The Pentagon Said This Video Shows A Raid In Yemen Was Successful. Its A Decade Old.

The video was initially heralded as proof that the raid in Yemen, in which a US military operator was killed along with several civilians, was a success.

WASHINGTON — The US military on Friday took down the link to a video that it said it secured from a raid in Yemen last week just hours after posting it, having realized that far from showing off the intelligence gained from the raid, the videos were a decade old.

The video, titled “Courses for Destroying The Cross,” was first released in 2007 and had been online for years, as it turns out. In the less than two-minute long video, which was widely circulated after it was pushed out on Friday morning, there are several clips showing a man in a white robe and black mask explaining how to make a bomb using chemicals.

The Pentagon said that even if the video had been posted before, it was also captured during the raid and said the date of its production didn’t matter, Navy Capt Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters. The raid, Davis said, was still helpful in learning about al Qaeda training and tactics.

A defense official told BuzzFeed News that the raid was intended to gather intelligence about al Qaeda’s external operations, not to thwart a specific future attack.



https://www.buzzfeed.com/nancyyoussef/a-video-the-military-said-showed-a-recent-raid-was-successfu?utm_term=.vlEXlyMXY#.kue8wNz87