Following a recently released documentary by ABC News, two veterans groups ask Defense Sec. Austin to order a new, independent review of the military's official investigation of a Green Beret team ambushed by ISIS in Niger four years ago.
The bipartisan request came in a letter Thursday signed by the progressive VoteVets and the conservative Concerned Veterans for America. The two post-9/11 combat veterans' groups say they are united in opposing endless wars and championing military accountability.Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. LaDavid Johnson, who was killed in Tongo Tongo, Niger, in 2017, appears in the ABC News/Hulu documentary"3212 UN-REDACTED.
The film scrutinizes the U.S. military's core findings of the 2017-18 investigation by the Pentagon's Africa Command , one of which accused Operational Detachment-Alpha 3212 from 3rd Special Forces Group -- the green beret team -- of initiating a risky mission without senior commanders' approval to"capture or kill" a top ISIS commander.
The film reveals how, rather than going after the ISIS commander on their own, as alleged, the team's commander, Green Beret Capt. Mike Perozeni had objected multiple times to the mission but his superior officer based in Chad had overruled his concerns.