Much hay is being made by the Guardian, CNN and other legacy media outlets of an outrageously leaked, classified Defense Intelligence Agency raw intelligence report which indicated the US bombing campaign of three Iranian nuclear facilities did not “obliterate” those structures, contrary to President Trump’s claims, and may have only set that country’s nuclear program back by several months.
Of course, an investigation should be mounted to identify the DIA officials who violated their oaths and leaked this national security material, but the credibility assigned to any such after-action report should be considered dubious, at best.
In-depth analysis of the situation will take time, and will include multiple vectors of intelligence collection, such as imagery analysis, human intelligence from sources within Iran, radiation detection and measurement, communications intelligence and so forth.
But one thing that surprised me is that the Trump administration did not release video footage of the bomb blasts themselves.
While such a dramatic video would not be dispositive of the destruction of the facilities or even the extent of the damage inflicted, I think the imagery would be very impactful on the public mind. It would lay to rest some of the confusion as to what exactly the United States did to these facilities, resulting from the mainstream media’s claims that the president’s “obliteration” assessments were overblown.
I do not know what imagery was shot, but surely cameras onboard the B-2 bombers delivering the weapons, onboard other U.S. or Israeli aircraft orbiting the location at the time the weapons were delivered, and satellite cameras focused on the sites must have captured video of the incredible scenes. One can imagine the fiery spectacle of those enormous, 30,000-pound GBU-57A Massive Ordinance Penetrator bombs demolishing the above-ground facilities and those buried deep underground at the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan sites.
In demonstration videos of the GBU-57A bomb that have been released, the weapon creates a huge fiery blast out of the hole it creates, even after burrowing down hundreds of feet, as one would expect. Those demonstration videos were shot in daylight. Can you imagine how such blasts would look in the dark of the Iranian night?
Among the most iconic footage of World War II were the videos shot by the U.S. War Department of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the U.S. military and their horrific aftermath. It left no doubt in the mind of the American public, and the world writ large, that America possessed the most devastating weapons ever produced, and was prepared to use them if necessary.
I can imagine several reasons why the Trump administration has not released such footage, assuming it exists.
It is possible they are withholding it for national security reasons of some sort, in terms of revealing methods and surveillance capabilities. However, I cannot imagine that releasing video footage of great balls of flame erupting at Iranian nuclear facilities at night would be particularly compromising. After all, they have released still images of the sites, showing the smoking holes produced by the weapons.
Another possible reason that such footage hasn’t been released is that the bombs didn't explode as expected and our government doesn’t want that information revealed. However, that seems implausible, given the superb military technology the U.S. military possesses, and given the smoking holes noted above.
A third reason, and the one that seems most likely, for the withholding of such footage is psychological. The Trump administration may not want to inflame the Islamic world further by having such footage circulating endlessly online. It could be exploited for propaganda purposes, particularly as it tries to coax the Iranian regime to come to terms with U.S. and Israeli demands that it ceases its efforts to create nuclear weapons.
Still, President Trump is fighting domestic opponents as intent on defeating him as are our enemies abroad. As the most media-savvy president in the history of the Republic, he knows the power of imagery like no one else and is extremely adept at using it. There is a reason that the upper echelon of his administration is populated largely by individuals with extensive experience in front of the camera, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. We live in an age where too few people read, and most get their information from video clips fed to them on their cell phones and laptops.
On that basis, the need to inform the American public about the events that took place in Iran by releasing video of the blasts may outweigh any perceived propaganda value the Muslim world finds in the footage. It would demonstrate the power of the United States military, much as the footage of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did. And it would give the likes of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and China’s Xi Jinping pause were they ever to consider doing something foolhardy in the extreme.
William F. Marshall has been an intelligence analyst and investigator in the government, private, and non-profit sectors for 38 years. He is a senior investigator for Judicial Watch, Inc., and has been a contributor to Townhall, American Thinker, Epoch Times, The Federalist, American Greatness, and other publications. His work has been featured on CBS News 48 Hours Mysteries and NBC News Dateline. (The views expressed are the author’s alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.)
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