Fact Checking Trump's Yemen Raid Claims

[Coyote]

How on earth can anyone tolerate the level of sheer outright lies coming from this Administration? Lies that are so easily refuted. And, once again - this issue goes down to Trump's foundation: the world is composed of winners and losers. A world where win-win can not exist. And a mission where a caveliear disregard to careful planning cost lives. But does he take responsibility...uh...no. He goes off on another Twitter War against critics.

FACT CHECK: Trump's Yemen Raid — 'Winning Mission' Or 'Failure'? It's Not So Simple

The tweets come after almost a week of debate on the success or "failure" of the raid. U.S. officials say they were able to gather helpful intelligence and that 14 al-Qaida militants were killed. But there were also multiple problems:

• the death of an elite U.S. Navy SEAL, Ryan Owens;
• 23 civilians were killed, including the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki (Awlaki was an American-born cleric and inspirational leader for al-Qaida who was killed in a drone strike in 2011); and
• a $90 million Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft, was destroyed after a crash landing.

The operation, the first authorized of the Trump presidency, also raises serious questions about the planning and decision-making of the current occupant of the Oval Office, as well as the truthfulness of information coming out of the White House.

Sean Spicer said the raid was planned last November — under the Obama administration — and that the goal of the mission was to get information.

But neither is true, NPR's Tom Bowman reports.

Rather, the specific place of this eventual raid was identified in November as one to focus on. (Other potential places were also identified.)

"The goal of the raid was intelligence-gathering," Spicer said Tuesday, "and that's what we received, and that's what we got. That's why we can deem it a success."

But the U.S. would not send in SEAL Team Six, the premiere anti-terrorist commandos, to pick up some cellphones and computers, a U.S. official told Bowman.

Part of the effort was to get top al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, leaders. While more than a dozen militants were killed, a top target, Qassim al-Rimi, either slipped away or was not at the location.

Rimi is the leader of AQAP, seen as a top recruiter and the third-most-dangerous terrorist in the world. Bowman confirmed that Rimi was "one of the objectives," along with disrupting planning and plotting, in addition to collecting material.

What's more, a U.S. official expressed concern that Trump made the decision over dinner. This should have been decided with rigorous debate in the Situation Room, the official said.

Many remember the iconic photo released by the White House of former President Obama surrounded by advisers during the raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. The concern with the Yemen raid is the impression that this decision was made too cavalierly.​

 

[Kosh]

Oh gee another drunken far left drone bash Trump thread!

You did not care when Obama killed people..

Obama told a lie as well:

Drone strikes killed one civilian in 2016, Obama administration says

Nearly 90 Percent Of People Killed In Recent Drone Strikes Were Not The Target | The Huffington Post

Better hold your own to the same standards that you will hold others!

Proves this is nothing but a hyper partisan bash thread using the far left npr as "facts"..

 

[ABikerSailor]

People around Trump are saying that it's not his fault, because the mission was originally planned by the Obama administration. And, while that may be true, there is still one thing that plants it firmly in Trump's administration, and that is the "go" order to execute.

When Obama got Bin Laden, there was only a 60 percent chance the mission would be successful and many of his people advised against it. But, Obama made the decision and Bin Laden was killed.

 

[Coyote]

Oh gee another drunken far left drone bash Trump thread!

You did not care when Obama killed people..

Obama told a lie as well:

Drone strikes killed one civilian in 2016, Obama administration says

Nearly 90 Percent Of People Killed In Recent Drone Strikes Were Not The Target | The Huffington Post

Better hold your own to the same standards that you will hold others!

Proves this is nothing but a hyper partisan bash thread using the far left npr as "facts"..

Thread's about Trump dufus.

but but but Obaammmma (but but but Boooooosh).

All administrations have lied or distorted the facts at one time or the other, but none have so blatantly and consistently as the Trump Administration. It's truly bizarre because it's easily refuted and all you guys do is say, but the other guy lied. Doesn't it bother you at all?

