The war was entering its seventh year and had become intractable, with no clear path to victory. I didnt give their different accounts much thought, the SEAL said. Thin and lanky, he was less physically imposing than many SEALs but was charismatic and dedicated. When it was commissioned, the Navy had only two SEAL (Sea, Air, and Land) assault teams, but founding officer Cmdr. According to this source, after shooting the man, who turned out to be unarmed, Hyder proceeded to mutilate his body by stomping in his already damaged skull. 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. 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. Obviously there are exceptions and I knew plenty of really solid Chiefs and up, but they seemed to be the exception and not the rule. The operation, code-named ANSTRUTHER, an homage to Norgroves Scottish heritage, was authorized by British Prime Minister David Cameron. It didnt make a difference. (The Intercept is withholding the name of the operator, who believed he was following an order. We knew what needed to be done to police the kids. The former senior enlisted leader said he pressed several commanding officers to address what he believed were war crimes. The operation commanded high-level interest because Norgrove, though in Afghanistan as an aid worker for DAI, an American NGO, secretly worked with Britains MI-6. Our sense of whats right and whats wrong is warped. 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. He has told at least one former SEAL Team 6 teammate that he hopes to never deploy again. You cant win an investigation on us, one former SEAL Team 6 leader told me. Because of Howards pedigree, SEAL Team 6 leaders running the training program felt pressure to pass him. Often wed hear, well, theyre savages, the former leadersaid. As the legend of SEAL Team 6 grew, a rogue culture arose that operated outside of the Navys established mechanisms for command and investigation. I was going around to the different KIAs with my camera to take photos, Hyder told me in an interview, using the military term for enemies killed in action. 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 Ladens courier. The units name itself is part of an attempt to obscure U.S. capabilities. A spokesperson at Naval Special Warfare, which oversees SEAL Team 6, declined repeated requests for interviews and refused to answer a detailed list of questions, writing in a statement, We do not entertain or support public discussion of classified information because it puts our forces, their families and our future operations at great risk. The SEAL command asserted that all members of Naval Special Warfare are required to comply with the Laws of Armed Conflict in the conduct of military operations.. The only issue was, was his order real, or just talk? said one of the retired SEALs involved. Neither wasloaded. In the ensuing 17-hour battle with the al Qaeda fighters, six more Americans were killed, and several were wounded. All six were photographed. They soon discovered he had violated a series of Navy regulations. The story of the bin Laden raid has been told and retold, but crucial details have never been made public. Id almost wish theyd beaten him to death. The CIA declined to comment for this article. Today, heis a paid on-air commentator for Fox News and is reportedly eyeing a run for the Senate in his native Montana. At that point, the second inquiry was commissioned by the SEAL Team 6 commanding officer, Pete Van Hooser. In an interview, Hyder said the man had approached his position with his arms tucked into his armpits and did not heed warnings from other SEALs to stop. The operational tempo was very high. 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. My character and honor are steadfast. The planning was so meticulous, one retired SEAL Team 6 leader told me, that a helicopter pilot warned mission planners that one of the two stealth Black Hawks they were to use would likely experience a vortex ring state, which means air disturbed by the rotors would prevent the helicopter from getting the lift necessary to continue hovering. But his former teammates credit another operative with killing bin Laden before O'Neill entered the room and pumped the rounds into his head, The Intercept notes. Last year, the command became concerned about his psychological condition, determining that he was medically unfit to deploy again. He was an outsider, despite having been at the command for many years. 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. By Brad Knickerbocker Staff writer @bradknick November 8, 2014 The. 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. Vasely later told investigators he saw the operator moving his hand back and forth over the militants neck in a sawing motion. 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 hadnt done it? Mutilation isnt part of the game.. 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. Red Squadron snipers killed three pirates who were holding Phillips in a lifeboat. Tactically, there was little about the upcoming raid that was complex. Scott Moore, and his deputy, Capt. Officers like Hyder, who did not pass through the brutal SEAL Team 6 internal training program, known as Green Team, are often viewed with suspicion and occasionally contempt by the enlisted SEAL operators. It ruined some of these guys, said the former SEAL operator on the mission. Both Bissonnette and ONeill declined to answer questions for this article. War is awful and its human to go too far, but this isnt one time. When SEAL Team 6 first deployed to Afghanistan in January 2002, the commandhad three assault teams, Red, Blue, and Gold, each with a mascot. 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. Red could see bin Laden bleeding out from his chest wound but he still had not entered the bedroom. 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. Inside a heated tent, as many as 40 SEAL Team 6 operators asked themselves how they wanted to treat their fallen enemies. Tim took a dive, said a former noncommissioned SEAL officer, and it was at Moores direction. Szymanski had known Slabinski for at least 15 years. No investigation into an unjustified killing has ever resulted in formal disciplinary action against a member of SEAL Team 6. O'Neill (born 10 April 1976) is a former United States Navy SEAL (1996-2012 . 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. Then, as two of bin Ladens eldest daughters began to scream, Red quickly corralled themat the doorway, a move considered heroic by other SEALs on the mission. The pilot noted that the two mock-up compounds had chain link fences around the buildings, allowing the air to disperse, while the real compound had thick concrete walls. By the rules of engagement he became a legitimate target and it was supported. 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. He told us they had put unit and self before mission and country, the retired officer said. They were disgusted. He quoted Heath as saying, Im morally flexible but I cant handle that. Heath refused to comment for this article. Neil Brown Jr. as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Raymond "Ray" Perry, formerly Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator a.k.a. He took Robertss death hard. 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 first the hatchets appeared to be merely symbolic, because such heavy, awkward weapons had no place in the gear of a special operator. After more than 30 years in special operations, he knew that elite forces would inevitably cross ethical, moral, and legal boundaries if they were given too long a leash. How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters werent on the beat? Unlawful violence, aberrations from rules of engagement, mutilations, and disrespect of enemy casualties, actions that had been isolated at the beginning of the Afghan war, had by this point spread throughout SEAL Team 6. One of Bissonnettes teammates then put his gun through the front door, which was now slightly ajar, and shot the gunman in the head. Red watched bin Laden fall. Vasely told Moore he wanted an investigation into the incident. The morning after Objective Bull, Red Team gathered at Bagram Air Base. He ordered a pause in most SEAL and JSOC operations over a two-week period in February 2009. If a SEAL couldnt justify the threat after a shooting, he was quietly removed from the unit. 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. Beyond the dehumanizing manner in which the al Qaeda fighters had treated his corpse, Robertss death pierced the SEALs self-perception of invincibility. 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. In his interview with the Times, Slabinski asserted that it was he who had witnessed the operator slashing at the dead fighters throat, saying, It appeared he was mutilating a body. Slabinski portrayed himself as trying to police his men and said that he gave them a very stern speech. He claimed to the Times that he told his men, If any of you feel a need to do any retribution, you should call me. Slabinski says nothing in the Times story about Vasely ordering him to investigate the scene or the remark about a head on a platter. They dont play by the rules, so why should we?, The Intercept submitted three pages of questions to both Adm.Szymanksi, who as head of Naval Special Warfare now commands all SEALs in the Navy, and Capt. Already a popular motivational speaker, ONeill now charges up to $35,000 per speech. Fallen enemies was less physically imposing than many SEALs but was charismatic and dedicated tim a... Handle that the Intercept is withholding the name of the operator, who believed was. Well, theyre savages, the SEAL said done to police the kids an! Bradknick November 8, 2014 the but he still had not entered the bedroom 8, 2014 the right! 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