speaker 2: waiting for him to appear, and will go there straight away, Caleb.
0:52
Speaker 2: This is a pretty important statement from him to clear
0:55
Speaker 2: up exactly what happened, what the US achieved, particularly in
0:58
Speaker 2: light of the fact, and we'll talk about it soon.
1:01
Speaker 2: The Ayatola has made a statement today explaining that the
1:05
Speaker 2: US have been defeated, that Israel have been smashed, and
1:08
Speaker 2: that Iran remains fully intact. So there's a lot of
1:12
Speaker 2: different versions right now. Pete heg Seth will give some clarity.
1:15
Speaker 4: I presient the Ayatola has been drinking the kool aid.
1:19
Speaker 4: There's no I mean, he said, I offer my congratulations
1:22
Speaker 4: on the victory over the fallacious Sionist regime, amongst other things.
1:27
Speaker 4: I mean, he's acting like they've won the war. Mate,
1:30
Speaker 4: there's and you can you can that's in French there.
1:34
Speaker 4: I wonder if it's the Ietoller himself who bangs these
1:36
Speaker 4: things out online. But of course, you know he has
1:38
Speaker 4: to try and save face at home to some degree,
1:41
Speaker 4: dos Aniso. He has to look like that he's winning
1:44
Speaker 4: this war. Of course, the reason we have a ceasefire
1:47
Speaker 4: on the Iranian end anyway is because they bloody will
1:50
Speaker 4: needed one. I mean, as I said the other night,
1:53
Speaker 4: the only way that the regime can survive is if
1:57
Speaker 4: they have a cease fire, because otherwise, you know, eventually
2:00
Speaker 4: get punneled into the ground and then you'll have the uprising.
2:03
Speaker 5: That'll get rid of them.
2:03
Speaker 4: But as to this pressor that we are about to see,
2:06
Speaker 4: hopefully we will have answers to the questions that many
2:10
Speaker 4: of us have had, because, of course, as I was
2:12
Speaker 4: saying the other night, the data, the stuff that came
2:15
Speaker 4: out from the International Atomic Energy Agency was showing there
2:18
Speaker 4: was no radiation emitting from.
2:20
Speaker 5: The sites that were struck.
2:22
Speaker 4: You've had the reports in CNN and The New York
2:25
Speaker 4: Times that of course came from a leak within the
2:28
Speaker 4: defense community, suggesting that there was no real distruction of
2:32
Speaker 4: the three sites that were hit. So hopefully we get
2:34
Speaker 4: some real detail tonight, because even if you think that
2:38
Speaker 4: the reports out of CNN, etc. Were treasonous, as Donald
2:42
Speaker 4: Trump said, there are legitimate questions to be asked about
2:45
Speaker 4: how successful this was because we don't know, we've not
2:49
Speaker 4: been told to this point anyway, how much enriched uranium
2:52
Speaker 4: might have been removed from these sites before they were struck.
2:55
Speaker 4: We know that these bunker busting bombs, of course, can
2:58
Speaker 4: do a lot of damage underground, we don't know exactly
3:01
Speaker 4: how much damage they've been able to do. We've only
3:03
Speaker 4: been able to see the above ground aerial shots that
3:06
Speaker 4: show they've closed off intrigue points to these sites. But
3:09
Speaker 4: we don't know what's happened to the equipment, et cetera.
3:11
Speaker 4: So hopefully some of that stuff will be cleared up
3:13
Speaker 4: tonight because they are the questions that many people will
3:16
Speaker 4: be wanting to know exactly.
3:18
Speaker 6: And the CIA has also come out because that report
3:21
Speaker 6: was from the Defense, So what was the intelligence some
3:25
Speaker 6: intelligence agency which is different to the CIA.
3:28
Speaker 7: So I mean it is important to note.
3:30
Speaker 6: That there are generally different and conflicting reports coming from
3:35
Speaker 6: in different intelligence communities depending on this.
3:38
Speaker 2: All right, we're going to go live to the Pentagon
3:40
Speaker 2: now the US Defense Secretary about to address the media.
4:04
Speaker 1: Well, good morning, everybody.
4:06
Speaker 8: Just arrived last night back from NATO two days apart
4:10
Speaker 8: from my battle buddy.
4:11
Speaker 1: So it's good to see him this morning. Good to
4:13
Speaker 1: see him as chairman.
4:16
Speaker 9: Where there was a historic outcome. I want to start
4:18
Speaker 9: with that real quick.
4:19
Speaker 8: I think there's so much news, so many things happening,
4:22
Speaker 8: that oftentimes big momentous moments get missed. What President Trump
4:28
Speaker 8: accomplished in NATO yesterday was game changing and historic, a
4:33
Speaker 8: shift in burden sharing to European responsibility in NATO that
4:39
Speaker 8: most would have said was impossible at the beginning of
4:42
Speaker 8: his term, but he said NATO.
4:44
Speaker 1: Needs to pay up.
4:45
Speaker 8: They started in the first term, and here in his
4:49
Speaker 8: second term, we've accelerated that thirty two NATO countries committed
4:53
Speaker 8: to spending five percent of their GDP on defense, on
4:56
Speaker 8: actually investing in the NATO alliance.
5:00
Speaker 1: With all the ink spilled, all of your.
5:03
Speaker 8: Outlets, find the time to properly recognize this historic change
5:09
Speaker 8: in continental security that other presidents tried to do, other
5:12
Speaker 8: presidents talked about.
5:14
Speaker 1: President Trump accomplished it. It's a huge deal.
5:18
Speaker 8: I see we're here this morning because in hunting for
5:22
Speaker 8: scandals all the time, in trying to find wedges and
5:26
Speaker 8: spin stories, this press corps and the press corps miss
5:32
Speaker 8: historic moments. You miss historic moments like five percent at NATO,
5:36
Speaker 8: which when you hear I was in the closed door briefing,
5:38
Speaker 8: I wish there could have been cameras in there when
5:40
Speaker 8: you heard the prime ministers and presidents of other countries
5:43
Speaker 8: to a man and to a woman looking at President
5:45
Speaker 8: Trump and saying, this never could have happened, never would
5:47
Speaker 8: have happened, seemed impossible five years ago, two years ago,
5:51
Speaker 8: eight years ago. But here we are because of your leadership.
5:55
Speaker 8: If you ask them the question, I bet.
5:58
Speaker 1: They'd say the same thing. For scandals.
6:00
Speaker 8: You miss historic moments like recruiting at the Pentagon, historic
6:05
Speaker 8: levels in the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy.
6:08
Speaker 9: Yeah, maybe there'll be a little mention here or there.
6:10
Speaker 8: But because it was under President Trump's leadership, because it
6:13
Speaker 8: was because Americans are responding to him as commander in chief,
6:18
Speaker 8: the press corps doesn't want to write about it or
6:20
Speaker 8: bring us to the topic of the moment and the
6:23
Speaker 8: highly successful strikes in Iran. Let me read the bottom
6:28
Speaker 8: line here. President Trump directed the most complex and secretive
6:33
Speaker 8: military operation in history, and it was a resounding success,
6:38
Speaker 8: resulting in a ceasefire agreement and the end of.
6:42
Speaker 1: The Twelve Day War.
6:44
Speaker 8: There's been a lot of discussions about what happened to
6:46
Speaker 8: what didn't happen.
6:47
Speaker 1: Step back for a second.
6:48
Speaker 8: Because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions
6:52
Speaker 8: to end the war, decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying
7:00
Speaker 8: Iran's nuclear capabilities.
7:03
Speaker 1: I want to.
7:03
Speaker 8: Read some of the assessments that have been provided, because
7:07
Speaker 8: whether it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC, or The New York Times,
7:13
Speaker 8: there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.
7:16
Speaker 1: I've had a chance to read it.
7:18
Speaker 8: Every outlet has breathlessly reported on a preliminary assessment from DIA.
7:24
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it right now. Again.
7:27
Speaker 8: It was preliminary, a day and a half after the
7:29
Speaker 8: actual strike. When it admits itself in writing that it
7:33
Speaker 8: requires weeks to accumulate the necessary.
7:35
Speaker 9: Data to make such an assessment, it's preliminary.
7:37
Speaker 8: It points out that it's not been coordinated with the
7:40
Speaker 8: intelligence community at all.
7:42
Speaker 1: There's low confidence in this.
7:44
Speaker 9: Particular report, it says in the report. There are gaps
7:47
Speaker 9: in the information. It says in the report.
7:49
Speaker 8: Multiple lynchpin assumptions are what this assessment a lynchpin assumption?
7:55
Speaker 1: You know what that is.
