Error Theory

With all the back-and-forth between Somali time and D.C. time, a lot of people let this slip through the cracks (including me).

The "SEAL pals" email circulated by Rear Admiral Lou Sarosdy (USN ret.) claimed that Obama did not authorize SEAL teams to assist in the rescue of Captain Philips until 36 hours after these resources were requested by the captain on the scene. In their rebuttal campaign last week, anonymous Pentagon sources claimed that the USS Bainbridge did not arrive at the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama until Friday April 10th.

It actually arrived on scene at 4:00 AM on the 9th, local time, which in Washington was 8:00 PM on the 8th. It seems that reporters and editors let the date claim slide on the assumption that the time difference would shift the times the way it would have to shift the times to fit the Pentagon's claim, when it actually shifts them the other way. In fact, the Pentagon just flat-out lied about the Bainbridge's arrival time.

On the other end, the Pentagon used Washington time to make it sound as if Obama's authorization came on Friday, when it actually came at 4:00 AM Saturday morning local time. Thus the actual delay, local time to local time, was 4:00 AM Thursday to 4:00 AM Saturday: 48 hours!


Our "fact checkers" are not checking the facts

Obama's Pentagon rebuttal crew talked to three reporters: Bill Gertz at the Washington Times, Jim Miklaszewski at NBC and Joe Miller at Annenberg's FactCheck.org. Here is Miller's statement of the Obama Pentagon's rebuttal:

Although Phillips was taken hostage on April 8, the Pentagon didn’t actually take charge of the situation until the U.S.S. Bainbridge arrived on the scene on April 10. At that point, Pentagon officials told us, the captain of the Bainbridge requested the resources to resolve the situation. By 8:00 p.m. (Washington time) on April 10, President Obama had authorized the redeployment of a SEAL team from Kenya to the Bainbridge. Pentagon officials told us that the request worked its way up and back down the chain of command in a few hours, not a day-and-a-half, as the e-mail states.

Thanks are due to Mr. Miller for pinning down the time of the first SEAL-team authorization. Other sources offer redundant documentation of the Bainbridge's arrival on-scene in the early AM local time on the 9th, not on the 10th, as the Pentagon claimed. According to CNN, the USS Bainbridge arrived on the scene of the hijacking "before dawn Thursday." AP's timeline is more specific:

ON THURSDAY
4:00 a.m.: U.S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. Bainbridge reaches the Maersk Alabama.

After opening with the statement that the Bainbridge arrived before dawn, the CNN report goes on to say that the Bainbridge arrived at 8PM, but this seeming discrepancy is easily resolved. 4:00 AM Wednesday morning in Somalia was 8:00 PM Tuesday evening in Washington. (There is a 9 time-zone difference between Washington and Somalia, but the "spring forward" during daylight savings chops it to 8. This is why some televisions stations continued to refer to "Tuesday's hijacking." They first reported it here in the States on Tuesday the 7th.)

CNN was specific about the Navy taking over the scene the moment they arrived:

"When the Navy comes in, they're in charge," Speers [a spokesman for the Maersk Alabama] told CNN.

And according to Joe Miller:

At that point [when the Bainbridge arrived], Pentagon officials told us, the captain of the Bainbridge requested the resources to resolve the situation.

So the request for the SEAL teams went up the chain of command not long after 4:00 AM local time on the 9th. If authorization to send the nearby Kenya-based SEAL team over did not come until 4:00 AM Saturday, as Miller's Pentagon sources told him, then no, the request did not "work its way up and back down the chain of command in a few hours," as they also claimed. It took TWO FULL DAYS!


