In a recent fundraising email, Republican candidate for Michigan's open US Senate seat, former congressman Mike Rogers, appeared to mislead supporters about his past by suggesting he played an active role in the killing of Osama bin Laden. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Rogers wrote: "When I served as a US army officer and an FBI special agent, I swore a sacred oath to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." He added: "I saw the dead body of Osama bin Laden with my own eyes, knowing that together, we had delivered justice for America."
However, Rogers was not in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 1 May 2011, when Bin Laden was killed, nor was he in the White House Situation Room, where President Barack Obama and senior officials followed the raid in real time. Instead, as Rogers told reporters the next day, he was at home in Washington DC, where, as chair of the House intelligence committee, he was informed about the raid in a phone call from CIA director Leon Panetta.
Rogers later said he saw a photograph of Bin Laden's dead body, but supported Obama's decision not to release graphic images. "The risks of release outweigh the benefits," he said at the time. "Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway, and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East."
Since then, Rogers has frequently referred to his role in vague terms that seemed to exaggerate his involvement. With Abdul El-Sayed as his opponent, Rogers has repeatedly cited his role in the war on terrorism. He even attributed to El-Sayed a statement made by one of his supporters about 9/11, which turned out to be false.
El-Sayed himself has clearly denounced the 9/11 attacks for years. In a recollection written in 2021, El-Sayed wrote: "I watched terrorists with names like mine attack my country in the name of my faith. Three thousand of my fellow Americans were killed in the craven terrorist attacks in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. The attack devastated me."