Pentagon Under Fire for Concealing Attack Casualties
WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The Pentagon has gone to great pains to claim that there had been no effort to play down or delay the release of information on injuries from Iran’s Jan. 8 attack on a base hosting U.S. forces in Iraq.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Pentagon chief Mark Esper and others throughout the U.S. government for a week had said that Iran’s attack on bases in Iraq, in retaliation for the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, had not killed or injured any U.S. troops.
That is no longer true, the Pentagon now acknowledges. But Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman claimed on Friday that U.S. military leadership in Washington only became aware on Thursday that 11 U.S. service members were flown out of Iraq due to concussive symptoms.
"This idea that there was an effort to de-emphasize injuries for some sort of amorphous political agenda doesn’t hold water,” Hoffman said.
The claim that Pentagon officials did not know enough about the situation at the base after the Iranian retaliation for days adds insult to injury and reveals a serious break in the command and control chain. Otherwise, they must be lying to the Americans.
Reuters said the disclosure of the concussive symptoms late on Thursday, more than a week after the attack itself, is likely at a minimum to open a debate about the Pentagon’s longstanding treatment of brain injury as a different class of wounds that it says do not require immediate reporting up the chain of command.
Esper was only informed on Thursday that the service members were flown out of Iraq to receive additional screening and treatment in bases in Kuwait and Germany, the Pentagon said.
The first U.S. service member was flown out of Iraq on Jan. 10 for further evaluation, while others were flown out on Jan. 15.
Hoffman claimed that top Pentagon officials have not sought to minimize Iran’s attack and instead repeatedly said Iran tried to kill U.S. troops when it fired ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases from at least three locations inside Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Pentagon chief Mark Esper and others throughout the U.S. government for a week had said that Iran’s attack on bases in Iraq, in retaliation for the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, had not killed or injured any U.S. troops.
That is no longer true, the Pentagon now acknowledges. But Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman claimed on Friday that U.S. military leadership in Washington only became aware on Thursday that 11 U.S. service members were flown out of Iraq due to concussive symptoms.
"This idea that there was an effort to de-emphasize injuries for some sort of amorphous political agenda doesn’t hold water,” Hoffman said.
The claim that Pentagon officials did not know enough about the situation at the base after the Iranian retaliation for days adds insult to injury and reveals a serious break in the command and control chain. Otherwise, they must be lying to the Americans.
Reuters said the disclosure of the concussive symptoms late on Thursday, more than a week after the attack itself, is likely at a minimum to open a debate about the Pentagon’s longstanding treatment of brain injury as a different class of wounds that it says do not require immediate reporting up the chain of command.
Esper was only informed on Thursday that the service members were flown out of Iraq to receive additional screening and treatment in bases in Kuwait and Germany, the Pentagon said.
The first U.S. service member was flown out of Iraq on Jan. 10 for further evaluation, while others were flown out on Jan. 15.
Hoffman claimed that top Pentagon officials have not sought to minimize Iran’s attack and instead repeatedly said Iran tried to kill U.S. troops when it fired ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases from at least three locations inside Iran.