Quote:On Thursday, the truth finally came out. After the Biden administraiton lied repeatedly about a drone strike in Kabul that killed ten innocent civilians, and not ten ISIS-K terrorists as was claimed earlier, General Kenneth McKenzie confessed to the terrible ‘mistake.’
“It is further my assessment that the strike team were convinced at the time of the strike that the area was clear of civilians and that they had taken prudent steps in regards to weaponeering the strike to minimize the potential for civilian casualties,” General McKenzie said. “Finally, it is my assessment that they did believe, as reported, that there was a secondary explosion. Our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake.”
“First, I will stress this was not a rushed strike,” the general continued. “The strike cell deliberately followed and observed this vehicle and its occupants for eight hours while cross-checking what they were seeing, all available intelligence to develop a reasonable certainty of the imminent threat that this vehicle posed to our forces.”
“Second, while the initial reports indicated a secondary explosion, the initial investigation could only conclude that it was a possible to probable presence of external accelerants that could include either explosive material in the vehicle or an ignition of the gas tank of the vehicle,” he added. “Subsequent analysis could not rule out the presence of a small amount of explosive material but determined that the most likely cause was ignition of gas from a propane tank located immediately behind the car.”
As earlier reported, ten innocent civilians were killed in the drone strike based on Taliban-sourced ‘disinformation.’ The August 29 drone strike aimed to disrupt a purported ISIS-K attack on Kabul airport, but actually killed a U.S. aid worker named Zemari Ahmadi and his family, including seven children. However, a Pentagon source confirmed exclusively to Becker News that the intelligence sources the military acted upon trace back to an unreliable tip from the Taliban. The Taliban tipped off U.S. intelligence as a part of a disinformation operation to frame the United States as an unreliable ally for remaining Afghan resisters and to serve as a recruitment tool.
The Biden administration launched the drone strikes in the aftermath of suicide bombings near Kabul airport which killed 13 Marines, as Becker News broke first. The Biden administration called the alleged terrorists “high profile,” but refused to name them. CNN’s Jake Tapper excoriated the administration for lying to the American public.
“This is a total about-face from the Pentagon’s initial denial they got anything wrong days after the attack,” Tapper said. He showed video of Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying on September 1 this was “a righteous strike.”
“No longer so righteous,” Tapper remarked. The CNN report then made the claim the Pentagon targeted ‘the wrong vehicle.’
The Pentagon’s John Kirby also confessed to the alleged ‘war crime’ on Friday.
“Things that I said obviously have not turned out to be correct. It was done in as good faith and effort as possible to be as transparent as we could with what we knew at the time,” Kirby claim.
Jake Tapper actually makes a good point: If the Biden administration hadn’t been caught red-handed due to independent reporting, would it have even admitted to the ‘mistake’? Knowing how many lies this White House has told and has gotten away with scot-free, the answer would be an obvious ‘no.’
So does the Biden* administration still consider the Taliban to be acting professionally? Maybe they will tip us off that their are terrorists at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and we can launch a drone strike on that address, preferably on one of the days mush actually shows up for work.
This was murder. Who is stupid enough to take a tip from terrorist that you have been fighting for 20 years?
(This post was last modified: 09-17-2021 08:17 PM by banker.)
Quote:Joe Biden’s administration is taking fire now from its own side after conducting a strike that killed an innocent Afghan aid work and nine others, including seven children.
California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff has called for a full investigation into how such a tragic mistake could happen in a press release from the House Intelligence Committee.
“We must take every precaution when it comes to protecting civilian lives, and hold ourselves accountable when we fail. While there is no overstating the chaotic and dangerous situation in Kabul following the fall of the Afghan government and the attack on our forces by ISIS-K, it is clear that the August 29 strike was a mistake with horrific consequences,” he said.
“In acknowledging that error, the Department of Defense has taken the first step towards transparency and accountability. And after such a devastating failure – one that, by the Department’s estimate, killed 10 civilians, at least 7 of them children – it cannot be the last step. We need to know what went wrong in the hours and minutes leading up to the strike to prevent similar tragedies in the future,” The representative said.
