GOP Rep. Turner: Intelligence on August Drone Strike Was Wrong in Two Different Ways, Over-the-Horizon Strategy Doesn’t Exist

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said there isn’t an over-the-horizon counterterrorism strategy or capability for Afghanistan and that the August 29 drone strike was a double intelligence failure because not only did it kill civilians, it was done to prevent an imminent threat, and “if their intelligence was so great, then an attack should have happened.”

Turner said, “[T]here really isn’t an over-the-horizon capability. Remember, the White House touted that they were going to demonstrate it in this missile attack that occurred from a drone that killed an innocent man and his family. We’re asking for the data and the information. But what it illustrates, especially since the White House touted that this was an example of their ability to do that is, al Qaeda is still present, ISIS is still present, the threat from Afghanistan is still there, even though the president denies it. His military advisers told him to keep 2,500 troops there because of the weakness of an over-the-horizon strategy. And, in fact, an over-the-horizon strategy currently does not exist.”

He added, “So, they said that they had to take this action under the heat of the battle. Because of an imminent threat, and they got the wrong guy. So, if they got the wrong guy and if their intelligence was so great, then an attack should have happened. And as you said, thank God that it did not.”

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