‘For God and Country’: New Reported Details of SEAL Team 6′s Osama Raid
- Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:14pm by
Christopher Santarelli
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The New Yorker just published a gripping, descriptive, and telling look into the mission that took down mankind’s greatest living enemy:
“Nine years, seven months, and twenty days after September 11th, an American was a trigger pull from ending bin Laden’s life. The first round, a 5.56-mm. bullet, struck bin Laden in the chest. As he fell backward, the SEAL fired a second round into his head, just above his left eye. On his radio, he reported, ‘For God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo.’ After a pause, he added, ‘Geronimo E.K.I.A.’—enemy killed in action.’”
Three months to the day from that night in Abbottabad, Nicholas Schmidle gives a telling look into the most climatic moment of the 21st century thus far. According to the article, no-one, not even President Obama, may ever know the name of that SEAL who pulled the trigger, or his fellow team members who wrapped Bin Laden’s wives in a huge bear hug and dragged them aside in case they were wearing suicide bomb vests, similar to falling on a live grenade.
The piece reveals that the 23-member “Naval Special Warfare Development Group” left in two Black Hawk helicopters from an eastern Afghanistan airfield with a Pakastani-American translator, a dog named Cairo, and the mission to kill, not capture, the terrorist responsible for 3,000 American lives on 9/11:
“According to information gathered by the Central Intelligence Agency, bin Laden was holed up on the third floor of a house in a one-acre compound just off Kakul Road in Bilal Town, a middle-class neighborhood less than a mile from the entrance to the academy. If all went according to plan, the SEALs would drop from the helicopters into the compound, overpower bin Laden’s guards, shoot and kill him at close range, and then take the corpse back to Afghanistan.”
According to the article, the team that was deep into Northern Pakistan that night — the most elite of an elite force known for unparalleled military skill, unmatched physically condition and unquestioned bravery — were warriors, but still possessed the human sensitivity of the 310 million Americans they represented:
“Since the autumn of 2001, they had rotated through Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and the Horn of Africa, at a brutal pace. At least three of the SEALs had participated in the sniper operation off the coast of Somalia, in April, 2009, that freed Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama, and left three pirates dead. In October, 2010, a DEVGRU team attempted to rescue Linda Norgrove, a Scottish aid worker who had been kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan by the Taliban. During a raid of a Taliban hideout, a SEAL tossed a grenade at an insurgent, not realizing that Norgrove was nearby. She died from the blast. The mistake haunted the SEALs who had been involved; three of them were subsequently expelled from DEVGRU.”
The over 7500-word New Yorker article not only gives a stunning play-by-play of the mission, but also sheds light on the planning and immediate aftermath of the shot heard around the free world:
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was one of the most outspoken opponents of a helicopter assault, comparing it to his experience in the Carter White House when military officials presented Eagle Claw; the 1980 Delta Force operation that aimed at rescuing American hostages in Tehran but resulted in a disastrous collision in the Iranian desert killing eight American soldiers. “They said that was a pretty good idea, too,” Gates warned.
- Administration and Defense officials were watching the drone’s video feed. The SEALs were not wearing helmet cams, contrary to a widely cited report by CBS.
- Before the mission commenced, the SEALs had created a checklist of code words that had a Native American theme. Each code word represented a different stage of the mission: leaving Jalalabad, entering Pakistan, approaching the compound, and so on. “Geronimo” was to signify that bin Laden had been found.
- Intelligence found at the scene indicated that bin Laden had been developing plans to assassinate Obama and Petraeus, to pull off an extravagant September 11th anniversary attack, and to attack American trains.
- There was one fluent Arabic speaker on the assault team and none of them had any previous knowledge of the house’s floor plan.
- Medics immediately injected a needle into bin Laden’s body and extracted two bone-marrow samples. More DNA was taken with swabs. One of the bone-marrow samples went into the Black Hawk. The other went into the Chinook, along with bin Laden’s body.
- When returning back to Afghanistan the Black Hawk was low on gas, and needed to rendezvous with the Chinook at the refuelling point that was near the Afghan border—but still inside Pakistan. Filling the gas tank took twenty-five minutes.
- To confirm the corpse’s height, one SEAL, who was six feet tall, laid beside the corpse: it measured roughly four inches longer than the American. Minutes later, Vice-Admiral Bill McRaven appeared on the teleconference screen in the Situation Room and confirmed that bin Laden’s body was in the bag. When Obama and McRaven next met in person, the President presented him with a tape measure.
