Kaine says US troops killed in Niger were on unauthorized mission
Source: CNN
By Maegan Vazquez and Barbara Starr, CNN
Updated 1:51 PM ET, Wed May 9, 2018
Washington (CNN) - Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said Wednesday that "people will be held accountable" for unauthorized portions of a mission involving Americans soldiers in Niger, four of whom were later killed in an ambush.
Kaine, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN's "New Day" that during a briefing Tuesday, he and other senators learned that the troops initially attempted to embark on a search for a high value target, a mission they were not authorized, trained or equipped to conduct. They later reverted to an advisory capacity with the Nigerien forces they were working with.
"I believe that the troops who were sadly killed in Niger in October of 2017 were engaged in a mission that they were not authorized by law to participate in and that they were not trained to participate in. And that is a significant reason that they tragically lost their lives," he added. Kaine refrained from further details about the mission because of classified nature of the briefing.
The Virginia senator told CNN that other senators left the briefing "somewhat shocked."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/politics/tim-kaine-niger-unauthorized-cnntv/index.html
MontanaMama
(23,307 posts)that GOPers will be held accountable. 🙄
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Why can't the republicans stick to insulting our veterans and POWs like they usually do?
moreland01
(738 posts)I demand 38 investigations immediately! Lock Him Up!
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)helmedon1974
(92 posts)I remember being extremely pissed about it after learning that Trump relaxed rules of engagement that has resulted in more civilian deaths. The field commanders don't always get missions approved. This one was known to have security risks, and didn't have proper support. One of them was left behind.
matt819
(10,749 posts)Somehow that seems something of an oxymoron. I suspect if we weren't there, there would be no targets, high level or otherwise.
keithbvadu2
(36,770 posts)Stable Genius Trump gives away F-52s but refuses resources to our own military, killing our troops.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/01/11/trump-lauded-delivery-of-f-52s-to-norway-the-planes-only-exist-in-call-of-duty/
.
Yet stable genius kills our troops in those countries by refusing them the resources to do their jobs.
Too bad the CinC cannot be court martialed for dereliction of duty.
Trump says he knows more then the generals.
All that spare time playing golf when he could have been planning missions and not killing soldiers by assigning less qualified underlings to the task of mission planning.
Our military requested more resources for Niger mission(s) but the Trump administration refused them.
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-trump-niger-20171019-story.html