WASHINGTON, DC: The White House has come under fire after releasing an image of President Joe Biden meeting with US troops in Israel without obscuring their identities.
The photo, posted to the White House's official Instagram account on Wednesday, October 18, showed Biden shaking the hand of a member of the Army’s elite counter-terrorism unit, which is working to help Israel find and rescue hostages taken by Hamas terrorists.
Along with the service member Biden was greeting, the faces of three other Delta Force fighters were revealed in the image. The soldier shaking hands with Biden also showed a distinctive set of tattoos on his right arm.
“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 White House’s Instagram post read.
The picture was posted to the White House's official account for hours and it garnered more than 6,000 likes and about 792 comments.
The post appeared to violate the Department of Defense’s rules as it showed agents’ faces, which are blurred in any officially released photographs to avoid the revelation of their identities, as per Daily Mail.
Whether in training or on deployment, it is standard Pentagon procedure to conceal the names and faces of special unit force members.
The White House apologizes for revealing operatives’ faces
After officials were made aware of the blunder, the White House apologized for mistakenly revealing the faces of the Special Forces operators and took the photo down.
“As soon as this was brought to our attention, we immediately deleted the photo,” a White House spokesman told Daily Mail, adding, “We regret the error and any issues this may have caused.”
Last week, the POTUS sent special operators to Israel to assist “their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government,” per NBC.
Previously, it was revealed that 30 US citizens had been killed and another "small handful" had been taken hostage by Hamas militants, who unleashed a full-fleshed, surprise attack on Israel, resulting in the death of nearly 1,400 people.
Following the attacks, Israel announced a war against Hamas and has been pounding Gaza with devastating airstrikes. Gaza suffered a major blow on Tuesday, October 17 when hundreds of citizens were killed in a deadly blast at a hospital.
Internet slams White House for revealing Special Operatives’ faces
The White House’s controversial post garnered immense social media attention in the little time that it was up, with users slamming the administration for revealing the faces of the special operatives.
US military veteran and author Sean Parnell lambasted the post, writing, "Holy God. Biden doxed Delta. This without question puts a target on them & their families."
“If it’s that top-secret, they shouldn’t have a camera in there in the first place,” one user said. “They said doxxed not good,” a third user wrote.
“This not the first time! Seal Team Six was attacked and murdered due to his mouth,” a fourth user accused, while another one wrote “How many "accidents " before it's not???”
“Hopefully someone goes to jail for publicly releasing classified media,” another person fumed. “We need to find out WHO posted it and who was behind that camera,” another one wrote.
“Life-threatening, and plain stupid. Biden has surrounded himself with stupid,” one more said.
