Father Of SEAL Killed In Yemen To Trump: 'Don’t Hide Behind My Son’s Death'…

[Mr.LV]

Accountability rarely sticks on Trump

 

[Lurkristocrat]

I keep typing out a long post and then deleting it cause of the violent threats i want to make.

Ok

 

[stringer bell]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/spicer-yemen-raid-three-reviews

White House: Yemen Raid Will Undergo 3 Reviews But 'Achieved Its Objectives'

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that a counter-terrorism operation that resulted in the first combat casualty of President Donald Trump's term will undergo three reviews, but that the administration is "very comfortable with how the mission was executed."

"There will be three reviews done by the Department of Defense because of the nature of this," Spicer told reporters during his daily press briefing.

"It is standard operating procedure for the Department of Defense to undergo what they call a 15-6 review," he said, apparently referring to Army Regulation 15-6. "That review, in this case, is three-pronged because there was a fatality and the loss of life, there's that; because there were civilians involved, that's another; and then third is because there is hardware, a helicopter that was damaged."

Spicer said that the White House is "very comfortable with how the mission was executed." He also said that the raid "was successful in helping prevent a future attack or attacks on this nation."

"As I mentioned before, I think you can't ever say that when there's most importantly loss of life, and people injured, that it's 100 percent successful," he said. "But I think when you look at what the stated goal of that mission was, it was an information and intelligence-gathering mission. It achieved its objectives."

William "Ryan" Owens died Jan. 28 of wounds sustained during the raid on an al-Qaida base in Yemen. Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware in February to join Owens' family and meet his remains.

During that process, known as "dignified transfer," Owens' father said he did not want to meet the President.

"I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him," William Owens said on Friday in an interview with the Miami Herald.

He questioned the decision to launch the raid and said Trump shouldn't "hide behind" his son's death to avoid an investigation.

"Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration?" he said. "The government owes my son an investigation."

 

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http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investi...nce-say-officials-n726451?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

Yemen SEAL Raid Has Yielded No Significant Intelligence: Officials

Last month's deadly commando raid in Yemen, which cost the lives of a U.S. Navy SEAL and a number of children, has so far yielded no significant intelligence, U.S. officials told NBC News.

Although Pentagon officials have said the raid produced "actionable intelligence," senior officials who spoke to NBC News said they were unaware of any, even as the father of the dead SEAL questioned the premise of the raid in an interview with the Miami Herald published Sunday.

"Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn't even barely a week into [President Trump's] administration?" Bill Owens, whose youngest son Ryan was killed during the raid, said. "For two years prior ... everything was missiles and drones (in Yemen)....Now all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?"

A senior Congressional official briefed on the matter said the Trump administration has yet to explain what prompted the rare use of American ground troops in Yemen, but he said he was not aware of any new threat from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the al Qaeda affiliate that was targeted.

The official, and others briefed on the matter who spoke to NBC News, echoed the remarks of Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., that the raid was designed to kill or capture one or more militants — something the military did not initially acknowledge.

Instead, Pentagon officials called it a "site exploitation mission" designed to gather intelligence. Defense officials later did not dispute McCain's characterization, saying they were hoping to kill or capture certain militants, though they declined to name them. NBC News and other media outlets have reported that Sheikh Abdel-Raouf al-Dhahab was among the dead. The Pentagon calls him an al Qaeda leader; the Yemeni government disagrees.

Plans for the raid were begun during the Obama administration, but Obama officials declined to sign off on what officials described as a significant escalation in Yemen. Just five days in, Trump greenlighted the mission.

"Certainly the Obama administration, particularly by the end of its eight-year run, was very cautious in moving forward with any kind of military activity," retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former NATO commander and current NBC News security analyst, said. "A new administration I think naturally is going to be spring-loaded to move out and demonstrate something."

The White House has repeatedly called the Yemen mission a success. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Feb. 8 that anyone "who undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and [does] a disservice to the life of Chief Owens."

"We gathered an unbelievable amount of intelligence that will prevent the potential deaths or attacks on American soil," said Spicer.

A Defense Department official also pushed back Monday afternoon, saying the raid has yielded "a significant amount" of intelligence.

But the only example the military has provided turned out to be an old bomb-making video that was of no current value.

On Monday, Spicer addressed the remarks of Bill Owens, whose son died.

"I can tell him that on behalf of the president, his son died a hero and the information that he was able to help obtain through that raid, as I said before, is going to save American lives," he said. "The mission was successful in helping prevent a future attack or attacks on this nation."

Multiple senior officials told NBC News they have not seen evidence to support that claim.

In addition to the death of Ryan Owens, six other U.S. service members were wounded. And at least 25 civilians were killed, including nine children under the age of 13, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. One of them was the 8-year-old daughter of U.S.-born al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

A Pentagon official told NBC News today the Pentagon does not dispute these numbers.

A $70 million U.S. aircraft also was destroyed. The Pentagon already has at least three investigations into the raid underway.

"When we look at evidently very little actual intelligence out, the loss of a high-performance aircraft and above all the loss of a highly trained special forces member of SEAL Team 6, I think we need to understand why this mission, why now, what happened, and what the actual output was," Stavridis said.

 

[marc123]

 

[dalyricalbandit]

Trump would just say some shit like "Islam terrorist killed another American a soldier that's why he's doin what he's doin and he'll defeat isis"

 

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-shirks-responsibility-for-seal-death

Trump Shirks Blame For SEAL Death: 'This Was Something They Wanted To Do'

President Donald Trump seemed to shirk his own responsibilities as commander in chief Tuesday, saying that military leaders called for a ground raid in Yemen five days after his inauguration that resulted in the death of a Navy SEAL.

“This was a mission that was started before I got here. This was something they wanted to do,” Trump said of the raid in an interview with "Fox and Friends" Tuesday. “They came to see me, they explained what they wanted to do ― the generals ― who are very respected, my generals are the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe. And they lost Ryan.

He added later: “This was something that they were looking at for a long time doing, and according to Gen. Mattis, it was a very successful mission. They got tremendous amounts of information.”

Trump was responding to criticism from the father of the American lost in that raid, William Owens. Owens’ son, William “Ryan” Owens, was 36. In addition to militants, at least 25 civilians, including nine children younger than 13, also lost their lives in the raid, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

"Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why?" Owens told the Miami Herald. "All of a sudden we had to make this grand display?"

The New York Times reported that Trump approved the raid over dinner with Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford.

Reuters, citing U.S. military officials, reported that “Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations."

In the interview with "Fox and Friends" Tuesday, Trump refused to name any example of a time when he had been justifiably criticized.

"I won’t give you any additional ammunition," he said.

Responding to comments from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and others about the raid, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Feb. 8: "I think anybody who undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and [it's] a disservice to the life of Chief Owens."

NBC News reported Monday, citing unnamed senior U.S. officials, that the raid had produced no “actionable intelligence.”

https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/836562121114660864

Wow...

 

[marc123]

^...no words

 

[stringer bell]

https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/836620289496727552

 

[stringer bell]