White House Denies Report Obama 'Hesitated' On James Foley Rescue Mission

BI ^ | 8-31-2014 | Paul Szoldra

[blam]

Paul Szoldra
August 30, 2014

The White House is pushing back on a report in the Sunday Times earlier this week that said Obama "took too long" to authorize the mission to rescue James Foley and other American hostages held by ISIS militants, a decision that journalist Toby Harnden reported made the mission impossible.

The report, which offers a broad overview of the failed July 4 mission to rescue Foley, had two paragraphs which were very interesting:

Pentagon sources said Foley and the others might well have been rescued but Obama, concerned about the ramifications of US troops being killed or captured in Syria, took too long to authorise the mission.

Anthony Shaffer, a former lieutenant-colonel in US military intelligence who worked on covert operations, said: “I’m told it was almost a 30-day delay from when they said they wanted to go to when he finally gave the green light. They were ready to go in June to grab the guy [Foley] and they weren’t permitted.”

For what it's worth, Harnden, who has been a journalist for 20 years, uses the word sources — so while they are anonymous we know there are at least two — and his follow-up statement from Anthony Shaffer lends some credibility, as it comes from an ex-Army officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency

(snip)

[chiefqc]

Would the mac, canary yellow, daddy administration of useless sock puppets lie to the American public?

[wiggen]

didn’t he wait days as well when that captain was captured by Somali pirates? He has no heart for the job.

[wiggen]

when u read the entire article with the denials in it they never say they went as soon as they could but rather when success was most likely. To claim the best chance of success and then to find no prisoners would seem to be a contradiction.

[mikrofon]

A competent Intelligence support staff would always have a current sitrep & available scenarios at the POTUS’ fingertips .... Of course, he would still have to be more interested in that, rather than adjusting his golf grip.