U.S. military releases video captured in costly Yemen raid, and botches it embarrassingly

The U.S. military is blaming a lack of competent analysis in what is being called a "botched" release of video from the Yemen raid, the first military operation under President Trump's regime.

The video was meant to showcase the intelligence about al-Qaeda gained from the raid in Yemen that killed 14 militants, left three U.S. service members wounded and one dead. But soon after it was released, the video was discovered to have already been available on public websites for nearly a decade. The military took down the video after the embarrassing discovery.

The subtitles in the movie begin, "Now we start with a practical training on how to destroy the cross with explosives," as a black hooded figure goes through the steps of creating a terror bomb.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. John Thomas explained, "we didn't want to make it appear that we were trying to pass off old video," and said the error was made due "to our lack of having time to properly analyze it."

"We were trying to provide an example of some of the things recovered on the raid, " Thomas said.

Both the military and the White House denied that the Trump administration had pressured anyone to release the media from the raid.

Military botches release of video seized in Yemen raid, @jimsciutto reports https://t.co/2QhkY9NEGK
https://t.co/0l83okDejq

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) February 3, 2017

In addition to the death of a U.S. soldier and the botched video release, the Trump and Obama administrations are in a game of "hot potato" about who ordered the raid, as one accuses the other in order to avoid responsibility for the U.S. soldier's death. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that former President Obama planned the raid before the inauguration, but later an Obama security official vehemently denied the claim.

“I was there. … No specific raid was discussed. … The ‘moonless night’ thing is B.S.,” he said, referring to Spicer's contention that Obama planned the raid but wanted to wait until weather conditions were right, which forced it to be scheduled after the inauguration. 

The raid also claimed the lives of 30 civilians, and has been characterized by an al-Qaeda official as a "massacre." CENTCOM says that the raid was approved without proper evidence of backup operations.