Pentagon Argues Value of Yemen Raid Using Old Evidence by Paul Sonne, Wall Street Journal
A U.S. military effort Friday to demonstrate the intelligence value of a weekend commando raid in Yemen ended in a snafu, when video clips the military released from a computer seized during the operation turned out to be years old and already public.
The foul-up came as the White House and the Pentagon face public pressure to prove that the raid on an al Qaeda site—which resulted in the death of a U.S. Navy SEAL, six injured U.S. service members, likely civilian casualties and a ruined $70 million U.S. aircraft—was successful, despite those costs.
Commandos carrying out the raid, which was the first counter-terror operation known to have been ordered by President Donald Trump, came under fire as soon as they landed, raising questions over whether al Qaeda operatives had known about it in advance.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East and plans to host President Trump at its Tampa headquarters for a visit on Monday, released abridged clips of five longer videos from a computer that U.S. commandos seized during the raid on al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.
“The videos are one example of the volumes of sensitive al Qaeda terror-planning information recovered during the operation,” Central Command Spokesman Col. John Thomas said in a statement when the videos were released on a Defense Department network on Friday morning. “What was captured from the site has already afforded insights into al Qaeda leadership, AQAP methods of exporting terror, and how they communicate.” …
Comments
We still do not fully know WHO called for the raid to occur....the Trump Flynn NSC...DoD and or CENTCOM due to the coming Trump visit......
BUT if all three it was driven probably by the Flynn NSC......
This applies nicely to the current chaos we are seeing even with a military raid....
QUOTE
The moment Trump lawyer tells judge Robart of travel ban: "We actually don't think you're supposed to look at whether it's rationally based"
REALLY are we to now believe all DoD/CENTCOM actions are not "rationally based"....??????
BTW...notice the deliberate news cycle fog of war...the killing of an eight year old American in this raid somehow got conveniently forgotten....and interestingly enough the graphic photos of this killed child one could argue was a single head shot kill.....meaning deliberate not an accidental civilian got in the way kind of lame excuse.
This is why it is urgent to understand this failure.....
QUOTE
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, as the branch is known, had collected enough intelligence to anticipate the raid last weekend, Yemeni officials and analysts said. The militants also had the firepower to counterattack from their bastion, which was surrounded by land mines and other traps.
How did they collect intel on the forthcoming JSOC raid and what did they feed US intel sources to setup this ambush...which it was....a major ambush....
WHO pushed this operation and why the haste...when before the Obama NSC show clear reluctance........
NOW it is apparent it came from DoD/CENTCOM levels...question who called
them from the Flynn controlled NSC to "suggest it"....
DoD on Yemen raid:"after January 20th...that’s when we sought the authority & received the authority for proceeding”
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/03/former-obama-official-deadly-yemen-raid…
SO again who was responsible for the poor planning...poor intel and why the sudden and urgent haste...JSOC...CENCTOM...DoD or the Flynn NSC....???
If we are to believe the narrative issued by both the WH and CENTCOM that this JSOC raid was designed to capture "intelligence" of some value...BUT WAIT...the actual JSOC targeting cycle that the new natsec Flynn thoroughly understands ALWAYS generates "intelligence" as the JSOC targeting cycle lives and dies on intel driven operations.....intel gained from previous raids or from the real time IC....
So what was so important this time around that CENTCOM had to produce a really low level example of this so called "gained intel" to prove as the WH claims...the raid was "successful"....
Therein lies a very serious question that CENTCOM is dodging....
Walking into an evidently long term planned ambush and taking the losses in manpower and aircraft does not appear at first glance to be as the WH stated...a "success".
Secondly there was a short notice made that three AQ were killed..so if they were the targets when why the silence on who they were?
Or and this is what is important was the civilian death rate far higher and closer to the Yemeni statements of roughly 50 plus including women and children....
This raid with the total narrative confusion and the WH Muslim travel ban has placed AQ and IS back in the running again narrative wise....
Question is..was it worth it?