The White House is pushing back on a report in the Sunday Times earlier this week that said Obama "took too long" to authorize the mission to rescue James Foley and other American hostages held by ISIS militants, a decision that journalist Toby Harnden reported made the mission impossible.
The report, which offers a broad overview of the failed July 4 mission to rescue Foley, had two paragraphs which were very interesting:
Pentagon sources said Foley and the others might well have been rescued but Obama, concerned about the ramifications of US troops being killed or captured in Syria, took too long to authorise the mission.
Anthony Shaffer, a former lieutenant-colonel in US military intelligence who worked on covert operations, said: "I'm told it was almost a 30-day delay from when they said they wanted to go to when he finally gave the green light. They were ready to go in June to grab the guy [Foley] and they weren't permitted."
For what it's worth, Harnden, who has been a journalist for 20 years, uses the word sources - so while they are anonymous we know there are at least two - and his follow-up statement from Anthony Shaffer lends some credibility, as it comes from an ex-Army officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency. (He also wrote a book which the Pentagon bought up just so it could destroy all the copies because it reportedly contained intelligence secrets, according to The New York Times).
In a later tweet that was widely circulated, Harnden said a senior Pentagon official confirmed to him "that 'hesitation' by President Obama" delayed the mission. The account of the National Security Council immediately pushed back: see more....