“I am also concerned about the accuracy and completeness of public statements made in the immediate aftermath of the strike, and whether those accounted for all of the information possessed by the government at the time. We must assure that the Department examines its actions carefully and objectively, even in the absence of press reports, such as here, which brought this critical mistake to light.
“This is an area deserving of additional oversight, and along with my colleagues in Congress, the House Intelligence Committee will continue to press for answers,” he said. “My prayers today are with the victims and their families.”
Schiff’s statement came after Chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Frank McKenzie admitted that the strike as a “tragic mistake.”
“Having thoroughly reviewed the findings of the investigation and the supporting analysis by inner agency partners, I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians including up to seven children we tragically killed in that strike,” he said.
“Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K or were a direct threat to U.S. forces. I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed. This strike was taken in the earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport,” the general said.
He took responsibility for the strike and gave an explanation as to the assessments that were made before conducting the strike but then admitted that they failed.
“Our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake,” he said.
One of the statements made after the attack that Schiff could be talking about was the one from Biden in which he brags about the strike and said there would be more.
“I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have,” he said. “This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.”
“This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay,” he said. “Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours. I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritize force protection.”
But, so far, no ISIS-K fighters have faced consequences for their strike on the Kabul airport that killed United States military members and Afghan civilians.
The General at McDill apologized; he even said it was a "tragic mistake". Hey, no one is perfect and people make mistakes, right? I'm sure you'd be equally understanding if seven of your grandchildren were killed in drone attack by China or Russia or whomever...and then they apologized for it 3 or 4 days later after being publicly called out.
5H1T happens, right?
Enjoy your weekend at the beach in Delaware and gobble down another chocolate chip ice cream cone.
(This post was last modified: 09-18-2021 12:42 PM by boss man.)
But...they have an excuse, "IT WAS A MISTAKE, IT WAS A MISTAKE."
Okay, don't let it happen again. Case dismissed.
Man, this breaks my heart, imagine if it had been one of your own. Seven children killed instantly, but I guess the Demons are used to killing children so it won't even make a blip on their radars, afterall, "they're only children."
America has gone down the toilet and the sad part is that they've clogged it up to boot.
(09-18-2021 02:45 PM)olliebaba Wrote: But...they have an excuse, "IT WAS A MISTAKE, IT WAS A MISTAKE."
Okay, don't let it happen again. Case dismissed.
Man, this breaks my heart, imagine if it had been one of your own. Seven children killed instantly, but I guess the Demons are used to killing children so it won't even make a blip on their radars, afterall, "they're only children."
America has gone down the toilet and the sad part is that they've clogged it up to boot.
Who gets court martialed for it? Things like that don't go unpunished in the military.
Quote:The Pentagon and Biden administration are still receiving criticism after it was revealed the drone strike carried out in Afghanistan in retaliation for the suicide bombing that killed 13 American service members did not kill a single ISIS-K terrorist. Reports showed that the strikes actually killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children.
The Associated Press reported:
A survivor of an errant U.S. drone strike that killed 10 members of his family demanded Saturday that those responsible be punished and said Washington’s apology was not enough.
Gen. Kenneth McKenzie on Friday held a press conference in which he admitted that “as many as ten civilians including up to seven children” were killed in the August 29 drone strike and that it was “unlikely that the vehicle & those that died were associated with ISIS-K or a direct threat to U.S. forces.”
The family is also demanding financial compensation and relocation to the United States or a different country, according to Emal Ahmadi, who also lost a 3-year-old daughter named Malika in the assault.
From the AP:
On that day, a U.S. hellfire missile struck the car that Ahmadi’s brother Zemerai had just pulled into the driveway of the Ahmadi family compound as children ran to greet him. In all, 10 members of the family, including seven children, were killed in the strike.
Initially, the military defended the strike, claiming it targeted a “facilitator” working with ISIS-K and hampered the terrorist group’s ability to carry out attacks. However, various news outlets discovered the driver of the targeted vehicle was an employee at a U.S. humanitarian organization.
