Let them eat gumbo!

Flood victims in Louisiana were not the only people in need of help President Obama ignored while he took an extended golfing vacation last month in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

According to journalist Susan Katz Keating he also neglected a hostage rescue in Afghanistan.  Katz Keating, who write for People and TIME, posted exclusive details at the AMINewswire:

Under the dim light of a quarter moon, a U.S. special operations team skimmed through the night skies above eastern Afghanistan, awaiting final mission approval from President Barrack Obama while speeding toward the objective. The commandos were fast on their way last month to rescue two western hostages held by hostile gunmen.

As the raiders approached their target — a makeshift prison compound — they suddenly were ordered to stand down. The president, who was vacationing on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, did not have time to give the required final go-ahead. He wanted 24 hours to consider the rescue.

A day later, Obama approved the mission. The commandos relaunched. This time, they reached the target — only to find the hostages had been moved four hours prior, said sources with direct knowledge of events. 

"We raised hell in that compound," said a security staffer with knowledge of the mission. "We knocked down walls and killed bad guys."

Seven hostile combatants were killed and one injured, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed to American Media Institute. Among its many duties, CENTCOM is the Pentagon's Unified Combatant Command in charge of operations in Afghanistan.

"No civilians were killed or harmed," said Col. John J. Thomas, the CENTCOM director of public affairs. "No U.S. forces were killed or hurt."

The missions took place Aug. 10 and 11, in Afghanistan, Thomas confirmed. He did not address operational details of the rescue missions; but AMI spoke to sources who provided details, some of which CENTCOM confirmed. 

The sources are security officials who are privy to the kidnaps and the attempted rescues. They do not work together and are affiliated with different agencies. The sources are not authorized to talk to the press, and spoke to AMI on condition of anonymity.

"We had the hostages within reach," said a source who met face to face with this reporter at a remote dockside setting in the United States to discuss the incident. The source insisted that the meeting be held outdoors and without access to electronic devices. 

"The first time we went in, we had to stand down," the source said. "The second time, the hostages were gone. Our special operations team went all that way for nothing."

The special operators aimed to recover two civilians — American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks — who were kidnapped Aug. 7, in Afghanistan. The kidnapped men are English teachers at the American University in Kabul.

FOX News first broke the story of the delay and the failure of the rescue operation.  Katz Keating is the first to report that anonymous CENTCOM sources say they were waiting for a vacationing Obama to authorize the mission.