Last week, I catalogued a number of filters — crazy, stupid, false, impotent, and blind — via which true accounts still present a misleading picture of the Iran war.
Just the last one — the blindness created by a delay in public release of satellite imagery — involved something other than the Trump team’s inadequacies.
I wanted to revisit that, and catalog a number of similar blind spots.
Satellite imagery
In my earlier post I described how Planet Labs and other public satellite imagery firms delayed the release of targets hit by Iran for two weeks, which made it hard to understand, first, how Benjamin Pennington was killed and if it came with help from Russia, and second, whether that initial March 1 strike explains Iran’s subsequent success hitting Prince Sultan Air Force base.
Which brings me back to the decision by private satellite companies, notably Planet Labs, to delay the release of imagery reflecting targets on American or its allies facilities.
California-based Planet Labs has expanded restrictions on accessing its imagery of the Middle East to prevent adversaries from using it to attack the U.S. and its allies, a sign of how the expansion of commercial space business can impact conflicts.
Planet, which operates a large fleet of Earth-imaging satellites and sells frequently updated images to governments, companies and media, told customers on Monday that it was extending restrictions to a period of 14 days from a delay of four days imposed last week.
The decision came after NYT published this story showing that Iran had succeeded in hitting communications infrastructure around the Middle East, including what is probably the strike that led to Benjamin Pennington’s death, which has never been fully explained.
But that strike — the strike on Prince Sultan’s radar — may well explain how Iran succeeded in another attack — the one that damaged five refueling tankers parked at Prince Sultan — presented as an example of bad news Trump learned from reading it in WSJ.
Yesterday, CNN published a picture (seemingly without that two week delay) that confirms that Iran did take out one of the radars on which the larger Middle Eastern missile defense depends.
A critical American radar was damaged in an Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base on March 1, a new satellite image has revealed. The radar, an AN/TPY-2, is a crucial piece of equipment for the US’ high-end THAAD missile interception system.
Since then, the base has suffered multiple Iranian attacks, including on March 27, when an E-3 radar aircraft and a refueling tanker were struck. That attack wounded at least 10 US service members.
The strike was part of a pattern of attacks by Iran seemingly intended to degrade the US’ ability to detect incoming missiles and drones by striking radars. Iranian strikes also destroyed another American AN/TPY-2 radar in Jordan, targeted military communications infrastructure, and damaged a Qatari early warning radar that cost over $1 billion to build.
CNN previously reported that a tent which had housed the radar at Prince Sultan was struck but could not confirm if the radar was present at the time of the attack, or if it had been damaged.
This is an example where we could assume the damage based on subsequent Iranian success. But we still don’t have a full explanation of Pennington’s death.
Casualties
Nick Turse argues that’s intentional. He points to a number of ways, including limiting what DOD is counting as Iran War casualties and delaying the update of casualty figures, that DOD is low-balling casualty numbers.
U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, appears to be engaged in what a defense official called a “casualty cover-up,” offering The Intercept low-ball and outdated figures and failing to provide clarifications on military deaths and injuries.
At least 15 U.S. troops were wounded Friday in an Iranian attack on a Saudi air base that hosts American troops, according to two government officials who spoke with The Intercept. Hundreds of U.S. personnel have been killed or injured in the region since the U.S. launched a war on Iran just over a month ago.
[snip]
CENTCOM has sent outdated statements on casualty numbers, meanwhile, resulting in undercounts, including a statement sent Monday from spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins noting that “Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 303 U.S. service members have been wounded.” The comment was three days old and excluded at least 15 wounded in the Friday attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The command did not reply to repeated requests for updated figures.
CENTCOM also would not provide a count of troops who have died in the region since the start of the war. An Intercept analysis puts the number at no less than 15.
“This is, quite obviously, a subject that [War Secretary Pete] Hegseth and the White House want to keep under major wraps,” said the defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak frankly.
That obviously limits political pressure. But it also makes it harder to do what is critical to assessing Trump’s misconduct: documenting that Russia is now killing American service members, and Trump seems anxious to reward Russia.
