Opening it up, he saw a collection of photographs, more than a dozen canoed enemy heads. Afghanistans Paktia province is about the size of New Hampshire, with 10,000-foot ridgelines and arid valleys with dried riverbeds below, nestled along the border with Pakistans tribal areas. The first and best-known was the rescue of Capt. In that operation, Hyder led a team of Red operators on a nighttime mission to capture suspected al Qaeda militants in a compound. After blowing open the iron gate blocking the main stairway, the lead assaulters, among them Bissonnette and ONeill, followed the operator known as Red up the stairs. One former SEAL Team 6 leader told me that he feared the practice would lead to members of the unit using the DNA samples as an excuse to mutilate and desecrate the dead. A retired noncommissioned officer said Howards encouragement and provision of Winkler hatchets was simply adding fuel to the fire. Howards critics argue that the hatchets were emblems of the rogue, at times criminal, conduct on the battlefield the commander was encouraging. They each entered Red Squadron at the same time, and were both recipients of the Winkler hatchets handed out by Wyman Howard. There just isnt a need to carry a two-pound hatchet on the battlefield. For those who favored them, this former SEAL said, the hatchets could be justified as being no more than knives. War is awful and its human to go too far, but this isnt one time. Nonetheless, Red Team did not report Hyders alleged battlefield mutilation, a war crime. The SEALs in the unit were furious that the White House revealed to the world that Navy SEALs had carried out the raid, violating the traditional code of silence about their missions. Slabinski experienced, charismatic, and by now legendary bridged the gap. The book purported to be a true account of an S.S. officer who with dozens of other soldiers escaped Germany after World War II, joined the French Foreign Legion, and spent years in Vietnam brutalizing the insurgency. Two hours passed before the SEALs in the damaged helicopter were able to return. 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. By 2006, the command rapidly expanded, growing from 200 to 300 operators. Memories get distorted over 14 years. ONeills canoeing of bin Laden cost his teammates precious time, but his final shot to bin Ladens head was unremarkable to them. You guys want to play withthose rules? OK. Although this former SEAL acknowledged that war crimes are wrong, he understood how they happen. No one prepared our guys for the collateral damage and the second- and third-order effects of this war, the former SEAL leader said. We said, Let us set down and take a look at the convoy to determine if its al Qaeda. Instead, they dropped several bombs.. Richard Phillips, captain of the commercial vessel the Maersk Alabama, in April 2009 from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. He was Ahmed al Kuwaiti, one of bin Ladens couriers. On my 2005 deployment in Afghanistan, we only went on a handful of ops, said a retired SEAL who served under Howard. He was awarded a Navy Cross, the second highest battlefield award for heroism. A retired noncommissioned officer who tried to police the unit said the command suffered from unspoken oaths of allegiance among both the officers and the operators, and that the first instinct when misconduct surfaced was to protect the command and then the men rather than hold bad actors accountable. 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. And afterwards, we added the psychological warfare.. The two Chinooks landed separately, one near each end of the convoy. SEAL TEAM 6 also known as Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) chooses guys from the SEAL teams and put them through a screening process called Green team. He said it and one of his operators did it because he believed he was following an order.. 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. military's elite "special mission" units. By 2007, when Howard and Red Squadron showed up with their hatchets in Iraq, internal reports of operators using the weapons to hack dead and dying militants were provided to both the commanding officer of SEAL Team 6 at that time, Capt. Despite orders to detain the men, the SEALs killed all six. Oh my gosh. After I shot this dude in the head, there was a guy who had his feet, just his feet, sticking out of some little rut or something over here. It was then that both Bissonnette and ONeill hung back on the stairway. Our leadership punted and Im 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. Your teammates beside and behind you will cover all the other possible angles and areas of a room as you move forward. According to a senior JSOC official, the Norgrove operation was an I told you so moment. Even so, two of the three SEALs later returned to the unit. A former SEAL Team 6 leader who has knowledge of the episode told me Moore shamed Slabinski and the squadron for their conduct. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. These small teams of CIA, Seal Team 6, and Afghan commandos operated under the agencys Title 50 authority, which governs covert activities. Bissonnette left Red Squadron soon after the raid and retired from the Navy almost one year later. On its ``Wall of Shame,' CyberSEALs says Nolan claimed to be a member of Seal teams 2 and 6. The falsehoods, both significant and slight, demonstrate that even when conducting the most important missions, SEAL Team 6 was unable to rise above the culture of deceit, personal enrichment, and self-aggrandizement that has corrupted a fighting unit legendary for its discipline and code of honor. Several of their teammates on the mission had to intervene, according to a former SEAL Team 6 operator. A few of his female relatives were nearby. That seems more fair. And here were two guys who set out to make money off a mission that required 23 SEALs to pull off: Its dishonorable., Bissonnette and ONeill are no longer welcome at SEAL Team 6 headquarters. The units name itself is part of an attempt to obscure U.S. capabilities. Red could see bin Laden bleeding out from his chest wound but he still had not entered the bedroom. Heath fired once, hitting the man, sending him tumbling down the back side of the small rise. Inside the helicopters, some of the operators had pushed to hold off any air attack, arguing that they had plenty of time to intercept the convoy before it reached the Pakistani border. As a result, photographs of canoed enemy fighters virtually ceased to appear in after-action reports. But in 1998, after intervention by a senior officer at Dam Neck, Howard was given a slot on Green Team. All six were photographed. Hyder acknowledged that the man likely did not understand English and probably couldnt see very well. Should they seek revenge for Roberts? The CIA team on the operation was angry because they had lost an opportunity to interrogate the suspected militants. Raffi Barsoumian as Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Omar Hamza. The truth is that such stuff only galvanizes the enemy.. Slabinski did not report the decapitation, however. Two of the operators with Hyder reported afterward that the man was not a threat. They were smiling, almost gleeful, he said. His actions, if proven in a court of law, should be punished accordingly. Slabinski told Vasely, and later, Navy investigators, that there had been no foul play.. But McRaven, who commanded the operation, had not ordered the snipers to fire, and neither had a SEAL Team6 officer. Most would speak about the unit only on background or without attribution, because nearly every facet of SEAL Team 6 is classified. The SEALs had been specifically asked to avoid shooting bin Laden in the face. The rise of JSOC as the sharp tip of Americas military effort led to a similar increase in size and responsibility for SEAL Team 6 in the early years of Americas two post-9/11 wars. I assessed he was nearing a distance where he was within an area where he could do damage with a grenade. Hyder said that a week earlier, a militant had detonated a concealed grenade after approaching some American CIA officers, seriously injuring them. It was like a game. THEY HAVE A GRAVESTONE/ROCK OF Shame at DEVGRU (Team 6 to the uninformed); they have a Grave Stone / Rock of Shame. No issues with that. When SEAL Team 6 operators were occasionally confronted about the desecration, the SEAL leader said, theyd often joke that they were just great shots.. 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. These were guys who were running a cell near our base, the CIA officer said. To this day, he thinks the guys turned on him, said one of the former SEAL Team 6 leaders. Im disappointed he didnt take a knee.. David Boreanaz as Jason Hayes Max Thieriot as Clay Spenser (episode 1-8) Neil Brown Jr. as Ray Perry AJ Buckley as Sonny Quinn Toni Trucks as Lisa Davis Raffi Barsoumian as Omar Hamza Jessica Par as Mandy Ellis Alona Tal as Stella Baxter Parisa Fakhri . Neither wasloaded. For several years afterward, the leaders at the command limited Slabinskis battlefield exposure assigning him to Green Team as an instructor, for example hoping the psychological wounds from Roberts Ridge would heal. So while O'Neill's account definitely had a few questionable points, such as lining up with the Obama administration's narrative that bin Laden was within reach of a weapon and definitely presented a threat, Matt Bissonette/Mark Owen was probably incentivized to downplay O'Neill's role on the third deck. Theres honor involved and Vic Hyder obviously traipsed all over that, he said. He was dying, but he rolled over and I didnt know whether he was armed or not. No cuts were visible in the photos, according to a military official who has reviewed the file. Like, hey look at this dude, and the guy would just twitch again. 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. Previously, the command had required only a frontal shot and a profile of each dead militant. Eventually, two other elements of a quick reaction force one of which included Hyder landed at the top of Takur Ghar. The official SEAL creed reads, in part: Uncompromising integrity is my standard. He was unarmed and wearing pajamas. Later, a JSOC officer watching drone footage of the operation noticed one of the SEALs throw an object that landed and exploded near where Norgroves body was found. 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. Had the daughters been wearing explosives, Red would have died while shielding his teammates from much of the blast. 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? Bissonnettes book was the first eyewitness account, and it contradicted the Obama administrations narrative. . Over the years, he had worried about battlefield discipline and retaliation after Neil Roberts had been nearly beheaded, and he had feared his men would seek retribution in Iraq during the height of the violence there. It wasnt necessary. Other SEALs on the ground proceeded as though the survivors were combatants. In the world of SEAL Team 6, where operators never face criminal charges despite allegations of war crimes, unjustified killings, and corruption the admirals mast was a serious rebuke. During the pre-dawn raid, a small team from Gold Squadron breached a compound that was home to an insurgent cell that had targeted a U.S. base. A SEAL who spoke Arabic interviewed bin Ladens wives and daughters until he was able to get two positive identifications. 