Raw Story: FBI officials 'livid' after Kash Patel risked 'tragic results' by leaking hostage rescue

[Dennis Donovan]

Raw Story - FBI officials 'livid' after Kash Patel risked 'tragic results' by leaking hostage rescue

David Edwards
January 27, 2025 2:49PM ET

Senate Democrats demanded answers after a whistleblower came forward with allegations that Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's nominee for FBI director, leaked details about a hostage rescue mission.

In a letter obtained by CBS News, Senate Democrats asked Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to turn over records of communications between Patel and the FBI's Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, the government's hostage rescue team.

According to the letter, Patel "broke protocol regarding hostage rescues by publicly commenting without authorization on the then-in-progress retrieval of two Americans held captive by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in October 2020."

Patel confirmed details of the rescue to The Wall Street Journal in a report published "several hours before the hostages were in the confirmed custody of the United States," the letter said.

"In the end the Americans returned home safely, but FBI officials involved in the mission were livid over Patel's leak, which they regarded as reckless and potentially risking tragic results," the CBS report explained.

/snip

CBS News - FBI insider raises concerns about Kash Patel's role in hostage rescue

By Daniel Klaidman
Updated on: January 27, 2025 / 2:44 PM EST / CBS News

Days before this week's high-stakes confirmation hearing of Kash Patel to be FBI director, a bureau insider has come forward with new information questioning Patel's judgment during sensitive hostage rescue missions, CBS News has learned.

The whistleblower, whose identity is being withheld by Senate Democrats for fear of retaliation, worked with the FBI's Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, which leads the government's missions to rescue hostages overseas. The whistleblower alleges that Patel violated firmly entrenched protocols to keep such operations under wraps until the captives are safely in U.S. hands and their families have been notified.

In a letter obtained by CBS News, Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote that Patel, while serving on the National Security Council during the first Trump term, "broke protocol regarding hostage rescues by publicly commenting without authorization on the then-in-progress retrieval of two Americans held captive by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in October 2020."

According to the letter, on Oct. 14 at 10:55 a.m., the Wall Street Journal published a story in which Patel confirmed that the two American captives and the remains of a third were exchanged for two hundred Houthi fighters who were being held in Saudi Arabia. According to the letter, the news report was published "several hours before the hostages were in the confirmed custody of the United States." In the end the Americans returned home safely, but FBI officials involved in the mission were livid over Patel's leak, which they regarded as reckless and potentially risking tragic results.

/snip

[Iris]

1. Amateur hour

[rampartd]

2. no, these are professional traitors

[Iris]

6. Good point.

[Attilatheblond]

7. Exactly! And Patel at head of FBI will assure top tier bad guys will know about any/all investigations

This will result in insider trading at the best and outright obstruction of justice as normal operating policy. Wanna be tipped off if your crimes are gonna be investigated? Just place bitcoin in slot and wave goodbye to any law enforcement efforts to stop white collar crime.

[sop]

29. FBI will target Trump's enemies only, white collar criminals will skate if they contribute to Trump.

[Oneironaut]

3. Well, he is a wizard. Maybe he used a spell to save the hostages instead?

Trumpus Kissus Rectuminus!

/j

[Mike 03]

4. Larry, Curly and Tulsi

Coming soon to a theater near you. See it in IMAX and THX sound.

[Oneear]

5. 4 Years of this Road Show is coming to America

And People Stand Up and show Proof of what they Know About this

[RVN VET71]

33. At least -- and only if we're lucky -- it will be only 4 years

The good news historically is the fact that fascist regimes tend not to have good succession plans for when the Leader dies. But if the Vance-Thiel faction finds a way to remove the soon to be 80 year old Stinkypants from the throne and insert the alleged sofa-lover in his place, it may be decades or forever before America sees democratic rule again.

[Think. Again.]

8. Hmmm, maybe not also searching trump's other properties....

...or at least that one locked mara lago closet, was a mistake...

[yellow dahlia]

24. Right. I have been jumping up and down about that exact thing.

I didn't remember there was a locked closet at MAL. And why not a search warrant at Bedminster?

[Think. Again.]

25. Bedminster, or ANY of his other known personal spaces.

[yellow dahlia]

26. Right!

[chowder66]

9. Fucking asshole and fuck the Wall Street Journal for publishing it.

[TommyT139]

10. Nice story timing

Just in time for Confirmation Hearing Week!

[chowder66]

11. The Democrats plan to highlight another instance....

where Patel has been criticized for his handling of a sensitive operation aimed at freeing American captives. Two weeks after the Yemen hostage deal, Patel found himself in the middle of another high-risk operation. Philip Walton was a 27-year-old American who had been seized by armed men at his farm in Niger, near the Nigerian border.

