SEAL Staff 6, the US Navy's particular forces group that gained worldwide fame for killing Osama bin Laden, have been accused of a litany of warfare crimes and wicked battlefield conduct, in keeping with a damning new expose.
The explosive claims made in opposition to the group, formally named the Naval Particular Warfare Growth Group, embrace allegations of revenge killings, the mutilations of enemy fighters, 'prison violence', and a division that 'went rogue'.
The allegations have been reported in a brand new story by The Intercept, which it claims are based mostly off greater than two years of analysis and 'interviews with 18 present and former members, together with 4 former senior leaders of the command'.
Earlier than delving into the allegations, the web site careworn its sources mentioned 'most SEALs didn't commit crimes' however the points had been like a 'cussed virus' that senior officers allegedly allowed to unfold with out being checked.
The primary alleged incident detailed by the web site is alleged to have taken place on March 6, 2002.
The loss of life of Neil Roberts (left), a US Navy SEAL who was killed by insurgents who then mutilated his physique, had a profound have an effect on on his particular forces comrades. One in every of his teammates, Vic Hyder (proper), is alleged to have shot useless an Afghan civilian after which mutilated the person's physique by stomping on his cranium after he had put a bullet via his head
It's claimed within the article that Lieutenant Commander Vic Hyder mutilated the corpse of a person who had been killed attempting to flee a bombing within the japanese province of Paktia.
The allegation stems from a mission, dubbed 'Goal Bull', the place it was deliberate the squad would take out bin Laden.
In accordance with The Intercept, the terrorist chief was tentatively believed to have been seen in a convoy by a drone, and simply hours later the elite group was on its approach into Afghanistan.
However the mission shortly escalated in a way the SEAL squad didn't need it to take.
Roberts died throughout a reconnaissance mission over Takur Ghar, a mountaintop in southeastern Afghanistan on March four, 2002. A Chinook helicopter carrying Rangers assigned to search out Roberts is seen above after it landed on the mountain, renamed Roberts Ridge
Drone footage from Roberts Ridge reveals the helicopter touchdown on a mountaintop that was populated by closely armed Al Qaeda fighters. Seven People and over 200 Al Qaeda gunmen died within the ensuing battle
'Because the particular operations helicopters approached the convoy from the north and west, Air Pressure jets dropped two bombs, halting the autos and killing a number of folks immediately,' the report reads.
When the elite troopers checked the automobiles, they discovered males, girls and youngsters who weren't troopers, in keeping with the report.
It then goes onto allege Hyder shot and killed an harmless man who was hit whereas attempting to flee the scene of the bombing, earlier than allegedly finishing up the mutilation.
'In accordance with this supply, after taking pictures the person, who turned out to be unarmed, Hyder proceeded to mutilate his physique by stomping in his already broken cranium,' The Intercept reads.
The patches used to characterize the person squadrons that comprise SEAL Staff 6. Clockwise from prime left: Blue Squadron, often known as the Pirates; Gold Squadron, often known as the Crusaders or Knights; Pink Squadron, often known as the Redmen; and Silver Squadron
The prolonged piece then alleges the ugly ending was a type of retribution for the loss of life of Hyder's teammate Neil Roberts, who was killed days earlier.
The piece by Matthew Cole alleges that SEAL members weren't coping effectively with Roberts' loss of life.
He says they struggled with the information there was drone footage of an enemy combatant who had spent minutes standing over Roberts' lifeless corpse attempting to decapitate him with a knife.
Rear Adm. Hugh Wyman Howard III (left), the commander of the Pink Squadron, gave his officers a 14-inch hatchet (just like the one on the best) as a solution to enhance the unit's 'Native American warrior ethos'. SEAL Staff members allege they had been used to hack at insurgents' corpses
'To grasp the violence, you need to start at Roberts Ridge,' mentioned a former SEAL Staff 6 member who did a number of excursions of obligation in Afghanistan.
The traumatic expertise of seeing their brother-in-arms' physique mutilated and the cumulative psychological stress of warfare - which was exacerbated by the sight of useless girls and youngsters - was taking its toll on SEAL Staff 6 members.
Thus the setting was set that led to the troopers dropping their ethical compass throughout warfare - alleges Cole in The Intercept.
The 14,000-word report describes a gradual erosion of the principles of engagement whereby SEALs turned much less scrupulous in taking pictures individuals who had been perceived as enemy combatants.
Moreover, it quotes SEAL Staff 6 members as saying that senior commanders not solely did not self-discipline wrongdoing but in addition swept many particulars underneath the rug in order to keep away from authorized entanglements.
That always necessitated a tradition of mendacity that grew out of a want to guard teammates.
'You'll be able to't win an investigation on us,' a former SEAL Staff 6 chief advised The Intercept.
SEAL Staff 6 members describe to Cole a 'sadist' tradition that started to take maintain amongst sure officers.
SEALs described a disturbing apply whereby troops would return from a deployment and display 'bleed out' movies - primarily Conflict Porn.