7:56
Speaker 8: It means your entire premiss is predicated on a lynch pin.
7:58
Speaker 8: If you're wrong, everything else is wrong. And yet still
8:03
Speaker 8: this report acknowledges it's likely severe damage. Again, this is preliminary,
8:07
Speaker 8: but leaked because someone had an agenda to try to
8:10
Speaker 8: muddy the waters and make it look like this historic
8:12
Speaker 8: strike I wasn't successful. I'm going to get to the
8:15
Speaker 8: chairman in a moment, because he's going to lay out
8:16
Speaker 8: the particulars for you based on his professional military experience.
8:20
Speaker 8: But here's what other folks are saying. THEDIA that put
8:24
Speaker 8: that report out says that this is a preliminary low
8:27
Speaker 8: confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional
8:30
Speaker 8: intelligence becomes available. How about the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission.
8:37
Speaker 8: The devastating US strikes on Fourdeaux destroyed the site's critical
8:41
Speaker 8: infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.
8:45
Speaker 1: Have any of these quotes made their.
8:46
Speaker 8: Way into the New York Times or The Washington Post, MSNBC,
8:51
Speaker 8: CNN any of these quotes? How about this one? This
8:53
Speaker 8: is a new one from the UN. The United Nations
8:56
Speaker 8: no friend of the United States or certainly Israel.
8:59
Speaker 1: Often.
9:00
Speaker 8: Here's the head of the UN Atomic Energy Agency this morning,
9:04
Speaker 8: Raphael Grossi. US and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to
9:10
Speaker 8: Iran's nuclear sites.
9:12
Speaker 1: Don't take my word for it.
9:13
Speaker 9: How about the IDF's chief of staff.
9:16
Speaker 8: I can say here that the assessment is that we
9:18
Speaker 8: significantly damage the nuclear program, setting.
9:21
Speaker 1: It back by years. I repeat years.
9:24
Speaker 8: The Iranian Foreign minister the spokesman, our nuclear instrations have
9:29
Speaker 8: been badly damaged, that's for sure.
9:31
Speaker 9: I'm sure that's an understatement.
9:33
Speaker 8: John Radcliffe, the director of the CIA, putting out a
9:36
Speaker 8: statement just last night, CIA can confirm that a body
9:40
Speaker 8: of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely
9:45
Speaker 8: damaged by recent targeted strikes. This includes new intelligence from
9:49
Speaker 8: a historically reliable, very different than preliminary assessment with low confidence.
9:55
Speaker 8: He's saying, historically reliable and accurate source of method that
9:59
Speaker 8: sever key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have
10:05
Speaker 8: to be rebuilt over the course of years. CIA continues
10:09
Speaker 8: to collect additional, reliably sourced information to keep appropriate decision
10:15
Speaker 8: makers fully informed.
10:17
Speaker 1: How about DNI.
10:18
Speaker 8: Telsea Gabbard Yesterday, she writes, and I quote, new intelligence
10:23
Speaker 8: confirms what POTUS has stated numerous times. Iran's nuclear facilities
10:28
Speaker 8: have been destroyed. Institute for Science and International Security President
10:35
Speaker 8: David Albright. Overall Israel and US attacks have effectively destroyed
10:40
Speaker 8: un Iran's centrifuge enrichment program time and time again. I
10:46
Speaker 8: can go down the list those that understand, those that see,
10:51
Speaker 8: those that do proper assessments recognize that what the United
10:55
Speaker 8: States military did was historic and again before I pass
10:59
Speaker 8: it to the chairman, because you, and I mean specifically
11:05
Speaker 8: you the press, specifically you the press core because you
11:11
Speaker 8: cheer against Trump so hard. It's like, in your DNA
11:14
Speaker 8: and in your blood cheer against Trump because you want
11:17
Speaker 8: him not to.
11:18
Speaker 1: Be successful so bad.
11:20
Speaker 8: You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes.
11:24
Speaker 8: You have to hope maybe they weren't effective. Maybe the
11:27
Speaker 8: way the Trump administration is represented him isn't true. So
11:30
Speaker 8: let's take half truths, spun information, leaked information, and then
11:36
Speaker 8: spin it, spin it in every way we can to
11:40
Speaker 8: try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public
11:44
Speaker 8: mind over whether or not are brave.
11:46
Speaker 1: Pilots were successful.
11:49
Speaker 8: How many stories have been written about how hard it
11:51
Speaker 8: is to, I don't know, fly a plane for thirty
11:54
Speaker 8: six hours. Has MSNBC done that story, as Fox? Have
11:59
Speaker 8: we done the story how hard that is? Have we
12:01
Speaker 8: done it two or three times so that American people understand?
12:03
Speaker 1: How about how difficult it is.
12:04
Speaker 8: To shoot a drone from an F fifteen or sixteen
12:07
Speaker 8: or F twenty two or F thirty five, or what
12:09
Speaker 8: it's like to man a Patriot battery, or how hard
12:12
Speaker 8: it is to refuel mid air, giving the American people
12:15
Speaker 8: an understanding of how complex and sophisticated this mission really was.
12:19
Speaker 8: There are so many aspects of what our brave men
12:21
Speaker 8: and women did that because of.
12:24
Speaker 1: The hatred of this press.
12:25
Speaker 8: Corps are undermined because your people are trying to leak
12:30
Speaker 8: and spin that it wasn't successful. It's irresponsible, and folks
12:36
Speaker 8: in this room are privy to that information because of
12:39
Speaker 8: the proximity here in the Pentagon. It's an important responsibility.
12:42
Speaker 8: And time and time again, classified information is leaked or
12:46
Speaker 8: pedled for political purposes to try.
12:48
Speaker 1: To make the president look bad.
12:49
Speaker 8: And what's really happening is you're undermining the success of
12:52
Speaker 8: incredible B two pilots and incredible F thirty five pilots,
12:56
Speaker 8: and incredible refuelers and incredible air defenders who pomplish their
13:00
Speaker 8: mission set back a nuclear program in ways that other
13:04
Speaker 8: presidents would have dreamed.
13:06
Speaker 1: How about we celebrate that.
13:08
Speaker 8: How about we talked about how special America is that
13:10
Speaker 8: we only we have these capabilities.
13:13
Speaker 1: I think it's too much to ask.
13:14
Speaker 8: Unfortunately for the fake news, so we're used to that,
13:18
Speaker 8: but we also have an opportunity to stand at the
13:20
Speaker 8: podium and read the truth of what's really happening. And
13:23
Speaker 8: the reality is you want to call it destroyed, you
13:25
Speaker 8: want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated.
13:28
Speaker 1: Choose your word.
13:30
Speaker 9: This was an historically successful attack and we should celebrate
13:33
Speaker 9: it as Americans.
13:34
Speaker 8: And it gives us a chance to have peace, chance
13:37
Speaker 8: to have a deal, and an opportunity to prevent a
13:40
Speaker 8: nuclear Iran, which is something President Trump talked about for
13:42
Speaker 8: twenty years and no other presidents had the courage to
13:46
Speaker 8: actually do so. With that, I want to hand it
13:48
Speaker 8: over to the Chairman of Joint Chiefs. They've done technical
13:51
Speaker 8: analysis on this, not just on the strike, but also
13:55
Speaker 8: on our patriot defenders, on all you did, and mister
13:57
Speaker 8: Chairman will hand it over to you.
13:58
Speaker 10: Good morning, Thank you, Man Strictery, and good morning and
14:01
Speaker 10: all of you. Thank you, thank you for being here.
14:04
Speaker 10: As a follow up to my comments on Sunday's press conference,
14:07
Speaker 10: I wanted to give you a few updates this morning
14:10
Speaker 10: on something I'm honored to do as a chairman, and
14:13
Speaker 10: that's a chance to get to talk about some of
14:15
Speaker 10: our service members and the incredible things.
14:18
Speaker 1: That they do on behalf of our nation.
14:20
Speaker 10: And I apologize ahead of time for the length and
14:23
Speaker 10: the detail. Today I'm going to brief you on a
14:25
Speaker 10: couple of things. First, I'm going to talk about our
14:27
Speaker 10: air defenders at Aludd in Katar and their actions on Monday.
14:31
Speaker 10: Then I'm going to walk you through a little bit
14:33
Speaker 10: about the academics that went into the attack against four dah,
14:37
Speaker 10: the massive ordnance penetrator weapon, and we're going to show
14:40
Speaker 10: a video that highlights the effects that that weapon has.