 

[saveliberty]

If you think they are going to come out and tell you what intelligence they gathered, then you are confused. Most likely they have good leads on locations and activities of terrorists, but it is only useful if it is not revealed.

You guys watch too much TV, most missions have failures of some sort in with the successes. Abikersailor mentioned Ben Laden, the idea was to capture him, not kill him. Where are the liberal rants about that?

 

[ABikerSailor]

If you think they are going to come out and tell you what intelligence they gathered, then you are confused. Most likely they have good leads on locations and activities of terrorists, but it is only useful if it is not revealed.

You guys watch too much TV, most missions have failures of some sort in with the successes. Abikersailor mentioned Ben Laden, the idea was to capture him, not kill him. Where are the liberal rants about that?

Yes, I did mention Bin Laden, but I never said anything about capture, and neither did the administration. Provide a link that says we were supposed to only capture him, because everything else I saw on this said it was a capture or kill mission.

 

[saveliberty]

Many remember the iconic photo released by the White House of former President Obama surrounded by advisers during the raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. The concern with the Yemen raid is the impression that this decision was made too cavalierly.​

That raid crashed a helicopter and killed Ben Laden. The idea was to capture him. Also, are you trying to say Ben Laden was an equal target as the Yemen raid target? It was not.

 

[mamooth]

Yemen is a total mess. The many factions fighting there and their politics makes "Game of Thrones" look simple.

Obama intelligently recognized that. All he did was occasionally bomb Al Qaeda people hiding there. The USA took no sides in the civil war.

Trump? He now wants US boots on the ground, supporting ... somebody. Maybe the faction currently not supported by Iran. Which, in the future, probably will be supported by Iran. The point is, Trump wants to look tough, so he's going to send the USA into the Yemen civil war quagmire.

 

[saveliberty]

Yes, I did mention Bin Laden, but I never said anything about capture, and neither did the administration. Provide a link that says we were supposed to only capture him, because everything else I saw on this said it was a capture or kill mission.

I used your comment as a springboard, no disrespect ABS. The priority was capture, kill was the back up plan, should the first priority FAIL.

 

[saveliberty]

Yemen is a total mess. The many factions fighting there and their politics makes "Game of Thrones" look simple.

Obama intelligently recognized that. All he did was occasionally bomb Al Qaeda people hiding there. The USA took no sides in the civil war.

Trump? He now wants US boots on the ground, supporting ... somebody. Maybe the faction currently not supported by Iran. Which, in the future, probably will be supported by Iran. The point is, Trump wants to look tough, so he's going to send the USA into the Yemen civil war quagmire.

I would consider any insertion longer than a week a bad idea.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Yes, I did mention Bin Laden, but I never said anything about capture, and neither did the administration. Provide a link that says we were supposed to only capture him, because everything else I saw on this said it was a capture or kill mission.

I used your comment as a springboard, no disrespect ABS. The priority was capture, kill was the back up plan, should the first priority FAIL.

Okay, so you admit that it was a capture or kill mission, and therefore no outrage should come from Bin Laden being killed.

 

[saveliberty]

Yes, I did mention Bin Laden, but I never said anything about capture, and neither did the administration. Provide a link that says we were supposed to only capture him, because everything else I saw on this said it was a capture or kill mission.

I used your comment as a springboard, no disrespect ABS. The priority was capture, kill was the back up plan, should the first priority FAIL.

Okay, so you admit that it was a capture or kill mission, and therefore no outrage should come from Bin Laden being killed.

It was a mission failure to not achieve the higher objective. Point is, we as a nation were glad to get objective two. Glad about the outcome, not gnashing teeth and screaming about a mission to Yemen.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Yes, I did mention Bin Laden, but I never said anything about capture, and neither did the administration. Provide a link that says we were supposed to only capture him, because everything else I saw on this said it was a capture or kill mission.

I used your comment as a springboard, no disrespect ABS. The priority was capture, kill was the back up plan, should the first priority FAIL.

Okay, so you admit that it was a capture or kill mission, and therefore no outrage should come from Bin Laden being killed.

