congressman adam shift. he is the ranking member on the house intelligence committee. that was fascinating to hear this during this briefing, congressman, that this was an operation carried out by the book. protocols were followed and, yet, as we now know, two hostages warren weinstein and geovonna lo porto now dead. what does that tell you about the protocols? initially, if the protocols were followed that is one of the questions we will have to analyze on the intelligence committees. that is certainly the initial understanding of the administration. if they were followed then you know we ll still have to ask the hard questions. does that mean that the protocols are not enough or does it mean that we re never going to get to an absolute certainty and even though we had a terrible tragic outcome here it s not indicative of a need to make any systemic change. and i don t want to prejudge the outcome of that review. but i think it s a very
either local civilians or militants militants? josh i won t be able to provide specific numbers on this. i can tell you that in the specific strike that resulted in the death of dr. weinstein and mr. lo porto, there was one other al qaeda leader who was among those who was killed. that is the ahmed farouq the american citizen al qaeda leader. this was a strike against an al qaeda compound. and the result was the death of at least one al qaeda leader. i can tell you that the assess assessment that we have right now does not raise questions about additional civilian loss of life. again, the reason for that is that the standard that was in
it did not conduct a dna test. an italian hostage, geovonna lo porto was killed in that same operation. president obama takes full responsibility for the drone strike that killed the two hostages and he expressed sympathy to their families. as a husband and as a father i cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the weinstein and lo porto families are enduring today. i realize there are no words that can ever equal their loss. i know that there is nothing that i can ever say or do to ease their heart ache. and today i simply want to say this. as president and as commander in chief, i take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that ined a inadvertently took the lives of warren and giovanni. i regret what happened. on behalf of the united states government i offer our deepest apologies to the families.
the death of dr. weinstein and mr. lo porto, the operation was against an al qaeda compound. again, this was a scenario where u.s. officials had determined with near certainty that an operation could be carried out against an al qaeda compound that was frequented or where at least one al qaeda leader was located. that operation did result in the death of mr. gadahn. are you saying basically, there was not specific individuals that were being targeted in that strike but more the u.s. knew this was a place al qaeda guys went and, so the u.s. struck there under - the presumption that they would be likely to get out and take out some al qaeda operatives by striking that location? yeah based on again, based on the intelligence assessment they could conclude with near certainty that this was an al qaeda compound that was frequented by al qaeda leaders
seriousness with which the administration pursues cooperating with legitimate congressional oversight. and i can tell you that as these intelligence assessments about the death of dr. weinstein and the ultimate high confidence assessment assessment that information was also shared with relevant members of congress. okay. all right. jeff? josh will the u.s. government provide compensation to the families of the two hostages that were killed? yes. can you give any details about that or not much? i m not aware of what the details of that compensation is. but i can tell you that compensation will be provided to both families. to both dr. weinstein and the family of mr. lo porto. how will this incident affect specifically the u.s. policy government policy on usage of drones? well jeff there are certain