14:45
Speaker 10: Of course, nobody was down inside the target, so we
14:48
Speaker 10: don't have video from the target first. On Monday, as
14:52
Speaker 10: the President has stated, on Monday morning, we began to
14:55
Speaker 10: receive indications and warnings that Iran intended to attack US
15:00
Speaker 10: bases in the region that morning. Building on the work
15:04
Speaker 10: that Sencom Commander Eric Carilla had done and on the
15:08
Speaker 10: orders of the President, al at Alude'd Airbase and Katar
15:12
Speaker 10: and around the region, we assumed a minimum force posture.
15:16
Speaker 1: Most folks had moved off.
15:18
Speaker 10: The base to extend the security perimeter out away from
15:22
Speaker 10: what we assessed might be a target zone. Except for
15:27
Speaker 10: a very few Army soldiers at Aluded at that point,
15:32
Speaker 10: only two Patriot batteries remained on base. Roughly forty four
15:37
Speaker 10: American soldiers responsible for defending the entire base to include
15:43
Speaker 10: Sencom's forward headquarters in the Middle East, an entire air base,
15:48
Speaker 10: and all the US forces there. The oldest soldier was
15:52
Speaker 10: a twenty eight year old captain. The youngest was a
15:56
Speaker 10: twenty one year old private who'd been in the military
15:59
Speaker 10: for less than two years. So let's put ourselves out
16:03
Speaker 10: there for a second. Imagine you're that young first lieutenant.
16:07
Speaker 10: You're twenty five or twenty six years old, and you've
16:11
Speaker 10: been assigned as the tactical director inside the command and
16:15
Speaker 10: Control element.
16:17
Speaker 1: You at that age.
16:18
Speaker 10: Are the sole person responsible to defend this base. Listening
16:24
Speaker 10: next to you is your early warning operator, whose job
16:27
Speaker 10: is to notify you of imminent attack. There's five people
16:31
Speaker 10: inside a vehicle and five people outside of a vehicle
16:35
Speaker 10: around these a total of, as I said, forty four.
16:38
Speaker 10: By the way, you've sat in the Middle East for years,
16:42
Speaker 10: deployed over and over again, extended multiple times, always being prepared,
16:49
Speaker 10: but unsure of when that particular day will come that
16:53
Speaker 10: you must execute your mission and not fail at doing it.
16:58
Speaker 10: In this case, these Patriot Cares were deployed from Korea
17:01
Speaker 10: and Japan as part of our US forces there to
17:05
Speaker 10: ensure that we had the most capable missiles in the
17:08
Speaker 10: Sencom area of responsibility.
17:11
Speaker 1: As the day.
17:12
Speaker 10: Continues, you start to hear more and more chatter in
17:15
Speaker 10: the information space about an appending attack, and as the
17:20
Speaker 10: sun starts to set in the west, you get orders
17:24
Speaker 10: from your higher headquarters to make sure that your missile
17:27
Speaker 10: batteries are pointed to the north. There are just a
17:31
Speaker 10: few other teammates. It's hot, you're getting nervous, and you
17:35
Speaker 10: expect an attack outside of those Patriot vehicles. Your hot crew,
17:40
Speaker 10: which is one NCO and four additional soldiers, turns a
17:44
Speaker 10: key and relinquishes control of those missiles to that young
17:48
Speaker 10: lieutenant inside the vehicle, and you wait. You know that
17:54
Speaker 10: you're going to have approximately two minutes, one hundred and
17:57
Speaker 10: twenty seconds to either succeed or fail. And then at
18:02
Speaker 10: approximately twelve thirty pm on Monday, that's seven thirty pm
18:07
Speaker 10: in Katar, as the sun sets in.
18:10
Speaker 1: The west, Iran attacks.
18:13
Speaker 10: As the targets were detected, Round after round of Patriot
18:18
Speaker 10: missiles are ejected from their canisters by an initial launch charge.
18:23
Speaker 10: Then the main solid rocket motor ignites. You can feel
18:27
Speaker 10: this in your body if you've ever been around a
18:29
Speaker 10: Patriot taking a shot, and round after round goes out
18:33
Speaker 10: and guides against those missiles coming inbound. We believe that
18:37
Speaker 10: this is the largest single patriot engagement in US military history,
18:43
Speaker 10: and we were enjoy We were joined in this engagement
18:46
Speaker 10: by the Katari patriot crews. I'm not going to tell
18:50
Speaker 10: you how many rounds were shot, but it was a
18:52
Speaker 10: bunch because of classified purposes, and we're aware that something
18:57
Speaker 10: there's reports of something getting through. What we do know,
19:00
Speaker 10: there was a lot of metal flying around between attacking
19:04
Speaker 10: missiles being hit by patriots, boosters from attacking missiles being
19:09
Speaker 10: hit by patriots, the patriots themselves flying around in the
19:13
Speaker 10: debris from those patriots hitting the ground. There was a
19:16
Speaker 10: lot of metal flying around, and yet our US air
19:20
Speaker 10: defenders had only seconds to make complex decisions with strategic impact.
19:25
Speaker 10: These awesome humans, along with their Katari brothers and sisters
19:30
Speaker 10: and arms, stood between a salvo of Iranian missiles and
19:34
Speaker 10: the safety of value. Deed, they are the unsung heroes
19:38
Speaker 10: of the twenty first century United States Army. And I
19:41
Speaker 10: know a lot of you have seen the videos online
19:44
Speaker 10: and the excitement as those Patriots departed their launchers and
19:48
Speaker 10: went up and guided. This really demonstrates the combat capability
19:54
Speaker 10: and capacity of our Army. Air defenders simply stated, they
19:59
Speaker 10: absolutely crushed it if you'd flip this over, thanks. Let
20:04
Speaker 10: me Let me next move to a walkthrough of the
20:09
Speaker 10: GBU fifty seven Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapon and share a
20:14
Speaker 10: little bit about the planners who did this and their
20:17
Speaker 10: work on the weapon. First, let me set the stage
20:20
Speaker 10: for you. There's an organization in the US called the
20:25
Speaker 10: Defense Threat Reduction Agency DITRA. DITRA does a lot of
20:31
Speaker 10: things for our nation, but DITRA is the world's leading
20:35
Speaker 10: expert on deeply buried underground targets. In two thousand and nine,
20:41
Speaker 10: a Defense Threat Reduction Agency officer was brought into a
20:45
Speaker 10: vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going
20:50
Speaker 10: on in Iran. For security purposes, I'm not going to
20:53
Speaker 10: share his name. He was shown some photos and some
20:56
Speaker 10: highly classified intelligence of what looked like a major can
21:00
Speaker 10: instruction project in the mountains of Iran. He was tasked
21:03
Speaker 10: to study this facility, work with the intelligence community to
21:07
Speaker 10: understand it, and he was soon joined by an additional teammate.
21:12
Speaker 10: For more than fifteen years, this off cer and his
21:15
Speaker 10: teammate lived and breathed this single target four dough, a
21:19
Speaker 10: critical element of Iran's covert nuclear weapons program. He studied
21:25
Speaker 10: the geology. He watched the Iranians dig it out. He
21:28
Speaker 10: watched the construction, the weather, the discard material the geology,
21:33
Speaker 10: the construction materials, where the materials came from. He looked
21:37
Speaker 10: at the vent shaft, the exhaust shaft, the electrical systems,
21:40
Speaker 10: the environmental control systems, every nook, every crater, every piece
21:44
Speaker 10: of equipment going in and every piece of equipment going out.
21:48
Speaker 10: They literally dreamed about this target at night when they slept,
21:54
Speaker 10: They thought about it driving back and forth to work,
21:57
Speaker 10: and they knew from the very first day is what
22:00
Speaker 10: this was for. You do not build a multi layered
22:04
Speaker 10: underground bunker complex with centrifuges and other equipment in a
22:09
Speaker 10: mountain for any peaceful purpose. They weren't able to discuss
22:14
Speaker 10: this with their family, their wives, their kids, their friends,
22:17
Speaker 10: but they just kept grinding it out, and along the
22:20
Speaker 10: way they realized we did not have a weapon that
22:23
Speaker 10: could adequately strike and kill this target. So they began
22:28
Speaker 10: a journey to work with industry and other tacticians to
22:31
Speaker 10: develop the GBU fifty seven. They tested it over and
22:36
Speaker 10: over again, tried different options, tried more. After that, they
22:40
Speaker 10: accomplished hundreds of test shots and dropped many full scale
22:44
Speaker 10: weapons against extremely realistic targets for a single purpose, kill
22:51
Speaker 10: this target at the time and place of our nation's choosing.
22:57
Speaker 10: And then, on a day in June of only twenty five,
23:01
Speaker 10: more than fifteen years after they started their life's work,
23:04
Speaker 10: the phone rang and the President of the United States
23:06
Speaker 10: ordered the B two force that you've supported to go
23:10
Speaker 10: strike and kill this target.
