Despite claims by John O. Brennan, President Obamas chief counterterrorism adviser, that the raid was a capture or kill operation, the SEALs were told explicitly to kill bin Laden. The situation was not particularly unusual. One of the two SEALs who knew about the grenade eventually told his team leader, who then failed to inform his commanders until he was confronted the next day. The sniper team leader acted under his own emergency assault authority to kill the pirates as soon as all three could be taken out at the same time. Less than a week before the assault, Bissonnette and ONeill got into a shouting match at the Dam Neck base over who would sell the inside story of the raid. What were originally known as assault teams now formally became squadrons, and by 2008, the expansion led to the creation of Silver, a fourth assault squadron. ``Even if he legally changed his name, his Social Security number wouldn't change,' said Michael McLellan, deputy public affairs officer for the Navy Personnel Command. Slabinski retired from the military in 2014 after 25 years in the Navy. Bottom right: Candid photo of U.S. Navy SEAL Neil Roberts. ONeills canoeing of bin Laden cost his teammates precious time, but his final shot to bin Ladens head was unremarkable to them. I would never do anything to disgrace my family, my country or my God. Neither wasloaded. On May 1, two stealth Black Hawk helicopters took off from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and headed east toward Abbottabad. By then, there was no question about whether the attempted beheading had occurred; the question was why. Aaron T. Howard, a highly decorated former special warfare operator first class with the famed Virginia-based unit, is asking a panel of judges at the Navy-Marine I shot him about 20 times in the legs, and every time youd kick him, er, shoot him, he would kick up, you could see his body twitching and all that. Clockwise from top left: Blue Squadron, known as the Pirates; Gold Squadron, known as the Crusaders or Knights; Red Squadron, known as the Redmen; and Silver Squadron. Joining is simple and doesnt need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. When he finally entered the bedroom, alone, bin Laden was standing uninjured, a weapon nearby, his wife in front of him like a human shield. In the early years of the war, SEAL Team 6 had an inflexible standard: Shooting people who were unarmed was forbidden and anyone who did so had to demonstrate the targethad displayed hostile intent. My word is my bond. But after 9/11, another code emerged that made lying especially to protect a teammate or the command from accountability the more honorable course of action. The database is maintained by the Colorado-based Naval Special Warfare Archives, a group of former SEALs who expose men who falsely claim to be current or former members of the commando unit. The Navy gathers the information and provides it to the Warfare Archives. No issues with that. For some of Howards men, however, the hatchets soon became more than symbolic as they were used at times to hack dead fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. His personal checks identify him as ``Capt. It was given as an honor, one more step to strive for, another sign that youre doing a good job.. When Slabinski was confronted by the commands senior enlisted leader about whether he had instructed Blue Squadron operators to kill all males during the operation, code-named Pantera, Slabinski acknowledged that he had done so. According to multiple sources, both of their accounts contain multiple self-serving falsehoods. The SEALs had been specifically asked to avoid shooting bin Laden in the face. In the book, Bissonnette implies that he was directly behind Red just below the third floor when bin Laden was shot, and was one of the next two SEALs who entered bin Ladens bedroom. Several of us confronted the officers, said one former noncommissioned officer who tried to stop the criminal behavior. During a late-night raid at a northern Kunar compound, Silver Squadron operators killed several captors but accidentally killed Norgrove when an inexperienced SEAL threw a fragment grenade at one of the captors. The retired SEAL, who spent the better part of two decades at the command, said he never asked Hyder why he mutilated the corpse. Although the video had revealed no weapons, and the generals had only tenuous intelligence that the convoy was al Qaeda just suspicions based on the color of the mans flowing white garb and the deference others showed him they were nervous that bin Laden might get away again, as he had a few months earlier after the bombing of the Tora Bora mountains in December 2001. One retired senior SEAL Team 6 leader was there who led the unit during the early years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His forehead was gruesome, he later told Esquire magazine. When Moeller spoke of his SEAL