He was an outsider, despite having been at the command for many years. The first and best-known was the rescue of Capt. There is no record of anyone with Moeller's Social Security number in the military service records database. Some claim to have been with special operations forces, such as SEALs, Rangers and Green Berets. Most would speak about the unit only on background or without attribution, because nearly every facet of SEAL Team 6 is classified. If I told you I cut off a head after an operation, explaining that I got caught up in the moment, went over the line one time youd have sympathy for me. He is not listed in the Navy SEAL database. 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. Moore, sitting in his office in Virginia Beach, pressed Vasely: What had he actually seen? To understand the violence, you have to begin at Roberts Ridge, said one former member of SEAL Team 6 who deployed several times to Afghanistan. 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. Asked about his claims to be a retired Navy captain, he said, ``That was a long time ago.'. There is and was no military reason whatsoever to split someones skull open with a single round, said a former SEAL Team 6 leader. You Slabinski experienced, charismatic, and by now legendary bridged the gap. The commands top noncommissioned officer placed their names on the SEAL Team 6 rock of shame, the unofficial list of unit pariahs. He reminded us all that our first loyalty was to the Constitution.. 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. The crest a ship 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. Im not a py, former SEAL Team Six member Robert ONeill, 44, tweeted alongside a photo of him smiling in his seat with a man wearing a US Marines cap in the background. One operator, who confirmed Howards remarks, added his own: Thats the business were in.. His latest troubles involve reports alleging, perhaps unsurprisingly, that while still a member of SEAL Team Six, he used his position within the elite Special Operations community for personal gain. The new rule required a full photographic accounting of who was killed, photos of the entire body, where the targetwas when hedropped, what weapons heheld, the vantage point of the operator when he fired, and other atmospherics. 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. Psychologists who have studied the phenomenon describe a condition called pseudologia fantastica: the blurring of fact and fantasy so thoroughly that the imposter almost convinces himself that he is a war hero. Instead of helping search and secure the second floor, both headed to the third floor, hoping to get a chance for the historic kill. At that point, the second inquiry was commissioned by the SEAL Team 6 commanding officer, Pete Van Hooser. Memories get distorted over 14 years. Hes just beginning to suffer for what he did, said anotherSEAL Team 6 leader. Canoeing them was funny.. The men who make it through the grueling training represent roughly the top 10 percent of all SEALs. It was time for the truth to come out. In reality, its bullshit. Yet immediately after the mission, ONeill described shooting bin Laden while he was on the floor. He said canoeing became big in 2007. . John is super smart, he realizes if he waits one week on the same post no one will realize what he previously posted. But what happened during Objective Bull, the assault on the convoy in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, has never been previously reported. ', When Mike Arrowood joined the Western Branch faculty in 1999, Ashman said he was still telling students that he was an ex-SEAL, ``but only to set up an example for kids to look at.'. You do realize you may be a-symptomatic and give the virus to other people that could potentially kill them. And there are those who claim to be recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation's most prestigious military citation. ``I asked him how he got through the hellhole in Hanoi,' Schantag said. Id look through the post-op photos and see multiple canoes on one objective, several times a deployment, the retired SEAL said. His forehead was gruesome, he later told Esquire magazine. 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. In 2007, for example, a Gold Squadron sniper was pushed out of the unit after he killed three unarmed people including a child in at least two different operations. He had also forged his landlord's signature on a lease and falsified his military discharge papers and documents needed to export fish to Egypt, the papers claim. And then we move on, said a former SEAL who was present at the meeting. Moeller's claims prompted complaints to Everette, who maintains the Medal of Honor Web site, and to CyberSEALs. It was given as an honor, one more step to strive for, another sign that youre doing a good job.. Despite orders to detain the men, the SEALs killed all six. According to several former members of SEAL Team 6, the most basic principle of assault training is follow your shot, meaning that an operator who has fired on a target must ensure the target no longer poses a threat. 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. Although Blue Squadron had avoided criminal charges, their battlefield conduct continued to set off alarms within the command. 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. Im disappointed he didnt take a knee.. The truth is that such stuff only galvanizes the enemy.. 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. 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. Over a period of several weeks, a fight erupted between SEAL Team 6 and CIA officers in Afghanistan. 