23:12
Speaker 1: Yesterday.
23:12
Speaker 10: I had the incredible honor and privilege of spending time
23:15
Speaker 10: with these two Defense Threat Reduction Agency officers who've given
23:20
Speaker 10: so much. One of them said, quote, I can't even
23:23
Speaker 10: get my head around this. My heart is so filled
23:27
Speaker 10: with the pride of being a part of this team.
23:30
Speaker 10: I am so honored to be a part of this.
23:33
Speaker 10: To you both, thank you, and thank you to your families.
23:38
Speaker 10: Operation Midnight Hammer was the culmination of those fifteen years
23:41
Speaker 10: of incredible work. The air crews, the tanker crews, the
23:44
Speaker 10: weapons crews that built the weapons, the load crews that
23:47
Speaker 10: loaded it. Before I run through this video today, I
23:50
Speaker 10: want to talk a little bit about weaponeering and what
23:53
Speaker 10: goes into into an attack. Weaponeering is the science of
23:58
Speaker 10: evaluating a target. I mentioned all of those factors before
24:01
Speaker 10: that these two DITRA officers had thought about. Ultimately, weaponeering
24:06
Speaker 10: is determining the right weapon and fuse combination to achieve
24:11
Speaker 10: the desired effects and maximum destruction against a target. In
24:15
Speaker 10: the case of four DAH, the Dittri team understood with
24:19
Speaker 10: a high degree of confidence the elements of the target
24:23
Speaker 10: required to kill its functions, and the weapons were designed,
24:27
Speaker 10: planned and delivered to ensure that they achieved the effects
24:32
Speaker 10: in the mission space. By the way, in the beginning
24:36
Speaker 10: of its development, we had so many PhDs working on
24:40
Speaker 10: the MOP program doing modeling and simulation that we were
24:45
Speaker 10: quietly and in a secret way, the biggest users of
24:50
Speaker 10: supercomputer hours within the United States of America. So let
24:55
Speaker 10: me talk about Let me talk about the graphic a
24:58
Speaker 10: little bit. In the GBU fIF which all of you
25:01
Speaker 10: I know know, is a thirty thousand pound weapon dropped
25:05
Speaker 10: only by the B two.
25:07
Speaker 1: It's comprised of.
25:08
Speaker 10: Steel, explosive and a fuse programmed bespokely each weapon to
25:16
Speaker 10: achieve a particular effect inside the target. Each weapon had
25:21
Speaker 10: a unique desired impact, angle, arrival, final heading, and a
25:26
Speaker 10: fuse setting. The fuse is effectively what tells the bomb
25:30
Speaker 10: when to function. A longer delay in a fuse, the
25:34
Speaker 10: deeper the weapon will penetrate and drive into the target.
25:40
Speaker 10: So on four DOH in June of two thousand and eight,
25:44
Speaker 10: you can see these three holes depicted. Here is the
25:48
Speaker 10: main exhaust shaft with two additional ventilation shafts on either side.
25:53
Speaker 10: The United States decided to strike these two ventilation shafts
25:57
Speaker 10: seen here on the main graphic as the primary point
26:00
Speaker 10: of entry into the mission space. In the days preceding
26:06
Speaker 10: the attack against Fourneau, the Iranians attempted to cover the
26:09
Speaker 10: shafts with concrete to try to prevent an attack. I
26:15
Speaker 10: won't share the specific dimensions of the concrete cap, but
26:19
Speaker 10: you should know that we know what the dimensions of
26:22
Speaker 10: those concrete caps were. The planners had to account for this.
26:27
Speaker 10: They accounted for everything. The cap was forcibly removed by
26:32
Speaker 10: the first weapon and the main shaft was uncovered. Weapons two, three,
26:39
Speaker 10: four five were tasked to enter the main shaft, moved
26:44
Speaker 10: down into the complex at greater than one thousand feet
26:48
Speaker 10: per second, and explode in the mission space. Weapon number
26:53
Speaker 10: six was designed on each side, so there were six
26:56
Speaker 10: on each side. Weapons number six was designed and does
27:00
Speaker 10: a flex weapon to allow us to cover if one
27:03
Speaker 10: of the preceding jets or one of the preceding weapons
27:08
Speaker 10: did not work. The video I'm about to show you
27:12
Speaker 10: is a culmination of over fifteen years of development and testing.
27:16
Speaker 10: As I said, hundreds of test shots on various models.
27:21
Speaker 1: This is one weapon.
27:23
Speaker 10: So if you take a view of this is five additionals,
27:27
Speaker 10: you'll get a sense of what this looks like. Hopefully
27:31
Speaker 10: you can see it and there's not too much reflection.
27:35
Speaker 10: Tom runs our videos out there. We'll run at full
27:39
Speaker 10: speed so you can see it and then go back
27:41
Speaker 10: through it. Go ahead, Tom, keep it going for a minute.
28:14
Speaker 10: You'll see inside the mission space. Unlike a normal surface bomb,
28:28
Speaker 10: you won't see an impact crater because they're designed to
28:32
Speaker 10: deeply bury and then function. I know there's been a
28:34
Speaker 10: lot of questions about that. All six weapons at each
28:40
Speaker 10: vent at four doh went exactly where they were intended
28:44
Speaker 10: to go. A bomb has three effects that causes damage, blast, fragmentation,
28:50
Speaker 10: and overpressure. In this case, the primary kill mechanism in
28:55
Speaker 10: the mission space was a mix of overpressure and blast,
28:58
Speaker 10: ripping through the open tunnels and destroying critical hardware. The
29:02
Speaker 10: majority of the damage we assessed based on our extensive modeling,
29:08
Speaker 10: was a blast layer combined with the impulse extending from
29:11
Speaker 10: the shock. Imagine what this looks like six times over.
29:16
Speaker 10: A point that I want to make here, the Joint
29:19
Speaker 10: Force does not do BDA by design. We don't grade
29:24
Speaker 10: our own homework. The intelligence community does. But here's what
29:28
Speaker 10: we know following the attacks and the strikes on four DAH.
29:31
Speaker 10: First that the weapons were built, tested, and loaded properly. Two,
29:37
Speaker 10: the weapons were released on speed and on parameters. Three
29:42
Speaker 10: the weapons all guided to their intended targets and to
29:46
Speaker 10: their intended aim points. For the weapons functioned as design,
29:51
Speaker 10: meaning they exploded. We know this through other means, intelligence
29:56
Speaker 10: means that we have that were visibly We were visibly
30:00
Speaker 10: able to see them, and we know that the trailing
30:04
Speaker 10: jets saw the first weapons function and the pilots stated, quote,
30:08
Speaker 10: this was the brightest explosion that I've ever seen. It
30:12
Speaker 10: literally looked like daylight. Let me now turn to the
30:16
Speaker 10: bomber crews themselves give you a few details about them.
30:19
Speaker 10: The crews that attacked Fordeaux were from the Active Duty
30:22
Speaker 10: Air Force and the Missouri Air National Guard. The crews
30:26
Speaker 10: ranked from captain to colonel and Most were graduates of
30:31
Speaker 10: the Air Force Weapon School, headquartered at Nellis Air Force
30:34
Speaker 10: Base in Nevada. I will state for the record that
30:37
Speaker 10: there is no beach, volleyball, or football at the Air
30:41
Speaker 10: Force Weapon School. They were male and female aviators on
30:46
Speaker 10: this mission, and a crew member told me when I
30:49
Speaker 10: talked to them on video the other day that this
30:52
Speaker 10: felt like the Super Bowl, the thousands of scientists, airmen,
30:55
Speaker 10: and maintainers all coming together. One last story about people.
31:01
Speaker 10: When the crews went to work on Friday, they kissed
31:03
Speaker 10: their loved ones goodbye, not knowing when or if they'd
31:07
Speaker 10: be home. Late on Saturday night, their families became aware
31:12
Speaker 10: of what was happening, and on Sunday, when those jets
31:16
Speaker 10: returned from White Men, their families were there, flags flying
31:21
Speaker 10: and tears flowing. I have chills literally talking about this.
31:25
Speaker 10: The jets rejoined into a formation of four airplanes, followed
31:29
Speaker 10: by a formation of three, and came up overhead White Men,
31:33
Speaker 10: proudly in the traffic pattern, pitching out to land right
31:37
Speaker 10: over the base and landing to the incredible cheers of
31:41
Speaker 10: their families who sacrifice and serve right alongside their family members.
31:47
Speaker 10: Like I said, there were a lot of flags and
31:49
Speaker 10: a lot of tears. One commander told me, this is
31:52
Speaker 10: a moment in the lives of our families that they
31:55
Speaker 10: will never forget. That, my friends, is what America's joined for.
