Pentagon Admits Drone Killed Innocent People, Including Seven Children, and Not ISIS Terrorists
Maybe, just maybe, don’t rely on the Taliban for intel. Maybe, just maybe, not trust a terrorist group.
See? When publications like The New York Times do their jobs the government cannot hide.
The New York Times reported the drone strike the Biden administration bragged about that supposedly killed ISIS fighters actually killed an innocent family.
Videos and interviews seemed to confirm the drone killed 10 people, including seven children. The Biden administration targeted a man who worked for a U.S. aid group.
Seven children.
Maybe, just maybe, you should not trust the Taliban.
CENTCOM Gen. McKenzie finally admitted the drone strike killed the family and children.
BREAKING: Gen. McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, to announce no ISIS-K fighters killed in U.S. drone strike in Kabul Aug 29. 10 civilians killed, including 7 children in Toyota. No disciplinary action expected, officials say. US military stands by intel leading to strike.
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) September 17, 2021
Gen. McKenzie: "As many as 10 civilians, including up to 7 children, were tragically killed in that strike. Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K… It was a mistake, and I offer my sincere apology.” pic.twitter.com/48tG6aALYo
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 17, 2021
McKenzie says it was the "assessment that leaders on the ground and the strike cell had achieved a reasonable certainty" that the car was an "imminent threat" and the area was clear of civilians, but the turth was that all of that "was a tragic mistake." pic.twitter.com/fryzZ9Yg77
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2021
Un-freaking-believable.
It seems like the media is asking McKenzie hard-hitting questions. Everyone should be upset when strikes kill any innocent, but especially children.
.@TBowmanNPR: "General, this is a complete & utter failure. Can you explain how this possibly could have happened?"
Gen. McKenzie: "Well, this particular strike was a terrible mistake. We certainly regret that…We take full responsibility for that." pic.twitter.com/SUVRrEoy8T
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2021
.@CBSDavidMartin to Gen. McKenzie: "This was described as an over-the-horizon strike, which is what the U.S. is going to be relying on from now on in Afghanistan, so what does…this incident say about the reliability of future strikes against terrorist threats in Afghanistan?" pic.twitter.com/AdN6N5Fkfv
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2021
Reuters's @phildstewart: "Are you considering reparations for the victims? And what is what happened…say to you about the over-the-horizon capability that we've been hearing…about? What are the risks involved…when you don't have people on the ground…going forward?" pic.twitter.com/axSV6UzMNe
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2021
CNN's @MarquardtA: "On September 1, we heard from Gen. Milley who called this a righteous strike…Did you, at the time…also believe this was a righteous strike & can you talk about your erosion of confidence over the next, subsequent two weeks of the investigation?" pic.twitter.com/Edu1T40eBf
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2021
This is what you get when you rely on the Taliban.
You “stand by the intel” when the intel was given to you by the Taliban and they gave it to you specifically so you WOULD commit a war crime they can then use for propaganda against you.
Basically, Biden and company got rickrolled by the Taliban and can’t admit it. https://t.co/joViYBNOCe
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) September 17, 2021
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Comments
To bad the Democrat Propaganda Ministry will never mention it
Anyone want to play the “If Trump had done this” game?
No, because at least for me. It’s grown tiresome.
“US military stands by intel leading to strike.”
What kind of idiotic statement is that? If the intel is wrong and it caused you to kill innocent women and children, why do you stand by it?
Is it because you don’t want to fire any liberal friends for screwing up?
Because that would require them to admit that they got the ‘intel’ from the Taliban, and that they were fucking stupid enough to believe them.
I seem to remember that they told us that it was the Taliban who ratted them out right at the start. No need for due diligence when you free intelligence, especially with the intelligence budget being so tight these days.
Mckenzie said that we had the vehicle under direct observation for 8 hours before the strike. Any attempt to push blame off on the Taliban is BS.
And the jackasses probably went full Clintonian with ‘it depends on the definition of ‘WE”.
Of course they got the tipper information from the Taliban. They had information on a certain type of car; a white Toyota sedan. No doubt the vast majority of Toyotas sold in the region are bought used in Japan or other Asian countries that have similar car inspection laws. In Japan the car inspection system is essentially rigged by the manufacturers with the cooperation of the government to make it simply too expensive to keep a car for more than 7 years (the inspection costs thousands of dollars, but a new car has a grace period of 5 years, then doesn’t have to be inspected for two more years, but after that every year and most cars don’t make it to 8 years; Japanese junkyards are full of well maintained, lightly used, running cars that are sold all over the world). The vast majority of these cars are white as it’s considered a lucky color, and this is true in most other east/southeast Asian countries as well.
