Meg Kinnard and Michelle L. Price, writing for AP News:

Months of covert planning led to the brazen operation overnight, when President Donald Trump gave an order authorizing Maduro’s capture. The U.S. plunged the South American country’s capital into darkness, infiltrated Maduro’s home and whisked him to the United States, where the Trump administration planned to put him on trial.

Months of planning.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at Trump’s news conference that U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro — where he was at certain hours as well as details of his pets and the clothes he wore. […]

Rehearsed for months.

Trump said on Fox that U.S. forces had practiced their extraction on a replica building.

“They actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into with all the same, all that steel all over the place,” Trump said.

Built a house.

I don’t know how long it takes to build a replica of a heavily fortified presidential compound, but I’ll guess it’s not a short period of time.

I’m left wondering exactly when this operation “Absolute Resolve” was initially broached, and whether the attacks on alleged “drug-carrying” boats off the coast of Venezuela, which started in September and have killed at least 115 people, were mere pretext and distraction.