The commander of SEAL Team 6 has circulated a memo, obtained by The Intercept, to members of the command in response to The Intercept’s two-year investigation into the unit’s war crimes and subsequent cover-ups. 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. “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.”
The commander’s 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.
The memo obtained by The Intercept advised military personnel to avoid commenting on or acknowledging “The Crimes of SEAL Team 6,” even “among yourselves or with others via personal electronic devices,” in order to “maintain the highest OPSEC posture and limit the spread of the article.”
The current commanding officer of SEAL Team 6 is a longtime member of the unit and was the senior officer on the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Intercept is not publishing his name because he is an active-duty member of the unit.
The Intercept’s investigation was the result of interviews with 18 former and current members of SEAL Team 6, as well as other military and intelligence officials who served with or investigated the unit. Some of those accounts described a form of desecration known as “canoeing,” in which some SEAL Team 6 members fired bullets into dead or prone militants in an effort to split their skulls into a “V” shape. According to two former SEAL Team 6 leaders, the practice was often documented in post-operation photos stored at the unit’s Virginia Beach headquarters.
SEAL Team 6’s leadership has failed to hold its command and itself accountable for war crimes during the post-9/11 wars, according to former SEAL Team 6 leaders. The former and current SEALs also described other serious misconduct that occurred more recently.
According to a former SEAL Team 6 leader and a SEAL Team 6 consultant, the unit caught a senior officer at the command committing travel fraud. The officer, Cmdr. Richard Diviney, claimed weekend trips to spend time with NFL quarterback Drew Brees, a college classmate, as work and training trips. Diviney, who was the officer in charge of the unit’s operations department, was quietly allowed to retire, rather than face punishment. Diviney declined to comment.
In December, The Intercept reported that Republican representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of the interior, committed travel fraud when he was an officer at SEAL Team 6, but received no formal punishment.
One former commanding officer of the unit maintained an affair with a female intelligence analyst while both were deployed to Kenya, according to two former SEAL Team 6 leaders. The SEAL officer later promoted the analyst to a senior position in SEAL Team 6’s intelligence squadron, despite what several SEAL Team 6 leaders said was a lack of qualification. The analyst was later dismissed and lost her security clearances after revealing classified information to government employees not authorized to receive it.
A spokesperson for the Special Operations Command did not reply to a request for comment.
The internal SEAL Team 6 letter included a message from Gen. Scotty Miller, the commanding officer of the Joint Special Operations Command, to which SEAL Team 6 is assigned. Miller described The Intercept report as an attack on the officers named in the report and said that “unfortunately I note that our PA [public affairs] machine is not geared to respond and attack back except in rare cases.”
Top photo: A view of SEAL Team 6 headquarters at Dam Neck Naval Annex, Virginia Beach, Va.
I was in special operations in the military. One of the times we went overseas, we were partnered up with Team 6. I watched one of their missions from our drone footage. It was ridiculous. We have very strict Rules of Engagement but I saw them walk on target and just start dropping 40mm grenades before they even called anyone out of the compound…
On 1/20/2017, Joshua Kurlantzick cites Matthew Cole’s work in a balanced editorial on nytimes.com:
“Trump is feuding with the CIA, but he could end up making is stronger”
The US military command is taught at West Point that democracy is mob rule. The armed forces themselves are undemocratic and prefer hierarchy as a more convenient basis to control for the officers and quite well tolerated by the men. It was always improbable that a military man would defend his acts in debate – ‘ours not to reason why, ours but to do or die.’
The quid pro quo that made a military career tolerable was prizetaking – you got some big bonuses for success – but that was cancelled after WWII.
There is a limit to the loyalty that command can demand of their men and its something that the armed forces of the world have consistently declined to consider. I recall a single convention in Canada about fifty years ago to try and get on top of the subject. The booklet published subsequently called “The Limits of Loyalty” did not get beyond indicating the problem. A drone operator, for example, obeying an order to kill civilians would not avoid a charge of murder in a civil court. This is a subject that must be addressed.
To general warrent: re the following quote from your comment, I, at 71, fully agree. I will not any longer recite the pledge of allegiance when dictated in schools and public events. As an AF veteran, I am ashamed at what my country has become over my lifetime. Thanks for your honest convictions.
