night the january u.s. raid in yemen in which navy seal ryan owens was killed was, quote, highly success. . the white house and pentagon are talking about giving military commanders more power and control over future counter terrorism operations which would mean theoretically the pentagon could give the green light to some raids and missions for faster approval. let s bring in cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr now. barbara, first, the president asserted last night james mattis, the secretary of defense, told him, quote, ryan owens was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies, unquote. your reporting supports that a assertion. have you learned anything new? vital intelligence that supports huge victories, we should expect to see more missions like this. what we are being told by senior defense officials is part of the intelligence that they gathered
that he took full stock. questioning the planning and wisdom behind any military operation does not do a disservice to the heroes who conducted the operation. quite the contrary, it honors them. it s why we have civilian control of the military. and the legislative branch, well, it has an obligation to conduct oversight over the executive branch. in fact, ryan owens father over the weekend called for an investigation into the yemen raid. he told the white house, quote, don t hide behind my son s death. when it comes to holding the administration accountable, however, just a few hours before his address to congress, the president said this about the yemen operation and chief petty officer owens. my generals are the most respected that we ve had in many decades, i believe, and they lost ryan. they lost ryan. quote, they lost ryan. but they didn t lose him, we
service member is killed. the action was a huge success. american lives will be saved because of it. future attacks prevented. the life of chief ryan owens was done in service to the country and we owe him and his family a great debt. any suggestion otherwise is a disservice to his life and the actions he took. cnn is reporting that yemen forces want terror operations to se cease because of the casualties. the white house is thinking about using the designation of foreign terrorist organization for iran revolution. agencies are warning the white house about the consequences of such a move. including the difficult position it would create for iraqi prime minister abadi. a partner in the fight against isis who also relies on the support of the iranian
we re standing by for the white house press briefing. live pictures coming in. set to begin any minute now. the press secretary sean spicer expected to face questions about a growing feud among other issues between the house and republican senator john mccain over last month s u.s. special operations force raid in yemen. the white house says it was a success, but senator mccain says the death of navy s.e.a.l. ryan owens makes it hard to say that. and now spicer, the white house press secretary, is demanding an apology even though he seep eseo echo mccain s sentiments just last week. absolutely a success. anyone who would suggest it s not a success does disservice to the life of chief ryan owens. you never want to call anything a success 100% when someone is hurt or killed. and that was the case here. let s bring in our chief political correspondent dana
doesn t know how to win anymore. just look at the mess our country is in. bogged down in conflict all over the place. our hero, ryan died on a winning mission according to general mattis, not a failure. time for the u.s. to get smart and start winning again. is that appropriate for the president to be attacking senator mccain? he was a war hero. he did serve in vietnam. he was a p.o.w. for six years. he was tortured by the vietcong. he did not reveal information. he could have left vietnam because his father was a highly respected admiral. he said, no, no, no, i m not leaving unless my fellow troops are leaving as well. and now for the president to be saying that about him, is that appropriate? i have nothing but the utmost respect for john mccain. he is a man of courage, of character and credibility. i ve traveled the world with him. no matter where i am with him, we ve been in iraq, afghanistan, ukraine, no matter where i am, people come up, thank him for