Obama: 2 hostages accidentally killed in drone strike

Show Caption Hide Caption Maryland man 1 of 2 al-Qaeda hostages killed by drone President Obama issued an apology for a January drone strike that accidentally killed two al-Qaeda hostages. One of the men, Dr. Warren Weinstein, is from Maryland.

WASHINGTON — President Obama expressed "grief and condolences" Thursday for a January drone strike against suspected terrorists in Pakistan that accidentally killed two hostages, including an American aid worker.

Obama said he took full responsibility for the operation and apologized to the families of the hostages. "I profoundly regret what happened," he said.

The two Western hostages — one American, one Italian — were killed during a drone strike that targeted members of al-Qaeda, the White House said.

They were Warren Weinstein, 73, an aid worker from Maryland who was a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Giovanni Lo Porto, 39, an Italian citizen working for a German aid agency. Both were kidnapped by al-Qaeda in Pakistan — Weinstein in 2011 and Lo Porto in 2012.

The White House said the counterterrorism operation, and another this year in the same region, also killed two other Americans believed to be working with al-Qaeda.

In an extraordinary eight-minute statement to reporters, a solemn Obama halted at points during his brief remarks, looking down at notes. "I cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the Weinstein and Lo Porto families are enduring today," he said.

Obama said he spoke to Weinstein's widow, Elaine, on Wednesday. She released a statement Thursday saying she "did not yet fully understand" what happened and looked forward to the results of the government investigation.

"But those who took Warren captive over three years ago bear ultimate responsibility," Elaine Weinstein said. "I can assure you that he would still be alive and well if they had allowed him to return home after his time abroad working to help the people of Pakistan," she said. "The cowardly actions of those who took Warren captive and ultimately to the place and time of his death are not in keeping with Islam and they will have to face their God to answer for their actions."

In a video released by al-Qaeda in 2013, Weinstein pleaded for Obama to negotiate his release, saying he felt "totally abandoned and forgotten" by the U.S. government. Elaine Weinstein also complained that the assistance from the U.S. government was "inconsistent and disappointing."

The bodies of Weinstein and Lo Porto have not been recovered, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House said the government will provide compensation to the two families.

Weinstein family's had worked with Maryland's congressional delegation in an effort to free him. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., called Weinstein and Lo Porto "assets to humanity" and said the United States and allies need to step up efforts to protect aid workers from future threats.

The Senate Intelligence Committee was already investigating the incident, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who called on the Obama administration to be more transparent about the number of deaths — both of terrorists and civilians — in U.S. air strikes.

Obama informed Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of the operation Wednesday. In a statement, Renzi expressed "deep sorrow" for the incident and lamented "a tragic error by our American allies."

U.S. forces did not know the hostages were at the al-Qaeda site when the counterterrorism operation took place in January along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, administration officials said.

"It is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally, and our fight against terrorism specifically, that mistakes, and sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur," Obama said.

Obama did not describe the nature or exact location of the operation. But The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous administration officials, said it was a CIA drone strike on the Pakistani side of the border region.

The site of the attack had been under surveillance for hundreds of hours, and that surveillance was "near-continuous" in the days just before the attack, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

The spying used a variety of methods, including drone imagery, and discovered a known al-Qaeda operative driving into the compound, said U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

Based on that intelligence, Earnest said, intelligence analysts concluded with "near certainty" that al-Qaeda leaders were present and that civilians were not.

"Obviously, the latter assessment was incorrect," he said.

President Obama announces death of al-Qaeda hostages President Obama apologized for the deaths of two al-Qaeda hostages during a U.S.-led counterterrorism operation in January. Dr. Warren Weinstein, the American, was from Rockville, Maryland.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been critical of the use of drone strikes,said the revelations raise troubling questions about the intelligence used by the government to justify the strikes.

"In each of the operations acknowledged today, the U.S. quite literally didn't know who it was killing," said the ACLU's deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer. "Unfortunately, the president's stated commitment to transparency can't be squared with the secrecy that still shrouds virtually every aspect of the government's drone program."

Obama said he has ordered a full investigation and will declassify information about the operation because "the Weinstein and Lo Porto families deserve to know the truth."

"One of the things that makes us exceptional is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes," he said.

Earnest also said two other Americans who were working with al-Qaeda were killed in counterterrorism operations.

Ahmed Farouq, an American who was an al-Qaeda leader, was killed in the same operation that resulted in the deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto, Earnest said.

Another American who had joined al-Qaeda, Adam Gadahn, was also killed in a separate operation in January. Earnest said Gadahn was not the specific target of that strike.

Gadahn, 36, served as an interpreter and spokesman for al Qaeda and was indicted by a federal grand jury in California for treason in 2006.

Earnest would not say if the attack would have gone forward had intelligence officials known that U.S. citizens were the targets — even without the hostages. Obama did not specifically sign off on the two operations, he said.

In a 2013 speech at the National Defense University, Obama said he believed it was unconstitutional to target American citizens with drone strikes unless they were "actively plotting to kill U.S. citizens" and capture was not possible.

The White House has ordered a review of drone practices to prevent future targeting of civilians, but Earnest indicated that such strikes will continue to be part of the U.S. counterterrorism strategy.

"We can't order up a special operations raid every time we suspect that a terrorist might be somewhere," he said. "In fact, to do so would subject our military servicemembers to an unacceptably high risk. It would pose an even higher risk to local civilian populations than some of the more narrowly tailored counter-terrorism operations that we carry out that don't involve putting boots on the ground.

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook from Arlington, Va. Follow @djusatoday and @gregorykorte on Twitter.