duties, he was always vague about dates and tours of duty, they said. Inside the vehicle were one or two rifles, as is customary in Afghanistan, but none of the men wore military clothing or had any extra ammunition. I mean, he was dead, but people have got nerves. Smetherss threat to expose Team 6 came just as Vice Adm.William McRaven settled in as the new commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. ``I think I know why you're here,' said one of the men, a Navy vet. Bissonnette was viewed by Howard as the prototypical SEAL Team 6 operator: a college-educated enlisted man with a savvy understanding of tactics and technology. The men who make it through the grueling training represent roughly the top 10 percent of all SEALs. Already a popular motivational speaker, ONeill now charges up to $35,000 per speech. You do realize you may be a-symptomatic and give the virus to other people that could potentially kill them. The operational tempo was very high. My only regret is not doing more Why I reported - Reddit Bissonnettes helicopter crashed into bin Ladens side yard. Top right: Robert ONeill with his tattoo of two bloody feathers, representing his kills. ``And I'm glad you are.'. McRaven was subsequently transferred from the unit. Brian Snyder; Instagram. A veteran of hundreds of raids and assaults during his career, the former SEAL said he disagreed with the order to kill bin Laden, regardless of whether he was armed, and compared it to Britt Slabinskis order to his Blue Squadron men in 2007. On Oct. 25, 1967, President Lyndon Johnson awarded him the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony. According to multiple members of SEAL Team 6, the fight with the CIA was one of the few instances in which the commands battlefield misconduct was in danger of being exposed. Benjamin Robinson Ramos claims to be a frogman. Previously, the command had required only a frontal shot and a profile of each dead militant. But what happened during Objective Bull, the assault on the convoy in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, has never been previously reported. Frisky freshman: Student made sexual advances at teacher d Dad of crying infant that triggered Texas massacre 'never thought' gunman would shoot, It's not just soda: Nutritionists weigh in on the absolute worst drinks for your health, ABC airs NYC footage with Twin Towers during Knicks-Heat game, NFL linebacker's 2-year-old daughter drowns in pool, Gayle King says she doesnt have a desire to retire: I want more work, WNBA star Brittney Griner is heading to the Met Gala, Mariah Carey celebrates Moroccan and Monroes 12th birthday: My babies, NY Post Sports Reporter Zach Braziller breaks down the Knicks game 1 loss to the Heat, Kendall Jenner rocks sheer top, fur mini skirt for date night with Bad Bunny. Start your morning in-the-know with the day's top stories. Both Bissonnette and ONeill declined to answer questions for this article. Neil Roberts was the first member of SEAL Team 6 to die in the Afghan war, and among the first elite operators who died after 9/11. Several weeks earlier, in January 2002, Hyder killed an unarmed Afghan man north of Kandahar during the units first ground assault of the war. It was at this point that some critics in the military complained that SEAL Team 6 with their full beards and arms, legs, and torsos covered in tattoos looked like members of a biker gang. His Twitter bio reads, I shot a famous guy. who is on the navy seal rock of shame Last weekend, Everette posted Moeller's name on his Internet site's ``Hall of Shame' for allegedly making false claims that he was a Medal of Honor recipient. He told us they had put unit and self before mission and country, the retired officer said. Blue Squadron was led at that time by Cmdr. A tow truck soon appeared and removed the Lexus. But he has never met one. They didnt know it, but Roberts was already dead, shot at close range in the head shortly after his helicopter departed the mountaintop. In the early 1980s, a group of seasoned enlisted SEAL Team 6 operators kicked McRaven off a training exercise, relieving him of his already tenuous command for being too rule-bound. ', ``That was the most profound thing I've ever heard,' Schantag said. The operations team leader believed that a suicide vest had been detonated by one of the captors, and two Silver Squadron operators initially withheldthe fact that a grenade had been thrown. After the Chinook miniguns strafed the vehicles and stopped them, Slabinski and his team of snipers landed and moved to a rise several hundred yards away from one of the trucks and began firing sniper rounds at the militants. The bombing stopped the convoy along a dry wadi, or ravine, with two of the trucks approximately a kilometer apart. His account credits Red with the shot that felled bin Laden and holds that he and a third SEAL presumably ONeill fired several rounds into bin Laden