Three Green Berets Die After Threats Go Ignored by CIA

The United States Army Special Forces — more commonly known as the “green berets” — lost three men last month, despite previous warnings that there could be ISIS infiltrators working alongside the troops.

Green Berets Matthew Lewellen, Kevin McEnroe, and James Moriarty approached the Prince Faisal Airbase in Jordan in their vehicle along with one Jordanian military officer. They were assigned the IA mission, meaning inter-agency, as a part of the CIA’s Timber Sycamore covert operation to train and arm so-called moderate Syrian rebels. At the gate there was an exchange of gunfire which Jordanian authorities have described as a, “chain of unfortunate events.” Amidst the bedlam at the gate, a Special Forces Team Sergeant confronted the the shooter after failing to deescalate the attack. The Team Sergeant wounded the shooter during the firefight, who is now being held by the Jordanian government for questioning.

Initial reports were conflicted with each other, and a subsequent FBI investigation describes finding no trace of terrorist activity involved in the incident. At first the Jordanians claimed that one of the Special Forces soldiers opened fire at the gate unprovoked. A second story claimed that one of the Americans accidentally discharged his weapon leading to a confused firefight of mistaken identity. However, according to multiple sources inside Special Forces, the shooter conducted a deliberate and pre-planned assault on the 5th Special Forces Group members. Multiple sources confirmed that the shooter is an ISIS sympathizer. Lewellen, McEnroe, and Moriarty, who were in the process of transitioning back to the United States were killed, the Jordanian officer injured.

The only detail left uncertain is if the shooter was a Jordanian military gate guard, or if he was actually one of the “moderate” rebels which the Special Forces men were there to train.

The slaying of three Green Berets comes after years of the Special Forces soldiers assigned to the CIA’s Timber Sycamore program complaining that the moderate rebels they had been sent to train were actually ISIS and al-Nusra infiltrators. The vetting that the CIA does of the rebels is dubious at best, consisting of bio-metric trace searches in old databases which are far from comprehensive. The Special Forces soldiers have repeatedly brought up the fact that the rebels they have to train have also failed their polygraphs and display allegiances to Islamists during interviews. Such concerns have also been expressed by the CIA’s para-military component, called Ground Branch, which have also gone ignored.

War is often imprecise and identifying legitimate threats can be difficult, but this same thing has happened far too many times now to be excusable. Our men and women in the military deserve to be listened to — particularly when their lives are at risk.

Source: Sofrep