White Toyotas are the John Does of the car world.
https://www.japanesecartrade.com/type-make/sedan-car-20-toyota-1.html
The Biden admin had no idea who was in the car, as Blinken admitted when questioned by Rand Paul last Tuesday.
https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2021/09/14/rand-paul-corners-blinken-on-the-biden-administration-done-striking-without-identifying-targets-n442809
“Sen. @RandPaul: ‘The guy the Biden administration droned: was he an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative?’
Sec. Blinken: ‘I don’t know because we’re reviewing it.’
Sen. Paul: ‘You’d think you’d kind of know before you off somebody with a predator drone.’ pic.twitter.com/kGWSuTySho
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 14, 2021″
And in other damning admissions, Milley said that this strike was conducted using the same process and same “level of rigor” that we’ve been using the entire time in Afghanistan. I believe him. They didn’t care who they killed because Biden/Harris needed to put points on the board. The Taliban, who is actively hunting people who worked not just for U.S. armed forces nor allied forces but anyone working for the West in any capacity gave Biden/Harris a target that they wanted killed. And, since Biden/Harris didn’t care, they struck the Taliban-provided target. Gee, 8 whole hours, huh? Biden advised Obama not to raid OBL’s Abottabad compound and OBL had been hunted for years. But 8 whole hours? When Biden/Harris is catching heat and needs to change the chryon on the 24 hour news cycle broadcasts any target will do. Especially when the Taliban will back you up in the foreign press. Of course, in Afghanistan the message is different; “See what we’ll do to you if you work for the West against us.” But all Biden/Harris cared about was changing the story at home and hopefully in other Western countries, whether (as Biden told Ghani when they talked on the phone) it is true or not.
I can guarantee that U.S. analysts never claimed that any ISIS-K was in that car. Whatever ISR assets tracked the car could not confirm the identities of the occupants. Biden/Harris are desperate to be able to claim we don’t need to have any intelligence assets in Afghanistan. Or in any nearby countries. Of course Biden/Harris need to claim that because despite trying to at least maintain a capability in neighboring former Soviet southern tier countries, Putin bitch slapped Biden and said no.
So Biden/Harris hoped to suppress the truth and claim this was a success that proved their “strategy” of having no clue and abandoning all means of getting a clue to the Taliban and Putin was a success. So, yeah, they can’t blame the Taliban for the intel because they wanted to be duped. The “professional and business-like” Taliban (as Biden’s State Department put it) simply did what “professional and business-like” Islamic dictatorships have always done. Fooled the fools who want to be fooled about who they “inclusively” really are.
This is what Leading from Behind looks like.
“A mistake.”
I forgot to buy lettuce at the grocery store today. That was a “mistake.”
If my mistakes cause the murder of ten people, then that is more reason to be super careful.
Exactly the kind of incompetence that should be expected of anyone who is morally deficient enough to work for a pedophile traitor like Biden*.
I understand that sometimes, mistakes get made and/or there is collateral damage in war, but can these people get *anything* right? Perhaps if they weren’t so busy “understanding white rage,” hiring Jihadists to talk about Islam at Ft. Hood, making soldiers march in high heels or having soldiers show up at members of Congress’ offices as a political stunt, the Pentagon might have had more time to gain proficiency in military matters.
The answer to your question is clearly and emphatically “no”.
From what we have seen recently – the woke military, the Milley fiasco, our pathetic surrender in Afghanistan and now this – I believe there are layers upon layers of “leadership” in our military that must go. Retire, resign, fired, I don’t care.
I have the utmost respect for any and all who sign up for any branch of military service but none for the leadership. Think about it… we don’t have a single general on staff who has known victory. It has been one sad retreat after another. In fairness, most of these defeats are sown in political soil but, nonetheless, the leadership has to own them too.
Tucker played a clip recently showing probably 10 generals over the last decade+ assuring the American people that “progress” was being made in Afghanistan. It was utter BS and every one of them knew it when they said it but we wasted thousands of lives and blew $2,000,000,000,000 accomplishing absolutely nothing over there. In fact, the situation is likely worse than 2001 as now the Taliban et al are emboldened, see us as 0 threat and are freshly ARMED with our stuff!
