{"id":559111,"date":"2026-07-25T15:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T15:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/559111\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T15:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T15:52:14","slug":"shameful-pentagon-accused-of-cover-up-over-us-military-casualties-in-iran-war-us-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/559111\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shameful\u2019: Pentagon accused of cover-up over US military casualties in Iran war | US military"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon is taking a \u201cshameful approach\u201d to releasing information about US casualties in the Iran war, Leon Panetta<\/a>, a former defence secretary and CIA director, has told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

The defence department has not held a press briefing<\/a> for two-and-a-half months. Officials have faced accusations that they are engaged in a cover-up designed to hide the true cost of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s war of choice in Iran, fearing a public backlash before November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Panetta, who held weekly Pentagon briefings during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, criticised the department for failing to disclose how many people had been hurt in bomb attacks by Iran on US bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a deliberate effort here to basically withhold information from the American people, and I think it represents in many ways a shameful approach to sharing the responsibility that we all have when it comes to fighting a war,\u201d he said by phone.<\/p>\n

Leon Panetta at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on 22 August 2024. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A fragile ceasefire between the \u200bUS and Iran collapsed earlier this month and both \u200bsides have been carrying out daily strikes against each other, prompting fears of a quagmire and a betrayal of Trump\u2019s campaign promise to eschew \u201cforever wars\u201d.<\/p>\n

The number of US troops killed in the war on Iran \u200brose to 18 last weekend, while \u200croughly 430 US troops \u200bhave been injured. The Pentagon said on \u200bMonday that 100 service members had been injured since 7 July but that 96% had returned to duty. The department initially failed to disclose the figures, according to a New York Times newspaper report<\/a>, only belatedly acknowledging the casualties in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Officials dismissed the Times\u2019 article as \u201cbaseless and malicious<\/a>\u201d and contend that they are not strictly required to publicise injuries if service members are expected to return to duty. But questions intensified when another Times report said the Pentagon\u2019s website had lowered the number of troop deaths from 18 to 14; Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, blamed \u201ca temporary data disruption\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Critics, however, say the information blackout is a calculated political strategy to hide a failing military intervention.<\/p>\n

Ned Price<\/a>, a former deputy to the US representative to the United Nations and former spokesperson for the state department, said: \u201cThis goes beyond a run-of-the-mill administration distrust toward and hostility against the press. This is more about shielding the American people from the true and total cost of this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pentagon v the press<\/p>\n

Since the war started five months ago, there has been a tension between the government\u2019s desire for operational secrecy and the media\u2019s demand for transparency on behalf of the public. Even during contentious, unpopular wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the lines of communication were kept more or less open. But since Trump\u2019s return to power in January 2025, the Pentagon \u2013 restyled as the Department of War<\/a> \u2013 has been restricting access.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately, it ousted major outlets including the New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR) and Politico from their long-held desks, supplanting them with Trump-friendly media such as Breitbart, the One America News Network and the New York Post. In May, it imposed restrictions on the free movement of reporters<\/a> in most of the Pentagon building.<\/p>\n

In October, most news outlets turned in their access badges and walked out<\/a> of the Pentagon rather than agree to new rules that would leave them vulnerable to expulsion if they sought to report on information \u2013 classified or otherwise \u2013 that had not been approved by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, for release. In December, the department held a three-day event<\/a> to usher in newly accredited media organisations, including pro-Trump podcasters and influencers.<\/p>\n

double quotation markWhat is happening at the Pentagon is unique in my 34 years in WashingtonMark Schoeff, National Press Club<\/p>\n

In March this year, the Pentagon introduced a rule that required journalists to be escorted on Pentagon grounds by authorised department personnel. In June, it said its press office was now a classified space<\/a> inaccessible to journalists because it was used by speechwriters who \u201croutinely handle classified material\u201d. The ever-tightening limits have alarmed press freedom watchdogs.<\/p>\n

Clayton Weimers<\/a>, the Washington director for Reporters Without Borders, said: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s an exaggeration to say this Pentagon has been more hostile to the news media than any other Pentagon in recent memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporters carry their belongings from the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on 15 October 2025, after news outlets declined to sign restrictive media rules and were stripped of their access credentials. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mark Schoeff<\/a>, president of the National Press Club, agrees that such hostility is a historical aberration, saying: \u201cWhat is happening at the Pentagon is unique in my 34 years in Washington. We\u2019ve not seen these kinds of restrictions on the media at the Pentagon. Even during Desert Storm [the Gulf war] and the war in Afghanistan, I can\u2019t recall a time when the Pentagon tried to shut down press access like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current obfuscation is particularly jarring when contrasted with the administration\u2019s earlier posture: in the opening days of the Iran war, Hegseth was a ubiquitous presence, delivering bombastic briefings<\/a> in which he crowed about annihilating the Iranian military with \u201cno mercy\u201d and restoring the US as a nation of \u201creal warriors\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon then banned photojournalists<\/a> when images of Hegseth deemed \u201cunflattering\u201d appeared in the public domain. At one briefing, Hegseth compared reporters to the \u201cPharisees\u201d, describing the media\u2019s coverage of the war in Iran as an \u201cendless stream of garbage\u201d.<\/p>\n

