U.S. intelligence officials are reportedly scrambling to identify and track several hundred contacts recently obtained from a raid in Yemen targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or ‘AQAP’—the same raid the killed Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens.
Multiple people on the AQAP-linked list are believed to be in the West and are feared to be plotting terror attacks in Europe.
CNN broke the story: The terabyte’s worth of intelligence gathered from computers and cell phones is now being reviewed at the National Media Exploitation Center outside Washington, which analyzes documents, electronic media, cell phones, video and audio tapes seized on overseas missions.
Defense officials have told CNN that information pertaining to the location of safe havens, explosives manufacturing, training and targets was acquired in the January ground operation.
This new report contradicts many media accounts that stated the raid came up short.
In President Donald Trump’s address to Congress earlier this week, he assured to widow of Officer Owens that the raid produced “large amounts of vital intelligence.” (Watch below)