Republicans love massive defense budgets but now it is time for a top to bottom review of every aspect of our military starting with the leadership else its time for drastic cuts because, honestly, what difference would it make.
“Sorry about that chief”… says Gen Maxwell Smar… er… McKenzie. I would think one star less for the General would be in order, but who’s counting?
So many are dying out of sight now in Afghanistan what’s a few more obvious killings?
It’s a pro-Marxist Pentagon… just ask Harpo.
You “stand by the intel” when the intel was given to you by the Taliban and they gave it to you specifically so you WOULD commit a war crime they can then use for propaganda against you.
___________________________________________________________________
agree with this–simply unbelievable we would could be naive enough to trust a group of known terrorists and use THEIR intel as the basis for a “righteous strike” against ANOTHER group of terrorists(ISIS)–oh, and this “mistake”cost the lives of ten innocent people–what a tragic (and lethal) clownshow
Biden’s clown show can’t get *anything* right.
Their make up looks really good.
Miley said it was a righteous strike. Case closed – move on.
Seriously – Did McKenzie decide on his own to give the confession press briefing or was he ordered to do it? Cuz I sure can’t see Mr Pink & Green salad chest giving that briefing.
Pentagon originally said they were tracking two terrorists on a tuk-tuk, a motorized tricycle often used as a taxi. The targets were in a non-residential part of town. The drone was a non-explosive type with hundreds of sharp blades meant to localize the death-dealing and not harm people over a wider area. Only the terrorists were killed. The secondary explosion proved the bad guys had explosives. Now the Pentagon says that none of the story was true. There was no tuk-tuk, no bomb material, no terrorists, no non-explosive drone. It was all a lie that we could plainly see was a lie when the video was released the next day. Joe the Senile should not have his hands on grown-up weaponry.
There were three different drone strikes in Kabul during the evacuation. People are getting the details mixed up.
I can find information for only one drone strike in Kabul that day. What were the other two strikes?
The first one hit a vehicle with 2 ISIS “planners” inside shortly after the suicide attack. The next day I believe. This is the one where they refused to ID the dead. It was implied that the “planning” was related to the suicide attack but it was likely (hopefully) just two known ISIS members. I don’t recall seeing photos released.
A second hit a vehicle with small rocket launching tubes inside. Photos are online. A righteous kill.
The third hit the children and their family. This is the one with the vehicle inside a walled compound and up against a wall.
The strikes were on different days.
“The drone was a non-explosive type with hundreds of sharp blades meant to localize the death-dealing and not harm people over a wider area.”
Well, how humane! That’s practically the next best thing to dropping teddy bears on them.
Called it.
When they refused to say the identity of who they killed, but insisted that it ‘prevented an attack’, that was the tell that they knew goddamn well that they screwed up massively.
Lets not forget that this is in addition to collateral damage already reported.
Pentagon is just too ideological to make good judgements.
“We take full responsibility for that”
That means the general told the Taliban to fire the terrorist who gave them the info.
“Gen. McKenzie: “Well, this particular strike was a terrible mistake. We certainly regret that…We take full responsibility for that.””
No you don’t you a-ho. If you took full responsibility for that you and your staff would resign your commissions today,
You laugh at us all.
Remember, Biden called the Afghan president and offered a quid pro quo for rosy lies about the security situation in Afghanistan.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/01/transcript-biden-asked-afghan-president-to-lie-for-him-in-return-for-support/
“Transcript: Biden Asked Afghan President To Lie For Him In Return For Support
…According to the transcript of the final phone call between President Biden and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on July 23 reported by Reuters, Biden instructed his Afghan counterpart to put a defense minister in charge.
‘Things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban. And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture,” Biden told President Ghani. “If you empower Bismillah [Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi] to execute a strategy focused on key parts of the population centers … you’re going to get not only more help, but you’re going to get a perception that is going to change.’
Biden went on to pledge consistent air support pending compliance…”
As long as Ghani said what Biden wanted him to say Biden couldn’t care less if it wasn’t true.
