Defense Investigation Findings Point to Lack of Communication in the Failed October Mission in Niger

The Defense Department of Investigation has been looking into the operation of a team of American soldiers in Niger, which failed miserably. According to the newest preliminary findings, the leader of this team has been warned before his mission that his troops were ill-prepared and under-qualified for this raid against the local militant.

The report writes that the mission that took place on October 4th was carried out without the permission of senior military officials in charge of West Africa and Germany. It was in fact ordered by a junior official. This mission led to the deaths of four American soldiers and five Nigerians as the team was ambushed by the local militant and suffered great loss.

Top officials of the defense department, including the Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, are wary that junior officials are becoming the ones to blame for this failed operation instead of senior commanders, who should have taken into account the great risk of the mission itself.

The mission, which was an attempt to weaken the local militant, Dounkoun Cheffous, who was considered involved in the Islamic State agenda, was supposed to be approved by senior military officials. The fact that it was issued by a junior official could point to a systematic breakdown in the department on the horizon. Officials of the defense department have emphasized that this mission did not follow the protocols for approval.

According to one official, the leader of Team 3212, Captain Michael Perozeni, originally planned a daylong trip to meet with tribal elders and instead, they marched towards the Mali border. This change in mission agenda could possibly be a doing of a former cattle herder, Mr. Cheffou, who has also been accused of helping with the kidnapping of an American in Mali.

The preliminary findings also confirmed the initial plan of a daylong trip and noted that senior officers up the chain of command were not notified or unaware of the change in plans of Team 3212, and therefore failed to react promptly to stop the mission from taking place. In fact, according to officials, Captain Perozeni received the changed order to join the kill-or-capture mission against Mr. Cheffou right before he left their base in Ouallam and opposed the notion of such a mission, fully aware of the lack of intelligence and equipment of his team for such a high-risk and high-stake aid. However, he followed the orders regardless and carried out the mission, leading to this tragedy.

In fact, the mission was later found scrapped due to bad weather on the day and this conflicted with the approval of a lieutenant colonel in Chad of the mission. And even though many senior officials were not informed up the chain of command, the head of 3rd Special Forces Group in Germany, Col. Bradley Moses, was informed of the missions.

Military officials had expressed disbelief in the fact that a junior official was able to issue this mission without higher approval as well as the lack of awareness of the change in the mission of the higher officials. The preliminary findings concluded that the mission was in fact only reported from West Africa to Stuttgart, instead of to the entire chain of command as it should have.

Another incident happened in December where a team of Green Berets killed 11 Islamic State militants in a firefight. This incident paired with the October mission shed light on neither is an isolated episode for United States’ construction of a major drone base in the nation.

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