matt bissonnette vs robert o'neill

A retired noncommissioned officer said Howard’s encouragement and provision of Winkler hatchets was simply adding fuel to the fire. “And then we had to address a very important question, how do you get the guys’ heads straight to mitigate any retaliation for Fifi? “It’s important that you put this stuff in context,” the CIA officer said. To suggest that I or anyone on this site is responsible for Bissonette’s criminal investigation  is ludicrous. Consequently, the SEALs initially reported to JSOC senior leaders that Norgrove had been killed by her captors. O’Neill’s decision to canoe the al Qaeda leader made him unrecognizable. O'Neill claims the fatal shot was his. He was told that the photographs were part of SEAL Team 6’s “greatest hits” of terrorists killed since 9/11. Here, commanders returning from a deployment leave their hard drives with technicians who transfer PowerPoints, after-actions reports, and photos of each operation a squadron conducted abroad. O'Neill's disclosures come nearly two years after Matt Bissonnette, another former SEAL Team 6 member, published details about the raid under a pen name in No Easy Day. His … McRaven’s new orders set off a struggle between the JSOC commander and SEAL Team 6’s enlisted ranks that played out in a series of high-profile hostage rescues ordered by President Obama. “You ask me to go living with the pigs, but I can’t go live with pigs and then not get dirty.”. Normally, SEAL Team 6’s commanding officer, a captain, would conduct a captain’s mast, a form of non-judicial punishment. The operation commanded high-level interest because Norgrove, though in Afghanistan as an aid worker for DAI, an American NGO, secretly worked with Britain’s MI-6, according to four U.S. military and intelligence sources. It’s a question, why was he a threat? In the ensuing 17-hour battle with the al Qaeda fighters, six more Americans were killed, and several were wounded. In that mission, known as Objective Wolverine, Slabinski and his fellow SEALs were sent in Chinook helicopters to follow a convoy they believed was filled with al Qaeda fighters escaping to Pakistan. The SEALs from the other helicopter immediately headed up a steep hill after landing to locate an armed man who had been shot from the helicopter. The war was entering its seventh year and had become intractable, with no clear path to victory. 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 Bissonnette’s outside business contracts. “If you have multiple incidents where the ground force commander pulls the trigger on a deployment, you have a total breakdown of operational tactics,” said one retired SEAL leader. I’ve never told anyone this until now. Brandon Webb’s Red Circle Mastermind Group - Click Here To Sign Up Now →, Naval Special Warfare Leadership Responds to 'The Shooter' & Mark Owen, Why Navy SEALs are a crucial element of Naval Special Warfare. Shortly after that operation, Slabinski returned to the SEAL Team 6 base at Dam Neck. Bissonnette left Red Squadron soon after the raid and retired from the Navy almost one year later. “He reminded us all that our first loyalty was to the Constitution.”. They soon discovered he had violated a series of Navy regulations. In 2014, O’Neill unveiled himself as the man who killed bin Laden in an hourlong Fox News special, just as Bissonnette published a second book. Robert O'Neill, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, speaks at the "Best of Blount" Chamber of Commerce awards ceremony at the Clayton Center for the Arts in … 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. Already a popular motivational speaker, O’Neill now charges up to $35,000 per speech. Matt Bissonnette has been told by the U.S. military that he allegedly is in break of confidentiality agreements he signed while with the military. “I didn’t give their different accounts much thought,” the SEAL said. He most likely unknowingly killed UBL, and then moved on to the women, knowing that his threat had been neutralized. Your teammates beside and behind you will cover all the other possible angles and areas of a room as you move forward. The raid, several of the SEALs said afterward, was one of the easiest missions they’d ever conducted. Robert O’Neill, the Navy SEAL who claims he killed Osama bin Laden, was arrested Friday for ‘driving while intoxicated’ outside a convenience store in the US state of Montana. Neil Roberts’s bent rifle was placed on the wall of Red Team’s room at the SEALs’ base near Virginia Beach, a visible reminder of their teammate, their first deployment, and the troubles that would follow. It’s likely why the SEAL Admiral and Master Chief sent out a stern letter seemingly directed at Matt Bissonette and Robert O’Neill with regards to their media blitz. His superiors believed he had become “unglued” over the 2007 deployment. Sitting in a bar in Virginia Beach, VA- talking about being the shooter. In