32:00
Speaker 10: Does we think? We develop? We train, we rehearse, we test,
32:04
Speaker 10: we evaluate every single day, and when the call comes
32:08
Speaker 10: to deliver, we do so. I could not be more
32:11
Speaker 10: proud standing up here today of our joint force. I'm
32:15
Speaker 10: filled with gratitude that I get to tell their story.
32:18
Speaker 10: And as we stand here right now, our forces remain
32:22
Speaker 10: on a high state of readiness in the region, prepared
32:25
Speaker 10: to defend themselves. And one last thing, our adversaries around
32:31
Speaker 10: the world should know that there are other Dittri team
32:36
Speaker 10: members out there studying targets for the same amount of
32:40
Speaker 10: time and we'll continue to do so. Thank you very much.
32:43
Speaker 10: I apologize for the length I look forward to your questions.
32:46
Speaker 1: Thank you, mister Chairman.
32:47
Speaker 8: I would just thank you, by the way for that
32:50
Speaker 8: extensive work, the lay down, I mean, even get that
32:53
Speaker 8: laser porter, yes, sir.
32:56
Speaker 1: Thank you scaring me away as always.
32:58
Speaker 9: I mean even in just public reporting.
33:01
Speaker 8: If you see the post strike shaft of the three holes,
33:04
Speaker 8: the vast majority and fairly so. The vast majority speculation
33:07
Speaker 8: has been those are the three strike points, when.
33:10
Speaker 9: In actuality, what you realize is these are the events.
33:13
Speaker 1: These are the caps.
33:14
Speaker 8: The first munition took the cap off, and the other
33:17
Speaker 8: five went down the center hole, which if you're planning
33:21
Speaker 8: the target, you would want it to be the direct
33:23
Speaker 8: one going to the bottom. These are the types of
33:25
Speaker 8: things that go into the planning for a strike that
33:30
Speaker 8: we wouldn't the Pentagon would not expect the press corps
33:33
Speaker 8: of the American people that initially understand.
33:35
Speaker 1: So laying this information.
33:36
Speaker 8: Out is helpful, but it's also why we asked for
33:40
Speaker 8: a beat, for a moment, for a day or two,
33:44
Speaker 8: the opportunity to tell that story, because, as the Chairman said,
33:47
Speaker 8: these men and women that did this mission, they just
33:49
Speaker 8: want to do their job. They're not expecting their story
33:51
Speaker 8: to be told. They're not expecting the glory. They are
33:54
Speaker 8: grateful for the flags and the hugs of family. That's
33:56
Speaker 8: why they do the job. But they also so know
34:00
Speaker 8: they were part of something historic. We know how historic
34:04
Speaker 8: it was. The chairman does I know, Our staffs know,
34:07
Speaker 8: and so that's why we are and the President of
34:10
Speaker 8: the United States States knows and That's why it's almost
34:14
Speaker 8: personal when we see the way in which.
34:17
Speaker 9: Leaks are used to try to disparage.
34:20
Speaker 8: The outcome or muddy the waters about the impact of
34:23
Speaker 8: what happened without being responsible with information and allowing the
34:27
Speaker 8: professionals to assess and provide that information, just like the
34:30
Speaker 8: Chairman did. So thank you, mister Chairman, for that information,
34:34
Speaker 8: and we welcome a few additional questions.
34:35
Speaker 11: Yes, sir General, on Sunday you said final battle damage
34:40
Speaker 11: will take some time, and you also said, I think
34:43
Speaker 11: BDA is still pending and it would be way too
34:46
Speaker 11: early for me to comment on what may or may
34:49
Speaker 11: not still be there a new QUIP facility.
34:52
Speaker 1: So that was just over three days ago. So what
34:55
Speaker 1: has changed? Would you use the term obliterated as well?
34:58
Speaker 4: Sir?
34:59
Speaker 1: Like I said, we don't do BDA.
35:00
Speaker 10: I'll refer that to the intelligence community, and uh, you're
35:04
Speaker 10: talking with them.
35:04
Speaker 1: I mean, what changed in the past three days?
35:06
Speaker 11: And make you so you know, sir?
35:08
Speaker 1: I think I said, I mean, I think I explained
35:11
Speaker 1: what changed.
35:13
Speaker 8: There was a great deal of irresponsible reporting based on
35:17
Speaker 8: leak's preliminary information in low confidence. Again, when someone leaks something,
35:22
Speaker 8: they do it with an agenda, and when you leak
35:25
Speaker 8: a portion of an intelligence assessment, but just a little portion,
35:28
Speaker 8: just a little portion, that makes it seem like maybe
35:30
Speaker 8: the strike wasn't effective. Then you start us a news cycle,
35:34
Speaker 8: whether it's the Washington Post or Fox News or CNN
35:36
Speaker 8: or MSNBC, you start a news cycle that starts to
35:39
Speaker 8: call into question the ethics.
35:42
Speaker 1: That's why.
35:43
Speaker 8: So you bring the chairman here, who's not involved in
35:45
Speaker 8: politics here in new politics. That's that's that's my lane
35:48
Speaker 8: to understand and translate and talk about those types of things.
35:51
Speaker 1: So I can use the word obliterate it.
35:52
Speaker 8: He could use defeat, destroyed, assess all of those things.
35:55
Speaker 8: But ultimately we're here to clarify what these weapons are
35:58
Speaker 8: capable of which anyone would you know, two ear, two eyes,
36:02
Speaker 8: some ears in a brain can recognize that kind of
36:05
Speaker 8: firepower with that specificity at that location and others is
36:08
Speaker 8: going to have a devastating effect.
36:10
Speaker 9: So we all recognize there will be days and weeks ahead.
36:13
Speaker 1: That's why yesterday I said, if.
36:14
Speaker 8: You want to know what's going on a four to zero,
36:16
Speaker 8: you better go there and get a big shovel, because
36:19
Speaker 8: no one's under there right now, No one's under there
36:21
Speaker 8: able to assess, and everyone's using reflections of what they see.
36:24
Speaker 8: And that's why the Israelis, the Iranians, the I, A, A,
36:27
Speaker 8: the U N to a man and to a woman
36:29
Speaker 8: who recognized the capability of this weapon system.
36:31
Speaker 1: Are acknowledging how destructive it's been.
36:33
Speaker 9: So that's what's that's what's changed.
36:35
Speaker 1: Just three or four days later.
36:38
Speaker 8: See this is this is a point. This is how
36:41
Speaker 8: difficult it is to actually manage. You just watched a
36:45
Speaker 8: video of what this weapon is capable of. Uh we
36:48
Speaker 8: That's where we find our confidence is in the skill
36:50
Speaker 8: of men and women and the capability of the systems
36:52
Speaker 8: they employed, and the recognition so far in the reflections
36:55
Speaker 8: that it was a highly successful mission.
36:57
Speaker 1: Sure, I think you could.
36:58
Speaker 10: I'd say, go the ICE should be able to help
37:01
Speaker 10: you answer that question. They look at a variety as
37:04
Speaker 10: the Secretary is alluded to, we look at a variety
37:06
Speaker 10: of things. I don't do that. They do all different
37:11
Speaker 10: sources of intel, which I'd refer you to them to
37:14
Speaker 10: get clarity on the intill.
37:17
Speaker 8: Again, I go back to the IC, whether it's Director
37:19
Speaker 8: Radcliffe or Odie and I Gabbart. I read the statements
37:21
Speaker 8: at the beginning. They're the ones aggregating the intelligence, and
37:24
Speaker 8: they're saying nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to
37:27
Speaker 8: be rebuilt over a number of years.
37:29
Speaker 1: Facilities were destroyed, whatere. We got right here.
37:34
Speaker 12: So you cited a body of credible intelligence to suggest
37:39
Speaker 12: that the damage at fort in other places.
37:41
Speaker 1: What is that referring to? And when we see it?
37:43
Speaker 8: I was reading from the CIA director's statement which came
37:46
Speaker 8: out last night. CIA again, they do the BDA, they
37:50
Speaker 8: do the assessment. CIA can confirm that a body of
37:53
Speaker 8: credible intelligence indicates it also goes on to say new
37:56
Speaker 8: intelligence from historically reliable and accurate sources and methods.
38:00
Speaker 9: Now you can imagine, you can imagine the CIA.
38:03
Speaker 8: Director is going to be very careful about how he
38:05
Speaker 8: articulates things of that sensitivity, classified secret, top secret, compartmentalized.