DOD’s general lack of credibility makes it easier to assess claims, like those in the last day from Iran, that they’ve downed an F-15.
DOD has deployed rescue teams to southern Iran, so it is clear Iran is telling the truth about this downing.
Update: DOD has posted casualties for Operation Epstein Fury for the month of March.
Enforced blindness, US: Press suppression
Meanwhile, four key players are using strategies to prevent more visibility.
In the US, Whiskey Pete gutted the press access to the Pentagon and is trying to criminalize actual reporting. Even as the NYT won a preliminary injunction against such measures, it accuses DOD of flouting that order.
Rather than comply with the Court’s Order and accompanying Opinion, Defendants are contemptuously defying it—both in letter and spirit in a newly released “interim” policy. Among other things, for the first time in history, the Interim Policy bars reporters with press passes from entering the building without an escort, sets up unprecedented rules governing when a reporter can offer anonymity to a source, and leaves in place provisions that this Court’s Order struck. Defendants’ counsel, Cmdr. Timothy Parlatore, candidly admitted that this revised, interim policy simply “use[s] more words to say the same thing.”1 See Second Supplemental Boutrous Decl., Ex. 1 (the “Interim Policy”). That is the definition of contempt.
As Julian Barnes (the named plaintiff) describes, effectively DOD is trying to pen journalists — even those with an escort — to the Pentagon library.
6. On Tuesday, March 31, 2026, I arrived at the Pentagon at 12:10 p.m. and entered the Visitor Center security area. I showed the attendant behind the glass my driver’s license and the PFAC. I entered my social security number upon his request. I was advised that individuals holding PFACs must enter through corridor 8. I replied that I had an appointment and the escort was going to meet me in the Visitor’s Center. The supervisor repeated that anyone with a PFAC could enter only through corridor 8. This was despite the fact that I was told to meet my escort in the Visitor’s Center and the fact that before I could have simply entered through the main gate using my PFAC. After I arrived at the Pentagon, the interview was postponed, and I was immediately escorted out of the building.
7. As that experience made clear to me, my PFAC does not provide me access to the Pentagon building and provides access only to the separate library building. By contrast, and like visitors who do not hold a PFAC, I may access the Pentagon building only upon invitation or approval by Department officials, and only with an escort. Neither I nor, to my knowledge, any of my colleagues have been told about the criteria used in determining whether to approve such a request, though the Interim Policy does state that no more than three PFAC holders from the same news organization will be provided an escort per day.
8. Going through a sometimes-lengthy process of scheduling official appointments in order to ask even one or two questions to an official—even assuming that request is granted and that official does not have to reschedule—does not allow for meaningful engagement with Department personnel on a timeline consistent with news reporting. As I stated in a prior declaration, reporting from the Pentagon has historically necessitated speaking to upwards of a dozen officials and other personnel from different press offices in a given day, sometimes in response to rapidly developing events. While I used to be able to walk from press office to press office throughout the day, I now would have to return to the library, call or email for an appointment, and wait for a response and approval, and for arrangement for and arrival of an escort. That means I will be spending hours of my day just waiting and walking back and forth—assuming I can get ahold of press offices and individuals and arrange interviews and be approved for an escort at all. That process will dramatically interfere with my ability to meaningfully engage with anyone from the Department on Pentagon grounds, or to obtain the information necessary to inform the public in a timely manner.
Effectively, DOD is saying that if is not allowed to restrict press resources to Laura Loomer (more on her in a follow-up) and Jack Posobiec, then no one can have access.
During the Iraq War, there would have been embedded journalists at Prince Sultan, who could explain some of what has happened at the base. Now, Whiskey Pete’s hand-selected scribes wouldn’t understand what they were looking at if they were embedded.
Enforced blindness, UAE: Prosecution
The UAE risks having their entire myth of a desert paradise tainted if images of the damage Iran is doing circulate widely. As a result, it is cracking down on foreigners, particularly Brits, who are publishing videos of drone strikes.
Up to 70 UK citizens have been detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for taking photos and videos of Iranian attacks, it has been claimed by a British-based campaign group.
