generalspeaking

Breaking The Rules

"I rolled past him into the room, just inside the doorway. There was bin Laden, standing there. He had his hands on a woman's shoulders pushing her ahead."
"In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. The second time, as he is going down. He crumbled to the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again."
"A lot of the stuff out there is still classified and I want to maintain the integrity of my former unit."
"I'm not telling any secrets and I'm not breaking any rules."
Former Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill

"[A] critical [tenet of the profession is to] not advertise the nature of my work nor seek recognition for my action."
"We do not abide willful or selfish disregard for our core values in return for public notoriety or financial gain"
B.L Losey, commanding officer, M.L Magaraci, force master chief, Navy SEALs

"People are asking if we are worried that ISIS will come and get us because Rob is going public. I say I'll paint a big target on my front door and say come and get us."
Tom O'Neill, Butte, Montana

Robert O'Neill no doubt led the kind of secret agent life he sought in the romance of protecting his country from evil-doers. Sixteen years with the U.S. Navy and a swift-riser in the SEALs, he had over 400 different missions in his curriculum vitae which was to remain a matter between him and his maker. He went, as a 19-year-old conscript from being a moose-hunter back home in Butte, to a terrorist-hunter the world over.

He was the recipient of two silver stars and four bronze stars signifying valour in duty. His was the secret world of behind-the-scenes tracking and operations co-ordination. But the time came when, all that experience under his belt, he realized that his closed mouth didn't apply generally as he became aware that what he guarded as secret became known in a wide circle of the military and extended to members of Congress, even leaked to news organizations.

So he decided that it was time for him to open wide his closed mouth. He wouldn't be only one. A colleague on that infamous Abbottabad mission had written about the raid taking care not to use his real name, but that too leaked. Matthew Bissonnette's book detailing that raid made him persona non grata in his former naval family, his security clearance was yanked and the $4.5-million earned from the book has mostly been surrendered to the government.

Robert O'Neill discussed that raid with The Washington Post, informing them of what had transpired when he along with five other SEALs reached the third floor of the compound to find himself behind the point man whose shot missed, and then he stepped forward and fired the deadly shots. It was clear to him, he said, that bin Laden had instantly expired, his skull split by the impact of the first bullet he shot at the man's forehead.

Labels: Conflict, Terrorism, United States

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, November 08, 2014