With Sinwar Dead, Biden Reveals U.S. Role

White House admits it worked with Israel to kill Hamas leader

The Biden administration admitted today that the CIA and military special operations forces have been assisting Israel to locate and track Hamas leaders, an involvement in the Gaza war that goes far beyond what the government previously disclosed. The revelation follows Wednesday’s killing of October 7 architect Yayha Sinwar, but also comes after months of assurances by the White House that American intelligence and special operators were merely involved in hostage recovery. 

Despite the fact that Sinwar was killed by accident (and not as part of a targeted operation), the Biden administration’s desperation to grab some of the limelight is more a political desire to demonstrate success in their decision to support Israel. It also shows an acceptance of one of Israel’s core beliefs about its wars against its many enemies, one that the United States has adopted: that killing leaders is going to eliminate threats, indeed that it is tantamount to victory.

Israeli leaders are already crowing that Hamas should release the hostages and “surrender,” pushing its own fantasy and narrative about the significance of Sinwar’s death, which is being used to affirm the country’s never-ending war. Lost in all the hoo-hah is the fact that Washington has consistently lied to the American people. 

The U.S. does have boots on the ground in Israel. The U.S. is directly involved in Israel’s military campaigns. The U.S. is intrinsic to Israel’s ability to defend itself against Iran. It is the guarantor of Israel’s military adventures. All without much ability or evident interest in restraining the country or seeking any real negotiated outcome.

“Shortly after the October 7 massacres, I directed Special Operations personnel and our intelligence professionals to work side-by-side with their Israeli counterparts to help locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders hiding in Gaza,” President Biden said today in a press release. Vice President Harris issued a nearly identical statement.

In October of last year, when asked if there were U.S. special operators on the ground in Israel, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder responded evasively. “We are providing planning and intelligence support to the Israelis, as it pertains to hostage recovery.” Hostage recovery has remained the administration’s official line ever since. Such statements were frequently accompanied by a reminder that American citizens are among the hostages taken by Hamas. For Washington, it was a deft manipulation: Who could be opposed to rescuing Americans?

But behind the scenes, the Biden administration was providing assistance to locate not just Sinwar but other Hamas leadership as well. The embrace of the same War-on-Terror style head-hunting framework adopted by the Bush administration after 9/11 flies in the face of Biden’s public rhetoric about Israel’s need to resist the seduction of revenge.

“I caution this,” Biden said 10 days after Hamas’ attack on Israel. “While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it.”

Asked today if the U.S. special operators had located Sinwar, Ryder declined to elaborate on the White House’s statement, hinting that the hostage recovery mission was used to track Hamas leaders.

“I'm not going to get into intelligence. What I'm telling you is this was an Israeli operation and that we've been sharing information and intelligence in support of hostage recovery efforts and the tracking of these leaders who have been holding hostages, hostages to include Americans. And so, insomuch as it's helped to inform Israeli operations in general writ large, certainly it has played a role.”

After 20-plus years of hunting al Qaeda and other terrorists, U.S. intelligence has become very proficient at the painstaking task, mastering real time intelligence processing, precise geolocation, and rapid attack on individuals. Multiple sources have been added to the post 9/11 arsenal, from big data analysis to close in collection of the most minute of signals. New weapons and drones have been developed. Specialty organizations have been created. Behind all of this is a special access program in a joint CIA-military cell in McLean, Virginia that conducts the most sensitive "high value targeting." The experts look for any blip that indicates a target's location, a process that is a form of forensic analysis that includes overhead reconnaissance, signals intercepts, and on-the-ground detection.

Israel is just as proficient, experts say, but the U.S. has numerous tools -- from stealth satellites to sophisticated tracking algorithms -- that can blanket an area more completely and efficiently. Still, it must be added, Sinwar was not killed as a result of the work of this apparatus, not after a year of intense work. Washington exaggerates the effect of the enormous effort as a way of not only continuing perpetual war in the Middle East but also to create the aura of success, an outcome that eludes both countries. 

President Joe Biden drew a comparison to the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 even though his death looks nothing like Israel’s campaign against Hamas. The U.S. searched for bin Laden for a decade, and although his death was vindication of the effort, it came at a point when Afghanistan-based al Qaeda had already morphed and transformed into other organizations. Biden’s crediting these same forces with helping Israel in some ways proves that the war never ended, and never will. 

Israel might claim that Sinwar’s death is a turning point, but that does not seem likely. Hamas (and Hezbollah in Lebanon) continue to fight a leaderless war. There is no evidence whatsoever that either group is exhausted or flagging in their efforts.