Dan Lamothe:
Defense official just flatly disputed @ColinKahl's version of events on Yemen raid. Story updated.
Washington Post - Dan Lamothe - The White House says a deadly raid in Yemen was long planned in Washington. Not true, say officials who served Obama. (February 2 at 9:22 PM)
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that the plan for the operation was first submitted by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations across the Middle East, to the Defense Department on Nov. 7, one day before the presidential election. A plan was approved by the Pentagon on Dec. 19 and turned over to the White House. Obama administration officials approved a plan for an operation during an interagency meeting Jan. 6, two weeks before President Trump’s inauguration, and decided it would be best to carry it out in the dark of a “moonless night,” Spicer said. That meant waiting until after Trump took office.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reviewed a memorandum on the plan Jan. 24 during his first week on the job, and Trump was briefed on it by national security adviser Michael Flynn the following day, Spicer said. Trump met with Mattis and Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and then authorized the mission one day later.
...
Davis, asked by reporters Thursday morning whether the lunar cycle played a role in the raid, declined to answer directly, but said the Pentagon sought permission to do the raid after Trump took over.
“This was an operation that for reasons of the calendar had a date when it was most optimally conducted,” Davis said. “That date happened to fall after January 20th, and that’s when we sought the authority for and received the authority for proceeding with it.”
Another defense official said Kahl’s understanding of events is wrong.
“The raid had been planned several months and was given full consideration by the previous administration,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
...
A U.S. military official familiar with the specifics of the mission expressed frustration with the way it has been characterized. The SEALs, he said, worked through several “contingencies” in difficult circumstances and brought everyone home, including Owens after he was mortally wounded. Even with modern technology, the official added, carrying out missions such as this one is rife with uncertainties.
Spicer identified the moonless night as the reason for the raid’s timing despite some other U.S. officials recommending against doing so. They cited the operational security of potential future missions as their reason. The New York Times included the detail in its report Wednesday.
Spicer did not respond Thursday to questions about why he confirmed the lack of moonlight’s role in the operation.
Colin Kahl:
If by "plans" you mean package of authorities, they were disc but no recs made & no CONOP/raid approved by Obama
I have no doubt DoD had plans, & discussed internally, but no specific CONOP/raid briefed or approved. I was in the room. Was your source?
Dan Lamothe:
@ColinKahl Was told no raid was approved by Obama, but that it was close early in January. Not true?
Colin Kahl:
Totally false. DoD came forward w/general request for authority to do raids, but no specific CONOP briefed to/approved by Obama
Obama knew this was a "big piece of business" and wanted next team to run their own process.
And Team Trump admits Trump briefed and signed off. So he can't pass the buck. He's president & he greenlit the op w/out process
There was a Deputies Meeting in early Jan (I was there). General package of related authorities discussed. No recs made.
Nobody in the room will tell you different.
Reporting from
Just Security's Luke Hartig is covering most of this pretty thoroughly:
By Thursday, the story had become much more complicated, with press reports stating that President Trump ordered the operation during a dinner meeting with Secretary Mattis, General Dunford, Mike Flynn, Jared Kushner, and Steve Bannon. The accounts raised major questions about the extent to which the President considered views from agencies other than DOD in approving the operation. And, as my colleague Peter Bergen has noted, Kushner and Bannon, who have no relevant expertise working on special operations and arguably no “need to know” about highly sensitive pre-operational discussions, were present at the meeting. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer further commented on the meeting from the podium, stating that the operation had been reviewed by senior officials in the Obama Administration and recommended for approval prior to Trump taking office. Spicer also said that CIA Director Mike Pompeo had been present at the dinner, a detail that was absent from accounts by Bergen, the New York Times’ Eric Schmitt, and Slate’s Fred Kaplan. Spicer also noted that a Deputies Committee had taken place the day after the dinner, though he noted that this meeting was not necessary because the operation had already been approved.
Shortly after the Spicer press conference, former NSC spokesperson Ned Price and Colin Kahl, former National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden, strenuously objected to Spicer’s account, stating that the Obama national security team had not provided a recommendation on whether to execute the operation. Kahl further contended that Deputies had never even reviewed a specific concept of operations for this raid – in which DOD would have outlined how this particular operation would take place and assessed various types of risk – but rather a more general request for authorities to undertake these types of operations. Kahl says that President Obama understood this was a “big piece of business” and deferred to the next Administration to run their own process on this proposal. An anonymous Defense official, speaking to the Post’s Don Lamothe, disputed Kahl’s account, insisting that, “The raid had been planned several months and was given full consideration by the previous administration.”
Meanwhile, reporting from Reuters, sourced to anonymous officials, questioned the operational preparations for the raid and whether enough had been done to prevent the loss of U.S. and innocent Yemeni life. Accounts of civilian casualties remained unclear, with the Pentagon acknowledging that reports were probably correct, continued reporting that Anwar al-Awlaki’s daughter was among the dead, and the human rights group Reprieve (generally more extreme than other groups in its assessments) claiming that 23 civilians had been killed in the operation.
Ryan Goodman covers the dispute up to the present, with new info:
Important
exchange here last night on whether Obama approved specific Yemen operation.
@DanLamothe adds 1 anonymous source w/ ambiguous quote
vs
1. @ColinKahl: specifics and on record and making important distinctions
2. DoD spokesman: "after Jan 20th...that’s when we sought the authority"
3. CNN: "Obama didn't authorize the raid because the first moonless might in Yemen came on January 28"
4. @fmkaplan
story completely consistent with Kahl's account
