President Obama “does not at all regret” ordering the unsuccessful mission to rescue an American hostage held by al Qaeda in Yemen, the White House said Monday.
Press secretary Josh Earnest said there were “a few reasons” the president stood by his decision to order the raid, during which U.S. captive Luke Somers was killed. He pointed to a video released by the militant group vowing to kill Somers by Saturday as a reason Obama felt compelled to order the raid on Friday night.
{mosads}”There was a very limited window for action,” Earnest said. “And that is a testament, more than anything else, I think, to the bravery and skill of our men and women in uniform, who, like I said, for the second time in just a few weeks here, put their lives on the line in a very dangerous country in a very dangerous mission to try to secure the safe rescue of Mr. Somers.”
In a previous raid, U.S. special forces discovered other captives being held by al Qaeda, but not Somers.
Earnest also said the efforts served as “a clear sign of this president’s resolve to do everything possible to rescue Americans who are being held hostage anywhere around the globe.”
“Militants or extremist organizations that decide to take the risk of taking an American hostage are put on notice today,” Earnest said.
A second hostage, South African Pierre Korkie, was also killed by his captors during the raid, to the dismay of his family, who believed they had brokered a ransom payment for his release.
Earnest said the U.S. had no knowledge of the negotiations being taken for Korkie’s release. South Africa’s government, like the U.S., does not negotiate for the release of hostages, but the Korkie family had pursued such a deal privately — although some reports indicated U.S. officials might have been aware of the proceedings.
More broadly, the White House said it did not have an update on the review of the interagency process for handling instances where U.S. citizens were kidnapped by terror groups. Many victims’ families have complained that the federal response has been confusing and disorganized, prompting the president to order the evaluation.
“The president asked for a review to try to see if there are some steps that we could take to better integrate those efforts to make them more efficient and more effective and also to ease the burden, the significant burden, that is on families who are in this terrible, even unthinkable situation of having a loved one that’s being held hostage,” Earnest said.
“So that review is underway. I don’t have an update at this point, but I would anticipate that when we’ve concluded that review, we’ll have more to say about it.”