38:11
Speaker 8: He's going to know things that you're not going to know,
38:14
Speaker 8: that the press isn't going to know. And he's reflecting
38:16
Speaker 8: that the sources he's seeing are highly credible. Uh, they've
38:20
Speaker 8: they've given credible intelligence. They are those processes of given
38:24
Speaker 8: credible intelligence in the past, and that's what.
38:27
Speaker 1: He's basically on.
38:27
Speaker 3: I think we need to see that.
38:29
Speaker 1: Do you have a top secret clearancer.
38:31
Speaker 13: Eventually okay the American public once.
38:35
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, I wanted to.
38:37
Speaker 12: I wanted to ask briefly, just not you check it shut?
38:41
Speaker 14: Oh so Mike Glennwood, Washington, Yes.
38:43
Speaker 15: Thanks.
38:44
Speaker 14: Anybody who's ever read a battalions to report after a
38:47
Speaker 14: fight knows that it's usually the initial report is usually wrong,
38:51
Speaker 14: sometimes grossly so. Is what happened in a sentence that
38:56
Speaker 14: caused y'all to sort of rethink the intelligence process or
39:01
Speaker 14: the dissemination or do you think it's just I mean,
39:04
Speaker 14: it's a process itself doesn't require any more adjustment.
39:09
Speaker 8: Well, I can tell you what the chairman told me
39:11
Speaker 8: in the situation room and reminded us all, which is
39:14
Speaker 8: alongside what you just said, sir, is that the first first.
39:17
Speaker 1: Reports are almost always wrong.
39:18
Speaker 8: They're almost always incomplete, right anything, whether it's a squad
39:23
Speaker 8: level operation or a strategic level operation, the initial reflections
39:26
Speaker 8: you get are coming at you at a high rate
39:29
Speaker 8: of speed from a lot of different sources. So your
39:31
Speaker 8: job is to step back and assess them. And that's
39:34
Speaker 8: why we're urging caution about putting it premising entire stories
39:40
Speaker 8: on biased leaks to biased publications trying to make something
39:44
Speaker 8: look bad.
39:44
Speaker 1: How about we take a beat, recognize.
39:47
Speaker 8: First the success of our warriors, hold them up, tell
39:50
Speaker 8: their stories, celebrate that wave an American flag, be proud
39:53
Speaker 8: of what we accomplished. And in the meantime, I can
39:56
Speaker 8: assure you the Chairman of his staff, the intelligence community,
39:59
Speaker 8: are staff and others are doing all the assassins necessary to.
40:02
Speaker 9: Make sure that mission was indeed successful.
40:05
Speaker 1: Yes, right there, So thank you, missus.
40:07
Speaker 16: Secretary. Iran has recognized that their nuclear program was indeed
40:13
Speaker 16: severely damaged, but they also said that the US strikes
40:16
Speaker 16: only strengthened their ability and their determination to complete their
40:20
Speaker 16: nuclear program. How do you respond to us? Or is
40:22
Speaker 16: that a provocation from Iran?
40:25
Speaker 8: Well, I would say Iron's going to have to say
40:28
Speaker 8: a lot of things right now in order to bolster
40:31
Speaker 8: their image, especially internally. You know, in if the media,
40:35
Speaker 8: there's a lot of things they'll say for domestic consumption,
40:38
Speaker 8: but we're watching very closely what they do. Again, that's
40:41
Speaker 8: the intel community. Our job as the chairman, I mean,
40:43
Speaker 8: the chairman laid it out so beautifully. Our job is
40:45
Speaker 8: to be prepared. And how proud are you? How proud
40:48
Speaker 8: am I? I didn't know the full story of those
40:51
Speaker 8: men and women fifteen years ago who've been pointing at
40:53
Speaker 8: that target.
40:54
Speaker 1: It makes me proud to be an American. That's an
40:55
Speaker 1: awesome story.
40:56
Speaker 8: I hope we can tell more aspects of that in
40:58
Speaker 8: an unclassified way in the future. That's a great thing
41:02
Speaker 8: to know. Our job is to be prepared when the
41:04
Speaker 8: commander in chief calls based on those assessments. So of
41:07
Speaker 8: course I see the Intelligence Committee will keep watching what
41:11
Speaker 8: Iran does and pay attention to that. But the President
41:13
Speaker 8: has created the contours the opportunity for a deal for
41:17
Speaker 8: peace in something that the world said was intractable, that
41:20
Speaker 8: wasn't possible, and we.
41:22
Speaker 1: Got that piece that cease fire, that.
41:24
Speaker 8: Option because of strength, because of his willingness to use
41:28
Speaker 8: American military might that no one else on the planet
41:30
Speaker 8: can do with the kind of planners and operators that
41:33
Speaker 8: the Chairman just laid out.
41:35
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, right there, yep, sir.
41:38
Speaker 12: Just a quick question. There's public imagery available saying that
41:43
Speaker 12: highly enriched uranium was moved out of Foordo before the strikes?
41:47
Speaker 1: Is that accurate?
41:47
Speaker 3: Have you seen that?
41:48
Speaker 12: And mister chairman, a question for you. Have you been
41:52
Speaker 12: pressured to change your assessment or given more rosy intelligence
41:57
Speaker 12: assessment to us by any political factor, whether it's a
42:00
Speaker 12: president or the Secretary, And if you were, would you
42:03
Speaker 12: do that?
42:04
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, that one's easy. No, No, I have not,
42:07
Speaker 10: and no I would not. My job as a chairman
42:10
Speaker 10: is to offer a range of options to the President
42:14
Speaker 10: and the National Command Authority, to deliver the risks associated
42:20
Speaker 10: with each of those, and then take the orders of
42:22
Speaker 10: the National Command Authority and go execute them. I've never
42:27
Speaker 10: been pressured by the President or the Secretary to do
42:30
Speaker 10: anything other than tell them exactly what I'm thinking, and
42:33
Speaker 10: that's exactly what I've done.
42:36
Speaker 8: There's nothing that I've seen that suggests that what we
42:39
Speaker 8: didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit in those locations.
42:43
Speaker 13: It's about highly enriched uranium. Do you have certainty that
42:48
Speaker 13: all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Four Dome
42:52
Speaker 13: Mountain or some of it? Because there were satellite photos
42:54
Speaker 13: that showed more than a dozen trucks there two days
42:57
Speaker 13: in advance. Are you certain none of that highly enriched
43:00
Speaker 13: uranium was moved?
43:01
Speaker 9: Of course, we're watching every single aspect.
43:03
Speaker 8: But Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who
43:07
Speaker 8: misrepresents the most intentionally what the President says, I'm familiar.
43:14
Speaker 13: About the ventilations chefs on Saturday night, and in fact,
43:18
Speaker 13: I was the first to describe the B two bombers,
43:21
Speaker 13: the refueling, the entire mission with great accuracy. So I
43:26
Speaker 13: take issue with that.
43:26
Speaker 8: I appreciate you acknowledging that this was the first, the
43:29
Speaker 8: most successful mission based on operational security that this department
43:35
Speaker 8: has done since you be here, and I appreciate that.
43:37
Speaker 8: So we're looking at all aspects of intelligence and making
43:40
Speaker 8: sure we have a sense of what was where.
43:42
Speaker 15: Acknowledge the female pilots that also participated in this mission.
43:46
Speaker 15: The early messages that you sent out only congratulated the boys.
43:50
Speaker 8: So when I say something like our boys and bombers,
43:53
Speaker 8: see this is the kind of thing the press does.
43:54
Speaker 9: Right of course, the Chairman mentioned a female bomber pilot.
43:57
Speaker 8: That's fantastic. She's fantastic, she's a here. I want more
44:00
Speaker 8: female bomber pilots.
44:01
Speaker 1: I hope the.
44:02
Speaker 8: Men and women of our country sign up to do
44:04
Speaker 8: such brave and audacious things.
44:05
Speaker 1: But when you spin it as because I say our boys.
44:08
Speaker 8: And bombers as a common phrase, I'll keep saying things
44:11
Speaker 8: like that, whether they're men or women. Very proud of
44:13
Speaker 8: that female pilot, just like I'm very proud of those
44:16
Speaker 8: male pilots. And I don't care if it's a male
44:18
Speaker 8: or a female in that cockpit, and the American people
44:21
Speaker 8: don't care. But it's the obsession with race and gender
44:26
Speaker 8: in this department that's changed priorities.
44:28
Speaker 9: We don't do that anymore. We don't play your little games.
44:30
Speaker 1: Yes, right there.
44:31
Speaker 15: Certainly the uranium was removed from the facility before the
44:34
Speaker 15: B two struck.
44:35
Speaker 8: So I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed
44:38
Speaker 8: that says things were not where they were supposed to
44:40
Speaker 8: be moved or otherwise.
