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By: News Peddlers
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| Kash Patel [Credit; ABC] |
Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's nominee for FBI director, stated on Thursday that U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six took just 60 seconds to rescue an American citizen who had been kidnapped and held hostage in northern Nigeria.
Mr. Patel made this remark during his confirmation hearing before the United States Senate on January 30, 2025.
He was questioned about his involvement in the covert operation that led to the rescue of Philip Walton, a 27-year-old son of American missionaries who was abducted in neighboring Niger and moved to northern Nigeria for ransom.
"The operation lasted 60 seconds," Mr. Patel told Congress on Thursday.
He also faced scrutiny over allegations that he recklessly repeated a false claim that the Nigerian government had approved SEAL Team Six's use of Nigerian airspace. As the key figure behind the operation, Mr. Patel had obtained intelligence on Mr. Walton's location and saw an opportunity to act before the kidnappers could relocate him.
However, senior U.S. officials later discovered that while the rescue team was already airborne, the Nigerian government had not yet granted clearance for them to enter, let alone land in its airspace.
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in his memoir, described this as one of Mr. Patel’s critical mistakes, expressing concern for the SEALs’ safety and the risk of them being shot down due to the unauthorized mission.
ABC cited Mr. Esper’s book, which detailed the operation: "I was worried that being crammed into an aircraft burning holes in the sky for an additional hour or so would wear on the special operators, that it might affect their readiness somehow."
Mr. Esper also noted that the SEALs suspected Mr. Patel had fabricated the Nigerian government's approval.
"My team suspected Patel made the approval story up, but they didn’t have all the facts," he wrote.
In his book Government Gangsters, Mr. Patel refuted these claims, arguing that certain individuals sought to undermine the president’s counterterrorism efforts in the Middle East and Africa by creating obstacles.
Ultimately, the mission succeeded after the State Department intervened and secured the necessary airspace clearance from Nigerian authorities before the SEALs landed.
It remains unclear whether Mr. Patel’s testimony satisfied the Senate, but his nomination for FBI director continues to face significant opposition.
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