Senators cast doubt on success of lethal Yemen raid
Key Senators are seeking more answers about the raid against terrorists in Yemen that President Trump heralded as “highly successful” during his joint address to Congress.
“We already had one classified hearing about it and I think there’s probably more questions that need to be answered,” Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) told reporters on Wednesday morning.
The raid left one Navy SEAL dead. In a poignant moment Tuesday night, Trump paid tribute to that SEAL, William “Ryan” Owens, and recognized his grieving widow Carryn Owens. The president said he spoke with Secretary of Defense James Mattis and then asserted that the raid was “highly successful” and “generated large amounts of vital intelligence.”
“I think it’s always appropriate when we recognize and thank the family of an American who was killed in combat. I would have preferred the president stuck with that,” Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) said while questioning Trump’s claim of the mission’s success.
Vice President Mike Pence doubled down on the assertion in an interview with “CBS This Morning” Wednesday. “That is wrong,” Pence responded when asked about news reports that no significant intelligence was gathered from the raid. “I can tell you that Secretary Mattis as recently as yesterday confirmed again to the administration that there was significant intelligence that was gathered.”
The Jan. 28 raid that resulted in Owens’ death did not go as planned. SEAL Team Six was pinned down outside the al Qaeda compound, CBS News’ David Martin reported. They were forced to call in a helicopter gunship to silence the fire. Fourteen al Qaeda operatives and at least 15 civilians were killed in the firefight. A $72 million evacuation aircraft crash landed and had to be destroyed.
Leading Republican Senators on national security matters cautioned the White House about exaggerating the success of the raid. “All I would say is don’t get into the overselling mode. Ryan is a hero no matter how much intelligence we gather,” warned Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “Don’t say things about raids that question down the road if you’re going to be candid with the American people.”
But he also lauded the moment where the president recognized Owens and his widow saying, “the tribute to Ryan was appropriate, the way we honored the young man and his wife was absolutely appropriate.”
“Look, the objective of the mission was not achieved,” said Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate intelligence committee who echoed calls for an investigation into what went wrong. But Rubio disagreed with the idea that the White House had exaggerated the success of the mission, arguing, “I imagine there were some valuable information that was gathered. I wouldn’t say ‘exaggerate.’”
Earlier on Tuesday, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) twice raised questions about the success of the raid. In a speech before the American Legion annual conference, McCain rejected White House criticism of his questions declaring, “To somehow equate whether a mission succeeds or not with their bravery is a failure to understand the courage and sacrifice because these brave Americans when they are told to go they go.”
Later that afternoon, McCain was asked by reporters if he was concerned that the Pentagon was overselling the intelligence value of the raid. “Certainly, I had concerns about it,” he answered, citing the experience of the Vietnam War and the overly-optimistic assessments about it given at press conferences at the time, which came to be known as the “5 O’Clock Follies.”
“They used to have a thing called the ‘5 O’Clock Follies,’ where everything was going fine, and then one day the Tet Offensive took place and support eroded,” McCain said. “I think you have to call it for what it is.”
“We lost a 75 million dollar airplane, individual killed and others wounded. And according to the media reports women and children killed. That’s not a success in my view,” McCain said. An hour before making those comments, McCain, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, had met with Secretary of Defense Mattis in a private meeting, although it is unclear whether the subject of the Yemen raid was broached.
Senator Jim Risch (R-ID,) who said that the intelligence committee had been briefed about the Yemen raid, hedged his answer when asked if the raid was successful.
“There was material recovered, as you know, which has the potential for being very helpful and that’s all I can say about that.”