“I don’t know about you, but at 72 yrs old, I’ve seen enough. Some people say Trump isn’t their president. I say..the USG isn’t the government that represents me anymore. In it’s place, a regime of insidious liars, torturers, and war criminals and the worlds biggest terrorist organization has commandeered that nation to which I pledged allegiance to for 12 stinking years. And I abhor it, and everything it stands for now.”
” “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. “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.” ”
Translation: Doubleplus ungood to use your brain, drones. Remember, soldiers now days are volunteers and they choose to go fight for their Oil Gods. So ignorant is doubleplus good! You are forbidden to risk using your brain!
Promoting critical thinking would be the death of the military.
Commandant Klink tells his troops that this is a very well researched article that covers a decade of war in depth. Reading it is dangerous because it might not be complimentary to a bunch of torturing thugs and doesn’t say nice things about extra-judicial murder. Maybe he can look at some pictures of starved babies in Yemen to improve his mood.
Since you deleted my previous post, again I say…low energy article, LOW ENERGY AUTHOR!
Must read – Does the rogue deep state have Trump’s back? Armed forces a key role?
https://www.sott.net/article/340129-Does-the-rogue-deep-state-have-Trumps-back-Armed-forces-a-key-role
“Rather than being the bad guys, as per the usual Liberal world-view, the Armed Forces may well play a key role in reducing the utterly toxic influence of neocon-neoliberals within the Deep State.”
YES this article is a must read. Most military and veterans actually believe in their Oath to The Constitution. If Trump wants to “reorganize” intelligence agencies or other parts of the “deep state” or “sedition state” this fact should be kept in mind. The military, national guard and law enforcement and civilians veterans gave NO oath to the deep state.
Will Trump play this card, it need not be violent? The deep state is deluded if they think the military is theirs to rule. Trump has appointed a lot of Military folks some who are no fans of the deep state. Neocon-neoliberals need not rule the Nation. Hope We the people get something better if the Nation does “Seven Days in May” for real. Neocon-neoliberals have made this a real possibility. If it happens pray we maintain or quickly restore civilian rule and Constitutional law. May the Oath we have all taken stand at the end of the day.
Another sad mark on our historical backs. The overwhelming evidence of our decades of foreign intervesion under the guise of “protecting freedom & democracy” lies all lies, one great never ending lie! Heroes are murderers, despots are saviors.
Time after time, fact after fact as the truth is revealed, our armed forces, intelligence agencies, political representatives are operators for global multi-national interests who make trillions of dollars oppressing the worlds populations and profiteering off of the worlds coveted and stolen resources.
My opinion is that Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria are just the latest examples of U.S. oppression. Until you men and women in the armed services, police forces ,etc. stop following orders to kill and destroy for your global master’s in big business the wars will go on as will your psychological traumas.
See:
Mossadegh, Iran, CIA overthrows democratically elected prime minister.
Salvador Allende, Chile overthrown
Google it, democratically elected governments the U.S. has overthrown!!! There are many, many cases. Most of which have some multinational business interest involved at some point during the coup d’état. An example is United Fruit/1954 Guatemala.
Until we wake from our self delusional, willfully blind ignorance nothing will change and our soldiers will be used as murder’s for hire. Look in the mirror ask the question and see who is lying to whom.
When I note the several commentators here who worship the SEALs and military, who of course are above criticism, I wonder if these people have any idea of the harm these massacres of innocents do? No amount of “terrorist” killing will balance out the hatred of America these things create. It is their country, by the way, not ours. None of these fake heroes reside in Afghanistan or will live there in the future. They are mere occupiers.
So yes, these people do have the kind of easy courage highly trained and heavily armed and supplied elite troops can muster. They do kill some bad folks. But they aren’t defending the US and are in fact creating long term terrorist problems for everyone. Family is paramount in primitive places like this and memories last generations. Killing innocents is always hated by everyone, especially when done by foreign occupiers.
So get off that Military Worship high horse. SEALT6 should be abolished and US military interventions in the endless Afghan war must be stopped. Or do the military fanboys forget why Americans don’t spell it “favour” or “labour”?
SEAL Team 6 “failed to hold its command and itself accountable for war crimes”… gee… I’m shocked. I thought everyone who committed war crimes held themselves accountable.
End sarcasm. On a serious note, thanks to the Intercept for this, and other excellent, reporting.
“The memo obtained by The Intercept advised military personnel to avoid commenting on or acknowledging “The Crimes of SEAL Team 6,” even “among yourselves or with others via personal electronic devices,” in order to “maintain the highest OPSEC posture and limit the spread of the article.”
