The Pentagon is cleaning egg off its face after removing a posted video that isn’t quite what they said it was. Originally the military claimed that the video was secured in a raid in Yemen last week, meant to show the large amount of intelligence gathered by US troops. The actual video was something entirely different.
The video, titled Courses for Destroying The Cross, is pretty well-known and has been circulating around the internet since 2007. And it’s not exactly a treasure trove of intelligence.
It’s an ISIS propaganda video. Oops.
The video is just another black mark on the January 29 raid authorized by President Donald Trump, his first since taking office. Controversy surrounds the raid, with many speculating about its success. Reports indicate that civilians (including children) were killed in a long firefight with al-Qaeda fighters, which include a troop of female fighters. A Navy SEAL lost his life during the raid, and another six were wounded.
Despite all these reports, the Pentagon is insisting the raid was a success. They even claimed that the decade-old propaganda film (that they should have known about a decade ago, right?) was helpful. Colonel John J. Thomas, US Central Command spokesman released a statement reading:
“The videos are one example of the volumes of sensitive al-Qaeda terror-planning information recovered during the operation… What was captured from the site has already afforded insights into al-Qaeda leadership, AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) methods of exporting terror, and how they communicate.”
This slip up does little to stem the flow of criticism that the Trump administration tie to the “fake news” phenomenon. To the forgiving reader this may be just a mistake, but to the skeptic it could be an outright lie made to look Trump’s decision making seem much better than it actually is.
Watch PBS’ assessment of what went wrong in that raid here:
Featured image via screenshot from YouTube video
