Page 146 - Intelligence Failure News Today

Now i would guess that this was one of two operations that were going on in africa at the time. something called the chad river basin initiative, something with five other countries, niger is one of them, and theres another one thats a bilateral with niger and mali with the united states, and some european partners. the coordination required in a difficult and complex operation with 12 u.s. soldiers on the ground, and probably anywhere from a company to a battalion of 800 africans on the ground ...

Statement was drafted, but the white house decided not to release it, opting instead for the press secretary to make a statement here at the white house. back to you, chris. >> ill take it, joe. we have that initial statement we will read to everyone. meanwhile, defense secretary mattis is demanding to know what happened in that deadly ambush in niger that killed the four u.s. soldiers. senator john mccain said the trump administration is not being up front about this investigation. barbara star...

Be part of an investigation and the investigating officer will be asked to answer a list of questions. so if you hear anyone, fred, coming out immediately saying it was an intelligence failure, dismiss that. that could possibly be a part of it. but i got to tell you, having done these kind of investigations before, there were probably many, many factors that contributed to the unfortunate death of these four american soldiers. >> all right. general, let me also ask you about the u.s. ambassador ...

Maybe they should do more, the trump administration should do more to explain to americans were fighting a serious war in lots of parts of africa. lots of brave soldiers and marines, naval -- i know someone personally in naval intelligence doing important things. i think one of the worst things would be the sense, why are we there? this happened after mogadishu and we ended up being very weary in the clinton administration and people died in rwanda because we were not wanting to give assets. i t...

Sound like bad intelligence on what these soldiers were prepared to do and what they were getting in to? >> the charge of a massive intelligence failure is the default reaction that most people have when something bad happens in some part of the worl and there may have been a shortage of intelligence here. obviously there was if there had been good intelligence, they wouldve anticipated the attack. now that said, anyone whose looked at this area and followed it overly a period of time is not sur...

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The american agreeinger about rays traveled by convoy in unarmored military vehicles as they had done 29 times without incident over the past six months. the soldiers were ambushed after they were already in their vehicles after leaving the meeting. estimated 50 jihadists riding motorcycles, toting rocket-propelled grenades sprayed them with gunfire. the vehicles disbursed, a gunfire ensued, this they decide there was an intelligence failure nmplts this specific case, contact was considered unli...

Chris january sing picking things up for new york. >> craig melvin, thank you. its 11:00 a.m. out west. 2:00 p.m. in washington, d.c. when the press briefing starts, well have it live. first, a massive intelligence failure. thats what a congressional aid briefed on the deaths in four u.s. soldiers said its partially to blame for the ambush earlier this month. nbc learning new details as the fbi joins the investigation. on capitol hill, lawmakers are demanding more answers. they might get s...

Officials confirm to nbc news that the fbi is now also investigating the attack. lets start with nbcs national security reporter courtney kube, and hanz nichols is standing by. courtney, lets start with you, this new reporting on what the source is calling -- characterizing as a massive intelligence failure. what more do we know? >> so, this is coming from my colleague, ken, who spoke with a senior source on the hill who said there are a lot of questions, still, which we know. but one is how is ...

Those four americans who sacrificed their lives? the larger issue of americas presence in niger and west africa and who were there to actually fight throughout the region and more importantly, it raises questions about the global battle against terrorism. where else are u.s. troops that we might not know about currently stationed around the world. i want to bring in my panel john mcglog decline, visa williams and tommy sours a former green beret. its great to have all three of you with us. lets ...