as he was lying on the floor. Check out this video of one of his latest catches. He assumed it was a twisted act of misplaced revenge over the previous days events specifically, the gruesome death of Hyders teammate Neil Roberts. Sources at SEAL Team 6 who were present during the operation estimated the number of dead was between 17 and 20. Alarmed at seeing what he believed was a decapitation, he told Slabinski to go inside and see what the young operator was doing. He kept moving toward us, so at 15 meters I put one round in him and he dropped. These small teams of CIA, Seal Team 6, and Afghan commandos operated under the agencys Title 50 authority, which governs covert activities. As the special operations helicopters approached the convoy from the north and west, Air Force jets dropped two bombs, halting the vehicles and killing several people instantly. But Schantag, a former Marine, cares little about the psychological makeup of fake military heroes. Its operators are part of an elite, clandestine cadre. Rob ONeill taking shots at Jocko In audio of an unpublished interview with the late MalcolmMacPherson, author of a 2005 book about Roberts Ridge, Slabinski describes in great detail an operation that took place about a week after Objective Bull. Unlike the hundreds of other assaults SEAL Team 6 had carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which the operators would plan and carry out a raid within a matter of hours, this time they had weeks to prepare. Szymanski, according to these sources, was directed by Moore to make the episode disappear. Robert Anthony Nolan used charm and a distinguished military resume to woo a succession of wives and girlfriends, recruit investors for his Virginia Beach import-export business and impress Republican officials and the former skipper of the carrier America. Retired Navy captain. Other military and intelligence officials who have served with or investigated the unit were also interviewed. Nearly 700 names have been posted on the ``Wall of Shame' by CyberSEALs, whose members include ex-SEALs and a former Navy wife who once lived After three or four deployments in, you need more to get that stimulation. Within hours, news trucks and reporters fanned out through the seaside town looking for anything affiliated with Navy SEALs. Theres honor involved and Vic Hyder obviously traipsed all over that, he said. He wasnt surprised. The man claimed his North Vietnamese captors nailed him to a tree, then tossed him into a ditch and left him for dead. great heroism.'. Former US Navy SEAL Mark Bissonnette, the best selling author sellout who wrote No Easy Day, the unauthorized ( and possibly embellished) story of the raid that Vasely, who was wearing night-vision goggles, looked through a window and saw one of his operators, his back turned, squatting over the body of a dead militant. Several of Bissonnettes teammates later informed their superiors that he had lied about his actions. WebAnswer (1 of 6): Bad news. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2023 The Havok Journal. After the bodies were recovered, Hyder and the other members of Red Team were forced to reckon with the mutilation and near beheading of their fellow SEAL. Earlier that evening, general officers from the Joint Special Operations Command had scrambled the SEALs after watching a Predator drone video feed of a man they suspected was bin Laden set off in a convoy of three or four vehicles in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, where al Qaeda forces had fortified themselves. But McRaven, who commanded the operation, had not ordered the snipers to fire, and neither had a SEAL Team6 officer. By the rules of engagement he became a legitimate target and it was supported. At the reunion, a few hundred yards from the Atlantic Ocean, a small group of current and former master chiefs stood around drinking and telling war stories. ``Skip' Moeller, 54, who drove the Chevrolet Cavalier with the Ohio plates, had been telling his war stories long enough, the old vet said. This meant there was less oversight over their missions and less accountability if things went wrong. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. As the legend of SEAL Team 6 grew, a rogue culture arose that operated outside of the Navys established mechanisms for command and investigation. SEAL Team 6 patches. god PLEASE let the "rock of shame" be a real physical rock with a list of navy seals who the other navy seals can't stand written on it. Records show that Moeller did not graduate from the Naval Academy. But I know it kept some kids in school. During the first deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan, it was common practice to take fingers, scalp, or skin from slain enemy combatants for identification purposes. Impersonating a Medal of Honor winner is a crime that can result in jail time and a fine. The novel, which glorifies Nazi military