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. He was awarded the Silver Star for his efforts at Takur Ghar to save Roberts and the rest of the Red Team recon element. ONeills teammates shot and killed Kuwaitis brother and his wife on the first floor. There is and was no military reason whatsoever to split someones skull open with a single round, said a former SEAL Team 6 leader. I shot him, finished him. 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. 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. SEAL Team 6 headquarters at Dam Neck naval annex, Virginia Beach, Va., showing the 30-foot trident sculpted from a fragment of the World Trade Center. You really do. 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. I understand the desire, I dont condone it, but there was definite retaliation., Hyder told me that he did not desecrate the body. But even that rule evolved over time. Szymanski, according to these sources, was directed by Moore to make the episode disappear. That was not how the SEALs wanted the mission to develop. He continued to move towards us, Hyder said. 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. 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. They soon discovered he had violated a series of Navy regulations. One former SEAL Team 6 leader who was involved in the raid told me he was never too concerned about the discrepancies between ONeills and Bissonnettes claims. 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. 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. 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. He was quietly removed from Team 6 and returned to a regular SEAL unit. In 2010, when Slabinski was up for a promotion at the command, SEAL Team 6 leaders conducted two internal inquiries before making a decision. The story of the bin Laden raid has been told and retold, but crucial details have never been made public. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. Top left: CIA paramilitary officer and former SEAL Team 6 member Richard Smethers. They also had terrain advantage. Then officials took all three of those details back, though they maintained the al Qaeda leader posed a threat. The SEALs were now going after low-level Taliban financiers and shadow governors. Ever since SEAL Team 6 killed Osama bin Laden, the SEALs who make up less than 5 percent of the nation's active-duty Special Operations forces have been catapulted into the spotlight,. It was given as an honor, one more step to strive for, another sign that youre doing a good job.. A joint NCIS-FBI investigation into whether he disclosed classified material in the book lasted two years. Tyrese wasn't happy with Chris Rock for taking shots at Jada Pinkett Smith and shared his thoughts with fans via Instagram. Its a great way to explain it away, but they have the hatchets to flaunt the law. Bottom left: A Winkler hatchet similar to those issued to Red Squadron. Officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, SEAL Team 6 is today the most celebrated of the U.S. militarys special mission units. We failed to fix the problem, he said. This is multiple times on each deployment.. Slabinski has not responded to multiple queries and requests for comment, though he did deny to the New York Times in 2015 that he gave the illegal pre-mission guidance to kill all males. It ruined some of these guys, said the former SEAL operator on the mission. Morale at Red Squadron fell apart shortly after the team returned to Virginia Beach from Afghanistan. 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. Red encountered and shot bin Ladens son just before the second floor landing, and the SEALs following behind him fanned out into the hallways and rooms on the second floor to search and secure the area. They are taught to live and if necessary die for one another. He kept moving toward us, so at 15 meters I put one round in him and he dropped. As far as the teams are concerned these individuals are persona non gratis. Its a work of fiction billed as the Bible, as the truth. Created in 1980 and based at the. Neil Robertss bent rifle was placed on the wall of Red Teams room at the SEALs base near Virginia Beach, a visible reminder of their teammate, their first deployment, and the troubles that would follow. The distinction was crucial. That was the end of that. Hyder said that his single shot had blasted open the mans head. Bravo 3/3B. By the time Robert ONeill entered Osama bin Ladens bedroom in the Abbottabad compound on May 2, 2011, the al Qaeda leader was bleeding out on the floor, possibly already dead, after being shot in the chest and leg by the lead assaulter on the raid. A. J. Buckley as Special Warfare Operator First Class Percival "Sonny" Quinn a.k.a. May 24, 2018. Gold Squadron was set to redeploy to the U.S., and the SEALs promised to rein in their operators. Because of Howards pedigree, SEAL Team 6 leaders running the training program felt pressure to pass him. A quarter were basically strap-hangers and a quarter were rock-stars. Within hours, news trucks and reporters fanned out through the seaside town looking for anything affiliated with Navy SEALs. Allowing a lack of integrity to grow and develop within any organization will lead to abuses like it or not. Im not going to