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Around noon on Oct. 4, 2017, a team of 12 U.S. Army Special Forces operators and 30 soldiers from the Nigerien Security and Intelligence Battalion were departing the village of Tongo Tongo, near the Nigerien-Malian border, when they were ambushed by roughly 50 insurgents from an “ISIS-affiliated group” riding in a dozen technicals—pickup trucks armed with heavy machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. According to an Oct. 23 briefing by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, the U.S. military didn’t record the Green Berets requesting air support until an hour after the...

Congressional Democrats celebrated Rep. Frederica Wilson on Wednesday by wearing stickers adorned with a red cowboy hat and posing for a group picture on the steps of the Capitol. But one notable person was missing: Wilson herself. A source close to Wilson confirmed that the Florida Democrat was not in Washington this week due to ongoing threats against her after she criticized President Donald Trump's handling of a conversation with the family of Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed during an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger. Congressional vote tallies show that Wilson last voted Oct. 12, before the House...

In his October 23 Pentagon press conference describing the U.S. military presence in Niger, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford demonstrated it is possible to address serious national security issues and finesse the current spate of domestic political hysterics. "This area (in west Africa) is inherently dangerous," General Dunford said. "We're there because ISIS and al-Qaida are operating in that area." Here's the predicate to Dunford's statement: on October 4, four U.S. Army Green Berets died in combat in Niger. They were part of a 12-man U.S. detachment accompanying 30 Nigerien soldiers on a patrol returning...

Special Forces veteran Dr. Mike Simpson isn’t impressed by the way the Niger incident is being exploited by liberals like Congresswoman Frederica Wilson as a cheap way of attacking Donald Trump. Simpson’s thoughts on Niger are attracting a lot of attention on Twitter. Here’s what this ex-Green Beret has to say about his fallen comrades: Liberals: I am going to speak for all veterans for just a moment. (1) We didn't enlist because we were poor, stupid, and lacked opportunities. . . (more at link)

Video (CNN)After President Donald Trump repeatedly referred to her as a "wacky Congresswoman," Rep. Frederica Wilson fired back on Sunday morning, saying that the ambush in Niger that left four US soldiers dead "is (Trump's) Benghazi" and demanding an apology to "the nation" from White House chief of staff John Kelly. "Niger is @realDonaldTrump's Benghazi. He needs to own it," the Florida Democrat tweeted. Wilson and Trump have traded barbs for nearly a week on the controversy stemming from the President's condolence call to Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the soldiers killed in the...

FULL TITLE: 'Something was off': Survivor says US troops were stalled by a village elder before they were ambushed by 50 terrorists in Niger for hours following a near 24 hour patrol operation The four American special forces killed fighting in Niger were ambushed by 50 ISIS terrorists after they were stalled by a village elder, a survivor of the attack has revealed. The group of 12 American forces had accompanied 30 Nigerien forces to an area about 85 kilometers north of the capital Niamey on a routine reconnaissance mission on October 3, when a dramatic new order came through...

Army records show that the U.S. soldiers killed during a recent ambush in Niger had little to no combat experience prior to their deployment.A joint patrol of U.S. and Nigerien forces was attacked by approximately 50 Islamic State-affiliated fighters along the Niger-Mali border in early October, taking the lives of four soldiers and wounded two. Prior to the deployment, three had only been deployed once, and one of them had never been deployed abroad, according to the Wall Street Journal. Additionally, none of them had received the Army's combat infantry badge or combat action badge, awards given to those who...

PUTTING IT IN PERSPECTIVE   The deaths of the four US troops have awoken Americans to military deployments in Africa. With ISIS ousted from its capital in Syria, Pentagon officials say, US counterterrorism efforts are likely to focus even more on Africa. The tragic deaths of four US service members in an ambush in Niger have awoken Washington and US voters to the larger issue of American military deployments in Africa and the continued global nature of the nation’s struggle with Islamic extremist terrorism. Even senior lawmakers seemed surprised by the size of the US presence in the region as...

Economy Of Force The recent deaths of 4 US Army Special Forces Soldiers in Niger have prompted questioning, some legitimate and some merely political posturing. Two articles, one in The American Conservative (What Are US forces Doing in Niger Anyway?) and the other in Politico (Niger Attack Fuels New Push for War Vote) ask two very cogent questions: “Why are we there?” and “What is Congress’ role?” The purpose of this article isn’t to focus on the hypocrisy of these questions coming at this time. However, I would be remiss if I failed to point out that this particular mission...