practices, describes counterinsurgency tactics such as mass slaughter and desecration and other forms of wanton violence as a means of waging psychological warfare against the savage Vietnamese. That operator, known as Red inside the unit, is still an active-duty member of SEAL Team 6 and has never been publicly identified. This account of the crimes of SEAL Team 6 results from a two-year investigation drawing on interviews with 18 current and former members of the unit, including four former senior leaders of the command. The member of SEAL Team Six claiming to have shot and killed Osama bin Laden in a daring night raid in May 2011 is Robert ONeill, multiple news It was split open in the shape of a V. I could see his brains spilling out over his face. He has even alludedto the grisly practiceon Twitter. When he first arrived at Dam Neck, operators in the unit who had served in Vietnam warned him that war crimes and battlefield atrocities hung like a cloud over the entire unit even if only one SEAL had participated. In that brief firefight, the SEALs killed nearly 20 foreign al Qaeda fighters, some of whom carried U.S. military equipment taken from Takur Ghar. Last year, the command became concerned about his psychological condition, determining that he was medically unfit to deploy again. Although the stoppage was not limited to the SEALs, his former unit pushed back against a new set of operational guidelines. Nolan, referring to the businessman and his colleagues, said, ``They better stay out of the United States because they didn't know who they were messing with,' the agent testified. He later told his teammates that it was possible one arm was twitching reflexively as he died, but otherwise he was effectively dead and not a threat. And to avoid a court-martial, Nolan received a less-than-honorable discharge from the Navy in June 1992 after going AWOL for 53 days. ``I had some students that were very, very marginal,' Ashman said. A SEAL who spoke Arabic interviewed bin Ladens wives and daughters until he was able to get two positive identifications. Bissonnettes bestselling book, No Easy Day, was published in September 2012, four months after he retired and less than two weeks after ONeill got out of the Navy. War is awful and its human to go too far, but this isnt one time. Richard Phillips, captain of the commercial vessel the Maersk Alabama, in April 2009 from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Instead of helping search and secure the second floor, both headed to the third floor, hoping to get a chance for the historic kill. After Robertss death, Slabinksi wanted revenge. Weak and starving, the POW choked the dog with his bare hands, then ate the animal's flesh raw. All of us were upset. Theformer SEAL Team 6 leader told me that for the units operators, the greatest punishment was being kicked out of the unit in front of their peers. He had made false statements to federal agents regarding bank loans and fraudulent insurance invoices, according to papers filed in Norfolk federal court. Neil Fifi Roberts, a member of the SEAL recon team, fell 10 feet from the back of a Chinook and was stranded as the helicopter took fire from foreign al Qaeda fighters who were already on the snow-covered mountaintop. Chuck Schantag of Skidmore, Mo., and his wife run a site that exposes POW imposters. Heath fired once, hitting the man, sending him tumbling down the back side of the small rise. The story of the bin Laden raid has been told and retold, but crucial details have never been made public. He said he has read about men who make false claims of wartime heroism, some even posing as Medal of Honor recipients. Ashman said he has stopped claiming to be an ex-SEAL and regrets that he ever did so. Today, heis a paid on-air commentator for Fox News and is reportedly eyeing a run for the Senate in his native Montana. The site received one complaint about a man who spins his yarns at an Oceanfront nightspot in Virginia Beach. Hyder and an enlisted operator named Monty Heath had gone in a different direction and saw a survivor flee the bombed vehicle toward a nearby berm. ``But he didn't come clean,' said Arrowood, who now teaches at Hickory High in Chesapeake. On its ``Wall of Shame,' CyberSEALs says Nolan claimed to be a member of Seal teams 2 and 6. After the publication of No Easy Day which in one chapter describes in great detail the specialized gear, along with brand names, Bissonnette wore on the bin Laden mission the Navy opened several inquiries into Bissonnettes outside business contracts. ONeill has repeatedly expressed skepticism about the seriousness of the coronavirus which has already killed about 173,000 people in the US and the efficacy of masks, which he has called a novelty, The Intercept reported. Bissonnette was much farther back down the stairwell. You guys want to play withthose rules? OK. Although this former SEAL acknowledged that war