- All along the SEALs had planned to dump bin Laden’s corpse into the sea as they did in September, 2009, when SEALs had killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of East Africa’s top Al Qaeda leaders. When the corpse was confirmed, one CIA official however contacted Saudi intelligence asking if the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had any interest in taking bin Laden’s body. The Saudi official told the CIA that throwing Osama’s body overboard sounded like a good plan.
- When Meeting Obama, the raiding team presented the President with an American flag that had been on board the rescue Chinook. Measuring three feet by five, the flag had been stretched, ironed, and framed. The SEALs and the pilots had signed it on the back; an inscription on the front read, “From the Joint Task Force Operation Neptune’s Spear, 01 May 2011: ‘For God and country. Geronimo.’ ”
The President posed for photographs with each team member and spoke with many of them, but he left one thing unsaid. He never asked who fired the kill shot, and the SEALs never volunteered to tell him.
The recent and seminal victory for the United States has perhaps already become overshadowed in the mainstream media dialogue by the political sausage-making that has gone on in the nation’s capital over the last few weeks. In a time when anchors on cable news networks participate in daily character assassination because it’s a good story, and politicians insinuate class warfare calling civil colleagues extremists, The New Yorker piece gives us a chance to step back and remember who are our real heroes, and real enemies.
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Comments (149)
shaneinNC
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:48pmAll of the operators in the military are a special group of people. Those seals literally risked death to keep the wives from stopping another seal from killing Bin laden. That is the definition of a great person, self sacrifice in the face of death. They were willing to die to complete the mission. I mean what can you say, no president would ever reach that level of duty to country. Each one should get the MOH.
Report Post »Marci
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 12:01amAmazing. And sorry lefties, Obama had no part in it. He is a weenie.
Report Post »Uranium Wedge
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 2:33amI like to think that the Seals gave the flag to the Office of the Presidency, and not the president.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 4:32amI have one question…the story says “According to the article, no-one, not even President Obama, may ever know the name of that SEAL who pulled the trigger, or his fellow team members”, yet at the end of the article above, it states they gave Obama the flag from the helicopter, signed by all the SEAL team members?
Maybe they signed their “call signs” or some unknown nickname…but the two comments don’t mesh together.
Report Post »Sheepdog911
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 6:04amHow long before the names on the back of the flag are leaked? O is still a progressive, it will happen.
Report Post »chazman
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 7:42amI don’t believe this crap for a minute! I want proof! Otherwise, this was all dreamed up by the OBAMMY Admin to try and make OMONKEY look good and to give him crediable ammo in the upcoming election! It’s all lies …
Ray2447
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 7:55am“…fellow team members who wrapped Bin Laden’s wives in a huge bear hug and dragged them aside in case they were wearing suicide bomb vests, similar to falling on a live grenade.”
Why didn’t they put a bullet in those women ASAP if they were that much of a threat? Obviously, Seal Team 6 is capable of quick, precise head shots. Sure those women might still go off after dead so jumping on them to protect fellow team members from a potential blast wasn’t a bad idea. Don‘t tell me they didn’t shot them because they were women, but that’s what it sure looks like, considering how many unarmed men they shot in that raid. I don’t care what sex a terrorist is, they’re lives are not worth the lives of any Americans. Shot ‘em all, IMO. Any one consorting with Osama Bin Laden would be just to dangerous to treat any other way, IMO. Little children would be the only exception, and even then you gotta wonder in that wacko environment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Suicide-bomber-baby01.jpg
Report Post »Ray2447
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 7:58amThat should be “shoot,“ not ”shot.” Made that error twice. Sorry. It‘s late and there’s not edit on posts.
Report Post »MONICNE
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 10:17amOnce again our fabulous dedicated US Government team deserves high praise for a job well done in hazardous conditions, exhibiting extreme physical bravery and political courage. They kept their eyes on the prize for months and months.
I hope their budgets are OK.
TEA
Report Post »Psytoxic
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 11:21am@ The_Almighty_Creestof
Report Post »To answer your question: “The President posed for photographs with each team member and spoke with many of them, but he left one thing unsaid. He never asked who fired the kill shot, and the SEALs never volunteered to tell him.”
getalong
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 1:40pmThe only sad part of the story is that the SEALS had to give Obama the flag. It should have gone to Bush. Just saying….
