President Donald Trump placed more importance on killing Osama bin Laden’s son over higher-priority targets because of his name, reports NBC News.
"He would say, 'I've never heard of any of these people. What about Hamza bin Laden?'" one former official told the news outlet.
"That was the only name he knew," a Pentagon official added.
After the U.S. killed Hamza bin Laden in an airstrike in 2018, Trump defended his choice by stating that the loss “not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father but undermines important operational activities of the group.”
Former CIA official Douglas London said the president had an “obsession” with Hamza bin Laden, writing in a piece for the website JustSecurity.com article that the agency did not overlook the “value” in his “name recognition, nor his musings posted by al Qaeda’s media cell, but he was young, lacked battlefield experience, and had yet to develop a serious following,”
But “the president thought differently," London wrote. "He regularly demanded updates on Hamza and insisted we accelerate our efforts to go after him."
Trump's wishes "necessarily influenced the alignment of the Intelligence Community's focus and resources," London added.
Osama bin Laden engineered the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, which resulted in the deaths of 3,000. He was shot and killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in 2011.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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