The former U.S Navy SEAL who killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has shared his reaction to the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Robert J. O'Neill shared his thoughts on Twitter Oct. 27, shortly after President Trump announced that the ISIS leader had killed himself during a raid by U.S. Special Operations forces on his hideout in northwest Syria.
O'Neill, 43, also congratulated the members of the U.S. Special Forces team who were involved in the operation.
O'Neill is also known as an outspoken personality on social media. Just days earlier, he had taken aim at the leader of the effort to impeach Trump, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
Trump had revealed he did not disclose plans of the Oct. 26 al-Baghdadi operation to Schiff because he was concerned the information would be leaked.
Speaking to reporters on Oct. 28, the president said: “Well, I guess the only thing is they were talking about why didn’t I give the information to Adam Schiff and his committee. And the answer is: because I think Adam Schiff is the biggest leaker in Washington.
“You know that, I know that, we all know that. I’ve watched Adam Schiff leak. He’s a corrupt politician. He’s a leaker like nobody has ever seen before.”
The president has repeatedly accused Schiff of leaking information to the press.
O'Neill appeared to agree with Trump’s decision not to inform Schiff ahead of Saturday night’s successful raid.
Despite not being made aware of the raid ahead of time, Schiff said the death of al-Baghdadi was “great news.”
He later added: “Mr. President, I’m grateful to our armed forces and intelligence professionals who did such a brilliant job of eliminating this brutal terrorist from the battlefield, and focused on the continuing fight against ISIS. I would encourage you to do the same.”
He said: “In terms of notifying the Gang of Eight, that wasn’t done. It’s frankly more important if things go wrong. The president said it was dangerous flying in, the Russian could have shot down American planes.
“Had this escalated, had something gown wrong, had we got into a fire fight with the Russians, it’s to the administration’s advantage to be able to say ‘we informed congress that we were going in, they were aware of the risks, we at least gave them the chance to provide feedback.’ That wasn’t done here, I think that’s a mistake.”
“I don’t want to have them greeted with firepower like you wouldn’t believe,” Trump said. “It was top secret.”
He added that leaks would have possibly cost American lives.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he also wasn’t informed of the operation before the raid.
McConnell said the White House attempted to inform him of the operation before the news went public on Sunday.