Report Post »bdmac
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 1:54pmWhile the article in “The New Yorker” made for an entertaining read, it is almost all ******** except for a couple of specifics. Those specifics are, the flight in was by helicopter,breaking into the compoiund real, shooting bin Laden was real, the flight out was real. All the other crap in that 7200 word article has ZERO substance for the author Schmidle, was NOT there, neither was he in the W.H., neither was he in the Defense department.
All of you should read the original article, as I have, hell, it sounds as if it were written by Tom Clancy or John Patterson. There is intriciate detail after detail and its crap. Think about it folks.
Report Post »Maggie18
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 3:10pmThis is a joke. I don’t believe this whole story anyway. Osama has been dead for a number of years but, hey, bring out the made up stories AGAIN for Obama’s ratings! I cannot believe how gullible people are. At the same time as our representatives signed the debt deal, they also signed away our representation and gave it to the mighty 12………..Obama became 13 and will be making laws and signing away your rights like crazy. READ IT!! This is treason.
Report Post »Modern Age Crusader
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 3:24pmO completely agree, even as a Canadian I appreciate all of America’s war efforts. Brothers in arms, lock and load boys!
Report Post »staythecourse
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:44pmWhy is all of this information being released? Isn‘t all of this considered ’classified’ information. It would seem that who ever released this information has violated top secret classified information restrictions. And. I do find it interesting that a picture was taken of EACH Seal Team member….to be used for photo identification later????
Report Post »ecurbyy
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 2:13pmI totally trust that the seal team kept as much as possible from the president. The whole photo op was surely at his request and you can rest assured that all precautions were taken by the military to keep any sensitive information from being given to Obama. May not have even been the real guys. Who knows? And that’s as it should be. Mission accomplished. End of story. Now, how do some people get a reply box attached to their post? Mine never have one. What do I have to do to get one?
Report Post »foreeverfree
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 2:18pmOf course…that way there will be no mistakes when these brave men and women are hung for being terrorists. And that is only the beginning..It will show the people that who ever stands up against the king will recieve the same..This was the best of the best and now the rest of you defy me, said the King Obo.
Report Post »pschlentz
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:37pmGOD BLESS OUR COUNTRY and the MEN and WOMEN THAT PROTECT IT!!
Report Post »SavingtheRepublic.com
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:36pmAm I the only one who isnt all giddy about knowing how Tier1 operators work? They are secret for a reason revealing how they do things just doesnt fly well with me. I mean they didnt even tell Emperor Obama who pulled the trigger on UBL.
Report Post »Dkoonz
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:33pmLike to seen him taken alive then tortured for info and put to death here but oh well he is dead.
Report Post »BannedByHuffpo
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:27pmBetcha Seal Team 6 can‘t find a birth certificate that hasn’t been forged tho
Report Post »Secessionista
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:27pmHow is it that the NYT got all this secret information?
Report Post »Wixom35
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:21pmGod Bless These Men!
I hope each man signed the back of the case that held the flag which was presented to Obama with a false name – as He or someone in his party will more than likely leak the info. Just like Pres. Carter when he appointed Andrew Young to be the Ambassador to the UN who in August 1979, was fired because he met secretly, (in violation of American policy) with representatives of the Palestine Liberation. It is suggested that under his watch the names and pictures of 20+ CIA covert agents were leaked to a Radical German Communist Cell called the Baader Meinhof gang – of which the info was distributed throughout Europe and the Middle eat – resulting in all of them being murdered!
Semper Fi
Report Post »MUDFLAPS
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:08pmovamit wouldnt last three days in boot camp. Of ANY SERVICE.
Report Post »tradexpertbuysell
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:14pmAbout the Prez:
Even a blind sow can find an acorn once and awhile.
Report Post »Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:50pmHe’s spent all his life in Alinsky Kamp..
Report Post »bulletsinthegun
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:07pmbin was dead long ago, this was a potus stunt
Report Post »Navyveteran
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 1:39pmI agree 100% with you. It is like the adminstration is trying to prove that OBL is dead. Well any free thinking human being would have known that. Except OBL wasn’t killed in 2011, the public is not buying their story, so the administration has to keep creating stories about the SEAL’s Team. The left wing hates our military, but they are all in love with the SEAL’s nothing is adding up on this.
