Although the task force viewed the mission as “an overwhelming success,” as the special operations officer put it, military sources said U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan William Wood did not want to publicize the operation after it was over.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment. But military sources said Wood’s view was that any publicity of Americans taken hostage in Afghanistan, even those who are rescued, encourages “the bad guys” to take more hostages and scares off Americans and other westerners from visiting or working in Afghanistan.
The special operators see the Oct. 15 rescue differently. To them, the fact that U.S. forces were able to rescue an American hostage from a location where the kidnappers felt secure “sends a very clear message to any extremist groups that [kidnapping Americans] will be handled with vigilance and unrelenting persecution,” said the special operations officer.
The kidnappers, he said, “paid a pretty heavy price for trying to pull in some money.”
I'm with the SOCOM guys. Don't hide it when we kill bad guys who target Americans. Our enemies should know that they get ransoms when the kidnap Germans and Italians--not Americans. The latter just results in silent death in the night for the kidnappers.