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. But I know it kept some kids in school. A couple years ago he met a retired Air Force colonel and Medal of Honor winner, George E. ``Bud' Day, who endured years of torture in North Vietnam. Larry Bailey, a former SEAL then active in the Internet site, called Ashman on a Sunday night in February 2000 and told him to apologize to Arrowood within 48 hours or his name would appear on the site's ``Wall of Shame.'. Others used them to break doorknobs on raids or kill militants in hand-to-hand combat. 5 out of 5 stars (267) $ 36. 22 Porkincum 2 yr. ago No way. Normally, SEAL Team 6s commanding officer, a captain, would conduct a captains mast, a form of non-judicial punishment. 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. 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. The mission was code-named Objective Bull. Contacted by phone recently, Moeller refused to discuss claims he may have made about being a SEAL or a decorated veteran. Senior leaders at the command knew the grisly circumstances of Robertss death had unsettled Red Team. 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. 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. Bissonnette seems to have frequently and almost shamelessly violated both his own NDAs, military ethics, andthe norms of the SOF community. On May 1, two stealth Black Hawk helicopters took off from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and headed east toward Abbottabad. Chuck Schantag of Skidmore, Mo., and his wife run a site that exposes POW imposters. Vasely told Moore he wanted an investigation into the incident. If a guy cuts off another guys head and nothing happens, that becomes the standard, said oneof the former SEAL Team 6 leaders. Howard took the units identity seriously, and after 9/11, despite the questionable circumstances that led to his ascent, his influence steadily grew. 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. This is multiple times on each deployment.. While a guard stood sentry, the camp dog accidentally fell into the pit. 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. ``As kids filtered into class, they'd say, `You used to be a SEAL? 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Texas AG Ken Paxton's COVID-19 vaccine investigation could stick it to Big Pharma execs, New COVID-19 strain Arcturus may cause pink eye, Randi Weingarten misrepresented COVID study to Congress, author claims, Feeble Fauci still won't take blame for masks, COVID lockdowns that hurt kids. Im telling you the absolute truth., After the deployment, SEAL Team 6s leadership examined Hyders actions during Objective Bull. Delta Air Lines said ONeill may face a ban. They are taught to live and if necessary die for one another. By the time Slabinski entered the room where the dead militant lay, according to three former SEAL Team 6 leaders, the operator had severed much of the dead mans neck. There was no plan for capture, and no contingency for a surrender. Only inches from his target, ONeill claims, he shot bin Laden twice in the forehead. The CIA declined to comment for this article. Top left: CIA paramilitary officer and former SEAL Team 6 member Richard Smethers. One former SEAL Team 6 senior leadersaid that he and others at the command were concerned that the scale and intensity of the violence in Iraq was so great that U.S. operators might be tempted to engage in retaliatory mutilations, a tactic al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgency sometimes employed. Some SEAL Team 6 leaders were appalled by how easily Vasely and Szymanski had folded under Moores pressure. At that point, Hyder began assessing the damage and surveying the dead. ONeill later implied in the Esquire profile that he shot bin Laden because he wasnt sure Reds shots had hit the target. He made this claim publicly on a Facebook post honoring an original Navy frogman, who turned 91 y/0 in May 2016. ONeills teammates shot and killed Kuwaitis brother and his wife on the first floor. He said it and one of his operators did it because he believed he was following an order.. [NOTE: The frogman being honored is legitimate, not to mentioin a legend in the SEAL community. Naval Academy. After being shepherded through the nine-month training, he entered Red Squadron. ONeill was chosen as a team leader for a group providing external security but ultimately traded that leadership role for a junior spot on the team he and Bissonnette believed would get the first shot at bin Laden. That was not how the SEALs wanted the mission to develop. Among members of SEAL Team 6, this practice of desecrating enemy casualties was called canoeing., The canoeing photos are dramatic documentary evidence of the extreme and unnecessary violence that began to occur during multiple high-risk, exhausting, and traumatizing tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like, hey look at this dude, and the guy would just twitch again. He has told at least one former SEAL Team 6 teammate that he hopes to never deploy again. The former SEAL leader said the extensive amount of training for the mission, combined with Bissonnettes planning role, gave both men ample opportunity to find ways to put themselves on the third floor, in a good position to kill bin Laden. He assumed it was a twisted act of misplaced revenge over the previous days events specifically, the gruesome death of Hyders teammate Neil Roberts. The operator accused of the attempted beheading has experienced difficulties as a result of his service. These small teams of CIA, Seal Team 6, and Afghan commandos operated under the agencys Title 50 authority, which governs covert activities. The SEALs believe that they can handle the discipline themselves, thats equal to or greater than what the criminal justice system would give to the person.. It was then that both Bissonnette and ONeill hung back on the stairway. 