A former SEAL chief invited different group members to collect round a tv at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and watch the footage, which was replayed quite a few occasions for enjoyment.
SEAL Staff 6 members are alleged to have acted improperly within the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips (left) in 2008 and alleged British intelligence operative Linda Norgrove (proper) in 2009. Norgrove was killed when an inexperienced SEAL threw a grenade into the compound the place she was being held
'It was warfare porn,' mentioned a former SEAL who watched one of many movies. 'Nobody would do something about them.'
One other signal breakdown of self-discipline was starting to take form was the introduction of a Native American-style hatchet which SEALs allegedly used to 'hack' the our bodies of jihadist militants that had been both mortally wounded or had been useless.
The hatchet was initially thought to be a symbolic merchandise that was given to troopers who had amassed time whereas serving in SEAL Staff 6's Pink Squadron.
The Pink Squadron's mascot was a 'Redman', a time period for a Native American now thought-about to be offensive.
In step with the spirit of the mascot, the Pink Squadron's officer, Hugh Wyman Howard III, would give 14-inch hatchets to members who had served with the group for a minimum of one yr.
The hatchets, valued at $600 apiece, had been much like these used within the movie Final of the Mohicans.
SEAL Staff 6 turned celebrated after it was discovered that it carried out the profitable raid which killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Above is a Might 2011 file photograph of bin Laden's Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound
'The hatchet says, 'We do not care concerning the Geneva Conventions' and that 'we're above the regulation and might do no matter we wish'.'
In 2007, after quite a few missions in Iraq, SEAL Staff commanders started receiving reviews that hatchets had been used to hack the dying our bodies of jihadist insurgents.
Officers had been additionally allegedly knowledgeable that SEAL Staff members in each Iraq and Afghanistan had been conducting so-called 'skinnings,' whereby operators would slice off massive chunks of pores and skin from useless insurgents.
Then there's the case of Britt Slabinski, a SEAL Staff 6 operator who was one of many leaders within the efforts to recuperate the physique of Neil Roberts.
Slabinski's heroic efforts in the course of the mission, when he got here underneath intense enemy hearth whereas outnumbered up excessive within the mountains, earned him the respect of his SEAL Staff 6 unit.
Following Roberts' ugly decapitation by jihadist gunmen, Slabinski was bent on revenge claims Cole in The Intercept.
Matt Bissonnette (left) and Robert O'Neill (proper), two SEAL Staff 6 members who took half within the Osama bin Laden raid, each declare to have killed the Al Qaeda chief
Indicative of the prevailing tradition within the Blue Squadron unit which Slabinski and others had been working was a 1971 work of fiction that was changing into common on the time - Satan's Guard by George Robert Elford.
The e book, which tells the fictional account of an SS officer who joins the French International Legion after World Conflict Two and is deployed to Vietnam, is alleged to 'glorify Nazi practices' like mass slaughter and desecration of our bodies as a way of psychological warfare in opposition to 'savage' Vietnamese fighters.
'These f***ing morons learn the e book The Satan's Guard and believed it,' mentioned a former SEAL Staff 6 chief who investigated Slabinski and Blue Squadron.
Bin Laden (proper) is seen right here along with his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, throughout a information convention in Afghanistan in 2004. Bin Laden was shot within the face regardless that SEAL Staff 6 members had been explicitly advised not to take action
SEAL Staff 6 headquarters at Dam Neck naval annex, Virginia Seaside - which home a 30-foot trident sculpted from metal recovered from the World Commerce Heart
Slabinski and the Blue Squadron SEALs who had been despatched to Afghanistan had been 'annoyed, and that e book gave them the solutions they needed to see: Terrorize the Taliban they usually'd give up. The reality is that such stuff solely galvanizes the enemy.'
Certainly, simply earlier than a mission in Afghanistan's Helmand province, Slabinski allegedly advised his costs that he 'needed a head on a platter.'
Many of the troops believed the assertion to be a commander utilizing hyperbole as a motivational software, however considered one of his operators took it as a literal order claims Cole.
After the profitable raid which resulted within the killing of 'three or 4' jihadists and the restoration of weapons and explosives, Slabinski noticed considered one of his costs, a younger operator, severing the pinnacle of one of many useless insurgents.
The operator had lower off a lot of the rebel's neck, and Slabinski and one other officer, Blue Squadron Commander Peter Vasely, had witnessed it claims The Intercept.
Slabinski would inform investigators that there was no foul play, however Vasely suspected in any other case, and knowledgeable Capt. Scott Moore, the commanding officer of SEAL Staff 6 who was again at house base in Virginia.
Slabinski knowledgeable his superiors that the 'head on a platter' remark was a figurative assertion and never an order to be taken actually.
Nonetheless, different SEAL Staff members had been appalled by Slabinski's conduct.
'If a man cuts off one other man's head and nothing occurs, that turns into the usual,' mentioned a former SEAL Staff 6 chief.
From 2005 to 2008, proof was starting to emerge that SEAL Staff members who had been feeling the psychological strains of warfare had been partaking in a apply often known as 'canoeing' - firing a spherical into the brow of a useless combatant in order to separate open the cranium and expose mind matter.