Detained in Dubai chief executive Radha Stirling said she believed dozens of Britons had been arrested in the UAE for sharing war images under the country’s “draconian” cybercrime laws.
“We’re talking approaching 50 to 70 was my estimate and possibly even more. I think by the end of this we’ll see a lot more, possibly 100, maybe 150,” she told Sky News.
Bellingcat has a report on some of the incidents UAE has been trying to downplay.
Bellingcat has identified several high-profile incidents where authorities in the United Arab Emirates have downplayed damage, mischaracterised interceptions and in some instances not acknowledged successful Iranian drone strikes on the country.
A review of official statements shows that the public account does not always align with what can be observed through open sources. This comes as the UAE faces sustained aerial attacks on civilian and economic infrastructure, challenging its image as a secure global hub for business and tourism. Hours after the United States and Israel launched coordinated attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, the Islamic Republic responded by launching an attack against US-allies in the region including the UAE.
In the wake of the attacks, the UAE’s attorney general warned that publication of images or videos of strikes was illegal. People were also encouraged to report anyone sharing photos or videos of the strikes to authorities.
[snip]
On March 3, a video filmed from a vessel appears to show a drone striking the port of Fujairah, one of the UAE’s most strategically important energy hubs. The port handles roughly 1.7 million barrels of oil per day and is among the world’s largest.
The drone appears to approach its target intact, with no visible sign of interception, Sam Lair, a researcher at James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told Bellingcat.
Moments after it descends behind storage tanks, an explosion is heard and a large plume of smoke rises from the site.
On the same day, the Fujairah Media Office stated that a fire resulted from debris following a successful interception, adding that the had been brought under control. Satellite images captured on March 4 and 5 show thick black smoke rising from the site. NASA FIRMS data also detected fires on March 3, March 4 and March 5. By March 7, satellite imagery shows at least three storage tanks fully destroyed (25.184565, 56.345481).
The UAE strikes, in particular, would serve to hide Iran’s attempt to target US corporate facilities, like the Oracle facility hit today (though the AWS facility it has serially targeted is in Bahrain).
Enforced blindness, Iran: Netblock
Iran is using a more traditional method: Blocking access to the Internet for virtually everyone, which Netblocks continues to track.
Update: The internet blackout in #Iran is now on its 35th consecutive day as connectivity flatlines at 1% of ordinary levels after 816 hours. The general public remain cut off from the world without vital updates and without a voice as the incident closes its fifth week.
The US (or Israel) had tried to counteract Iran’s similar shutdown during protests earlier this year by getting Starlink terminals into the country.
Iran is now targeting them specifically.
Iranian authorities arrested dozens of people who were allegedly in a network that sold Starlink satellite terminals, as Tehran expands efforts to control information more than a month into its war with the US and Israel.
Iran seized 139 Starlink devices and arrested 46 people involved in selling SpaceX’s terminals, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported Monday, citing the country’s police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan. There are an estimated 50,000 Starlink terminals in the country, according to activists and digital rights groups.
In my earlier post, I described how Trump’s erratic state makes regular source-based reporting fraught with dangerous filters.
And what remains is blinded by a number of deliberate tactics.
Wondering how much of Whiskey Pete’s current purge of US military’s upper ranks is another form of suppression — intended not just to rid the ranks of officers who support merit-based promotions for all, but to generate a fog in the media obscuring what Whiskey Pete has and is fucking up wrt Iran and elsewhere.
intuitively correct about purge —
Yes, the purge will smokescreen the incompetence, but my biggest fear is that it’s meant to install ambitious “true believers” atop the military who will obey Trump’s and Hegseth’s illegal orders to commit war crimes like destroying power plants and desalinization plants vital to the survival of Iranian civilians. And of course, those minions would be useful here at home to enforce martial law when Republican lose the midterm elections — or to prevent them altogether.
UAE thing is probably biggest among the non-Iranian issues. Between being more vulnerable than it lets on, and the (eventually) released British suing everyone, including their former employers, and the probable tariffs/tolls Iran imposes on Hormuz, Dubai will shrink to become the Macau, Nassau, or Cheyenne (Wyoming, where tens of thousands of “corporations” have their HQ in a mailbox) of the Middle East: a nominal mailing address but nothing else.