Vs initiating a rigorous investigation into the truth of IT’s reporting, based on ST6 members interviews. Instead.. maintain the highest OPSEC posture. Translation..keep your mouth shut or else.
How many times since Vietnam, have we read about military command structure and USG cover-ups for war crime atrocities perpetrated by US military operatives. Let me guess. You can’t count them with your fingers and toes. In fact, you couldn’t count them from the Afghanistan war alone.
One thing becomes blindingly clear. Since Vietnam, the US military has committed war crimes on a massive scale over the decades. PERIOD. The mere fact that, under the cover of Legal Imperialism and quasi legal DOJ “opinions”, Obama instituted a Kill List Tuesday, that resulted in the murder of three US citizens, notwithstanding the incineration of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent men, women and children via Drone delivered Hellfire missiles, with not one shred of accountability, should stand as stark living testimony of the depth of the blood filled cesspool the USG has sank. I don’t know about you, but at 72 yrs old, I’ve seen enough. Some people say Trump isn’t their president. I say..the USG isn’t the government that represents me anymore. In it’s place, a regime of insidious liars, torturers, and war criminals and the worlds biggest terrorist organization has commandeered that nation to which I pledged allegiance to for 12 stinking years. And I abhor it, and everything it stands for now. Especially with Trump and his crew of racist, financial terrorists, and plain evil motherfuckers at it’s helm. Meanwhile, the USS Titanic is about to embark on it’s maiden voyage come Jan. 20th while Trump rearranges the deck chairs.
Twice in the last 8+ years – in 2008 and again in 2016 – the US electorate expressed what it thought was a renunciation of the behavior of our leadership at the highest level. For their part, the two branches of the Party failed to comprehend that serving their rich contributors is not the same as serving the Nation. For their part, the electorate failed to comprehend that as long as they vote for the Party nothing will change.
The extent of the self-delusion is truly astounding: there are people out there who still expect to find WMDs in Iraq, who believe that Iraq and Afghanistan (and Somalia, and Libya, and so forth) pose an existential threat to the US, and there are those who believe that the policies pursued since 2009 represented a break with those of the preceding eight years. Now they are replaced by another set of deeply self-deluded people who think that the incoming administrations is going to save them, restore a version of the US that exists mostly in their romanticized memories of the past. They too will maintain the delusion, and like their immediate predecessors learn nothing from the experience. The proof of this hypothesis will lie in the distribution of votes in the 2016 election: If third party candidates take less than 20% of the vote, then the hypothesis is proved.
I am a retired SPECOP’ operator that served 10 combat tours. I only say this to lend some creditability to what I am going to say.
First, you have the right to hate what you deem to be war crimes and atrocities committed by our forces. Moreover, I am curious does your opinion and judgment on what you services to have happened come from first hand knowledge or are you just spouting off rhetoric that you read from some other pacifist article?
Also, you state that you are 72 years old and I congratulate you in reaching such an age. Good for you! In all those years I see that you haven’t learned a very valuable lesson . That lesson is that we never judge others unless we walked that mile in their shoes. Careful for judging others may you be judged first. I wonder what have you done in all your years to change any of these injustices that you accuse fine and honorable American’ s of commuting? Furthermore, did you ever serve in combat? Korea? Vietnam? You claim that, the USG has sank into a blood filled cesspool, without accountability. Really? Do you truly believe that is something that has happened recently? Moreover, I see that history and objectiveness is something you have missed in your many years of living. You blame military members of commuting atrocities…
Your ignorance is astounding. WAR IS THE WORST OF THE HUMAN CONDITION, PERIOD. I KNOW THIS FIRST HAND. Do atrocities hapoen? War Crimes? By what defenition to you determine that? Unfirtunately, all governments throughout history do, have done and will continue to wage war. In war people get killed, civilians or innocent people do die and if you think that any if these men that do the fighting high five themselves for the things they were made to do because cutizens, as yourself, allowed your government to send them to war. The reasons for war can ever justify what we do to each other as humans in war. In the same manner, all of us who have killed seen or done what you call atrocities, did so because we believes that we served the greater good of humanity and all of us traded our youth and our golden years of happiness ignorance and bliss for nightmares, interpersonal relationship problems, as alcohol and drug addiction and a drudgery for life that you not anyone else will ever experience. We did it because in our core we are protectors and we believed that our endeavour was just. War is a crime. A crime against humanity period. This government has a history of going to war. Did we not forcefully move the Indians from land that was their’s to reservations. How many died in the name that Indians were savages and needed to be taken off their land so we could expand and use these lands for our own prosperity but the excuse was the safety of American citizens that were traveling West to start anew in an attempt to capture the pursuit of happiness and wealth? Sir, I ask you what country what citizenrry has ever just been of peace, equal distribution of resources, education and the advancement of the one universal golden rule, to love one another a a we love ourselves?