Reporters walk out of the Pentagon together on 15 October 2025. Photograph: The Washington Post\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Now, the bravado has been replaced by a vacuum. While there have been no briefings since May, Hegseth last week announced a screening programme for \u201ctestosterone deficiency\u201d among troops, calling it necessary to allow them to operate at their \u201cabsolute best\u201d. Such diversions raised suspicions that the war was spiralling out of control.<\/p>\n

Joel Rubin<\/a>, a former deputy assistant secretary of state, said: \u201cWhen you\u2019re not able to communicate clearly what\u2019s actually taking place on the ground, that means you\u2019re likely not confident or comfortable with what is happening on the ground and how it will play politically and in the policy world here. It\u2019s a pretty obvious thing that there\u2019s a lot of concern about there being casualties in this war right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cost of war<\/p>\n

The war in Iran is already unpopular in the US due to rising gas prices and other inflationary impacts on people\u2019s everyday lives. People who are paying attention know that 18 US service members have died, Price said. \u201cBut what they don\u2019t know,\u201d he added, \u201cunless they\u2019re really digging, is the full extent of casualties that our men and women in uniform have suffered as a result of this decision to take our country to war without clear objectives and certainly without a clear off-ramp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the sort of thing where a dozen or two dozen service members have suffered low-grade concussion. There are hundreds \u2013 by one count, some 500 US service members \u2013 who have suffered physically as a result of this war, and the administration probably rightly calculates that, if the economic costs were compounded with the full toll that this is taking on our service members, this war, which is already a politically losing proposition, would drag the administration down even further.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markIt raises questions about why they wouldn\u2019t be reporting these casualties in a timely mannerJanessa Goldbeck, Vet Voice Foundation<\/p>\n

For veterans and national security experts, the Pentagon\u2019s handling of US casualties amounts to a shameful cover-up. \u201cThe Pentagon said 96% of those affected returned to duty but again, a reminder that we know that modern warfare, like the impacts of an injury, might not be felt or seen until months or years later,\u201d said Janessa Goldbeck<\/a>, chief executive of Vet Voice Foundation, a non-profit advocacy organisation. \u201cWe deserve to know exactly what\u2019s happened and it raises questions about why they wouldn\u2019t be reporting these casualties in a timely manner. My assumption is that it\u2019s about controlling the political narrative before a major national election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Acevado (center) being held by her sister, Judy Rachel, during the memorial service for her daughter, US army Sgt Angel S Rampersad, who died in an Iranian attack on a US army base in Jordan. Photograph: Dave Burns\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Although Hegseth has avoided the media, he was obliged to attend a hearing on Capitol Hill this week to defend a war that has already cost the US $37.5bn. During a combative Senate appropriations committee hearing on Tuesday, politicians from both sides of the aisle expressed deep frustration with the administration\u2019s endless demands for money coupled with its refusal to provide straight answers or a coherent strategy.<\/p>\n

When the senator Gary Peters, a Democrat, called the administration\u2019s approach a complete \u201cfailure\u201d, Hegseth erupted in anger, snapping: \u201cShame on you and others who call this a quagmire and a failure.\u201d Peters shot back: \u201cYou, sir, are the failure. You don\u2019t have a strategy. You don\u2019t have a long-term plan to actually win this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steven Cash, a former intelligence officer and executive director of the Steady State<\/a> \u2013 an advocacy group of more than 400 former national security officials \u2013 warns that the Trump administration and its Pentagon leadership do not view the public or the press as stakeholders to be informed, but as adversaries to be defeated.<\/p>\n

\u201cPete Hegseth and the president of the United States don\u2019t see a real major role for the voters of America or the Congress, so why tell them anything? They\u2019ve made it clear that they don\u2019t see a role for you, the media. You are an enemy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

double quotation markThey can dodge, bob and weave, and they can hide it but \u2026 in the end, the truth comes outLeon Panetta<\/p>\n

The Pentagon denies that it is minimising reports of casualties. Sean Parnell<\/a>, the chief spokesperson, said in a statement: \u201cThe Department of War and US Central Command has consistently provided comprehensive, real-time updates to the world on the United States\u2019 strikes and operations in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump and Secretary Hegseth<\/a> have been constantly providing updates directly to the media and the American people online, delivering clear, unfiltered insight into our objectives and decisive actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remains of Staff Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton (center left) and 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan during a dignified transfer at Dover air force base in Dover, Delaware, on 22 July 2026. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo\/EPA<\/p>\n

Although briefings have dried up, the news has not, as Pentagon beat reporters continue to work their sources and pursue information. Panetta said officials were \u201ctrying to tiptoe past the graveyard, so to speak, in the sense that they\u2019re hoping that the less they say, the less controversy they\u2019ll be involved in, but the reality is that the press will only operate that much more aggressively to find out exactly what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn essence what they\u2019re doing is challenging the press to find what\u2019s really happening, and they will. They can dodge, bob and weave, they can hide it but my experience is that no matter how much you try to hide it, in the end, the truth comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pentagon is taking a \u201cshameful approach\u201d to releasing information about US casualties in the Iran war, Leon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-559111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}