The Times did a very good job with their story, but it didnt go far enough. The article is called The Crimes of SEAL Team 6. Cole quotes one former leader as saying, You cant win an investigation on us. Updated: May 05, 2011 00:18 IST. Using the hatchets to collect DNA hair-follicle samples for the Redmen means flaying their victims and returning with scalps, fingers and other disfiguring momentos. No one read the comments on this article (read them for entertainment) they'll give you an extremely aggressive and fast moving form of cancer. In your experience did you find it to be common for Team members to practice some kind of prayer or mediation? Contents hide 1 Introduction 2 History By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. It was murder. According to sources, senior command staff were aware of the misconduct but did little to stop itoften helped to cover it up. The order was to go in and kill all males on the compound, regardless of whether they were armed. It wasnt to bring him up on charges or suggest that he should retire, or provide any other sense of accountability. The author addresses some of the basic violent realities of warfare, even the parts that are straight-forward combat versus an armed enemy, with an asinine amount of pearl-clutching. The commanders letter does not dispute any facts or details in our January 10 report, which describes, in detail, accounts provided by former SEAL Team 6 leaders of what they believed were war crimes committed by members of the unit in Afghanistan and Iraq that were largely ignored or covered up by senior officers. And by his own description, by ONeills own description, it split open his head and exposed his brain matter and split open his head in a V shape. MATTHEW COLE: So, each year in October, SEAL Team 6 has what it calls its annual stump muster, which is like a reunion, and it brings back old members of the command, original members of the command, people who have just recently retired, current members and their families. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. 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. And after he shifted positions inside SEAL Team 6, the people who followed him discovered his paperwork and realized he had beenhe had a long pattern of it. So, you know, and I still think that there are questions that remain unanswered about the mission, the operation and how thewhat the administration knew about his location. but now we have a little time, so take us through what happened in May of 2011. Just because someone runs from the objective doesn't mean they were innocent. You know, one thing that I didnt mention before, and one of the things that needs to be said, is that what they were doing, in large part, was a form of psychological warfare. The team guys that chose to walk down that road are certainly never coming back psychologically. One of his men interpreted that remark as an order, as a direction to be given and followed through. Some openly talk about it and it's all bullshit, but there are some that actually join to do it. 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. He still has suspicions, thinks there was something wrong with what he saw, and so he goes back and reports it to the command, to his leadership, at SEAL Team 6 and demands an investigation. And the senior who saw it decided after he lefthe was disgusted with what he saw, and decided he was never going tohe has not gone back to the command for a reunion since, because of how upset he was with the lack of morality and the sort of, you know, bloodlust and glee, you know, the gleefulness around essentially what is their professional work. This is viewer supported news. They had encountered an enormous amount of resistance and violence from the Taliban. And so, in 2010, Britt Slabinski was told that he could never come back to SEAL Team 6. Its a work of fiction billed as the Bible, as the truth. BRITT SLABINSKI: After I shot this dude in the head, there was a guy that had his feet, just his feet, sticking out of some little rut or something over here. And, you know, they had confidence, the president-elect had confidence in the congressman. As a result of these inquiries, a group of 10 SEAL Team 6 leaders later voted unanimously to ban Slabinski from ever serving at the command again. And his response was Ill go to the press. And, in fact, I think, specifically, he threatened to go to The New York Times. MATTHEW COLE: No, he washe was a member. Check the background of this firm on FINRA'sBrokerCheck. And theytheir story, in particular, quotes, on the record, Britt Slabinski denying that he ever gave an order to kill all men on an operation, that the young man whoyoung SEAL who was cutting off the head of anotherof a militant had done anything other than having his knife slipped when he was trying to get, you know, military equipment off of a dead body. And they deployed to Afghanistan late in the year into Kandahar and Helmand, which at the time was, and still is, an incredibly violent, incredibly destabilized section of the country where the Taliban effectively rule. 2023 Getty Images. It happens in war. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. Charles Strange, the father of slain SEAL Michael Strange, told Savage that in June 2011, on . We dont have ads, so we depend on our members 35,000 and counting to help us hold the powerful to account. Access the best of Getty Images and iStock with our simple subscription plan. They should be ashamed but shame is a component of dignity, honesty and courage. It was really good therapy for everybody that was there. seal team 6 canoeing photosphoto contest in arizona. See more ideas about seal team 6, navy seals, special forces. And so, theres an enormous amount of animosity inside the unit at these two guys. Well link to his new expos, just out, The Crimes of SEAL Team 6. This is Democracy Now! But it gets at the issue of integrity and leadership in SEAL Team 6, the officer corps. by inciting war among all parties and selling arms and drugs all around. He washes a native of Whitefish, Montana. In addition, SEAL Team 6 operators were canoeing dead or dying enemy targets firing bullets at close range to the top of the skull, splitting it open at the forehead and exposing the brain matter. All these authorities have refused to conduct any meaningful or robust oversight of a group of elite commandos who have committed war crimes abroad and gone to great lengths to cover them up. But, you know, overall, my impression and what Ive been told is that thewhat was so, you know, in a way, sinister about what occurred on the battlefield by SEAL Team 6 was their waytheir ability to suppress the information from getting out beyond even to the admiral level or the generals level. We are normal people just like everyone else and not an enlisted mafia of criminals. Screenshot today from SoBTactical Instagram. One, the last episode of last season, was about China putting in defensive bases on islands in the South China Sea. Rear Adm. Tim Szymanski led the push for Britt Slabinskis Medal of Honor and promoted him afterhe wasbarred fromSEAL Team 6 for suspected war crimes. It just doesnt happen. | News Scoops Investigative Counterspin Local News Activism Headlines That's Rich Culture Reading Found Art Spoiler Alert Yarns Disinfo Info Virus Libel On War Machine Sight-Bites Resources Manifestos Communist Manifesto 1848 Port Huron Statement 1962 And one of the impressions that was left was that bin Laden was killed because he was a threat, because he hadnt laid down on the ground and said, I surrender. But that was always fiction. And what it did was it raised a lot of questions, I think. He was young for SEAL Team 6. They spun a story to make themselves heroic and make money off of it, and it wasnt accurate. MATTHEW COLE: The difference between being forced to leave versus? If this stuff comes out or there are investigations into war crimes or excessive criminality and excessive violence and brutality, itll hurt all of us. And so the CIA agreed to send him home. He was spending government time and resources for his own personal efforts on a home, essentially. Interesting. He retired at retirement age. And one of the things that was so interesting was that SEAL Team 6 has essentially awhat we call a rock of shame. AMY GOODMAN: So explain how, as you put it, Osama bin Laden was canoed. And he is the one who, effectively, is the only one who could come out and say, Heres what really happened, because he was the first in the room, the first up and the one who fired the shots. A gullible Anti American fool who has ever been anywhere close to a team. We dont have ads, so we depend on our members 35,000 and counting to help us hold the powerful to account. He hasin his 2014 campaign, to give him his side of it, he reported that he wrote a checkreturned a check to the Navy for something like $214, that covered a travel voucher that he did, and that he had been duly punished for this. The glossary we already knew: Blue Squadron, known as the Pirates; Gold Squadron, known as the Crusaders or Knights; Silver Squadron; and Red Squadron, known as the Redmen. And, in fact, what had occurred was that one of the SEALs, a young SEAL operative on his first hostage rescue mission, had thrown a grenade and hadnt seen her, and initially had reported that he had thrown the grenade. Get started today on securing your financial future with BridgeLight Capital. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. AMY GOODMAN: So you say bin Laden was killed unarmed and in the dark. And so he shoots him, he drops, and then he puts a third bullet in his forehead. I want to know what the blue shirts think of this. You know, theres been some response. He was unarmed. Inside, they found six militants, four in one room, all sleeping with weapons near their beds. Author: Eric Sof. This is the madness of the Medal of Honor, he said. /u/SCUBA_STEVE34 What do you make of this? There was a natural change both with him and with the SEAL unit that was in at the time. Run along and keep subscribing to the conspiracy of the month club. He washe would have died had he not been shot by Mr. ONeill. He was wearing, effectively, his pajamas. You can't have other people, who have no clue what it's like to get their hands dirty judge people for their actions in combat. MATTHEW COLE: Yeah, oh, Im not sure the specific number of times. Shit gets messy, and it tends to stick with guys. The mission was part of the U.S. militarys Operation Anaconda, a multi-day effort to squeeze out and kill the last large group of Al Qaeda militants and Taliban fighters hiding in the valley. Inside the secret world of what the military refers to as a Tier 1 unit, however, Slabinski is part of another legacy, one which also stems from what happened during Roberts Ridge. Coincidence??? Certainly wasnt carrying them or holding onto them. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Just like your Momma taught you. On March 3, 2002, a small SEAL Team 6 reconnaissance team led by Slabinski landed atop Takur Ghar, a 10,000-foot peak above the Shah-i-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. And hes their congressman, so its a political issue. No one was upset that he ordered a beheading or all the men shot even if they were unarmed. And my sourcesfrom the beginning, it was never a question of whether this operator had mutilated this guy. But we never could prove anything. And, you know, I think thats probably largely true for a lot of people. That legacy involves Szymanski as well. I mean, in a world where silence is part of theis supposed to be part of the norm. In the Special Operations Forces community, SEAL Team 6 is renowned as one of the most capable fighting forces. There are dudes who join because they want to kill people. MAY LOSE VALUE, INCLUDING LOSS OF PRINCIPAL. Yeah.probably doesn't like being called "less clever" either. And a lot of that was meant to pull the leash on SEAL Team 6. And one of their teammates said to me that quote that you just read, which is, there was a cleverness to what ONeill and Bissonnette did to make it so that its justyou know, theyre not going to have people contradicting them in public. The Intercept is not publishing his name because he is an active-duty member of the unit. And what we know is that despite the fact that. Hes a nice guy. And so, they wrote his evaluation report in such a way that he wouldnt be allowed into SEAL Team 6, but he could leave the unit and continue on as ain his career as an officer in the Navy SEALs. However, it is best that the teams police their own. In another incident, one SEAL allegedly tried decapitating a dead body. Alert: German Newscast Displays Star Trek Logo as Seal Team 6 Patch Ghost Soldiers Us Soldiers Survival Scifi Military Gear Military Army He was upset about civilians being killed, unarmed people being killed, excessive violence and an overall failure of leadership at SEAL Team 6 in not policing their men. We have narratives that are filled withyou know, lets say 75 percent of the facts are true, but a quarter of them are false or omitted. And she was taken from a road and sent up into a very mountainous place, and was a U.K. citizen, was actually from Scotland originally. And so, he got caught. MATTHEW COLE: He was effectively forced to leave SEAL Team 6. These details are largely agreed upon. I mean, Ive got some indications that, simply from the lowering of theslowing down of the tempo of the wars, both in Afghanistan and then the pullout in Iraq, simply brought things tomostly to a halt. Hes got a family, and, you know, hell lose pay. MATTHEW COLE: So, Linda Norgrove was a aid worker working in Afghanistan in 2010, when she was kidnapped by factions of the Taliban or militants in Northeast Afghanistan. A member of the Navy's SEAL Team 6 has been found guilty of catfishing three women and soliciting nude photos of them. And thats one of the thingsyou know, their training istheir brilliance is at the tactical level. But splitting his face open, I think, is, its very safe to say, a significant reason why the Obama administration never released the photo of bin Ladens face. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, as we turn to another of Donald Trumps picks for his Cabinet. In fact, he had severed a good portion of this mans head off before he was stopped by Slabinski. MATTHEW COLE: So, essentially, ONeill, who is the second to fire shots in bin Laden, puts two rounds in his face or his forehead. With additional teammates severely wounded, and believing Chapman was dead, Slabinski ordered his SEAL team to retreat down the mountain. In the memo, the commander claimed the article was full of grievous, accusatory claims and allegations that had been previously investigated and determined to be not substantiated., The article alleges involvement of ST-6 personnel in law of armed conflict violations, including accusations of cover up by senior officials, the memo continued. These are people who haveand, by the way, we spent months, in some cases years, trying to get these people to answer questions, to talk to us. AMY GOODMAN: What did Matt Bissonnette say? Despite orders to detain the men, the SEALs killed all six. And