Lastly, Sir I implore you to see that what we see, read and hear is meant to persuade all that we perceive to be reality, but that is not reality and things are not black and white. How would you feel if I generalized that all men who made it to the age of 72 years old were selfish men who took from others and prospered not because if hard work but because they were manipulators that put themselves only in the position to survive because so few people make to that age. Now would that be correct evaluation if you and if others of your age? No, it wouldn’t and I ask you to see that war period is the atrocity and we the warriors do not take joy from the things we did but are the selfless citizens that did what we were told was a just cause because the citizena kf this nation allowed it to happen.
In closing, you Sir and every citizen of this nation bears the weight of what you have stated as atrocities and war crimes. In the same manner, you share equal burden for what I and many others did in combat as if you yourself committesd these detestable acts and the weight of it is not just in the USG, the warriors that went to fight but the sovereign citizens that allowed it to happen. Wether you agree or not does not matter what matters is what did you do to stop it other than right a letter about things you have no first hand knowledge about. Look in the mirror Sir and use what ever time you have to just be a better human for you are not infallible and you also carry the weight of war crimes on your soul.
Respectfully,
Warrior
“the warriors that went to fight but the sovereign citizens that allowed it to happen. ”
911, anthrax, mushroom clouds, yellow-cake, aluminum tubes …
Warrior took the bait; hook, line, and sinker …
The people elect the politicians. The politicians send the warriors to war.
Weak, weak article… really? Travel fraud, shooting already dead corpses? Unless im missing something, quite the hatchet job.
That “hatchet job” pun is intentional, right? If this massive, categorical laundry list t of American barbarism constitutes a weak article, I would really like to see the kind of exegeses you’re reading.
“Sleeping” your way into a high security job only to be fired for leaking classified material…yeah no biggie, right? Too bad Manning leaked documents for moral reasons, if he’d just seduced his command structure he wouldn’t have been in jail.
EXCUSE ME
I AM OUTRAGED. Manning is not a HE you sis gendered dirty pig! How close minded could you literally be? It scares me to see the type hate you speak
Blah, blah, blah. It’s war and the notion of limited war is both juvenile and self defeating – google Vietnam kiddies. Sherman didn’t march to the sea to go to the beach and his total war policy is hailed as a great accomplishment.
“Blah, blah, blah”
Says one while torturing his cat.
“Sherman didn’t march to the sea to go to the beach and his total war policy is hailed as a great accomplishment.”
Maybe in that jello between your ears.
To those in the intelligence service and those in the service in a position to act on the veiled threat parading as a memo: We all know a similar memo must have been circulated when Stanley McChristals termination occurred thanks to Michael Hastings sacred work before he was assassinated. SHAME.
Marcos W-
LOL: “in a position to act on the veiled threat parading as a memo”
Or a blog comment, a Tweet, or any other first amendment protected speech from which the next generations criminal and civil cases will spring due to these heroic battalions of internet monitors from *the FiveEyes nations*.
And why is it the *Five Eyes Nations*? Obviously “Four Eyes Nations” sounded too nerdy, though it’s the reality. But really- seeing as how Isreal is our sixth eye in the beast of surreptitious speech monitoring, privacy dissolution, association restrictions and Twitter trolling-why not six?
Does Noahide law forbid the number six, or is it the other cabals? Or are we just building gradually to the number seven? M’ head hurts from all the possibilities!
*The seven Noahide Laws of’ Universal’ Morality*
http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/62221/jewish/Universal-Morality.htm
RIP Michael Hastings. And Gary Webb, of course.
Pretty weak and pathetic to see some folk on here making excuses for war crimes.
Living in time when our motto has become “Sacrifice liberty for essential security,” it seems fitting that covering up war crimes is heroic, and that real hero’s need to take a back set to fake ones.