tell you this didnt happen. No investigation into an unjustified killing has ever resulted in formal disciplinary action against a member of SEAL Team 6. These fucking morons read the book The Devils Guard and believed it, said one of the former SEAL Team 6 leaders who investigated Slabinski and Blue Squadron. Peter Vasely with members of Blue Squadron in Afghanistan. Youre moving the bar and buying into an emotional justification, War is hell. If youre not disciplining your force, youre saying its OK.. But according to multiple SEAL sources, the incident did in fact occur. Then ONeill canoed bin Laden with a final shot. One, led by an enlisted operator, took in the damage to one of the vehicles. Beyond the dehumanizing manner in which the al Qaeda fighters had treated his corpse, Robertss death pierced the SEALs self-perception of invincibility. The second inquiry also uncovered the head on a platter remark as the instigation for the beheading in December 2007, but the commands senior enlisted leader told Slabinski he would not get the promotion or be allowed to serve at the command again because of the Pantera order. First, bin Laden was armed, involved in a firefight, and using one of his wives as a human shield. Theres no military purpose for it, a former Red Squadron operator told me. 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. It wasnt complex, and had it been several one-off events, a guy chopping a head off it wouldnt be such a failure. Simply put, the unit is an enlisted mafia, where tactics are driven by the expertise developed by the units enlisted assaulters, whose abilities and experience at making rapid threat decisions make up the commands core resource. Parts of SEAL Team 6 began acting with an air of impunity that disturbed observers within the command. 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. Top right: A bearded Red Squadron SEAL in Afghanistan. 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. They didnt know it, but Roberts was already dead, shot at close range in the head shortly after his helicopter departed the mountaintop. When you see your friend killed, recover his body, and find that the enemy mutilated him? Last year, the command became concerned about his psychological condition, determining that he was medically unfit to deploy again. I deny it, he said, adding that he didnt understand why Heath would have claimed to have witnessed it. Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward "Eddie" Gallagher, a highly decorated Navy SEAL, is fighting murder charges . 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. Late that year, the CIA joined operators from Gold Squadron for an operation near Jalalabad. Over a period of several weeks, a fight erupted between SEAL Team 6 and CIA officers in Afghanistan. And part of that was getting rid of Britt Slabinski.. ), One of the former SEAL Team 6 leaders, who investigated several Blue Squadron incidents, including the mutilation of bodies, said he repeatedly asked the operators why they felt the need to commit such acts. He also claimed that bin Laden had been standing when he fired and that a weapon was visible nearby. Most of the operators held a meeting to discuss what had happened on the mission. Other military and intelligence officials who have served with or investigated the unit were also interviewed. He told Vasely that the operator had been trying to remove the dead fighters chest rack, a small vest that can hold ammunition and clips. Six days after Objective Bull, the Pentagon announced at a press conference that an airstrike had killed 14 people,who a spokesperson said were somehow affiliated with al Qaeda. 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. After three or four deployments in, you need more to get that stimulation. The squadrons commanding officer recorded it on a cellphone. 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. 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. By late 2007, Slabinski was deployed to Afghanistan as the senior noncommissioned officer in Blue Squadron. Bottom right: Candid photo of U.S. Navy SEAL Neil Roberts. They were the only shots not fired by the SEALs during the raid. First, the SEALs would now be required to do call outs before entering a compound. They had detailed plans of the Abbottabad compound provided by the CIA and knew where they could expect to find bin Laden. One former teammate who served with Slabinski described his effort that day outnumbered and with inferior fire support, taking incoming fire from the moment the helicopter landed as one of the most heroic things Ive ever seen. On the day when SEAL Team 6 lost its first operator in the post-9/11 era, Slabinski became a unit legend. By all accounts, Slabinski, a second-generation SEAL who joined Team 6 in 1993, was an excellent sniper and reconnaissance operator. The two weapons found on the third floor were not discovered until the rooms were searched. That was the only punishment. According to a CIA officer with direct knowledge of the incident, the CIA requested that the SEALs capture, rather than kill, their militant targets. It will mark a sea change in the sea service's clandestine and close-knit cadre of SEALs, a secretive and elite military force that rarely testifies against each other, especially in war crimes. Not fired by the SEALs killed all six 15 meters I put one round him. So at 15 meters I put one round in him and he dropped determine! So, two other elements of a room as you move forward unit were also interviewed it some. 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