Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on the intelligence report claiming US strikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear programme

Reports claim US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities did not destroy the Iranian nuclear programme - and likely only set it back.

Details of the initial damage assessment from the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency were recently leaked and the White House has been quick to fire back against it.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says Trump's conduct has been 'surprising' for a world leader. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dan Mitchinson's with us right now out of the US.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hey Dan, Hey, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Look, I know the White House is trying to play
this report down, but it does look very much like
the bombs didn't do that much damage, or certainly not enough.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
No, I mean what we're starting to hear, and some
of the images were seen. I mean, you know, three
strikes on three of these nuclear facilities, and you know
President Trump said everything when boom, But we're learning that
this may have set the program back by a few months,
maybe a little bit longer. And this was you know,
the information is being leaked supposedly by the Defense Intelligence
Agency and the White House, like you just mentioned, is no, no, no, no,

(00:33):
You've got this wrong. This was classified, the info was
top secret, but it was laked to CNN by an
anonymous low level quote loser in the intelligence community. And
the fact that even their spokespeople are speaking like Trump
now using words like loser when they're talking to the
media kind of is funny in itself. But that's, you know,
another story for another time.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
How's it gone down with you guys? Him dropping the
F bomb on the lawn?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I was surprised by that. That is just something that
you don't expect from any world leader. I mean, we've
heard I don't know if you want to say, worse
from him when he was out of office, but that
was that was kind of a shocker. I think, yeah,
that's I think that's the I think that's kind of
where I can begin and end with that.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
You guys, I mean, you know you My experience of
Americans is you guys don't really like swearing that match out,
So that must have really Jared.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, it is, and it's it's funny because you'll go
and you'll you'll listen to newscasts or you'll watch news
and other parts of the world, and you'll hear language
like that, and you'll see nudity. That's you know, that's
that's natural for the the context of the story. But
over here everything is blurred or bleeped. Occasionally you'll get
something on the cable a channel that might let that slip,

(01:46):
but no, that's you know, words like that, like George
Carla would say, there are seven words that are still
very hard to get by on air over here in
the US.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, all right, now, what's happened to this Norwegian tourist
that that killer meme that he had of JD. Vans
seems pretty innocuous.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well it was. And this is a guy that's in
his early twenties and he was flying into New Jersey's
Newark Airport, which by the way, is one of the
worst airports in the US you can fly into, and
he was going on holiday. He was pulled aside by
a customs or border and I guess he said it
was an abusive power that that you know, he was
he was threatened he had a five thousand dollars fine
or five years in prison if he refused to give

(02:26):
a password to his mobile phone, so I guess he did.
And they found a meme on the role showing a JD.
Vance with his bald I don't know, it's a giant,
sort of egg shaped head. And he says he was,
you know, okay, the image was amusing. I mean, anytime
you get memes like this, it doesn't matter who it is.
I don't care what political party you're with. It's it's

(02:46):
just funny. But he says, you know, he was sent
on his way home to the Norway the same he's.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Even that bad. It is just a picture of James
Vans with no hair.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, it's it's it's like these these oh, I don't
know what they do. Some of the newspapers over here,
we'll say, yes, who the celebrity is, and they kind
of tweak the image a little bit, sort of know
who it is, but you don't. And that's kind of
what it was.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
I mean, there's obviously this is obviously being left to
the discretion of the border officials, right, and some of
them are always just very touchy, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh, I think so, you know, I think some of
them are are concerned about their jobs. I think some
are getting orders from the top down to say, okay,
you know, this is what we're going to do right now,
just to you know, please the boss.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
But some of them pitch you know.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, yeah. I think that's a good way to put
And I think that's why we're seeing, you know, the
numbers drop on tourism over here, because so many people
that I've talked to from from Canada and over in
the UK say they're just so concerned about coming over
here and getting through security more so than you know,
traveling around the US. It's just what they have to
put up with getting into the country.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Again, I explain to me, how a woman married a
guy and he didn't know that she'd done it.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
This usually would be a story that we would say
is coming out of Florida, but it's not. This is
a Texas And he found out that he was married.
He had not attended the wedding he was in. He
went home and he found this this gift bag, and
it contained a copy of a marriage license that had
been filed with the county Clerk's office and a picture
from his ex holding a marriage certificate, and there was

(04:14):
a tag that said congrats. Maybe call your wife. So
he contacted the police department and they had been in
a relationship and they had actually obtained a marriage license
earlier this month, but they broke up before the wedding,
so police got a warrant and they arrested her for
I think it was felony stocking and and and took
her into custody. Wow. How strange is that people are?
How strange is that they are?

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I've got a tickt from Rob saying, can you please
tell us what the seven words are?

Speaker 2 (04:40):
No? I can't, well can you go?

Speaker 1 (04:42):
I mean obviously see bomb if bomb is word?

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah? Yeah, those those those are the those are those
are the top three? Yeah? Yeah, in where you don't
want to Yeah, the M and the F word and
you know those are those you know, google them? Who
was just said?

Speaker 1 (04:59):
You you don't know what they are, do you? You
don't even know where they are.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
I know what four or five of them are. It's
the other couple that I'm not because you know.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
He's going to be a couple of low level ones
there that aren't that bad. Hey, thank you, Dan, I
appreciate it. Dan Mitchison, US correspondent. For more from Hither
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