Pete Hegseth, the self-designated “Secretary of War” of the Trump Administration, has apparently violated numerous laws of war in his short tenure, for which Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) prepared an impeachment resolution. House Speaker Mike Johnson recently adjourned the House ahead of schedule to avoid a vote on this resolution. One of those impeachable violations was Hegseth’s dismantling of the Pentagon’s office and procedures for determining harm to civilians—when it occurred, and who is responsible for it. Thus, when U.S. armed forces bombed and destroyed the Shajarah Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, Iran on the first day of attacking that country, killing more than 150 students and teachers, the Pentagon acknowledged the strike, but nothing else.

On Oct. 18, both Antiwar.com and Bloomberg News reported that after eight months, a report of some kind on that bombing is said to be complete, but “senior Pentagon officials” have decided not to release it before the Nov. 3 elections, and perhaps to withhold it indefinitely. To do either, they would have to intervene in a House Armed Services Committee defense policy bill for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, already passed by that Committee, which requires the release of that report within 30 days of its completion. The Senate’s draft version of the bill contains the same language.