Some military and national security experts were stunned that President Donald Trump publicly revealed so many operational details from America’s rescue mission of two pilots downed in Iran, expressing concern that doing so could put lives at risk.
“How many men did you send altogether, approximately? To the operation?” Trump at one point asked General Dan “Razin” Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Monday’s White House briefing.
“I’d love to keep that a secret,” Caine responded.
“I’ll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people,” Trump said, before elaborating further. “But hundreds of people went into this journey. Hundreds of people could have been killed.”
He also acknowledged that “people that were within the military” said it was not a “wise” decision. “I understood that, but I decided to do it.”
General Caine told reporters that he needed to keep some information classified. “I will retain what I must in the event that we have to go do this again sometime,” he said.
Some experts blasted the president.
“Trump and his team are disclosing a LOT of detail about this rescue mission – how they found the US pilots, how they tricked the Iranians, CIA capabilities – when we are still at war, pilots are flying over Iran daily, and this could happen again. Seems like a bad idea!” warned Tommy Vietor, former National Security Council spokesperson under President Barack Obama.
“SO much detail about the CIA drone that found the pilot,” Vietor added.
“CIA Director and the Chairman scold the media about not disclosing details of the Iran rescue operation, and then Trump blurts out it was a CIA ‘camera’ – presumably a drone but maybe a satellite – that could see the pilot at night from 40 miles away. Lot of detail!” Vietor noted.
“In the interest of our national security, there is so much operational detail out there now that we’d be better off not knowing. Including from Trump in this briefing. Per usual,” lamented Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran, founder of a veterans’ nonprofit, and a political science lecturer.
“Members of the U.S. IC [Intelligence Community] and military are absolutely floored right now that Trump and Hegseth are publicly discussing specifics of how this past weekend’s successful CSAR [combat search and rescue] operation in Iran was accomplished,” wrote Travis Akers, a retired U.S. Navy Intelligence Officer. “They are directly endangering the lives of Americans.”
“I am not going to confirm or deny specifics of any operation or how it was executed, but the fact that Trump is even discussing specifics for this past weekend’s CSAR operation is gross negligence and WILL put more Americans in harm’s way. Unacceptable,” Akers also noted.