At least I have an excuse for missing this the first time round

I didn't follow the hijacking story until I read the "SEAL pals" version of what really happened of the coast of Somalia. When I then read the Pentagon's "SEAL pals" rebuttal in the Washington Times, I saw that it actually confirmed most of the "SEAL pals" claims. In particular, it expressly confirmed the perverse Rules of Engagement, where if the pirates ever left Captain Philips unguarded, our sailors were not allowed to rescue him by taking them out. "Obama's order not to rescue hostage confirmed by National Security Advisor and Pentagon," as I titled my response to Gertz' Pentagon exclusive.

That response did not address the claimed 36 hour delay, but Gertz, Miller and Miklaszewski all made the Pentagon's rebuttal of the 36 hour delay the centerpiece of their articles. So how did these supposed fact checkers all fail to check the most easily checkable facts at the heart of their own story? Faced with conflicting claims about the timeline, they simply reported what the two sides said, without making any attempt to see check and report on who was right.

Gertz got played the worst. His Obamagon sources denied that there was ANY delay in sending the Kenya-based SEAL team:

As soon as the Pentagon took charge on April 10 with its warship the USS Bainbridge on the scene, Mr. Obama first authorized a few Navy SEALs from a base in Africa to deploy to the Bainbridge and take necessary action. The team was flown by transport aircraft and parachuted to waters near the warship, officials said.

48 hours becomes zero hours, and Gertz reportorial curiosity is not raised enough to check the very first fact: when the Bainbridge actually arrived on-scene.


Miklaszewski's malfeasance

If Gertz was the least curious reporter, Miklaszewski was the most dishonest, because he KNEW when the Bainbridge arrived. Miklaszewski is NBC's designated "Pentagon correspondent." As such, he narrated most of NBC's updates on the hijacking. In his April 8th report, about the crew regaining control of the Maersk Alabama but losing Captain Philips, he noted that the USS Bainbridge was "a half day away," so he knew when it would get there, and the Nightly News' April 9th edition (without Miklaszewski) reported that: "The USS Bainbridge arrived in the early hours of this morning."

Despite knowing that the USS Bainbridge arrived before dawn on Thursday, Miklaszewski's report on the Pentagon's rebuttal effort (helpfully titled "SEAL EMAIL CRITICIZING OBAMA IS BOGUS") only said that the Bainbridge arrived on Thursday, leaving open the possibility that it arrived late Thursday. Similarly with Obama's authorization of the first SEAL team, which "Mik" only relates as having been issued on Friday, leaving open the possibility that it was issued early Friday.

Even if the Pentagon did not give Miklaszewski a specific time for the first SEAL-team authorization as was given to Joe Miller (8:00PM Washington time), Miklaszewski knows full well that if the authorization came early Friday, he would have been told. Thus he had to know that the 36 hour delay was at least in the ballpark: from early AM Thursday to at least mid-day Friday. Still he simply related the Pentagon assertion that the "SEAL pals" claims were false, with every line of his report written in an Obama-defending style (along with that BOGUS headline).

Neither did Miklaszewski speak up when the Pentagon told Gertz and Miller that the Bainbridge did not arrive until the 10th. Miklaszewski knew that was mis-information, as did numerous other reporters who covered the hijacking, yet they have all covered it up by omission.


Corrections are not enough: the media needs to tell the public about the Obama Pentagon's disinformation campaign

Like NBC, Joe Miller was also affirmative in declaring Admiral Sarodsy's "SEAL pals" report to be false:

Q: Did Obama delay the rescue of Captain Phillips?
A: No. Military officials say that the claims being made in a widely circulated chain e-mail are false.

So much for FactCheck.org. All of these outfits not only need to issue corrections, they need to trumpet the true story here: that the new Obama Pentagon put out completely wrong information in an express attempt to counter correct information from our own soldiers about the Obama administration's untenable decision-making.

By engaging in such a concerted rebuttal effort, Obama's Pentagon is acknowledging that if the claimed delay is true, it is devastating. As Gertz described their mission:

They sought to dispel Internet reports that the military was delayed from taking action by indecision inside the White House.

That they made such a focused effort to distribute false information is BIG NEWS, and it needs to be reported.