The kidnappers transported Walton to Nigeria and demanded a million dollars in ransom. There were also indications that the kidnappers were contemplating turning him over to a terrorist group operating in the region. Patel was accompanying President Trump on a visit to Fort Bragg, the military installation in North Carolina that is home to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. While they were there, Patel received intelligence that Walton would be held at an encampment for several hours, enough time to stage a daring Seal Team 6 raid to rescue the hostage. Mr. Trump signed off on the operation, which involved parachuting into Northern Nigeria and trekking for miles to the compound where Walton was being held.

Then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper had greenlit the plan, but there were still some final questions that needed to be answered before he could give the go order – primarily whether the Nigerian government had given the U.S. permission to use its air space. According to Esper's memoir, Patel, who was the senior director for counterterrorism at the time, assured Defense Department officials that the State Department had received the necessary permission from the Nigerians. But Patel's information was incorrect: the Nigerians had not given their approval.

more....

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-insider-kash-patel-hostage-rescue/

[maxsolomon]

12. I laugh at the idea that this will impact Patel's confirmation.

It should sink it, but the GOP Senate doesn't have the ovaries to stand up to MFer.

[chowder66]

14. Agreed.

[maxsolomon]

15. Also:

"Philip Walton was a 27-year-old American who had been seized by armed men at his farm in Niger, near the Nigerian border."

What the absolute fuck? How do you come to farm in the Sahel as a 27-year-old American? What the fuck are you thinking?

On edit: Oh, he's the son of a missionary:

Philip Walton is an American citizen and the son of missionaries, who has lived in Massalata with his wife and child for two years. His father lives in Birni-N'konni, and has lived in Niger for about 30 years.[13]

[Exp]

13. No, it's not just a "rookie mistake", there are real consequences for voting these incompetents into positions of power.

U.S. voters have entered into the F.O.F.A. phase of the new admin.

It will play out on its own.

[Irish_Dem]

18. I agree, it is incompetence not inexperience.

Most adults understand that when you are negotiating anything, it is best to keep
quiet about it until it is a done deal.

Yes the name of the Trump era should be FAFO.

[Hassler]

16. Just like Scump. Running his mouth to make

Him feel important because he has important information. Kind of like Scum handing out classified info to any hack golfer who wanders into Maga Lardo.

[Gaugamela]

17. He also endangered a similar operation in Nigeria:

Seal Team Six was in the air ready to fly into Nigeria to retrieve a kidnapped American. The pentagon tried to confirm they had permission from Nigeria to fly into their airspace, and Patel told them that SecDef Pompeo had secured it. Turns out this was a lie. The Pentagon figured this out and delayed the operation until permission was obtained.

But the Pentagon was still furious at Patel. Tony Tata, a retired one-star Army general and Pentagon official, furiously confronted Patel after delivering his reckless authorization for the mission.

“You could’ve gotten these guys killed!” Tata shouted at Patel, according to a report in The Atlantic. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

Patel’s response was: “If nobody got hurt, who the fuck cares?”

This Substack post tells the whole story, and isn’t all that long.
https://theiceman.substack.com/p/how-kash-patel-bungled-a-seal-team

[HipChick]

19. I can see Five Eyes shortly becoming Four Eyes...

American Intelligence will not be trusted...

[William Seger]

22. I think that happened November 5th

Our allies have seen this movie before.

[IcyPeas]

20. Like this crew is going to turn over records...

In a letter obtained by CBS News, Senate Democrats asked Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to turn over records of communications between Patel and the FBI's Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, the government's hostage rescue team.

No Republicans signed the letter. That's all we need to know. Their story will be that the hostages were returned home. End of...

[William Seger]

21. Someone who is so totally unprepared and unqualified/disqualified is going to fuck up

... a lot.

[Sneederbunk]

23. Incompetence on the hoof.

[Cha]

27. TY Kick for reading later.

[Initech]

28. Kash Patel is a total fucking psychopath.

[UTUSN]

30. Headline coming soon: "Confirmed"

[sop]

31. No matter what crimes Trump's henchmen commit, no one will enforce the law and hold them accountable.

Lawlessness and corruption will be Trump's legacy.

[Hotler]

32. Now they get "livid". We could have used some "livid" four years ago.

[louis-t]

34. They don't know what the fuck they are doing.

Completely incompetant, not at all trustworthy. They will get people killed by their idiocy and egos.

[Martin68]

35. It is so reassuring that our security now depends on the whims of show-boating, attention-seeking, spoils system

appointees.

[Grins]

36. He did have a "need to know" so who told him?

And why?