WASHINGTON – Amid criticism that it is aiding the enemy, the Pentagon is defending its decision to disclose details of a plan to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS.
A Defense Department official, responding to a WND query on condition that he not be named, asserted "not one word was of operational value to the enemy."
As WND reported, a Central Command briefer in a teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon Thursday laid out a battle plan to take back Iraq's second largest city in April or May with up to 25,000 Iraqi troops who currently are undergoing U.S. training.
A WND source called the disclosure "lunacy," and retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney said it was "absolutely bewildering" that Obama would "aid and abet the enemy."
In an email, the Defense official said discussions about retaking Mosul have been under way "for months" and "how the airstrikes are shaping the operation for Mosul, and people have been saying that operation could take place in spring, so that was nothing new."
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"Not one word was of operational value to the enemy," the Defense official told WND. "It was all very much big arrow, little map and highlighted Iraqi commitment to taking back the city and provided some data points to underscore the scope and general timeline of the operation."
The senior Central Command official had spoken on condition that he would not be identified.
The expectation is for the attack to begin prior to Ramadan, which occurs in mid-June this year, along with the onslaught of the summer's heat.
Last June, Mosul, a city of a million people, fell to no more than 2,000 ISIS fighters, with the Iraqi military abandoning their U.S.-supplied equipment, which fell into ISIS hands.
The disclosure of details of the planned offensive surprised many on the teleconference call.
At the time, the senior Central Command briefer said the reason for telegraphing the time frame and other details was to highlight the effort being put into recapturing Mosul by Iraqi security forces.
It also was meant to communicate that ISIS was losing the overall battle.
Michael Barrett, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, said the announcement largely was a political effort by the Obama administration. By announcing beforehand that the attack is to occur, it will make it difficult for the Iraqi forces to pull out and desert as they did last June.
Barrett questioned, however, whether the Iraqi army would be ready for the the April-May time frame. His concern echoed a number of former military members who have had experience working with the Iraqi military.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., an Iraqi war veteran, told Fox News that it is "mystifying as to why this administration would reveal potential plans to retake Mosul."
"If a private in Iraq had revealed this kind of planning inadvertently by leaving a plan in the chow hall or gym, he might have faced a court martial," Cotton said.
"But now it has become a matter of policy of this administration that it is going to announce war plans in advance that only increase the risk," Cotton said. "You have to wonder, given the timing, right after the summit on countering violent extremism that this is the administration trying to get a (public relations) win since this summit hasn't produced anything concrete to justify the president's failures in counteracting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria."
Cotton added that there are many reports from generals and admirals on active duty and retired "who say the president and his senior West Wing advisers are micromanaging this war to a degree they have never seen before."
He added that this especially is the case "when they reveal very sensitive war plans that are going to put our troops and Iraqi troops at greater risk. It invites that kind of analysis."
'Bewildering'
Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Thomas McInerney told Fox News that the Central Command revelations are "absolutely bewildering."
"We are aiding and abetting the enemy," McInerney said. "I do not understand why the president and the administration want to aid and abet the enemy."
McInerney speculated that it could be an effort to get ISIS fighters to leave Mosul, knowing what will occur.
"But the way they have been acting," he said, "they're not going to be getting out of Mosul. They're going to stay, probably and it still is going to expose our forces to certain risk because [ISIS fighters] are going to be doing a lot of defensive preparations, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), different force positions knowing an attack is coming.
"All those kinds of things that are going to make our troops vulnerable, so again, it's aiding and abetting the enemy, and I don't understand why they're doing it," McInerney said.
The planned attack to regain the city of Mosul will be conducted mostly by Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga forces, accompanied by U.S. and coalition air cover.
While there are Special Operations troops currently in Iraq to train the Iraqi and Kurdish forces, any decision to deploy large numbers of U.S. ground troops remain uncertain.