The second word-of-sailor account adds to the devastation

The 36 hour delay that was correctly reported in the "SEAL pals" account is damning enough, but a second word-of-sailor report, circulated by Captain Raymond "Buddy" Wellborn USN, is even more damning if true, giving the reason for the two day delay:

He [Obama] reportedly questioned his staff, "Will 'my' FBI people get there before the Navy does?"

This is consistent with the crazy don't-shoot-if-Philips-is-unguarded ROE. Obama WANTED to preserve the hostage situation so that he could negotiate with the pirates, give them the status of a place at the table, and make some kind of concessions to them, probably some rules of engagement that we would promise to abide by in future. The engagements that these promises encouraged would then, of course, be settled by yet further negotiation.

This is the fundamental fact that all the REAL information points to: Obama WANTED to negotiate with the pirates, and he wanted to establish this as a modus operandi going forward. Vice Admiral Gortney, who commands the Naval forces in the Middle East, was perfectly clear about the Obamagon's plan (and his own devotion to it):

Authorities went through "a deliberate, slow deliberate process to let the negotiation process work itself out to a nonviolent end," he said. "And unfortunately, that did not occur."

Imagine thinking it "unfortunate" that instead of having to negotiate with the pirates, we were able to take them out? As Obama always means by "change," the world is turned upside down.


The second authorization (delay time 50+ hours)

In addition to specifying 8:00 PM EDT Friday for Obama's authorization to send in the Kenya-based SEAL teams, Joe Miller's Pentagon sources specified a slightly later time for Obama's authorization for bringing in the SEAL sniper team from Norfolk VA:

Later Friday night, the Pentagon requested that SEAL Team 6 – the Navy’s counter-terrorism unit, which is also known as United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group or DEVGRU – also be deployed to the Bainbridge. Obama approved that request, as well.

Jim Miklaszewski's sources dated this second authorization to Saturday morning, but that discrepancy with Miller's late-Friday account can be reconciled by the time zones. Miller was explicitly talking Washington time, and late Friday in Washington is Saturday morning in Somalia.

It is only in regards to the second authorization that Gertz' Pentagon sources were willing to admit ANY Obama delay, claiming that Obama issued the second authorization "in a matter of hours" after CENTCOM passed on the request. That would probably be close to midnight, which would bring the delay on this INITIAL request to 52 hours (4:00 AM Thursday to 8:00 AM Saturday, local time).

Remember, the original request from Bainbridge Captain frank Castellano was for the Norfolk specialty teams, at least according to the "SEAL pals" report (which was correct, if a bit conservative, on the 36 hour delay):

1. BHO wouldn't authorize the DEVGRU/NSWC SEAL teams to the scene for 36 hours going against OSC (on scene commander) recommendation.

And why wouldn't Castellano request the Norfolk specialists from the outset, when they turned out to be just what was needed (at least under the hyper-restrictive ROE that Obama's people at CENTCOM insisted on)?


Obama and Obama's people at CENTCOM are the same thing

The Pentagon tried to slip their deception through by pretending that the only delays that can be attributed to Obama are the time it took for him to authorize the SEAL teams once the Obama people at CENTCOM finally decided to pass these request on to him from below. As Gertz' sources put it, Obama approved CENTCOM's request for authorization "in a matter of hours." Yes, but only after talking with them for almost two days about to WHETHER to make a request for authorization.

The only way Gertz and Miklaszewski could fall for such an obvious diversion is if they wanted to. Like Eason Jordon in Baghdad, they know that the key to future access is to play ball with current access (plus whatever Chris Matthews-like "thrill going up my leg" favoritism they may have for Obama themselves).

Well they really shamed themselves this time, but they and their employers can still redeem themselves if they will not just issuing corrections for the false information they helped the Pentagon put before the public, but actually do their jobs and report the truth about the Pentagon's disinformation campaign against its own soldiers.