'There's and was no army motive in any way to separate somebody's cranium open with a single spherical,' mentioned a former SEAL Staff 6 chief. 'It's sport.'
The phenomenon was uncommon within the early phases of army operations in 2004, however by 2007 it had grown to turn into 'large,' in keeping with the chief.
'I'd look via the post-op images and see a number of canoes on one goal, a number of occasions a deployment,' the retired SEAL mentioned.
Private armory: Highlighted is a Winkler hatchet from Bissonnette's private assortment
Because the SEALs' fame for lawlessness started to achieve traction and as complaints mounted from native Afghan authorities officers over nighttime raids and civilian deaths, the brand new head of the Joint Particular Operations Command, Vice Admiral William McRaven, is reported to should tried to rein within the outfit.
To the SEALs' dismay, McRaven instituted a brand new set of rules that required commandos to do 'name outs' earlier than starting an assault on a compound in order to permit girls and youngsters to flee.
Seminar: Britt Slabinski, (left), and Capt. Timothy Szymanski (proper), commanding officer of the Naval Particular Warfare Group. This image was taken in 2011 after Slabinski was blackballed by SEAL Staff 6 in Virginia
The SEALs additionally had to supply 'full photographic accounting' of the useless, together with images of the complete physique.
In addition they needed to account for every enemy casualty in order to substantiate that they had been armed and their taking pictures was justified.
In April 2009, SEAL Staff 6 was famously ordered by President Barack Obama to rescue Capt. Richard Phillips, the captain of the industrial vessel Maersk Albama who had been taken hostage by Somali pirates within the Indian Ocean.
The mission was changed into the 2013 Captain Philips, starring Tom Hanks.
McRaven commanded the operation.
Troopers underneath stress: William McRaven, (left), and Capt. Scott Moore, (proper), then commander of SEAL Staff 6
Pink Squadron snipers shot and killed three pirates and rescued Phillips regardless that they weren't approved to shoot by both McRaven or their commanding officer claims Cole.
When McRaven discovered of the shootings, he was 'incensed,' in keeping with The Intercept.
It was later discovered that $30,000 in money taken by the pirates mysteriously went lacking.
The SEALs had been suspected and the cash was by no means discovered and no costs had been filed.
Then there's the saga of the bin Laden killing.
An armed US Particular Forces soldier, proper, stays alert as they go away on a reconnaissance mission round Basilan Island, southern Philippines on Feb. 16, 2002
Robert O'Neill, a SEAL Staff 6 member who took half within the raid, publicly boasted about 'canoeing' the Al Qaeda chief effectively after he was shot useless within the raid on his Abbottabad compound on Might 2, 2011.
When the raid started, a SEAL Staff 6 operator often known as 'Pink' shot bin Laden within the chest and leg.
As bin Laden lay bleeding on the ground, O'Neill entered the room and shot him twice within the face in keeping with Cole's model of the raid.
Though the 9/11 mastermind was apparently useless at this level, O'Neill proceeded to fireside a bullet into his brow, 'splitting open the highest of his cranium' and 'exposing his mind,' in keeping with The Intercept.
"His brow was ugly," he bragged throughout an interview with Esquire.
"It was cut up open within the form of a V.'
'I may see his brains spilling out over his face.'
Two SEALs took credit score for killing bin Laden – O'Neill and Matt Bissonnette.
The Intercept claims for the primary time that the 2 males had been decided to capitalize financially from the raid, even to the purpose of fabricating particulars with a purpose to inflate their roles.
The Intercept alleges that O'Neill and Bissonnette started to make plans for the e book and film depictions of the assault – days earlier than the precise raid occurred.
Lower than every week earlier than the raid, the 2 males had been allegedly engaged in a shouting match over which ones would personal the rights to the story.
Capt. Peter Vasely with members of Blue Squadron in Afghanistan
One SEAL Staff 6 chief mentioned that that they had initially agreed to 'cooperate' on a e book or film venture after the raid, however their falling out scuttled such plans.
Through the raid itself, it was discovered that O'Neill and Bissonnette had overstepped their assignments and rushed to bin Laden's quarters with a purpose to get an opportunity to shoot the Al Qaeda chief.
Bin Laden was situated on the third flooring of the compound, whereas O'Neill and Bissonnette had been tasked with securing the second flooring.
As an alternative they had been desperate to both kill or see bin Laden earlier than he died.
Though it's acknowledged that 'Pink' was the SEAL who probably fired the photographs that killed bin Laden and O'Neill fired photographs to 'safe' his loss of life, Bissonnette would later declare that he had killed bin Laden's armed courier, Ahmed al Kuwaiti.
SEALs acquainted with the matter say that is false in keeping with The Intercept.
After the raid, O'Neill returned house to Virginia and was overheard in bars bragging that he was the one who shot bin Laden.
Bissonnette, in the meantime, had already organized a e book deal.
His bestseller, No Simple Day, was printed in September 2012.
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