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. We couldve used the intel. Outside the compound, the SEALs were quick to show the photos to others on the assault team. Some of the millions? Im sorry, but not only should Bissonnette have to forfeit every penny he ever earned peddling his story about one of the most sensitive SOF operations in history, he should have to forfeit his freedom as well. Bissonnettedid this as part of an arrangement with the feds to end an investigation into hisfrequent and detailed unauthorized disclosuresof national security information. 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. WebBelow is an incomplete list of unnamed Navy SEALs who were led by Commander Anderson and who attempted and failed to retake Alcatraz Island from Frank Hummel's Although the stoppage was not limited to the SEALs, his former unit pushed back against a new set of operational guidelines. When Szymanski, who was then commanding officer of all regular East Coast-based SEAL teams, heard that Slabinski had been rejected by Team 6, he requested him as his senior enlisted adviser. And part of that was getting rid of Britt Slabinski.. Last year, Nolan was named runner-up for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Virginia. 8 Continue this thread The SEALs believe that they can handle the discipline themselves, thats equal to or greater than what the criminal justice system would give to the person, said Susan Raser, a retired Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent who led the agencys criminal division but did not investigate this mission. During the mission, the SEALs reported receiving small arms fire from exterior positions, though no one was hit. Christina Holland . During the debrief, Red was identified as having hit bin Laden with a fatal shot, and ONeill was credited with putting security rounds into him after bin Laden had already gone down. No one was upset that he ordered a beheading or all the men shot even if they were unarmed. Howard was often heard asking his operators whether theyd gotten blood on your hatchet when they returned from a deployment. 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. 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. Canoeing was just one of several acts of mutilation frequently carried out by SEALs. Other active-duty SEAL Team 6 operators who worked with Bissonnette on his various consulting deals were punished as a result of their profiteering. Lee, then a Marine captain, led several members of his company on a bloody and daring mission that began Aug. 8 and did not end until the next day. 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. The 23 SEAL Team 6 operators assigned to the mission prepared constantly for the entire month of April 2011, practicing on two different full-scale mock-ups of the bin Laden compound. 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. I don't know how it came about, but they asked me if I had been a SEAL, and I for some reason said yes to give credence to what I was saying to them. Lee, one of 149 surviving Medal of Honor recipients and the only one who lives in Hampton Roads, said he does not recall receiving a letter from Stern. 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. By all accounts, Slabinski, a second-generation SEAL who joined Team 6 in 1993, was an excellent sniper and reconnaissance operator. Vasely later told investigators he saw the operator moving his hand back and forth over the militants neck in a sawing motion. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? 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. The hatchets,paid for by private donations Howard solicited, were custom-made by Daniel Winkler, a highly regarded knife maker in North Carolina who designed several of the period tomahawks and knives used in the movie The Last of the Mohicans. Winkler sells similar hatchets for $600 each. 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. 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. According to two senior SEAL Team 6 sources, however, the leadership dynamic in Blue Squadron was a failure. You really do. ``But he didn't come clean,' said Arrowood, who now teaches at Hickory High in Chesapeake. Instead, as Red began his ascent to the third floor, they followed him up, hoping to get in on the kill. Its a great way to explain it away, but they have the hatchets to flaunt the law. Randy Lee Everette, 44, of Virginia Beach, a former Navy man, operates a Web site dedicated to honoring Medal of Honor recipients and exposing fakes. SEALs were given wide berth as long as they could explain why they made the decision to shoot an unarmed person. ``If he had, we could have settled this just between us. And what would he say to an imposter if he came face to face with one? The admirals mast was an unprecedented disciplinary action at the command, which had always been allowed to discipline itself. Schantag, the Missourian who uncovers POW frauds, tells of the ``dog-bone man,' an imposter from Arkansas who tried to impress women with a fanciful story of escape from a Vietnam prison. BACKGROUND. A Hampton Roads limousine driver who has told people he was a SEAL ``claims to have been on three separate assaults to capture a Vietnamese general known as `The Butcher of Hanoi,' ' a co-worker wrote on a CyberSEALs complaint form. But he did not provide the name. Webwho is on the navy seal rock of shameperpetual futures binance. It happens in war. Its operators are part of an elite, clandestine cadre. When a judge sentenced Stern to one year of probation in December 1996, he ordered Stern to write a letter of apology to every living recipient of the Medal of Honor. His personal checks identify him as ``Capt. 