We haven’t been in a legal or ethical war since ww2. Go Bankster’s!!
Then there’s always ‘big lies travelling the world before the truth gets it’s cowardly 120 lb pants on’ and so forth….Jesse Ventura-v- Chris Kyle appeal tossed:
http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2017/01/09/jesse-venturas-appeal-reinstate-1.8-million-award-chris-kyles-widow-rejected/
What is this, accusing soldiers of war crimes in war time?!? War IS war, be either in the actual combat field or covert ops. It IS immoral somehow and depending on the case to accuse a soldier ( specially one of ours or an Israeli soldier ) for eliminating a terrorist who is coming to murder innocent people.
The other side, the enemy side, they are NOT looking ar all at “war crimes” committed by their so called fighters that I’d rather call them criminal losers with nothing else better to do in life but hurt and kill innocent lives be either animal or human just for the fun of it and the ignorance.
Is it ok for the enemy, the muslim terrorist to come and hurt and kill on our side??.
It is NOT ok for American and Israeli combatants to hurt and kill enemy losers and criminals?
Go out on a mission with seal team 6.
but which seal team 6 members? the outright war criminals, or the ones that covered up for them?
or the ones that were roving death squads murdering women and children in nighttime home breakins ?
Says the author of War Crimes for Fun and Profit.
Keep Holding their feet to the fire! Great to know many SEAL Team 6 officer’s did understand & train to carry out their missions with a Code of ethics in play. Not an easy thing to do in the most dangerous deployments . The war crimes that were encouraged will certainly live in the minds of those vets who carried them out, in a moment in time, and can never be taken back.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
? Friedrich Nietzsche
Bin Laden was on ice since his death in 2002, waiting to be used for a politically opportune press op.
That’s the stupidest thing I think I have ever read. You must have an inside source.
Why is it that US or Western European war criminals are never prosecuted? The current Powers that Be can’t be bothered to deal with actual facts. If they did, some believe that that would end their career. Have you ever met a politician who actually resigned for a principle? I haven’t.
Bush, Cheney, Blair and all the rest of them will never be touched, and they know it. Why? Because in their minds, the current politicians don’t have the balls to actually prosecute. In the “real world”, intl. law is a tool to be manipulated to maintain your national power. The ungraetful publi should be grateful that we’re protecting their asses from “terrorists” who are everywhere. There’s a reason why they keep saying “The War on Terror” is eternal. Many politicians are making a fortune off the defense industry. Do you seriously believe that Blair would give that up and suddenly make all of his investments (hidden in one of the most complicated tax shelter dodges in the UK). No chance in hell.
The other thing is none of these assholes care about anything but themselves.
quote”Why is it that US or Western European war criminals are never prosecuted?”unquote
Read this and you’ll discover why. But here’s a quick hint. It’s called Legal Imperialism.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/legal-imperialism-and-international-law-legal-foundations-for-war-crimes-debt-collection-and-colonization/5313891
Kindly do not refer to the Brits as western Europeans. Doing so implicates people like Gerhard Schroeder and Jacques Chirac, whose governments turned over intelligence refuting the claims of Bush & Blair, and whose respective people stood behind them in their repudiation of US and British imperialism. (Acts that will never be forgiven by the neo-cons, because in addition to going against the US, they committed the worst of all imaginable sins in being correct.)
Also, it’s official: the UK is no longer part of Europe. The 51st state, perhaps?
I remember it as though it was yesterday: My dad and I sitting at a table at the Key Bridge Marriot talking about Vietnam. He, who was in the Army in the Pacific theater from 1942 until the summer of ’45 and me, a Navy vet who thank god never went to Vietnam but who as a defense analyst knew what kind of shit was going on, trying to tell him about war crimes and war criminals. He would have nothing of it. It cannot happen here, he said. We don’t do those kinds of things. I am sure that if he had ever had the courage to admit that we could, he would have been ashamed to be associated with the criminals who act against the very principles for which he and so many others fought during WW2.
Did we commit war crimes during WW2? Yes. Did US GIs revel in killing Japanese and Germans, mutilate their corpses, take their ears as souvenirs? Not a chance.
How this country has changed! Now we have a 100% volunteer force, and people who never donned the uniform, much less got shot at, cheer as the subhumans we call soldiers murder with essential impunity, led by people who order them to do so.
