Did US defence chief know about Israel's attack on Iran nuclear plant?

Timing is everything. Lloyd Austin, US defence secretary, arrives in Israel for official talks with his Israeli counterpart and with Bibi Netanyahu, the prime minister, literally within hours of Mossad, the country's secret service, having carried out a a super-clandestine attack on Iran's nuclear plant at Natanz. If Austin didn't know about it before he arrived, then it must have been seriously embarrassing for him, the big defence chief flying in ignorant of a major coup by the country hosting his visit. During his press conference, Austin with Netanyahu by his side, made no reference to the Natanz attack which crippled the uranium-enrichment production line with a mighty explosion. So, not a cyber attack as most newspapers reported but an inside-job strike that caused a massive crater. How Mossad managed to carry it out we will probably never know. But you can bet that the poor Pentagon correspondents travelling with Austin on his trip will have got absolutely nothing in their sessions with him. I have been on many of these trips and I know from experience that sometimes it's better to be back home with your phone and ringing contacts than it is to be sitting on the same plane as the Pentagon boss and getting briefed. You get zero insight into the real story, if there is a real story. So any questions by the reporters about what Austin knew before the Natanz attack and whether he could confirm that Israel had carried out the attack will have been met with zilch. The only comments would have been about the solid alliance with Israel and the threat posed by Iran. But nothing about the Mossad attack. It's possible, probable, that Austin knew absoutely nothing about the Natanz plot before it happened because the Israelis tend to keep these things close to their chest for fear of leaks and just because it makes operational sense. Even if he was not in the know, Austin I am sure will have played the game astutely and would have kept to the script written by his advisers for when he met Netanyahu and the Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz. The advice would probably have been, "don't mention Mossad". Better not to ask the question when you know the answer already but also know that Israel never confirms or denies any military action anywhere, not even to the American defence secretary.