Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said Thursday that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis would not have allowed SEAL Team 6 to embark on the deadly raid in Yemen without believing it was fully prepared.
“I don’t think Mattis would have done that,” McCain, R-Ariz., told the Washington Examiner. “There is always a risk in any mission, and I’m sure that they assessed the risk.”
McCain’s comments counter the claim by unnamed U.S. military officials who told Reuters that President Trump approved “his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.” Pentagon officials pushed back on that claim Thursday.
McCain said the raid, which left Senior Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens dead and four wounded and required the destruction of a $75 million V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, was “not successful, that’s obvious.”
That contradicts White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who called the mission “a successful operation by all standards.”
McCain said “a complete investigation and briefing” will be required but added, “It’s important to point out this planning was done by the Obama administration and executed by the Trump administration.”
As the Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday, former President Barack Obama declined to greenlight the operation because it was necessary to launch on a first moonless night, which didn’t occur until after he left the Oval Office. Obama, therefore, felt it was appropriate to let the new president make the call.
Fourteen members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are believed to have been killed. The military said Wednesday that it’s likely civilians were killed and is investigating.
