family hey, we think he might be dead. i don t have a specific time frame for that. but what i can tell you is that as the intelligence community began to develop information pointed to the death of dr. weinstein. that information was briefed to the president and that information was share would the weinstein family. you don t have the information because you don t have it or because what would the security risks boof ss be of telling us with more precision of when some of these things happen? as it relates to it is hard for me. i guess the strike itself but be more precise about this seems to be in the interest of what the president just promised the american public about transparency. there s no doubt that we are having a rather detailed conversation about a previously classified operation. and that is consistent with the spirit of what the president talked about in the statement this morning. i do think that for me to talk
what we can do instead, though leverage intelligence assets to for example in this case actually conduct extensive surveillance of a particular compound. and as i mentioned, hundreds of thundershower hours of surveillance was conducted against this particular compound. we know that near continuous surveillance of this compound was conducted in the days leading up to the operation. and based on that surveillance and other forms of intelligence intelligence communities did assess with near certainty that this is an al qaeda compound frequented by al qaeda leaders. that assessment turned out to pea correct. based on that that no civilianed with be at risk if the operation were carried out. now, what we also know is that al qaeda considers these kinds of hostages to be extraordinarily valuable. and they go to tremendous lengths to try to conceal the
tragic consequences that resulted from the operation. adam gadahn although he wasn t the specific target of the second of two strikes, was he a target that the u.s. was trying to find and would they knowing that he was there, pursued that strike against adam? the thing you know about mr. gadahn indicted for treason in 2006. that is an indication that he is somewhat somebody who presented a danger to the united states and our interests. and he is somebody that the united states was very interested in finding. would have the president have said go forward, would the president have wanted to go forward with said strike if he knew adam gadahn was there? well it s hard for me to entertain a hypothetical like that. were you pursuing strikes? he was not classified as an htc, but he was, obviously, somebody who was wanted by the u.s. government because he was indicted for treason.
reviews are not unusual. the security professionals after every operation try to ereview what had occurred even when it s successful. particularly when it s successful to derive lessons learned and look for other ways or changes that could be put in place to strengthen our protocols, both in terms of their capabilities and ensuring that they re living up to the values that are so important to our country. mr. weinstein said today she hoped her husband death would prompt the u.s. government to take its responsibility seriously and establish a coordinated and consistent approach to supporting hostages and their families. do you hear that criticism and can or should the united states government be doing more to support hostages and their families? well jeff i probably should have said this earlier, but it s the president had the opportunity to do that this morning. but let me use this opportunity to convey our condolences to the
took place. and that operation did result in the death of al qaeda fighters and al qaeda leaders who were in this al qaeda compound. but would it have been illegal for you to intentionally target those two men? there is a separate procedure and protocol for specifically targeting american citizens. and this is the protocol that was followed in the targeted operation against anwar in yemen. so there is a separate procedure and protocol for doing exactly that. so if it was not adam gadahn that was being targeted in one strike and ahmed farouq in the other strike. who was being targeted? what was targeted was what the intelligence community assessed with near certainty was an al qaeda compound that we assessed with near certainty was being frequentlied by al qaeda