The White House accidentally exposes top-secret US elite fighters on Instagram

To thank the first responders who are in Israel after the Hamas terrorist attacks, the White House posted a message with a photo on Instagram. “We thank them for their courage and their work,” the message read. So far so good – if only the people shown weren’t members of the US special forces.

The identities of people in elite units are not actually published for their protection; neither during training nor during deployment, which is common practice at the Pentagon. The special forces are currently in Israel to support authorities there in planning possible hostage rescue operations in the Gaza Strip.

The uncensored image showed President Joe Biden shaking hands with a soldier. Defense Ministry officials confirmed this to American media.

The post, which showed the bearded men in camouflage clothing and American flags on their arms, remained on the White House Instagram channel for hours. During that time, it collected thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.

Republican Rep. Diana Harshbarger called the blunder “gross incompetence.” A White House spokesperson told the Daily Mail: “When we were made aware of this error, we immediately removed the photo.” And apologized for the mistakes and problems this caused.

Despite an apology, the photo has revived an old conspiracy theory on social media. It states that then-Vice President Joe Biden revealed the names of members of the special forces ‘Seal Team Six’ who were part of the 2011 raid on Pakistan that killed Osama Bin Laden. However, the information is incorrect.

His predecessor, Donald Trump, made a mistake similar to Biden’s in 2018. At the time, the White House published a photo of the ex-president with US Navy Seals at Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq. The faces of the members of the special forces were also not hidden.

(aargauerzeitung.ch)