It was a mission failure to not achieve the higher objective. Point is, we as a nation were glad to get objective two. Glad about the outcome, not gnashing teeth and screaming about a mission to Yemen.

Even though they lost a helo when they first landed? It's still a mission failure to not bring Bin Laden in alive? Capture or kill means do whichever you feel needs to be done, as we can see from this raid that things can go sideways from the get go.

And, in the Bin Laden raid, we lost an aircraft, but no people. In the Yemen raid we lost both.

 

[L.K.Eder]

People around Trump are saying that it's not his fault, because the mission was originally planned by the Obama administration. And, while that may be true, there is still one thing that plants it firmly in Trump's administration, and that is the "go" order to execute.

When Obama got Bin Laden, there was only a 60 percent chance the mission would be successful and many of his people advised against it. But, Obama made the decision and Bin Laden was killed.

well said. that is what they do not get. it was Trump's decision, as it was bush' decision to attack iraq, and not the decision of democrats in congress.

 

[Lewdog]

The raid killed TWELVE children... One of which was a baby.

 

[saveliberty]

Even though they lost a helo when they first landed? It's still a mission failure to not bring Bin Laden in alive? Capture or kill means do whichever you feel needs to be done, as we can see from this raid that things can go sideways from the get go.

And, in the Bin Laden raid, we lost an aircraft, but no people. In the Yemen raid we lost both.

Sure it was a mission failure, we couldn't interrogate him. Frankly, I think it was a poor objective to capture him. Too much chance of escape, terrorist acts to reclaim him and so on.

I also brought it into the discussion further, because it clearly shows missions have problems, even ones we consider generally successful.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Even though they lost a helo when they first landed? It's still a mission failure to not bring Bin Laden in alive? Capture or kill means do whichever you feel needs to be done, as we can see from this raid that things can go sideways from the get go.

And, in the Bin Laden raid, we lost an aircraft, but no people. In the Yemen raid we lost both.

Sure it was a mission failure, we couldn't interrogate him. Frankly, I think it was a poor objective to capture him. Too much chance of escape, terrorist acts to reclaim him and so on.

I also brought it into the discussion further, because it clearly shows missions have problems, even ones we consider generally successful.

Guess you haven't spent any time in the military, because if you had, you would know that if you achieve your objective (kill or capture Bin Laden, mission choice), and return with all your people intact, the mission is considered to be a success.

 

[saveliberty]

The raid killed TWELVE children... One of which was a baby.

While the administration claims its drone strikes are the state of the art in precision, some of those outside accounts call the unverified claims into question. An analysis by the group Reprieve in 2014 found that the US killed 1,147 people in Pakistan and Yemen in the course of targeting only 41 men.
White House to reveal death toll of US drone strikes for first time

The unintentional deaths, according to previously unreleased administration figures, came in a total of 473 CIA and military counterterrorism strikes between 2009 and the end of 2015. Those attacks, it said, killed between 2,372 and 2,581 “combatants” in countries where the United States is not at war.

Although it did not name the countries, they include Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.

White House releases its count of civilian deaths in counterterrorism operations under Obama

In its first public assessment, the administration said the death toll was between 64 and 116 civilians between January 2009 and December 2015, which is significantly lower than civilian casualty estimates by various human rights groups.

Those range as high as 1,100 killed.

http://nypost.com/2016/07/01/us-reveals-civilian-death-toll-from-airstrikes-under-obama/

 

[theHawk]

The raid killed TWELVE children... One of which was a baby.

Many of the the children had guns and were firing on the commandos.

Do you know how many civilians died when Obama green lit his first Yemen raid and bombed the wrong target?

 

[saveliberty]

Guess you haven't spent any time in the military, because if you had, you would know that if you achieve your objective (kill or capture Bin Laden, mission choice), and return with all your people intact, the mission is considered to be a success.

You can have objective failures in a mission success. Kill and capture are separate objectives. In this case, you clearly can't have both now can you?