In his preening, braggadocious announcement this morning of the raid that resulted in ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's welcome death, malignant narcissist and Kremlin asset Donald "Quid Pro Quo" Trump didn't disappoint when he chose to list Russia first as a nation that helped the effort. While he thanked Russia, he downplayed the role that the Kurds and the intelligence community played, especially the CIA, which has been the target of his "deep state" conspiracy smears for years. In fact, they played a pivotal role:
"One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, said that troops from Delta Force, an elite military unit, conducted the operation with support from the CIA and Kurdish forces. The official said that Baghdadi had been located in large part thanks to U.S. intelligence agencies intensifying their focus on Idlib province because of militants there with loose links to al-Qaeda." (our emphasis)Not surprisingly, Trump said he notified Russian and Syrian officials before notifying key Democratic members of Congress, ostensibly to limit "leaks," but in reality to show disrespect for them in his own petulant way.
In a question and answer period that followed his brag fest, Trump may have also disclosed top secret information regarding the compound that al-Baghdadi was found in, including the detail that there were tunnels underneath the compound and that the front entrance had been booby trapped, something that only an on-site observer or ISIS insider would know about. He also disclosed that al-Baghdadi's travels had been successfully monitored, even as the ISIS leader changed travel patterns on a whim, information that would be useful to al-Baghdadi's successors. True to form, as with his infamous private meeting in 2017 with Russian officials, his bragging mouth may have tipped ISIS as to a human intelligence source in their midst whose life is now in danger. But Trump got his announcement, and that's all that matters.
BONUS: Despite his attempt at brown-nosing Russia, Trump got bupkis from the Russian Ministry of Defence, which said that they were "unaware of providing cooperation to U.S. air units" conducting the raid. Moreover, they're doubting that Trump's triumph happened at all:
Moscow unconvinced by US claims that al-Baghdadi has been killed. Russian defence ministry refers to “valid doubts about the reality & success (of the operation), says “no air strikes by US or coalition forces registered in Idlib de-escalation zone on Saturday or recent days.”— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) October 27, 2019
Sad all that groveling was for naught.
BONUS II: All should remember Trump's advice from a few years ago and apply it to him:
Stop congratulating Obama for killing Bin Laden. The Navy Seals killed Bin Laden. #debate— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2012
BONUS III:
This means that while the raid didn't happen while Trump was golfing, he *did* choose to golf all day as our military, intel agencies, and related departments prepared for one of the biggest operations in nearly a decade.— Avi Bueno (@Avi_Bueno) October 27, 2019
Source for the 5PM timeframe.https://t.co/CiWpnLE5Ai
UPDATE: The quid pro quo for green- lighting Turkey's invasion of Syria and driving out our Kurdish allies:
Turkey’s Defense Ministry says it exchanged information and coordinated with the US military prior to the US counter-terrorism operation in NW Syria, a raid that US officials tell CNN targeted the leader of ISIS, al Baghdadi https://t.co/bSWWQ9lS1W— Ryan Browne (@rabrowne75) October 27, 2019
We wonder how long our "friend" Turkey has been keeping the information about al Baghdadi to itself...