it was largely a euphemism, but not unlike the way Britt Slabinski tells his men that he wants a head on a platter, what occurred was people started using those hatchets to hack bodies and commit war crimes with them. A quick reaction force, consisting mostly of Army Rangers, then engaged in a pitched battle for control of Takur Ghar, as Slabinski called in airstrikes from his position down the side of the mountain. And they did. AMY GOODMAN: The title of your investigative expos in The Intercept is The Crimes of SEAL Team 6. The crimes. NOT FDIC INSURED. He was unrecognizable. Thats whats wrong with my community, a former SEAL Team 6 leader told me last year. Sometimes these emotions are hard to contain. All that being said, should we try to uphold stringent rules of conduct in war? credit union 1 arena seating view; mickey blue eyes restaurant name. But the order itself was illegal. Bill & Karen Vaughn - "BETRAYED Parents of Navy SEAL - from South Carolina Tea Party Convention 2014, Was SEAL Team Six Executed by the US Government - Humans Are Free, DEVGRU/SEAL Team 6 3D image by Serge Averbukh. NO,NO, and NO!! The command thus demonstrated that it was perfectly capable of determining the truth for internal purposes and once again proved it was unwilling to expose even its pariahs to external scrutiny or justice. And it certainly would easier to sell to the American people that, to some end, part of the war was over. Thats all it takes to support the journalism you rely on. And heduring the war in Bosnia, in which SEAL Team 6 was assigned, he frequently came home to the United States after a deployment and, instead of coming back to Virginia Beach, would fly to Montana, where hes from, Whitefish, and work on a house that he had there, that he was hoping to live in when he retired. The seals are glorified bandits who serve no one, much less the American people. That investigation, too, resulted in the SEALs being cleared. The Intercept claims that the leadership of several SEAL teams read the book Devils Guard, a fictional account of an escaped Nazi who goes on the warpath in Vietnam, imagining a campaign of hunting, desecration, revenge and psychological warfare, and that these SEALs apparently took this as inspiration. But no one else is told, going forward, in any other assignment that you get, that thats what happened to you. He also implied that it was his leadership and discipline that prevented the near-beheading in 2007. And the only unit that was capable, both at the time and in general, to operate in Afghanistan for a high-risk rescue mission was SEAL Team 6. seal team 6 canoeing photos; what is canoeing in war; canoeing slang; navy seal team 6 reddit . He didnthe portrayed it as asomething that was justifiable, but that the Navy ultimately decided they wouldnt pay for. And he stepped in and conducted a mast and punished, threw out, three members of SEAL Team 6. While this is a harrowing and honestly depressing look into the mindset behind what SEAL Team 6 is said to have done, the Intercept report is full of other deeply disturbing incidents. In each of Slabinskis 2007 investigations, both NCIS and JSOC found no evidence of violations of the laws of armed conflict, as they describe war crimes. Author has 6.8K answers and 134.9M answer views 2 y Related There are many SEALS who say they killed Osama Bin Laden. The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men. Are you going to call the Ku Klux Kops and have ME murdered for not supporting your genocidal wars? Thank you for being the men most of us could never even dream of being. And the guy would just, you know, twitch again. AMY GOODMAN: Forced to leave SEAL Team 6 but not the Navy. MATTHEW COLE: Right. More significantly, the decision to award a Medal of Honor to Slabinski represents the enduring failure of the SEALs, the Pentagon, Congress, and the White House to reckon with the dark history of SEAL Team 6 in the post-9/11 wars. I will say, generally speaking, I've had more nights than I'd like where I had to sit, silently nodding and consoling a guy who had too much to drink and wanted to get some shit off his chest; lighting up a kid in a car, turning a mini-gun on civilians, taking a shot on someone running away. And by his own words, he describes in Esquire magazine a canoeing, which is the intentional splitting open of the skull with a round to the top of the forehead. Log in. AMY GOODMAN: And explain further what he did and how many times he did it. Im not vilifying them in any way. If thats true, then Slabinski left his teammate behind, violating the first rule of special operations. Josh you are a clown. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. We knew wed been called in to give them the result they wanted that everyone was clean, the former Navy officer said. They kept it in the unit. And, B, that this young man, this young SEALand, by the way, he wasnt young. All six were photographed., SEAL Team Six was also the one on the famous raid that ended in the death of Osama Bin Laden. For many, he was a legendary SEAL. Like, hey look at this dude, and the guy would just twitch again. AMY GOODMAN: And the names of the officers you feel should be challenged? Well, they did. Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. Workman. He will lose his clearances. God bless the men of DEVGRU and the rest of the teams. 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. And SEAL Team 6 said, How do you know where she is with such precision, in a place where weve been operating for years, and you just dont get that kind of fidelity in such short time? And the British government disclosed, according to my sources, to four sources, that she was working for MI6 and had been essentially working undercover for British intelligence, and so they had asome form of tracking on her and knew her exact location. He was killed because there was an order to kill him, no matter what. Way back in the day, I remember being told that Paramedics driving ambulances in most jurisdictions had the right to violate every traffic law, but that they'd be held liable if they caused an accident and couldn't justify it. And in the case of both ONeill and Bissonnette, and in SEAL Team 6 at large, thats what we have here. There was no threat. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. So McRaven orders a stand-down, about a two-week stop in almost all special operations forces. It was an assassination, an execution, however youd like to call it. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Tumblr Pinterest Reddit VKontakte Share via Email Print. And it hurtsyou know, their view to the CIA, I think, was really interesting. This account of the crimes of SEAL Team 6 results from a two-year investigation drawing on interviews with 18 current and former members of the unit, including four former senior leaders of the. He was just a kid relative to someone like Slabinski, and impressionable and easily influenced. East Coast Team on range training. In the days after Takur Ghar, Slabinski and others in SEAL Team 6 sought payback for Roberts, Chapman, and the other casualties. The 41-page online article goes into great detail on various operations naming specific people and operations dating back to 2002 up to 2011., While this article appears damning on many members of our team and most likely evokes strong emotions, the commander wrote, we must be mindful about what a journalist can do who latches on to unfounded claims and is willing to print based on limited evidence.. So, after a mission, he tries to cut a mans head off. His two-year assignment at Blue came as the SEAL Team 6 leadership began receiving reports that small groups of SEALs were committing what they believed were war crimes: cutting, mutilating, and otherwise desecrating enemy fighters with knives and custom-made hatchets. 2023 BridgeLight Capital All rights reserved. The teams aren't a bunch of savages with a taste for blood. After The New York Times article was published, Britt Slabinskis name was added to that list. The first investigation resulted from allegations that a SEAL had attempted to behead a Taliban fighter in southern Afghanistan after Slabinski told his men he wanted a head on a platter. As I reported in 2017, Slabinski told his superiors and later investigators that there had been no beheading, saying there was no foul play. A former investigator with direct knowledge of the case told me that it was clear from the beginning of the beheading investigation that SEAL Team 6 had brought in NCIS to conclude that no war crime had occurred. And that was a bona fides that SEAL Team 6 needed to feel comfortable with sending their men out to find her at this location. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. To be honest with you, I dont think it stopped. And what they found was that during that deployment, Slabinski had, A, said that he wanted a head on a platter. And we will go about taking care of our guys.. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. So, thats thethat really gets at the heart of what is at this story, which is that they knew what was going on. They didn't pick the targets or the place they were sent to, they are just willing to do the job others won't. And he issued new guidelines in terms of how they operated in country. They are a praetorian guard and duty and honor are utterly beyond them, they are just sadistic savages. It is a special operation forces unit considered a Tier 1 or Special Missions Unit alongside Army Delta Force and 24th Special Tactics Squadron. 66 Navy Seal Team Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock Pricing Boards Video Back Videos home Curated sets Signature collection Essentials collection Diversity and inclusion sets Trending searches Video Water Background pattern Washington dc Nature Abstract backgrounds Winter background Thanksgiving Christmas Winter Veterans day Itll hurt the war. Don't worry, we'll never share or sell your information. Its minutiae. One of their teammates killed the other two targets in another room. According to two senior SEAL Team 6 sources, however, the leadership dynamic in Blue Squadron was a failure.