WASHINGTON — President Trump wrongly tweeted on Saturday that The New York Times had “foiled” an attempt by the United States military to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State.
“The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, Al-Baghdadi,” the president wrote. “Their sick agenda over National Security.”
Mr. Trump’s statement appeared to be based on a report by Fox News; he is known to be an avid viewer, and a version of the story was broadcast about 25 minutes before he posted. The report said that The Times had disclosed intelligence in an article on June 8, 2015, about an American military raid in Syria that led to the death of one of Mr. Baghdadi’s key lieutenants, Abu Sayyaf, and the capture of his wife, who played an important role in the group.
That Fox News report cited comments by Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of the United States Special Operations Command, in an interview conducted Friday by the network’s intelligence correspondent, Catherine Herridge, at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
General Thomas said that a valuable lead on Mr. Baghdadi’s whereabouts “was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead.” He did not name The Times.
But a review of the record shows that information made public in a Pentagon news release more than three weeks before the Times article, and extensively covered at the time by numerous news media outlets, would have tipped off Mr. Baghdadi that the United States was questioning an important Islamic State operative who knew of his recent whereabouts and some of his methods of communication. Further, the information in the Times article on June 8 came from United States government officials who were aware that the details would be published.
A White House spokesman had no comment on Mr. Trump’s tweet. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that he believed Mr. Baghdadi, whose possible death has been the subject of repeated rumors, was still alive.
Here are the facts.
What happened in 2015 that led to the controversy?
Delta Force commandos conducted a raid in Syria on May 16, 2015, on the residence of Abu Sayyaf, the Islamic State’s top financial officer and a close associate of Mr. Baghdadi. The commando raid was the first in Syria against the militant group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and a trove of information was harvested from cellphones, laptops and other materials. Abu Sayyaf was killed, and his wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured and flown out of the country for questioning.
That day, the Pentagon announced that the raid had taken place and that Umm Sayyaf had been detained.
“Last night, at the direction of the commander-in-chief, I ordered U.S. Special Operations Forces to conduct an operation in al-Amr in eastern Syria to capture an ISIL senior leader known as Abu Sayyaf and his wife, Umm Sayyaf,” Ashton B. Carter, the defense secretary at the time, said in a statement.
“Abu Sayyaf was involved in ISIL’s military operations and helped direct the terrorist organization’s illicit oil, gas and financial operations as well,” Mr. Carter added. “Abu Sayyaf was killed during the course of the operation when he engaged U.S. forces. U.S. forces captured Umm Sayyaf, who we suspect is a member of ISIL, played an important role in ISIL’s terrorist activities, and may have been complicit in what appears to have been the enslavement of a young Yazidi woman rescued last night.”
Until the raid, the American military had little knowledge about how the Islamic State leadership worked, and officials were eager to highlight the intelligence breakthrough.
The raid was covered extensively by the Western news media when it was announced, and accounts citing the Pentagon appeared the next morning on the front pages of dozens of newspapers, including The Times.
In the article cited by Fox News and published more than three weeks after the raid, The Times reported new details, including that as much as seven terabytes of data had been seized, which, with information from Umm Sayyaf, provided new insights into how Mr. Baghdadi operated and tried to avoid detection.
For example, the article noted that regional emirs in his organization were required to hand over cellphones before being driven to meetings with Mr. Baghdadi so their movements could not be tracked. Wives of the Islamic State leaders, the article noted, also played an important role in passing information to minimize the risk that the group’s communications would be intercepte
“The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, Al-Baghdadi,” the president wrote. “Their sick agenda over National Security.”
Mr. Trump’s statement appeared to be based on a report by Fox News; he is known to be an avid viewer, and a version of the story was broadcast about 25 minutes before he posted. The report said that The Times had disclosed intelligence in an article on June 8, 2015, about an American military raid in Syria that led to the death of one of Mr. Baghdadi’s key lieutenants, Abu Sayyaf, and the capture of his wife, who played an important role in the group.
That Fox News report cited comments by Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of the United States Special Operations Command, in an interview conducted Friday by the network’s intelligence correspondent, Catherine Herridge, at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
General Thomas said that a valuable lead on Mr. Baghdadi’s whereabouts “was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead.” He did not name The Times.
But a review of the record shows that information made public in a Pentagon news release more than three weeks before the Times article, and extensively covered at the time by numerous news media outlets, would have tipped off Mr. Baghdadi that the United States was questioning an important Islamic State operative who knew of his recent whereabouts and some of his methods of communication. Further, the information in the Times article on June 8 came from United States government officials who were aware that the details would be published.
A White House spokesman had no comment on Mr. Trump’s tweet. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that he believed Mr. Baghdadi, whose possible death has been the subject of repeated rumors, was still alive.
Here are the facts.
What happened in 2015 that led to the controversy?
Delta Force commandos conducted a raid in Syria on May 16, 2015, on the residence of Abu Sayyaf, the Islamic State’s top financial officer and a close associate of Mr. Baghdadi. The commando raid was the first in Syria against the militant group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and a trove of information was harvested from cellphones, laptops and other materials. Abu Sayyaf was killed, and his wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured and flown out of the country for questioning.
That day, the Pentagon announced that the raid had taken place and that Umm Sayyaf had been detained.
“Last night, at the direction of the commander-in-chief, I ordered U.S. Special Operations Forces to conduct an operation in al-Amr in eastern Syria to capture an ISIL senior leader known as Abu Sayyaf and his wife, Umm Sayyaf,” Ashton B. Carter, the defense secretary at the time, said in a statement.
“Abu Sayyaf was involved in ISIL’s military operations and helped direct the terrorist organization’s illicit oil, gas and financial operations as well,” Mr. Carter added. “Abu Sayyaf was killed during the course of the operation when he engaged U.S. forces. U.S. forces captured Umm Sayyaf, who we suspect is a member of ISIL, played an important role in ISIL’s terrorist activities, and may have been complicit in what appears to have been the enslavement of a young Yazidi woman rescued last night.”
Until the raid, the American military had little knowledge about how the Islamic State leadership worked, and officials were eager to highlight the intelligence breakthrough.
The raid was covered extensively by the Western news media when it was announced, and accounts citing the Pentagon appeared the next morning on the front pages of dozens of newspapers, including The Times.
In the article cited by Fox News and published more than three weeks after the raid, The Times reported new details, including that as much as seven terabytes of data had been seized, which, with information from Umm Sayyaf, provided new insights into how Mr. Baghdadi operated and tried to avoid detection.
For example, the article noted that regional emirs in his organization were required to hand over cellphones before being driven to meetings with Mr. Baghdadi so their movements could not be tracked. Wives of the Islamic State leaders, the article noted, also played an important role in passing information to minimize the risk that the group’s communications would be intercepte
