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Army Withdraws Nomination for Officer Involved in Deadly Niger Ambush
Source: New York Times
Army Withdraws Nomination for Officer Involved in Deadly Niger Ambush
The decision comes amid criticism that the American military is harsher in dispensing punishment to African-American officers than to their white counterparts.
By Helene Cooper and Thomas Gibbons-Neff
May 29, 2020
Updated 7:11 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The Army is withdrawing the promotion of a senior Special Forces officer involved in the fatal Oct. 4, 2017, ambush in Niger, Defense Department officials said Friday. The attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans and exposed the United States military’s shortcomings in western Africa.
Col. Bradley D. Moses, the officer in charge of the Third Special Forces Group at the time of the attack, is the only officer in his unit involved in the episode who has escaped some form of punishment so far. His subordinates have been disciplined.
The decision to withdraw Colonel Moses’s promotion in many ways signals an end to the yearslong investigation into why a small unit of American troops found themselves stranded in the scrub of remote Niger, under siege from Islamist militants.
Colonel Moses, who approved the mission that led to the ambush, was destined for the rank of general, despite his role in the Niger episode. But on Friday, the Army, under pressure from Congress and even members of the service’s rank and file, yielded and reversed course.
-snip-
The decision comes amid criticism that the American military is harsher in dispensing punishment to African-American officers than to their white counterparts.
By Helene Cooper and Thomas Gibbons-Neff
May 29, 2020
Updated 7:11 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The Army is withdrawing the promotion of a senior Special Forces officer involved in the fatal Oct. 4, 2017, ambush in Niger, Defense Department officials said Friday. The attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans and exposed the United States military’s shortcomings in western Africa.
Col. Bradley D. Moses, the officer in charge of the Third Special Forces Group at the time of the attack, is the only officer in his unit involved in the episode who has escaped some form of punishment so far. His subordinates have been disciplined.
The decision to withdraw Colonel Moses’s promotion in many ways signals an end to the yearslong investigation into why a small unit of American troops found themselves stranded in the scrub of remote Niger, under siege from Islamist militants.
Colonel Moses, who approved the mission that led to the ambush, was destined for the rank of general, despite his role in the Niger episode. But on Friday, the Army, under pressure from Congress and even members of the service’s rank and file, yielded and reversed course.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/us/politics/army-nomination-niger-ambush.html
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