contrast, fellow SEAL Matt Bissonnette claims in No Easy Day that the … “Why would I do that?” he asked. But McRaven, who commanded the operation, had not ordered the snipers to fire, and neither had a SEAL Team 6 officer. He was awarded the Silver Star for his efforts at Takur Ghar to save Roberts and the rest of the Red Team recon element. Slabinski had told his operators that he wanted “a head on a platter.” Although some of the more seasoned SEALs took the statement metaphorically, at least one operator took Slabinski at his word, interpreting it as an order. Bottom: McRaven, left, and Capt. Howard, according to two of his former operators, was more willing than previous officers to greenlight operations based on “weak” intelligence, leading to more raids and strikes. At least two of Bissonnette’s teammates who were with him when al Kuwaiti was killed were angry about the deception — taking credit for a teammate’s actions on a mission was unprecedented and dishonorable — but did not contradict him in the presence of a military lawyer. 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. We killed bad guys. Photos: U.S. Department of Defense; Screengrab from video by U.S. Department of Defense; U.S. Navy by the Roberts family. Three weeks after the incident, NCIS closed its investigation, concluding that there was no evidence the SEAL had violated the laws of armed conflict. One operator, who confirmed Howard’s remarks, added his own: “That’s the business we’re in.”. Robert O'Neill, 41, was a member of SEAL Team 6 which conducted the May 2, 2011 raid on the 9/11 terrorist mastermind's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. I was meritoriously promoted to E-6 at Naval Special Warfare Group One (NSWG-1), promoted to Chief Petty Officer the first time I was eligible for advancement, and then went on to be one of Naval Special Warfare Center’s Sniper Course Managers. 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. Matthew Bissonnette, a former Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden and wrote a bestselling book about the raid, is now the subject of a criminal … The community would also be wise to engage, not isolate, the large veteran SEAL community. Asked for comment, the British government told The Intercept that it does not comment on security matters and would “neither confirm nor deny” that Norgrove worked for the intelligence agency. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadn’t done it? Bottom left: A Winkler hatchet similar to those issued to Red Squadron. We shoot ’em. Before I turned over the Editor-in-Chief position to Jack Murphy, I did my best to warn them about bad things we heard on the street as it related to the main stream news press. Both men were notorious among their teammates for their self-promotional tendencies — a trait not well-suited for a “team-first” environment. The SEALs were suspected of taking the money. One of Bissonnette’s teammates then put his gun through the front door, which was now slightly ajar, and shot the gunman in the head. Yes, I’m a bit puzzled by Bissonette’s statements but it speaks to his character in my opinion, and the current situation he finds himself in. Although Bissonnette was able to sell a book and tell his story first, O’Neill arguably got the better deal. “We could’ve used the intel.” Outside the compound, the SEALs were quick to show the photos to others on the assault team. By the time the two dozen Red Team operators departed for Objective Bull, tension had built up between Hyder, a commissioned officer, and the enlisted operators technically under his command. Fanning the media fire further are the inconsistencies in the UBL story as told by Bissonette and O’Neill, this make matters even worse. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service then opened an investigation but was forced to rely on photographs and witness statements because active hostilities made the alleged crime scene inaccessible. So whaat ia you opinion on the USMC QRF in Rota being ordered to change from uniforms to civvies and then back to uniforms again. A former SEAL Team 6 leader who has knowledge of the episode told me Moore shamed Slabinski and the squadron for their conduct. This means only on thing – someone isn’t telling the truth. But in the eyes of the enlisted SEALs of Red Team, Hyder had killed a man who didn’t have to die. For many on the raid, including those who had been present in bin Laden’s bedroom with O’Neill, it was the first time they’d heard anyone in the command say the terrorist leader was standing, posing a threat of any kind. I am not defending anyone's conduct whatsoever. I shot him, finished him. According to a CIA officer with direct knowledge of the incident, the CIA requested that the SEALs capture, rather than kill, their militant targets. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? US military leaders condemn Robert O’Neill and Matt Bissonnette after both claim they shot Osama bin Laden. After blowing open the iron gate blocking the main stairway, the lead assaulters, among them Bissonnette and O’Neill, followed the operator known as Red up the stairs. He remains on active duty and has not responded to requests for comment. Our leadership punted and I’m not sure it will ever be corrected.”, The failure of SEAL Team 6 to hold itself accountable for battlefield atrocities has resulted in lasting consequences for operators at the command. They were the only shots not fired by the SEALs during the raid. “They were disgusted.” He quoted Heath as saying, “I’m morally flexible but I can’t handle that.” Heath refused to comment for this article. Within hours, news trucks and reporters fanned out through the seaside town looking for anything affiliated with Navy SEALs. The Red Squadron assaulters later gathered in a private area of Bagram Air Base and debriefed the mission in front of a military lawyer. -Medal of Honor recipient Sal Giunta when recently asked about O’Neill and other members of SEAL Team 6 who have spoken openly about the UBL mission. At that point, Hyder began assessing the damage and surveying the dead. A photo of Robert O'Neill in his U.S. military uniform. Hopefully, by reading the lines, and in between them, you can arrive at a better interpretation of the recent media drama surrounding “Who shot UBL?” and why Naval Special Warfare (NSW) leadership is rightfully upset. We don’t have ads, so we depend on our members — 35,000 and counting — to help us hold the powerful to account. The Biden administration can block a Trump rule codifying legal discrimination using federal funds, but 11 state-level measures remain intact. The hatchets Howard obtained were stamped with a Native American warrior in a headdress and crossed tomahawks. And again, why would O’Neill engage UBL point blank in the face, after visually identifying him, when SOFREP has heard from insiders (and a few bar girls in Virginia Beach apparently) that the mission brief was to NOT shoot UBL in the head in order to preserve facial recognition. Former SEAL Team 6 member Matt Bissonnette wrote a book under a pseudonym of his firsthand account of the raid, stating the point man discharged the death shots. And there was no weapons smuggling being done by the CIA to syria. Peter Vasely, a Naval Academy graduate who had not gone through the advanced assault training of Green Team that the other members of SEAL Team 6 had endured. Only inches from his target, O’Neill claims, he shot bin Laden twice in the forehead. Will we ever know what happened that night? He hasn’t returned since. “That’s what’s wrong with my community,” the former SEAL Team 6 leader told me. The SEALs with Hyder came out and separated into two groups. by The Week team. He was allowed to return to the regular SEAL teams. Bissonnette eventually settled his legal case with the government, agreeing to return $6.7 million in profits from the sale of “No Easy Day” and giving up any proceeds from future sales of the book. Such is the case with Bissonette and O’Neill. “What you’re saying is you have no faith in the commander,” he said. After Roberts’s death, Slabinksi wanted revenge. The operator accused of the attempted beheading has experienced difficulties as a result of his service. When investigators approached the operator accused of mutilating the dead fighter, he exercised his right to remain silent and his right to counsel. You’ll have to make up your own mind. The prevailing narrative about SEAL Team 6 in news coverage, bestselling books, and Hollywood movies is unambiguously heroic; it centers on the killing of Osama bin Laden and high-profile rescue missions. I struggled with that. O’Neill later implied in the Esquire profile that he shot bin Laden because he wasn’t sure Red’s shots had hit the target. Opening it up, he saw a collection of photographs, more than a dozen canoed enemy heads. In the end, their inclusion in the bin Laden raid and their roles defined where they fit in: Bissonnette worked closely with the CIA and SEAL Team 6 superiors during the planning phase to help plot out the assault, and would lead a team of operators to find and kill bin Laden’s courier. “You can’t win an investigation on us,” one former SEAL Team 6 leader told me. The command’s top noncommissioned officer placed their names on the SEAL Team 6 rock of shame, the unofficial list of unit pariahs. Ask yourself this question. But even that rule evolved over time. The official SEAL creed reads, in part: “Uncompromising integrity is my standard. During the debrief, Red was identified as having hit bin Laden with a fatal shot, and O’Neill was credited with putting security rounds into him after bin Laden had already gone down. “He’s just beginning to suffer for what he did,” said another SEAL Team 6 leader. I have only to point to a small wooden sign hung over a back door entrance to a place most people