What makes anyone think Biden/Harris cared if the target was legit or not? Biden’s famous “empathy” is like everything else about this guy; a lie. Just like everything about Obama was a lie. Obama’s entire public persona was a David Axelrod media production. Biden lied for years about how his wife was killed by a drunk driver. He slandered a commercial truck driver for years and paid no price for it. The other driver had no alcohol in his system and in fact the Delaware state troopers believed his wife was at fault. But Biden lied to score “empathy” points; he could go in front of MADD and claim to “feel their pain.” It reminds me of John Edwards who when he was trying to become John Kerry’s VP pick kept telling a story about how he got onto the table next to his dead son and curled up next to him. He’d always begin the story with the words, “I’ve never told anyone about this before…”
It turns out he’d told just about everybody about that before. Including Kerry. Reportedly Kerry was stunned when Edwards forgot that he had already told Kerry that lie before. Not like John “Christmas in Cambodia” Kerry is known for telling the truth. They’re all liars. But Edwards can’t keep track of his lies. Neither can Biden. Biden has been repeatedly and publicly scolded and corrected by the other driver’s family about how his story is a lie. I believe he’s even admitted on occasion that, yes, the other driver hadn’t been drinking. And then when he needs to score empathy points there he is telling he same discredited lie.
Now he’s doing the same thing using his son Beau’s death from brain cancer. Biden is trying to make a connection between Beau’s fatal cancer and his deployments as an reserve JAG officer. There’s no connection. But apparently since Biden got 13 American troops killed in the catastrophe he engineered in Afghanistan somehow he (or his puppet masters) think somehow that telling a lie about how he knows what it’s like to lose a child in a war (the Commander-in-Retreat does not, otherwise he wouldn’t have murdered those 13 Americans) then he can’t be criticized for a debacle that’s entirely of his administration’s own making.
I mentioned Obama for a reason. Recall how Obama refused to be briefed by intel. Instead he insisted on only reading the PDB. His spox tried to spin this fact as if it were somehow a positive; Obama was such a “sophisticated consumer of intelligence” that he didn’t need a briefing.
And as a former Naval intelligence officer I can tell you (as I’ve done many times on these threads) that actual sophisticated consumers of intel will listen to a briefing and grill the briefer, exposing gaps in the intel. Which intel then uses to update the commander’s Priority Intelligence Requirements.
That’s why it’s called the intelligence cycle. It’s an ongoing process and intel uses feedback to constantly refine the process. And the underperforming community organizer from Chicago couldn’t formulate intelligent questions because it was amateur hour at the WH. Why do you think he had a failed fiction writer (Ben Rhodes) and his campaign van driver (Tommy Vietor) on his national security team. Obama had such a mediocre intellect the only way he could feel he was the smartest person in the room was to surround himself with even bigger losers.
And the failed community organizer was an arrogant, thin-skinned narcissist who had his senior appointees doctor the intel so he never had to hear anything he didn’t want to hear.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/253188-report-analysts-claim-us-military-altering-intelligence-on-isis-war?rl=1
“More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military’s Central Command (Centcom) have formally complained that their reports on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are being inappropriately altered by senior officials, according to The Daily Beast.
The complaints prompted the Pentagon’s inspector general to launch an investigation. Although the investigation is not yet concluded, a defense official told The Daily Beast that “the cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command” at Centcom, which oversees the military operations in the war against ISIS…”
No, the cancer was in the WH, and the cancer’s name was Barack Hussein Obama. As we are seeing the senior military officers had been purged of everyone except yes men and clowns that perform on command. I’m not defending them. But Obama had his yes man he appointed as the DNI, Clapper, jump the entire chain of command and speak directly with the J2 at CENTCOM and direct him to cut actual intel out of their assessments and simply say what he was told to say. Everything was just fine!
Sound familiar? Of course they’re standing by the “intel.” Biden has always been thin-skinned and a narcissist. An arrogant one at that. Why do you think he insulted the voters who dared question him when his handlers let him out of his basement on rare occasions? Calling them fat, challenging them to push-up contests or to step outside and fight, famously calling one young lady a “lying dog faced pony soldier,” claiming he was a college football star when he met his first wife when that loser never played a down in college (Obama was also a bench warmer who talked as if he was a trash-talker on the varsity basketball starting team).
I seriously doubt this was an actual intel failure. But I also doubt that the throne-sniffing court toadies the demented, thin-skinned arrogant narcissistic psychopath occupying the WH has surrounded himself with told Biden or anyone else in the administration about the real security situation. They did what Biden himself told Ghani to do; just tell everyone what he wanted to hear. The narrative he wanted to sell, “whether it was true or not.”
Everything is just fine!