In WW2 there was a very careful propaganda campaign carried on to lead the people in the US to believe that we were dropping bombs only on military formations, military bases, and factories producing weapons. They ran news clips of bombardiers dropping pickles into barrels to give the impression that they could do the same thing from a B-17 at 30 000 feet. When it turned out that we were firebombing cities, blowing up schools and hospitals. nobody cheered. Now we drone wedding parties in countries we are not even at war with, and the public shrug their shoulders. I only wish there really was such a place as Hell, so that our leaders and those who follow them might spend eternity there.
I’m not disagreeing with anything you said but their were thousands of cases of mutilation by the US military during the Pacific Campaign.
“Did US GIs revel in killing Japanese and Germans, mutilate their corpses, take their ears as souvenirs? Not a chance.”
Kindly, sir, Tony Vaccaro has evidence to the contrary; apparently they did rape, then murder, then mutilate a German civilian woman.
I did not say we did not commit war crimes; the thrust of my argument was that the overwhelming majority of US soldiers in WW2 were decent human beings, for whom the war in which they were drafted to fight was a repugnant activity, and that to cover up the war crimes ordered at the highest levels, the government embarked on an elaborate propaganda campaign to keep the public in the dark.
Contrast that with the widespread abuse of civilians in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan by US forces, often on orders from their superiors, and the glorification of those crimes in the media. We have in the incoming administration a President who advocates torture; a former Marine general who oversaw systematic violations of the Geneva Convention and the US’ own military doctrine in attack on Fallujah, who subsequently obtained dismissal of charges against Marines who committed atrocities against Iraqi women and children; and advocates for Crusades. A bit different, I’d say, from a few isolated acts of bestiality, most of which were severely punished.
Understood.
Great work!
These rats these days are hiding behind kurd women or traitors to loot, steal or rape childern but these thugs and mercenaries would never dare to face their punishment in the form of mullahs on the frontlines. They should be called ‘steal team’ of english and french thugs. These coward races want to leech wealth of other races but dont want to fight on ground just the airstrikes to kill little babies. Russians race would have owned these midget races if each of these european over-bred races had not agreed to pay Russia billions of dollars every year !!!
His name is Thomas Ryno.
Seal Team 6 was assassinated. That, or the pilot on that fateful day was a Terrorist. Pick one. If I ever find out who did it, they will enjoy the same fate as Osama. Whoever they are.
Or you are simply a european nut job!
you know that sometimes the enemy can kill our guys, right? there’s not a mystical force field that makes rockets miss a giant helicopter flying directly at the firer of the rocket.
All of the “never again” slogans about atrocities: it’s *always* the same damn thing, again, and it’s always because of performing to an immediate circle of peers and not expecting or thinking about anybody outside that circle finding out or reacting. Always. This childish response (if *we* don’t read about or talk about the article, maybe it will magically go away!) is part and parcel of the original conduct.
Congratulations, Matthew Cole and theIntercept!
This is the first time (the only, so far?) that I have noticed you are actually speaking truth to power, instead of speaking to words and reporting about those kinds of people not giving a sh!t about your reports.
RCL
……as you point out there is no accountability for actions……….so be careful out there. You know the purpose of that memo.
We are entering a time of imperial decrees and you are daring the Emperor and his Praetorian Guardsmen.
PLEASE be careful – we like being able to read your stuff.
Anyone posting a comment that is not on-side with usa_nazilands death-culture. Is also on a list, a list most likely already well heeled with subdivisions of dissident /enemy of the state/needs eliminating/suicide by other agencies.
If you are scared Jame Cook, just don’t post. But then again just visiting this site or places were american interventionism are discussed will also place you/me/us on that same list. We really have to stop been scared of the dark. These reporters know exactly what could happen to them. Just go and read James Corbetts (https://www.corbettreport.com/) latest video piece about another reporter; Requiem for the Suicided Gary Webb.
America’s secret agencies have been killing or off’ing opposing members of political parties, reporters who uncover the vile truth. Just about anyone that they hate or find irritating. Go look up the death of Micheal Hastings,…his car was cyber-jacked & the fire-brigade where not ‘allowed’ to put the fire out for 6-hours. To cover up the termite explosive used to kill him or more so, give a reminder into the public sphere too those who show america’s powerful up for wrong-doing. That there are consequences because truly dark satanic energy rides on the epaulette’s in usa_naziland.