will never go or see, which has the following words burned into it: Editors note: This post was modified slightly from its original published format. The SEALs’ biggest concern was how much time they would have, which was dictated by the amount of fuel the two Black Hawks could carry for the round trip. “It ruined some of these guys,” said the former SEAL operator on the mission. Illustrations: Attila Futaki, Colorist: Greg Guilhaumond, Matthew Cole[email protected]​theintercept.com@matthewacole. Despite claims by John O. Brennan, President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, that the raid was a capture or kill operation, the SEALs were told explicitly to kill bin Laden. “Tim took a dive,” said a former noncommissioned SEAL officer, and it was “at Moore’s direction.” Szymanski had known Slabinski for at least 15 years. 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. Against this backdrop, in 2006, Hugh Wyman Howard III, a descendant of an admiral and himself a Naval Academy graduate, took command of Red Squadron and its roughly 50 operators. The only issue was, was his order real, or just talk?” said one of the retired SEALs involved. He was unarmed and wearing pajamas. The pilot who had warned that one of the helicopters would stall was right. His account credits Red with the shot that felled bin Laden and holds that he and a third SEAL — presumably O’Neill — fired several rounds into bin Laden as he was lying on the floor. Richard Phillips, captain of the commercial vessel the “Maersk Alabama,” in April 2009 from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. That was the only punishment. While he was there, he confronted the Blue Squadron troop and the operator who’d tried to behead the Taliban fighter. Read Next: Naval Special Warfare Leadership Responds to 'The Shooter' & Mark Owen. 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. “Often we’d hear, well, they’re savages,” the former leader said. Beyond the story of the alleged mutilation, the sight of the dead civilians killed during the opening airstrikes of Objective Bull, especially the women and children, left members of Red Team with deep psychological scars. Bissonnette’s bestselling book, “No Easy Day,” was published in September 2012, four months after he retired and less than two weeks after O’Neill got out of the Navy. The account did not dwell on the fact that O’Neill had chosen to separate from the Navy nearly four years before he was eligible for extensive retirement benefits. Stress? I was standing outside one of my favorite Manhattan restaurants, La Esquina and remember it as if it happened yesterday. “We said, ‘Let us set down and take a look at the convoy to determine if it’s al Qaeda.’ Instead, they dropped several bombs.”. It’s also important to represent yourself in a professional manner, keep your integrity intact, and honor the commitments you’ve made to America, its citizens, and your teammates. With more extensive photographic documentation, SEAL operators had less time to fire unnecessary rounds into the dead, and they had to use the photos to explain why they fired their weapon. Joining is simple and doesn’t need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. Total Loss of Neutrality, Swedish Troops Join SOF Task Force Takuba in Mali. Yes, we — they committed war crimes. Operators and officers prided themselves on their ability to kill only those who were deemed a threat. After being shepherded through the nine-month training, he entered Red Squadron. Smethers’s threat to expose Team 6 came just as Vice Adm. William McRaven settled in as the new commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. “It’s not their responsibility — that is why we have DevGru operators.”. By 2007, the command’s leadership was aware that some Blue Squadron operators were using specialized knives to conduct “skinnings.” Using the excuse of collecting DNA, which required a small piece of skin containing hair follicles, operators were taking large strips of skin from dead enemy fighters. Photos: U.S. Navy; U.S. Air Photo by Force Technical Sgt. It was like a game. The foreign fighters who suffered these V-shaped wounds were either killed in battle and later shot at close range or finished off with a security round while dying. 