McKenzie apologized for the “tragic mistake” and explained the U.S. is considering providing reparation payments to the family of those killed in the attack. Ahmadi, who heard about the apology from friends in the U.S., said: “That is not enough for us to say sorry.” He said that the U.S. “should find the person who did this.”
News outlets realized the Pentagon’s original story might not be true, when “accounts from the family, documents from colleagues” and “the scene at the family home” where Zemarai’s car was hit by the hellfire missile contradicted the military’s account of the incident. Ahmadi was “the family’s breadwinner and had looked after his three brothers, including Emal, and their children,” according to the AP.
Despite the Pentagon’s belief that Ahmadi was a terrorist, Ahmadi couldn’t believe the U.S. could have made such a dire mistake. “The U.S.A. can see from everywhere,” he said. He continued:
“They can see that there were innocent children near the car and in the car. Whoever did this should be punished.”
The fallout from the drone strike will continue to plague the Biden administration. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was grilled by Congress about the strike, as well as the overall withdrawal effort. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to testify in front of the House and Senate Armed Forces committees later this month — and this incident will surely come up. This is just yet another situation demonstrating that the Afghanistan issue isn’t going away anytime soon.
Quote:The former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under then-President Barack Obama says that “absolutely” someone needs to be held accountable for the botched, deadly drone strike in Kabul last month that killed 10 people, including seven children.
Late last week, the Pentagon admitted, following a revealing New York Times report, that a strike intended to take out an ISIS-K figure following a suicide bombing attack at the airport in the capital city that left 13 U.S. service members dead along with about 160 Afghanis had targeted an aid worker instead, killing him and many of his family.
The current Joint Chiefs chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley, initially claimed that the strike was righteous.
“At the time…we had very good intelligence that ISIS-K was preparing a specific type vehicle at a specific type location. We monitored that through various means and all of the engagement criteria were being met. We went through the same level of rigor that we’ve done for years and we took a strike,” Milley said at a press conference earlier this month along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
But in fact, the intelligence was wrong, and former Joint Chiefs Chair Adm. Mike Mullen believes someone “absolutely” needs to be held accountable for that.
“Absolutely. I think there should. This was obviously an incredibly complex, fast-moving situation. We lost those 13 military members a couple of days before that,” Mullen told ABC’s “This Week.” “There was clear intelligence that additional strikes were on the way, so it was in that environment in which this strike actually took place.”
Fox News has more:
Mullen, who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the last couple years of the Bush administration and the first couple years of the Obama administration, said the botched drone strike was a “tragic, tragic mistake” and said he believed McKenzie did the right thing by apologizing. He also mentioned that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin committed to a review that he hopes will bring “accountability.”
Host Martha Raddatz noted that it took the Defense Department several days to come clean about the error after the Times report revealed who had actually been targeted along with the deaths of the children.
“I think you’re going to want to try to get this right,” Mullen responded. “Clearly they were convinced at the time it was a good strike, and it takes some time to do that, and this is the same command that’s been evacuating Afghanistan and all that that entails. I’m not overly concerned about how long it took.”
“You had an individual in a truck who was loading water,” he added. “It turned out — you know, big water bottles, all of which, sort of, fit” the intended ISIS-K figure.
“It’s almost as if we just got caught up in the specifics of it and stayed with it no matter what,” he said.
“Doing it in an extremely quick, confused, chaotic environment made this one that much more difficult and problematic,” he added.
He went on to say that Central Command chief Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie was also right to fess up to the botched operation.
“My heart goes out to those family members that were so deeply affected,” Mullen said. “And I thought what General McKenzie did was right, admit the mistake and apologize. And he also spoke later of possible reparations. And, in fact, in the end, [Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin has also committed to a review that hopefully will look at accountability for this.”
As the interview was set to wrap, Raddatz asked the former Joint Chiefs chairman if there ought to be accountability for the Biden administration’s haphazard and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which involved the deaths of 11 Marines, two U.S. Army troops, and a Navy corpsman.
“I also think there should be accountability there as well,” Mullen said. “I hope there is.”
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