Three lawmakers recently forwarded correspondence to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, seeking insight regarding a recent U.S. airstrike in Syria.
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) expressed concerns that the May 23 action may have killed a civilian and have requested the Department of Defense (DoD) publicly release as much of their internal investigation into the airstrike as possible.
“The Department of Defense’s internal investigations have found ‘confirmation bias’ in selecting targets can lead to the U.S. military killing civilians they incorrectly believed to be legitimate targets,” the lawmakers wrote. “The publicly reported timeline of events related to the May 2023 strike indicates that DoD may still be suffering from deadly confirmation bias and resisting the consideration of outside information, and raises questions about how thoroughly CENTCOM has implemented the military’s civilian harm mitigation policy.”
According to the lawmakers, CENTCOM waited two weeks to open a preliminary CCAR (Civilian Casualty Credibility Assessment Report) investigation despite knowing of multiple credible reports that alleged the airstrike killed a civilian, and did not announce it became a 15-6 investigation until June 28.
“It is unclear why CENTCOM waited for weeks to fully investigate this matter, and why the tweet announcing that CENTCOM had targeted a senior AQ (Al Qaeda) leader remains online without recognition that this incident is now under investigation,” the legislators continued.
Within the letter the lawmakers noted concerns regarding the airstrike may reflect a continued pattern of confirmation bias when DoD conducts airstrikes.
“We are concerned whether CENTCOM failed to question its assumptions and to appropriately presume civilian status in the absence of clear evidence that the targeted individual was a combatant, exacerbating the risk of misidentification and civilian harm,” the legislators concluded.