Araweelo News Network
Donald Trump (left) and William “Ryan” Owens
Getty Images; Navy
Washington(ANN)-The father of the Navy SEAL slain during a botched January raid in Yemen berated the White House for calling the mission a success and demanded an investigation during his first interview since the incident.
“Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation,” Bill Owens told The Miami Herald from his home in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. “I want an investigation. … The government owes my son an investigation.”
Owens recalled telling a chaplain who informed him that President Trump was en route to his house that he didn’t want to meet the president following the Jan. 28 death of his son, William “Ryan” Owens, who was a part of the elite SEAL Team 6.
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,’’ Owens remembered saying to the chaplain. “I told them I don’t want to meet the president.”
“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Owens said.
Also a military veteran, the Florida father was bothered by Trump’s treatment of Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan during his campaign.
Now that Owens is a Gold Star parent, he told the paper he felt reservations about the Trump Administration’s decision to undertake the mission, which the new president launched almost immediately after taking office.
The SEAL and some 29 civilians were killed during the anti-terrorism mission in Yemen, after their cover was blown.
“Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why?” the distraught father asked. “For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?’’
A White House aide said Sunday President Trump would likely welcome an investigation into Owens’ death.
“I haven’t had the chance to speak with him directly about that, but I would imagine that he would be supportive of that,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC’s “This Week.”
Sanders defended the mission that led to Owens’ “ultimate sacrifice.”
“We are forever in his son’s debt,” Sanders said. “I know that he paid the ultimate sacrifice when he went on that mission. And I know that the mission has a lot of different critics, but it did yield a substantial amount of very important intel and resources that helped save American lives and other lives.”
Source:Nypost.com