44:42
Speaker 7: Yes, Kelly Meyer.
44:43
Speaker 17: With News Nation, and just off the top when I
44:46
Speaker 17: say we're grateful for the service of these pilots and
44:48
Speaker 17: everybody that serves I wanted.
44:50
Speaker 7: To ask you.
44:51
Speaker 17: The CIA statement said when possible, they will provide updates
44:54
Speaker 17: and information to the public for transparency, and I believe
44:57
Speaker 17: that's what we're looking for here. Do you commit to
45:00
Speaker 17: share the Defense Intelligence Agency report when it is ready
45:04
Speaker 17: so the American people can understand more about the intelligence assessment?
45:08
Speaker 8: Well? Whatever, Actually the report that was discussed, this preliminary report,
45:11
Speaker 8: was a what's called a restrike report, so it comes
45:14
Speaker 8: to us to give us an assessment whether a target
45:16
Speaker 8: would need to be restruck, right, that's the reason why.
45:18
Speaker 8: So based on internal feedback loop that we're supposed to
45:22
Speaker 8: have access to. Unfortunately someone took advantage of that. But
45:25
Speaker 8: whatever is supposed to be made public will be. But
45:27
Speaker 8: whatever has to stay sensitive, so.
45:29
Speaker 10: Can I It's jump in you know. One of the
45:30
Speaker 10: things that I'm trying to do through this journey that
45:33
Speaker 10: we're on together, of course transparency, but also the requirement
45:37
Speaker 10: to really protect these capabilities. I guess it times up,
45:44
Speaker 10: so there's a balance in there, right, we do need
45:47
Speaker 10: to preserve options should the nation and the Joint Force
45:50
Speaker 10: be tasked to go do something again. So I'm confident
45:54
Speaker 10: we'll find the middle ground. But there are some things
45:56
Speaker 10: that if asked, I want to not release really, so.
46:01
Speaker 1: We're going to leave it right there.
46:01
Speaker 8: I want to thank the heroism of our men and
46:04
Speaker 8: women in the military. What their carbash is truly historic,
46:07
Speaker 8: setting back the Iranian nuclear program untold number of years.
46:11
Speaker 8: It was a devastating attack. We appreciate you covering it.
46:13
Speaker 8: Thank you very much for Chamis.
46:15
Speaker 15: Thank you for talk a little bit.
46:16
Speaker 2: More about well that was a pretty extraordinary press conference
46:20
Speaker 2: from the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the
46:23
Speaker 2: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Kine. They talked
46:27
Speaker 2: about the fact that multiple intelligence agencies have reported to
46:30
Speaker 2: strike on Iran's.
46:31
Speaker 3: Nuclear facilities, was successful.
46:34
Speaker 2: In obliterating them, destroying them, you choose the word, but
46:37
Speaker 2: the intelligence agencies agree it will take years and years
46:41
Speaker 2: for Iran to re establish any sort of nuclear capability.
46:44
Speaker 3: The Chairman of the Joint.
46:45
Speaker 2: Chiefs, I thought this was really interesting, talked about the
46:47
Speaker 2: fact that they've known about this for dou facility since
46:51
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine and have had a special group
46:54
Speaker 2: of people working for fifteen years not only studying that facility,
46:58
Speaker 2: but designing a especially to be dropped on that facility,
47:02
Speaker 2: and of course that happened just a few days ago.
47:06
Speaker 2: I thought it was very interesting howte me haig Seth
47:08
Speaker 2: chastised the media, essentially rebuking them for undermining not only
47:13
Speaker 2: the military but also America itself. And finally, my other
47:17
Speaker 2: observation there, Caleb was the Joint Chiefs, the Chairman's the
47:21
Speaker 2: Joint Chiefs warning America's adversaries just as we studied for
47:25
Speaker 2: dough since two thousand and nine that develop a special
47:28
Speaker 2: bomb for it. Don't think there are not other targets
47:31
Speaker 2: around the world that we are right now studying and
47:33
Speaker 2: preparing for in the event of conflict in the future.
47:36
Speaker 2: That was a pretty amazing press conference.
47:39
Speaker 4: Indeed, and of course that last point is what you know,
47:42
Speaker 4: peace through strength is all about. Right. It was reasonably
47:46
Speaker 4: light on actual detail. If you were hoping to have
47:50
Speaker 4: a blow by blow of exactly pardon the part of
47:53
Speaker 4: exactly what was destroyed, you didn't get it. But as
47:56
Speaker 4: HeiG Seth lined out, it'll take a long time to
48:01
Speaker 4: actually work out exactly what happened. Yeah, exactly got to
48:06
Speaker 4: go there with the shovel. And the report, of course
48:10
Speaker 4: he was talking about that CNN and MSNBC, the New
48:13
Speaker 4: York Times have been referencing in the last few days,
48:17
Speaker 4: was not released in full, and he said that it
48:20
Speaker 4: says on the first page it is a preliminary.
48:23
Speaker 5: Low confidence report.
48:26
Speaker 4: And so even if you have questions about exactly what
48:29
Speaker 4: has been destroyed, the fact remains that the report on
48:32
Speaker 4: which these reports media reports have been based is by no.
48:37
Speaker 5: Means correct or accurate.
48:39
Speaker 4: It is the earliest possible takeaway from what happened, So
48:45
Speaker 4: there is a lot more to come out of this now.
48:48
Speaker 5: It was funny as well.
48:49
Speaker 4: You mentioned him getting stuck into the press, how he
48:52
Speaker 4: said it was in their blood, their DNA, to essentially
48:56
Speaker 4: take on the present on these matters. The most interesting
48:59
Speaker 4: part from neither was the detail around how this bomb
49:03
Speaker 4: worked and how they deployed it on the day, particularly
49:06
Speaker 4: how they used the first bomb to blow off those
49:09
Speaker 4: concrete caps that had been put in place, and then
49:11
Speaker 4: the following four bombs were used to go down the
49:14
Speaker 4: central tunnel, and they had another one on back up
49:17
Speaker 4: if they needed it. He said each of these bombs
49:20
Speaker 4: was thirty thousand pounds, that is in kilograms, thirteen thousand
49:25
Speaker 4: and six hundred kilograms each, and they deployed six of them.
49:32
Speaker 4: So I mean that is an obscene amount.
49:34
Speaker 5: Of explosives that were.
49:36
Speaker 2: Dropped on those sets, dropped so lightning speed with pinpoint accuracy.
49:42
Speaker 5: About one thousand feet a second.
49:45
Speaker 4: So even if you're questioning what happened, I mean, heck,
49:49
Speaker 4: if you're dropping bombs of that magnitude, that big, that heavy,
49:53
Speaker 4: you can't tell me that they haven't done so well.
49:55
Speaker 6: I think that's the most important part because Hegseath made
49:58
Speaker 6: this point very clearly. The reason that initial report was
50:03
Speaker 6: leaked was for no other purpose than a political maneuver
50:07
Speaker 6: to undermine confidence in Donald Trump and in the US
50:12
Speaker 6: military and ultimately in the country itself. And so the
50:16
Speaker 6: whole point of illustrating exactly how the bombs worked was
50:19
Speaker 6: to basically say, there is absolutely no way on earth
50:25
Speaker 6: that such a perfectly executed, meticulously planned mission over fifteen
50:31
Speaker 6: years could not work. Essentially, they had the whole site model.
50:36
Speaker 6: They knew every nook and cranny, They modeled what these
50:39
Speaker 6: bombs would look like, how they would detonate.
50:42
Speaker 7: Every single element.
50:43
Speaker 6: Of this mission was planned, rehearse tested, and executed on
50:48
Speaker 6: the day.
50:48
Speaker 7: So I think it does shatter this narrative.
50:51
Speaker 6: Oh well, maybe maybe they did still have certain elements
50:55
Speaker 6: of these nuclear facilities still operable or still somehow standing,
50:59
Speaker 6: but it doesn't matter because they are going to be
51:02
Speaker 6: They have been so catastrophically struck by the sheer volume
51:06
Speaker 6: weight execution of this that it doesn't really matter and
51:10
Speaker 6: it will take them years to construct this. The other
51:14
Speaker 6: interesting point was Haig seth ran through the reports from
51:18
Speaker 6: other intelligence agencies as well from the un from the Israelis,
51:23
Speaker 6: and the consensus across the board is that they have
51:26
Speaker 6: set back the Iranian nuclear program by years. So I think,
51:31
Speaker 6: really now, the obsession with this line around questioning exactly
51:36
Speaker 6: what was destroyed and how it's all a red herring
51:40
Speaker 6: designed to undermine America.
