No Fox apology in fight with New York Times about raid story
NEW YORK — Fox News Channel on Monday clarified but didn’t apologize for a weekend segment that The New York Times said falsely accused the newspaper of revealing intelligence information that enabled Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to elude capture by U.S. forces two years ago.
Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said Fox was guilty of “sheer hypocrisy” because the network had also reported about a U.S. raid that netted valuable intelligence soon after it took place.
The dispute between the news outlets was magnified by White House attention. A “Fox & Friends” report on Saturday was headlined “NYT foils U.S. attempt to take out al-Baghdadi.” President Donald Trump apparently was watching, because less than a half-hour later he tweeted that the Times “foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, Al-Baghdadi. Their sick agenda over National Security.”
The issue surfaced following a Friday interview of Gen. Tony Thomas, head of the U.S. special operations command, by Fox correspondent Catherine Herridge. They talked about a May 16, 2015, raid in Syria, where U.S. forces killed a top al-Baghdadi aide and captured his wife. Thomas said the raid garnered a valuable lead that could have led the U.S. to al-Baghdadi but it went cold after it was leaked “in a prominent U.S. newspaper” about a week later. Herridge, writing for Fox’s website, tied it to the Times.