Report Post »fort9erdon
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 2:18pmWRONG! Seal team 6 killed him exactly when they said they did. As soon as the government announced the death of Bin Laden, within a very short time, Al Queda, started their threats of retalliation. If Osama had been killed earlier, maybe even years earlier, Al Queda would have been making their threats EARLIER! No, it appears, from the governments announcement, AND, Al Queda’s response, he was killed just as reported!
Report Post »mwconservative
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:07pmBless our Military!
Report Post »TheGreyPiper
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:49pmI will not begrudge any man his due, and will at least give a thumbs up to Sock Puppet for allowing the mission to proceed as first conceived by his predecessor, George W. Bush. Hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, ya know.
Report Post »saviorammo
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:48pmFree beer for life!
Report Post »TheGothicConservative
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 8:31pmThey better get that!
Report Post »godhatesacoward
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:42pmSorry, did’nt even read the article before I could type ” Hey, remember I killed Osama!” Wink wink, nudge, nudge MSM!!??!!!!!
Report Post »thecrow
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:42pmhttp://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/interior-attack/
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:40pmTeam 6 has your location and are enroute you can kiss your A$$ goodbye.
Report Post »glashole
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:50pmThere is a terrorist, traitor in the US White House. Take him away.
Report Post »MONICNE
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 3:37pmHey! Norwegian man!
How many liberal trolls have you slain? Were you honorable about it? Or cowardly?
TEA
Report Post »lonewolf57
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:36pmTY,(Navy Seals and all our USA Military<the Worlds finest!)
Report Post »texanpatriot
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:36pmHeroes as are all who serve. God bless our military, especially these very skilled warriors.
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:49pmSo, by your estimation, there are somewhere near the same percentage of “Heroes” as non heroes on Earth (even give or take a billion)? That’s a preposterous.
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:55pmI apologize, TEXAN! I am too stupid to read properly. I stupidly thought you wrote that all who serve God are Heroes. My bad, my apologies.
Report Post »randy
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:34pmAnd don’t ever forget, OBAMA had noting to do with this.
Report Post »They had to drag his sorry a$$ in from the golf course
mossbrain
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:56pmYeah well Bush was giving Bin Laden a get out of jail free card due to his immense friendship with the Bin Laden family. Hell, Bush was even business partners with Bin Laden’s brother.
Report Post »randy
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 12:46amYou’re an idiot MOssforbrains
Report Post »JLGunner
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 11:21am@ mossbrain bin laden was actually offered up to clinton first. Hate on Bush all you want, just keep the facts straight.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 3:34pm@mossbrain I mean sh*t for brains keep reading your conspiracy theories,you’ll be just fine.
Report Post »Christoff
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:33pmNot to be Johnny Rain Cloud, but wouldn’t a live Bin laden or even a body to publicly display have made more sense? I think deep down inside there are still doubts. I mean it was Mr. truth and honesty himself (Obama) who has maid the claim “He” got em.
Report Post »texanpatriot
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:39pmThe creation of a burial site could have disastrous effect with these brainless demons. I think you point is a good one but even the evil boys themselves agreed it was the big boss.
God bless these heroes and their effectiveness..
Report Post »Cherynn
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:34pmIf you need proof he is dead,,,,,,he already registered to vote in Chicago. Need more proof he’s dead ???
Report Post »bry
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 7:30am@cherynn
LOL!!!
Report Post »Cherynn
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:33pmThank you US Navy, Thank you Seal Team 6 ! We do know who the true heros are in this story. Thank you for taking the fight to the enemy! Love You guys !
Report Post »101
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:31pmOsama reached for the gun….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcYnJi3aZXQ
Report Post »jollylama
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:50pmThat video was the coolest thing i’ve seen in a long time!
Report Post »Captain Crunch
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 12:15amHa…Hillory forgot to shave.
Report Post »LadyIzShy
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:26pmTHANK YOU to our MILITARY THEY did this.. and for God and Country..
Report Post »sillyfreshness
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:26pmThose SEALS are the definition of bad asses!
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:24pmNo thanks are great enough to do justice to all our servicemen, SPEC OPS especially. It’s a shame they must follow such a despicable CiC. That description of CiC will be on display again when the Bin Laden death photos are “leaked” right around 20OCT2012.
Report Post »netman349
Posted on August 3, 2011 at 6:14pmYep. The bastard in chief (true according to definition).
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