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. Instead, he held them back long enough for his teammates, including O’Neill, to enter the bedroom. O'Neill told the Post that shots also were fired by two other SEAL team members, including Matt Bissonnette, who described the raid somewhat differently in his book No Easy Day. One of their teammates killed the other two targets in another room. Robert O’Neill Navy SEAL Team 6 Member: I Shot, Killed Osama Bin Laden Matt Bissonnette, Mark Owen SEAL Named as Silent R Consultant LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Matt Bissonnette and members of Navy SEALs Team 6 have battled allegations about “Medal of Honor: Warfighter” since earlier this summer. He was quietly removed from Team 6 and returned to a regular SEAL unit. Former Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill says he fired lethal shots that struck Osama bin Laden's head within a second of seeing the terrorist leader on the upper floor of his Pakistan hideout in 2011. It was just good therapy. SEALs were given wide berth as long as they could explain why they made the decision to shoot an unarmed person. The unit’s elite stature has insulated its members from the scrutiny and military justice that lesser units would have faced for the same actions. Bissonnette was much farther back down the stairwell. And afterwards, we added the psychological warfare.”. After SOFREP reported on O’Neill’s coming out party (don’t shoot the messenger) on Fox news, SOFREP opted out of the  UBL “Shooter” drama. Also, it doesn’t matter if other people, especially some politicians in Washington, don’t hold the same ethic. Limited Time Offer - Get 3 Months of Team Room Membership for Only $1. He then stood above the now indisputably dead man and canoed him, firing a round into his forehead and splitting open the top of his skull, exposing his brain. One shot hit bin Laden in the chest and the second shot glanced off his hip or thigh as Bin Laden stumbled backward into his room and fell toward the foot of his bed. Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette (left) also claims to have shot Osama bin Laden, just like Robert O'Neill (right). Later, a JSOC officer watching drone footage of the operation noticed one of the SEALs throw an object that landed and exploded near where Norgrove’s body was found. “We didn’t debate whether Slab had told his guys he wanted a head on a platter — he copped to that. Over a period of several weeks, a fight erupted between SEAL Team 6 and CIA officers in Afghanistan. According to two senior SEAL Team 6 sources, however, the leadership dynamic in Blue Squadron was a failure. Not to mention that Mr. Webb's incident occurred 13 to 14 years ago.SOF are pretty much the rock stars in western culture today. One of those operators was Neil Roberts. Neither was loaded. This was a crucial moment: Kill bin Laden now and the war could be over after only six months. Top right: Adm. William McRaven. They ransacked the compound for documents and media for intelligence, left the survivors inside, and returned to Jalalabad air base with the body. In this Nov. 14, 2014, file photo, former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill, 38, poses for a portrait in Washington. McRaven, who was informed of the killings only after he knew Phillips was safe, was incensed. In exchange, Smethers, who never filed an official allegation or complaint, was sent back to the U.S. Smethers did not respond to requests for comment. Both Bissonnette and O’Neill declined to answer questions for this article. Some SEAL Team 6 leaders were appalled by how easily Vasely and Szymanski had folded under Moore’s pressure. That year’s reunion, the first under Wyman Howard as commanding officer, was held at their new headquarters, a $100 million, state of the art testament to the stature of the command as the home of the “President’s Own,” the clandestine global force capable of striking anywhere, killing anyone, the tip of America’s military spear. By all accounts, Slabinski, a second-generation SEAL who joined Team 6 in 1993, was an excellent sniper and reconnaissance operator. In his new book, journalist Maurice Chammah explores the rise and fall of capital punishment in Texas and what it means for the country. matt bissonnette vs robert o'neill. When we were still friends, right before he left the Navy, he called me on the phone to ask me how much money he could get for a book. During his career, he deployed over 13 times in support of combat operations and the GWOT. After a short while, he quietly left the base. That operator, known as Red inside the unit, is still an active-duty member of SEAL Team 6 and has never been publicly identified. “No one prepared our guys for the collateral damage and the second- and third-order effects of this war,” the former SEAL leader said. SOFREP’s contributing editors are comprised of former Special Operations veterans from US and Coalition units. Sitting with old friends, the retired SEAL was handed a ring-bound portfolio. O'Neill claimed that he and another unnamed member of SEAL Team Six cornered bin Laden, and that after the other SEAL fired and missed, O'Neill killed the terrorist leader with shots to the head. The unit’s name itself is part of an attempt to obscure U.S. capabilities. Smethers threatened to expose the SEALs for what he believed was a series of war crimes; the canoeing incident was just one of several operations in which Smethers alleged that Gold Squadron operators violated the laws of war.

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