51:43
Speaker 2: Well, Pete Hegseth made that point at the beginning, didn't
51:46
Speaker 2: he where he said, the press are so obsessed with
51:48
Speaker 2: the scandals they missed truly historic moments. And then of
51:52
Speaker 2: course he handed over to the Chief of the Joint
51:56
Speaker 2: the Chievement of the Joint Chiefs, who described just how
51:58
Speaker 2: historic this mission was. We all learned about a new
52:01
Speaker 2: defense agency that many of us had never heard of before,
52:03
Speaker 2: the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which apparently studies movements of
52:09
Speaker 2: America's adversaries around the world and spends well, in this instance,
52:13
Speaker 2: fifteen years, as he said, preparing especially for the event
52:17
Speaker 2: of an attack that's necessary. But meanwhile, the media obsessed
52:23
Speaker 2: with red herrings, with leaks that come with agendas and
52:25
Speaker 2: Feetegseth is pointing out the obvious. If you're going to
52:28
Speaker 2: leak an intelligence report from the Pentagon, you don't do
52:32
Speaker 2: it out of the goodness of your heart, you do
52:33
Speaker 2: it with an agenda. And as you said, Caleb, he
52:36
Speaker 2: accused the media of having anti Trump bias in their DNA,
52:40
Speaker 2: which means they have to hope that the mission is unsuccessful,
52:43
Speaker 2: because if it is successful, they have to congratulate Donald Trump.
52:46
Speaker 3: That's the last thing they want.
52:48
Speaker 2: And so since those bombs were dropped, most of the
52:51
Speaker 2: media have spent the entire time undermining, doubting, casting aspersions.
52:57
Speaker 2: That the other thing that's interesting about this and I
52:59
Speaker 2: felt this through the entire press conference, and we're sitting
53:02
Speaker 2: here in Australia, but you almost felt a sense of
53:04
Speaker 2: pride for the US military and for the soldiers involved.
53:08
Speaker 2: And I think that represents a real shift in this
53:10
Speaker 2: administration where they are really promoting the military, promoting.
53:14
Speaker 3: Pride in the United States.
53:16
Speaker 2: And I liked when hag Seth, who was criticized during
53:19
Speaker 2: the week for talking about how proud he was of
53:21
Speaker 2: our boys who flew those planes, and then was, well,
53:24
Speaker 2: you know, there are women pilots in the Air Force
53:27
Speaker 2: as well, and he simply said, we don't do those
53:30
Speaker 2: silly gender games anymore.
53:31
Speaker 3: We don't play those games anymore.
53:34
Speaker 2: This administration really is straight shooting, promoting the US military
53:39
Speaker 2: and getting rid of all the rubbish that the media
53:41
Speaker 2: have engaged in for so long, to say, hey, we've
53:44
Speaker 2: got an important job to do defending our nation, and
53:46
Speaker 2: we don't expect.
53:47
Speaker 3: The media to just play along, but we do.
53:50
Speaker 2: Expect the media to show a sense of responsibility and
53:54
Speaker 2: a sense of impartiality in their reporting.
53:56
Speaker 4: And that goes to his opening remarks about what Trump
53:59
Speaker 4: managed to achieve at NATO. I mean, what you have seen,
54:03
Speaker 4: and I've written about this in my column and the
54:05
Speaker 4: Advertiser tomorrow. What you have seen this week is a
54:09
Speaker 4: genuine world leader.
54:11
Speaker 1: And it's a long time.
54:12
Speaker 4: Since you could say that we've had a genuine world leader,
54:16
Speaker 4: because I know we talk about prime ministers and presidents
54:21
Speaker 4: and premiers and people all the way down to local
54:24
Speaker 4: mayors being leaders, but the reality is that many of
54:28
Speaker 4: them are little.
54:28
Speaker 5: More than managers. They manage what is in front of them.
54:32
Speaker 4: In order to be a leader, funnily enough, you have
54:35
Speaker 4: to lead, which means you are getting other people to
54:39
Speaker 4: change their mind. You are changing the way a country operates,
54:43
Speaker 4: You're changing.
54:43
Speaker 5: Away the world operates.
54:45
Speaker 4: And that is what Trump has done this week, through
54:48
Speaker 4: the strength of that attack the preciseness of that attack.
54:52
Speaker 4: He has shown the world that he is willing to
54:55
Speaker 4: act if and when he thinks it is appropriate. And
54:57
Speaker 4: that is a message to China and Russia and any
55:01
Speaker 4: other potential adversary as much as it is to Iran.
55:04
Speaker 4: In fact, you know, you could argue that Iran is
55:07
Speaker 4: just the poor bugger that had to wear it in
55:09
Speaker 4: order for Trump to send the message that he's willing
55:11
Speaker 4: to use his might because it is there. He then
55:14
Speaker 4: goes to NATO and convinces all but one nation to
55:18
Speaker 4: increase their military spending to five percent.
55:21
Speaker 5: That is leadership, and that is why.
55:25
Speaker 4: Work like this has been so successful, because Trump, as
55:29
Speaker 4: he Seth said, has done away with the DEI nonsense
55:34
Speaker 4: and said we are in the business of peace through strength.
55:37
Speaker 5: And achieving things.
55:38
Speaker 4: That's what leadership is and that's what Trump has been about.
55:43
Speaker 4: And of course you mentioned the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
55:46
Speaker 4: I mean, how extraordinary the genesis of all of this
55:50
Speaker 4: Over more than fifteen years, sixteen years that these two blokes,
55:55
Speaker 4: two blokes have been working on this project like it
55:59
Speaker 4: is literally two men who lived and breathed four dough
56:03
Speaker 4: that led to this attack on Sunday, Our time.
56:08
Speaker 5: That is extraordinary. Two men to men.
56:10
Speaker 2: Makes Trump's comparison with the bomb dropped on Hiroshima a
56:14
Speaker 2: little more realistic.
56:15
Speaker 3: Right now.
56:16
Speaker 2: You know that they've been working for fifteen sixteen years
56:19
Speaker 2: getting ready for this. If you saw the movie Oppenheimer,
56:21
Speaker 2: where they work specifically on We're going to end the war,
56:24
Speaker 2: We're going to drop a bomb, makes that comparison not
56:28
Speaker 2: quite so silly. As many people mocked Trump when he
56:30
Speaker 2: said that.
56:31
Speaker 7: And they weren't just mapping the mapping four dough.
56:34
Speaker 6: It's through their mapping that they ended up developing these
56:37
Speaker 6: special bombs.
56:38
Speaker 7: And so it's all this knowledge.
56:40
Speaker 6: Compounded over fifteen years developing the bombs and all the
56:43
Speaker 6: tech required to destroy the plants.
56:45
Speaker 7: It's truly incredible.
56:46
Speaker 6: I felt proud, and I'm not even American, and I
56:49
Speaker 6: just was sitting there thinking, imagine if our leaders in
56:52
Speaker 6: Australia spoke like this about our country. Imagine how great
56:55
Speaker 6: that'd be to have a defense minister who knows what
56:57
Speaker 6: they're talking about.
56:59
Speaker 7: We can only dream.
57:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, of course you mentioned the NATO summit. Richard
57:02
Speaker 2: Marles was there on the very edge of the photograph.
57:06
Speaker 2: I'm not imagining that he nor the Albanezi government are
57:09
Speaker 2: going to be so enthusiastic about this amazing historic achievement
57:13
Speaker 2: by the United States military. It really does then leave
57:16
Speaker 2: them out in the cold when the US are celebrating
57:20
Speaker 2: such a historic event, a great result in Iran, and
57:24
Speaker 2: of course now with thirty two NATO nations right behind
57:27
Speaker 2: America who are leading with strengthening.
57:30
Speaker 4: And one of the other points that we should mention
57:31
Speaker 4: from that press is Higgs Seth sorry was asked multiple
57:34
Speaker 4: times about enriched uranium and whether or not it was
57:38
Speaker 4: removed from fourdoh ahead of the attack. He has said
57:41
Speaker 4: there is nothing to suggest that they didn't hit what
57:43
Speaker 4: they wanted to hit, which is saying he thinks they've
57:47
Speaker 4: destroyed it, but he's looking at the intelligence. But the
57:50
Speaker 4: reality is, even if it was removed, the stuff they
57:53
Speaker 4: need in order to use it has probably been destroyed.
57:56
Speaker 2: Well, it was an amazing press conference this evening. Thanks
57:59
Speaker 2: for tuning. That's all from US tonight, but stick around.
58:02
Speaker 2: Coming up in just a moment is to read a
58:04
Speaker 2: Pennety show.
58:05
Speaker 3: Good night,