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Trump with troops in Iraq. Screenshot from Fox News report

Trump reveals faces of SEAL Team Five in Iraq

During a surprise visit to Iraq on Christmas Day, the US President unveiled the presence of special forces of the United States.

Published: December 28, 2018, 9:12 am

    In a video posted on his Twitter account following his trip to Iraq for Christmas, President Donald Trump disclosed that members of SEAL, the special force of the US Navy, were present in the country, reported Newsweek.

    Asked by the media, former US Navy Intelligence Specialist Malcolm Nance explained that “Operational security is the most important aspect of personnel deployments. The real names, faces and identities of personnel involved in special operations or activities, are usually a closely held secret in a combat zone,” Nance said.

    “Revealing them casually, through an unusual media exposure even if it’s the commander in chief, would prove a propaganda boom if any of this personnel are detained by a hostile government or captured by a terrorist group. There would be no denying who you are and what you do.”

    Nance added: “I don’t recall another time where special operation forces had to pose with their faces visible while serving in a war zone.”

    Newsweek also quoted a Pentagon official, who said, on condition of anonymity, that it was unusual to publish a video revealing the faces of members of special forces without blurring them.

    On the occasion of Christmas, Donald and Melania Trump traveled to Iraq to meet American soldiers and thank them for their “commitment, their success and their sacrifice”.

    Trump’s video shows him with members of Seal Team Five, whose faces are not covered, signalling information about where Seal teams are deployed which is almost always classified.

    Trump also posed for photos with SEAL Team Five Chaplain Navy Lieutenant Commander Kyu Lee. The White House Press Pool reported that after finding out Lee was a SEAL member he said, “Hey, in that case, let’s take a picture.”

    The trip, President Trump told members of the press, was kept secret over security concerns. “I had concerns about the institution of the presidency. Not for myself personally. I had concerns for the First Lady, I will tell you,” Trump said.

    “Pretty sad when you spend $7 trillion in the Middle East, and going in has to be under this massive cover with planes all over and all of the greatest equipment in the world, and you do everything to get in safely,” he added.

    Trump reiterated his commitment to pull out of Syria saying the US “cannot continue to be the policeman of the world”.

    Trump also said his mission in Syria was not nation building. “I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds; we’re not nation building,” Trump said. “Rebuilding Syria will require a political solution. And it’s a solution that should be paid for by its very rich neighboring countries, not the United States. Let them pay for it. And they will. They will.”

    Asked whether he has plans to pull forces out of Iraq, Trump said: “No plans at all, no. In fact, we could use this as a base if we wanted to do something in Syria. If — I will say this, if you take ISIS and if we see something happening with ISIS that we don’t like, we can hit them so fast and so hard, they won’t — they really won’t know what the hell happened.”

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