White House Accidentally Posts Photo Revealing Identity of US Special Forces
The White House posted a picture of President Joe Biden meeting U.S. special forces in Israel and was later forced to delete it after realizing the soldiers’ identities were compromised.
It comes at a sensitive time as Israel and Hamas are in deadly conflict with each other. Biden is in Israel hoping to oversee the return of hostages, including American citizens, being held by Hamas.
The photo of Biden meeting members of the secret service was published on the official White House Instagram page yesterday. It remained up on the page for at least an hour where it received thousands of likes and comments.
The post seemingly violates rules set by the Department of Defense made to keep the faces and names of special operators secret to prevent identification by enemies in the event they are captured. Pentagon practice is to conceal elite units’ identities, photos of Delta Force members, for example, rarely include their faces.
“In Israel, President Biden met with first responders to thank them for their bravery and the work they’re doing in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks,” wrote the Instagram post.
The photo was taken on Wednesday when Biden met with Israeli medics who responded to the Hamas attack. It showed a group of men in camouflage with American flags on their arms.
“As soon as this was brought to our attention, we immediately deleted the photo,” a White House spokesman tells the Daily Mail. “We regret the error and any issues this may have caused.”
The Biden administration sent in special operators to Israel last week to help “their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government.”
There are thought to be more than 150 hostages currently being held by Hamas, a “small handful” of which are U.S. citizens.
The special forces are “actively trying” to locate them but the White House says there are “no plans or intentions to put U.S. troops on the ground to fight in this fight between Israel and Hamas.”
Image credits: The White House