crimes are wrong, he understood how they happen. The database contains the names of the more than 9,700 men who have served as SEALs and is updated with each graduating Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs class. Several months after the bin Laden raid, in October 2011, SEAL Team 6 held its annual stump muster, a reunion of current command members and their families, as well as past leaders and senior operators. Nolan even persuaded one investor to pony up $30,000 when he told her about his covert activities, then presented her with papers that showed he had been honorably discharged. Scott Moore, right, then commander of SEAL Team 6. They had bonded over Robertss death. In 2010, when Slabinski was up for a promotion at the command, SEAL Team 6 leaders conducted two internal inquiries before making a decision. After 90 minutes, as the helicopters were nearing the rendezvous point, one of the SEALs alerted Hyder that an old man who had been lying in a ditch nearby was walking toward the SEALs position. With few exceptions, a darker, more troubling story has been suppressed and ignored a story replete with tactical brilliance on battlefields around the world coupled with a pattern of silence and deceit when downrange actions lead to episodes of criminal brutality. And there are those who claim to be recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation's most prestigious military citation. It didnt make a difference. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. There was no discussion of a visible weapon, no claims that one of bin Ladens wives had been used as a shield or a threat. Photos: U.S. Navy; U.S. Air Photo by Force Technical Sgt. But the directive had another benefit. Its a question, why was he a threat? Later that night, after Blue Squadrons assaulters had successfully carried out the raid, killing three or four armed men and recovering weapons and explosives, Vasely and Slabinski conducted a walk-through of the compound. The extreme risks they take forge extreme bonds. There is and was no military reason whatsoever to split someones skull open with a single round, said a former SEAL Team 6 leader. Its not their responsibility that is why we have DevGru operators.. One former SEAL leader who attended the proceeding told me McRavens message to the commands leadership was clear. Less than 48 hours before Objective Bull commenced, a small reconnaissance group from SEAL Team 6s Red Team had tried to establish an observation post on the 10,000-foot peak of Takur Ghar, overlooking the Shah-i-Kot valley, where forces from the Armys 10th Mountain Division intended to strike the last redoubt of al Qaeda forces massed in Afghanistan. I think that makes you a sociopath, she said in a tweet. But he did not provide the name. Ten days later, the internal JSOC investigation was closed. When you see your friend killed, recover his body, and find that the enemy mutilated him? McRaven, who did not respond to requests for comment, also held a meeting with a large group of senior officers under his command and said that SEAL Team 6 had effectively made lying to protect a teammate an honorable course of action, according to a person who attended the meeting. But it was all a lie, according to federal authorities and military personnel records. Ashman had not. Made up of no more than 200 SEAL operators when the Afghan war began, SEAL Team 6 was the lesser known of the U.S. militarys elite special mission units. The two leading officers at the command, Moore and Szymanski, were informed that small groups in each of the three squadrons were mutilating and desecrating combatants in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He told a girlfriend ``he had been involved in covert operations and knew how to make bombs.'. Tim Szymanski. The commands top noncommissioned officer placed their names on the SEAL Team 6 rock of shame, the unofficial list of unit pariahs. The list also includes Britt Slabinski, who was blacklisted in 2015 following the New York Times article that quoted him denying hed ever ordered his men to kill unarmed Afghan targets. Scott Moore, and his deputy, Capt. In that operation, Hyder led a team of Red operators on a nighttime mission to capture suspected al Qaeda militants in a compound. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. ', ``I made no boasts, no claims that I did anything heroic, that I fought anywhere, that I won any medals. In August, FBI agents arrested Nolan in Virginia Beach. Just eight months after taking over JSOC, after a series of complaints from the Afghan government over special operations night raids and civilian deaths, McRaven sought to pull Team 6 back from its overly aggressive stance. The photos and other review documents could be shared with local officials to justify operations. We needed that there was not a better group of people to go and do that. There was a lot of chaos. Red could see bin Laden bleeding out from his chest wound but he still had not entered the bedroom. As the lead assaulter, it was Reds job to make the most important tactical judgments because he largely blocked the view of the SEALs behind him. A former SEAL Team 6 leader told me that ONeill and Bissonnette originally agreed to cooperate on a book or movie project after the raid was over, but later had a falling out. The truth is that such stuff only galvanizes the enemy.. He was an outsider, despite having been at the command for many years. ``As kids filtered into class, they'd say, `You used to be a SEAL? In the ensuing 17-hour battle with the al Qaeda fighters, six more Americans were killed, and several were wounded. Peter Vasely with members of Blue Squadron in Afghanistan. Hampton Roads is rich in the romance of frogmen and the famed SEAL Team 2 and owns bragging rights to TV ``Survivor' Rudy Boesch, probably the most celebrated SEAL of all. Conflicting accounts have emerged about how many other SEALs fired rounds into bin Ladens lifeless body, though one former SEAL Team 6 leader who viewed the body in Jalalabad told me the body appeared to be intact aside from the chest wound and obliterated face. Some sources asked for anonymity citing the probability of professional retaliation for speaking out against their peers and teammates. Top left: Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette in2001. In keeping with Red Squadrons appropriation of Native American culture, Howard came up with the idea to bestow 14-inch hatchets on each SEAL who had a year of service in the squadron. You Canoeing was just one of several acts of mutilation frequently carried out by SEALs. According to the New York Times, Afghans accused Blue Squadron of killing civilians during that operation, but a subsequent military investigation determined that all those killed had been armed and hostile. Red Team, known as the Redmen, employed a Native American warrior as a mascot; Blue Team, known as the Pirates, wore the Jolly Roger; and Gold Team, known as the Crusaders or Knights, wore a lion or a crusaders cross. ``I feel lower than whale scum. Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > who is on the navy seal rock of shame. ``I had heard about the phonies and it dawned on me that I may have worked with one,' wrote another. At least two of Bissonnettes teammates who were with him when al Kuwaiti was killed were angry about the deception taking credit for a teammates actions on a mission was unprecedented and dishonorable but did not contradict him in the presence of a military lawyer. Well, they did. Many of the tales he has told bespeak . A few years later, after Hyders name was mentioned for another rotation in Red Team, some of Hyders former operators informed SEAL Team 6 leadership that he was not welcome back in the unit. According to two senior SEAL Team 6 sources, however, the leadership dynamic in Blue Squadron was a failure. Dean C. Ashman said it all began innocently around 1995, and his motives were purely altruistic. Gag Order: Bin Laden's Porn Collection to Remain Classified by Chris Hart This first appeared. Beginning in 2005 and continuing through 2008, as U.S. Special Operations forces became more central to the American military strategy, the number and frequency of operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan increased dramatically. Suspicious girlfriends, employers, ex-wives and real SEALs in Hampton Roads have reported 47 men to CyberSEALs, the group that maintains the Internet site. But in 1998, after intervention by a senior officer at Dam Neck, Howard was given a slot on Green Team. Somebody else is making this up. Hyder said that he and a few other SEALs began to bury the casualties near a ravine by piling rocks over them. He hasnt returned since. First, the SEALs would now be required to do call outs before entering a compound. You really do. . Thrice.. In a follow-up interview, Moeller said he legally changed his name a few years ago and served in the Navy under the other name. Several of his technical education students at Chesapeake's Western Branch High School asked Ashman, 54, a former Navy chief, about the prospects of a military career. WebRobert J. Top left: Red Squadron tattoo. The Red Squadron assaulters later gathered in a private area of Bagram Air Base and debriefed the mission in front of a military lawyer. The battle of Roberts Ridge, as it came to be known, has been frequently described in books and press accounts. Two hours passed before the SEALs in the damaged helicopter were able to return. Illustrations: Attila Futaki, Colorist: Greg Guilhaumond, Matthew Cole[emailprotected]theintercept.com@matthewacole. The 40 other local men are being investigated to determine if their names should be there too, a CyberSEALs spokeswoman said. It was time for the truth to come out.
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