Certainly has that possibility.
Loss of an F-15E has been confirmed. It appears that at least one of the two crew ejected, as Iranian civilians found an ejection seat some distance from the crash site.
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/568741
I cannot imagine how incompetently Trump and Hogsbreath will negotiate the release of one or two pilots with Iran. I also pity the poor pilots fate.
The whole thing makes me deeply sad. Hegseth’s incompetence made this more likely and made it more likely the one remaining pilot (they did rescue one) will be ill-treated.
You avoid war crimes for your own service members, if not for humanity.
One of the crew has been rescued:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/apr/03/middle-east-crisis-live-trump-urges-iran-to-make-deal-after-bridge-strike
Maybe Kegsbreath and Trump need to stop their “no quarter” rhetoric and stop the double tap killing of survivors.
I’m sure the families of any captured Americans would appreciate seeing their family members alive again when Trump’s clusteruck finally ends.
(I won’t lose sleep waiting for any members of the media to put this issue to them.)
I wonder how many deaths and injuries DoD is *not* reporting.
A slight digression from EW’s main point about press blind spots: I can’t help but think about blind spots in the chain of command. Yes, Trump is stupid, ignorant, cruel, and vain, and therefore we should not be surprised that he dismissed concerns about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Yes, Trump values loyalty over competence, and has dismissed any independent thinkers who might have been in his orbit, which tendency would have undermined the actual execution of any orders he gave. However, as with all other parts of the world, the DoD would have had contingency plans for attacking Iran long before Trump took office, plans which would have been updated as conditions, capabilities, and technology changed. Still, outside the actual cadre of White House bootlickers, DoD planners seem not to have considered the ways in which even a seriously damaged Iran could respond to an attack, ways which have in turn seriously damaged our bases and our capabilities. That shortcoming is not all the fault of Trump and his sycophants. The career men and women at the Pentagon seem to have had a limited sense of the losses they could suffer in an asymmetrical war.
I suspect that Kegseth and The Felon Guy ignored all those plans as being woke and DEI.
“DoD planners seem not to have considered the ways in which even a seriously damaged Iran could respond to an attack”
I don’t think we know enough to blame planners. Results so far could be one of the reasons behind Kegseth’s purge — he needs someone to throw under the bus because he’s ordered shitty tactics even non-military could predict to be problematic.
Remember Trump 1.0 ditched John Bolton, and is still ignoring him. Is Trump listening instead to Netanyahu? Is Kegseth doing the same, listening to Israel’s defense leadership instead of US intelligence?
There’s probably a whole series of posts/books/research theses to be written on Trump and his relationship with Netenyahu but, for a long time, he’s been critical of Americans who he thought were not sufficiently loyal to Israel. See, for example:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49417157
and
https://forward.com/news/594032/trump-jews-disloyal-israel-timeline/
Netanyahoo and the Zionists?
All too often that’s the way the matzoh crumbles; into a half-baked cracker.
Is another blind spot, the inability to foresee the ease with which Iran (or anyone, for that matter) can attack a sitting duck installation like that radar facility? The darn thing’s sitting right out in plain sight in the middle of the desert, after all. For how many years now, so we can plan. Or, is it only with the advent of cheap and good drones, that this becomes a problem?
Yeah, that’s what he follow-up will be. Note the reference to Laura Loomer (who also had a hand in the last day’s firings).
Looking forward to the Looming follow-up. Just an intrepid reporter developing sources just like every hardworking journalist.
This is all a clever scheme by Trump and Hegseth to increase the number of volunteers for the services.
What patriotic American wouldn’t be eager to serve under those two? They will have the pleasant memories of the war crimes they participated to cherish the rest of their lives.
I just figured out why Hegseth wears the stupid American flag hankee in his jacket pocket. It’s supposed to create the impression of service medals and rank ribbons.
Of course, if the plan is to immiserate and pauperize the US, I guess people won’t have much choice.
Plane downed, and one of the crew not yet retrieved despite no want of trying. Is the Jimmy Carter scenario coming back to haunt Generalissimo Trump?