Small Wars Journal

‘I Don’t Want This Dragged Out’: Mattis Awaits Final Report On Niger Attack Investigation

Fri, 03/16/2018 - 5:02am

‘I Don’t Want This Dragged Out’: Mattis Awaits Final Report On Niger Attack Investigation by Dan Lamothe – Washington Post

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday that he doesn’t want the months-long investigation into how four U.S. soldiers were killed last year in Niger held up, and he expects to soon receive a memorandum about it from the Pentagon’s top general.

Mattis, speaking on a military flight home to Washington from Bahrain, said that he has been reading a draft version of the “very thick” investigation report, and that he directed people involved to get back to him by Friday evening with answers to questions he posed. He did not detail what those questions are, but his comments provide the clearest timeline yet on when the Pentagon will detail how a team of elite Special Forces soldiers partnering with Nigerien forces was effectively overrun by militants.

“I have been reading the report myself because I don’t want this dragged out,” Mattis said. “I have several questions from that as well, and hopefully I will have those answers for me.”

Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will soon provide his endorsement of the investigation report, Mattis said…

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