Daniel O’Shea, a reserve Navy SEAL Officer who served as Coordinator for the Hostage Working Group at the United States’ Iraq Embassy criticized the Department of Defense and the White House for releasing details about a failed hostage rescue mission for recently murdered journalist James Foley.
“Releasing information about classified operations serves no tactical nor strategic value. It certainly doesn’t help those folks who have to launch future missions. I’m at a loss of words why there’s so much information coming out, even after the fact, that even if a report came out that a rescue mission was launched, the Pentagon used to rely on, I think, plausible deniability” he said on Thursday’s broadcast on CNN’s “The Lead.”
“There were hundreds of missions launched in Iraq on behalf of hostages that never were aired nor should they. They serve no benefit, and certainly not to the hostages that are still being held, to the operators that have to go do that mission. And it just shows your hand to the folks holding them, that they need to step up their game and [leads to them] increasing security around the hostages themselves. So, this only complicates the situation in my personal experience” he added.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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