American Soldiers Died in Niger Because of Obama Putting soldiers in a war zone without a combat mission so they don’t offend Islamists. October 23, 2017 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson has come up with a new gimmick for getting invited on CNN. After exploiting the death of one soldier killed in an attack in Niger, she decided that if exploiting one soldier made her famous, exploiting the deaths of all the soldiers would make her...

I'm all about holding leaders' feet to the fire, even taking it to them hard if necessary. Being subject to a critical eye is part of their job, and it is our job as responsible citizens to hold them accountable. So yeah, I like it. What I don't like, however, is the abandonment of decency and truth for partisan political advantage. This is exactly what we are witnessing in this firestorm that Rep. Frederica Wilson has ignited with President Trump. The Florida congresswoman should be ashamed of herself. No evidence of shame exists, however. Rather, Wilson seems pleased with herself,...

Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson is demanding White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly apologize to her—for “character assassination.”“Not only does he owe me an apology, but he owes an apology to the American people,” Wilson said Sunday on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” referring to Kelly, whom she also referred to as a “puppet of the president.”Kelly, the retired four-star Marine general, held a press briefing last week to address the Niger controversy.Wilson said she overheard parts of a call President Trump made to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, Myeshia Johnson, one of the four U.S. soldiers killed...

In the sadly contentious matter of remembering Sergeant La David Johnson, the villain turns out to be Congresswoman Fredericka Wilson, more of a ghoulish clown, really. President Trump plays the role of a loyal guard dog who doth bark too much, and General John Kelly comes off as a brave knight with a scratch in his armor. The sudden frenzy already is old news and much picked over, but maybe insufficiently considered. The flurry happened fast. President Trump called Myeshia Johnson, the widow of a soldier fallen in a raid in Niger to express his condolences. The next day, news...

MSNBC star Rachel Maddow’s latest anti-Trump conspiracy theory was so outlandish that even the dependently liberal HuffPost criticized it as "so flimsy that it could be debunked by a quick glance at a map." On Thursday evening, "The Rachel Maddow Show" opened with a somber 25-minute diatribe that attempted to connect the tragic ambush attack that killed four American soldiers in Niger to the latest version of President Trump’s proposed travel ban, which included the nation of Chad. Maddow essentially claimed that the inclusion of Chad, which recently pulled its troops out of Niger, in the revised travel ban resulted...

WASHINGTON — A senior congressional aide who has been briefed on the deaths of four U.S. servicemen in Niger says the ambush by militants stemmed in part from a "massive intelligence failure." The Pentagon has said that 40 to 50 militants ambushed a 12-man U.S. force in Niger on Oct. 4, killing four and wounding two. The U.S. patrol was seen as routine and had been carried out nearly 30 times in the six months before the attack, the Pentagon has reported.

Rep. Frederica Wilson's (D-Fla.) offices in Washington and Miami have reportedly been inundated with phone calls and threats following a war of words with President Trump this week. Staffers at one point had to turn off the phones in Wilson's D.C. office after callers bombarded the phones lines, forcing many callers to only reach a voicemail, a local CBS affiliate reported Friday. The number of calls has apparently reached the thousands over the past few days, according to the report, which said that fax machines were turned over to investigators as threats rolled in, pulling in the Capitol Police, Homeland...

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) said President Trump’s White House is “full of white supremacists” in a new interview Friday. “The White House itself is full of white supremacists,” she told The New York Times. It is the latest response in a four-day controversy over Trump's response to military families who have lost a loved one. Wilson earlier this week described a phone conversation she was listening in on between Trump and the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in Niger. The White House later accused Wilson of politicizing a "sacred" issue. Wilson's interview is not the...

If the name of U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson is not familiar to you, the Florida congresswoman gained props for speaking up about the injustice suffered by the family of Trayvon Martin and more recently Charles Kinsey. After news regarding slain soldier La David Johnson and Wilson confirming President Donald Trump was insensitive to the family surfaced, a trending topic, “#IBelieveFrederica” has cropped up defending her from Trump’s attack that Wilson’s comments were false. Wilson, who was a family friend of Johnson, was in a limousine with the soldier’s widow when Trump placed a call this week to offer condolences. Johnson’s...

Rep. Frederica Wilson is laughing off criticism lobbed at her from White House chief of staff John Kelly, saying his comments show "I'm a rock star now." The Florida Democrat made the comment to Miami Fox affiliate WSVN-TV Thursday in response to Kelly. "You mean to tell me that I have become so important that the White House is following me and my words?" Wilson said. "This is amazing. It's amazing, that is absolutely phenomenal. I have to tell my kids that I'm a rock star now." She also said she has been getting threats from white nationalists in the...

Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., kicked off President Donald Trump’s public feud with a Gold Star family after she accused him of making an “insensitive” remark to the soldier’s widow.