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. 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. ONeills canoeing of bin Laden cost his teammates precious time, but his final shot to bin Ladens head was unremarkable to them. . He was called out by 3 SEALs, two are investigators for Military Phonies. He had already set himself up for a profitable future. For many on the raid, including those who had been present in bin Ladens bedroom with ONeill, it was the first time theyd heard anyone in the command say the terrorist leader was standing, posing a threat of any kind. He was quietly removed from Team 6 and returned to a regular SEAL unit. It wasnt complex, and had it been several one-off events, a guy chopping a head off it wouldnt be such a failure. He continued to move towards us, Hyder said. 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. When it was commissioned, the Navy had only two SEAL (Sea, Air, and Land) assault teams, but founding officer Cmdr. 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. After all that activity, hed been hiding in a ditch for 90 minutes, he gets up, hes spoken to, yelled at in the dark its disturbing. We said, Let us set down and take a look at the convoy to determine if its al Qaeda. Instead, they dropped several bombs.. As a result, photographs of canoed enemy fighters virtually ceased to appear in after-action reports. 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. 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. The account did not dwell on the fact that ONeill had chosen to separate from the Navy nearly four years before he was eligible for extensive retirement benefits. who is on the navy seal rock of shame. 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. Check out this video of one of his latest catches. Evidence was presented that Slabinski gave an order to shoot all the men they encountered during another raid, whether or not they were armed. Hyder, who was the ground force commander for the Kandahar operation, was cleared in an after-action review of the shooting. 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. The old sailor put the portfolio down. No investigation into an unjustified killing has ever resulted in formal disciplinary action against a member of SEAL Team 6. He ``claims his body is a registered lethal weapon. ``I feel lower than whale scum. The former commando fired off a response, insisting that he does wear a mask. 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. 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. Inside a heated tent, as many as 40 SEAL Team 6 operators asked themselves how they wanted to treat their fallen enemies. This new investigation is looking intoreports that Bissonnette and other SEALs may have heavily influencedthe equipment acquisition process for SEAL Team Six in a way that benefited them personally. These are no petty charges; this could lead to a felony corruption investigation that not only ensnares Bissonnette and those who worked with him on his side deals, it could further the damage the reputation and professional image of SEAL Team Six and the US Special Operations community as a whole. Alarmed at seeing what he believed was a decapitation, he told Slabinski to go inside and see what the young operator was doing. He was Ahmed al Kuwaiti, one of bin Ladens couriers. A drone flying above the convoy showed the occupants of three vehicles were heavily armed. Its a schoolyard mentality. One, Floridian Jackie Albert Stern, bought his medal at a flea market. Its not their responsibility that is why we have DevGru operators.. 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. Red Squadron snipers killed three pirates who were holding Phillips in a lifeboat. Its sport., The former SEAL Team 6 leader said that he first noticed canoeing in 2004, and that it does occur accidentally on the battlefield, but rarely. ', Arrowood reported Ashman to CyberSEALs. I shot him, finished him. Instead, he heldthemback long enough for his teammates, including ONeill, to enter the bedroom. The operation, code-named ANSTRUTHER, an homage to Norgroves Scottish heritage, was authorized by British Prime Minister David Cameron. A joint NCIS-FBI investigation into whether he disclosed classified material in the book lasted two years. ', ``That was the most profound thing I've ever heard,' Schantag said. ``Was it dishonorable? The database contains photographs of persons killed by SEAL operators during their missions and other mission documentation. Arrowood had been a SEAL. Top: Capt. 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. In the ensuing 17-hour battle with the al Qaeda fighters, six more Americans were killed, and several were wounded. These were family weapons, said the retired SEAL. Somebody else is making this up. Every one of us is issued and carries a suppressed weapon, said one former senior SEAL, referring to the Heckler & Koch assault rifles, equipped with silencers, issued to the operators. He said he draws a pension from the State Department. (The Intercept is withholding the name of the operator, who believed he was following an order.