The White House communications team has apologized after posting a photograph on Instagram of President Joe Biden meeting in Israel with suspected U.S. special operations forces that did not blur out the service members’ faces, a deviation from previous practices.
Following Biden’s visit to Israel on Wednesday, the White House posted the photo showing the president shaking hands with “first responders,” who, based on their gear and attire, are possibly special operations personnel.
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The faces of five possible special operators were completely or partially visible in the photo, which did nothing to obscure their identity. Department of Defense photos and videos of American special operations forces usually blur the faces of their members due to the sensitive nature of their missions.
“In Israel, President Biden met with first responders to thank them for their bravery and the work they’re doing in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks,” the now-deleted post read.
The Whitehouse media team shared this picture last night (I added the black boxes) without blurring or censoring the faces of the “Delta Force” (CAG) operator’s faces. They deleted it an hour later after hundreds of thousands had already viewed it.
— Sam Shoemate (@samosaur) October 19, 2023
This is a massive failure on… pic.twitter.com/ROegvYWzit
“As soon as this was brought to our attention, we immediately deleted the photo," a White House spokesman told RealClearPolitics. We regret the error and any issues this may have caused.” The White House did not answer the outlet's question about whether the group of soldiers was a Delta Force team helping Israel.
The U.S. has set up a small presence of special operations forces in Israel that has been working in an advisory and assist capacity specifically as it relates to the roughly 200 hostages that terror groups took following the Oct. 7 terror attacks in southern Israel.
"We are providing planning and intelligence support to the Israelis as it pertains to hostage recovery. That's about the extent of what I'm able to provide right now," Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen Patrick Ryder said during Thursday's briefing.
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“Today, Secretary Austin placed approximately 2,000 personnel and a range of units on a heightened state of readiness through a prepare to deploy order, which increases DoD's ability to respond quickly to the evolving security environment in the Middle East," Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a statement on Tuesday.
Biden has said U.S. troops would not be engaging on the front lines; 32 U.S. civilians were among the roughly 1,400 civilians killed in the terrorist attacks.