The truth is we are all in danger from these vile people, if we turn a blind eye & keep allowing them to push a policy of pure extermination abroad. Then in time, when they’ve finished killing the others/viable suspected targets. They’ll turn and look at us conscious e-objectors for their sardonic pleasure. I for one do not fear them, we are the light that must burn bright.
RE: ST6,
I ran into the name of your website, and today I checked it
out. I must say that I was impressed by the information you
published here, but I am Very disapointed to read what you did with it.
You seem to be completely out
of any REAL knowledge of the MEN
(and WOMEN?), who make up these special ops Teams, and have
Probably never been in a REALLY Bad situation, or shot at!
Most of the (now old) Vets. of the
Southeast Asian War Games, while not comfortable with these actions, WOULD understand why they happen.
If you recruit MEN to train to live like dogs, develope almost superhuman stamina, in every rotten climate on the globe, teach
them to Kill people in every way imaginable, with every type of weapon imaginable, including their
hands, feet, knees, elbows, etc. And to locate and obtain any material possible for the Intel folks, be dropped from the sky at Night, anywhere on the globe, in any enviorment,and into areas peopled by insane beings who chop of heads of their own people,
Rape and kill BABIES.
To train to do these things and More anytime they are not on a mission……
Then By God, YOU CREATED these people, taught them to be able to deal with all of the Horrors,
they WILL encounter…..
And THEN Demand that they must Think and act like a NUN? ? ?
Then you are being Totally STUPID, and should JOIN THEM
ON A FEW MISSIONS INTO HELL.
Or if you don’t have the balls for that, then cut them some slack and
even offer them a bit of help adjusting to civilization IF THEY SURVIVE their enlistment(s)!
**
GOD BLESSour troops and give them honest intelligent CIVILIAN
LEADERSHIP, and INTEL people
FOR A CHANGE.
Jon
*******
See the Nuremberg Principles, especially Principle IV.
As for those missions into hell, let’s stop sending our troops on those, eh? They have nothing at all to do with defending our country or our people, and they haven’t for 70 years.
You mean/meant, but couldn’t remember the phraseology: hell isn’t of vital national interest?
Boys misbehaving doesn’t fit.
A book I read recently wrote about when GWB ran out of troops to deploy to Iraq and started training criminals.
A group led by one of these stalwart members of the US Armed Forces had their eyes on a pretty local woman. One night after drinking, they went into the house, shot the parents, raped and killed the young woman, then tried covering up the crimes by setting their home on fire. When insurgents heard about the crime, they shortly thereafter ambushed a tank, killed some soldiers, and kidnapped and killed the survivors of the ambush. I think it was Kill Chain – Andrew Cockburn, which went backwards in history about how badly things go when people make stupid decisions.
They don’t sound like folk who should be given first dibs at domestic protect and serve responsibilities for civilians.
Your argument fails to explain why we should let US soldiers kill civilians knowingly and not be punished. Because that’s what most shocking from the article, not really the canoeing so much as the execution of civilians when they were identifiably civilians. I can understand the members of Seal Team 6 being unhinged because of their training, but that’s simply an argument for putting them out of the battlefield and helping them, not promoting them to a leadership position
Back in the 1950’s, the people who fought wars were us; the draft was eliminated because too many people asked why are we fighting?
If you fail to ask that question you are likely to be prone to believing what authority figures tell you and treat their assassins as heroes. If they go overseas to commit violence, the natives are perfectly justified to try and kill the invaders, or as the invaded population calls them, “terrorists”.
Would you like us to take a collection for yur kneepads and Lypsyl, as you are consuming them at a prodigious rate?
my two cents, as a viet vet…
not one single member of the u.s. military has died actually defending this country since 1945.
not sure god has much to do with it.
Those are not soldiers you laud, but common criminals.
Read what Gen. MacArthur had to say when handing out the death sentence to Gen Yamashita
Wearing a costume and being tough does not make one a soldier nor make one honorable
quote”If you recruit MEN to train to live like dogs, develope almost superhuman stamina, in every rotten climate on the globe, teach
them to Kill people in every way imaginable, with every type of weapon imaginable, including their
hands, feet, knees, elbows, etc. “unquote
Bullshit. These animals CHOSE to go through this training. They WANTED to be ST6 members. No one twisted their arm to join. No one twisted their arm to meet the challenges of the training. And no one made their decisions for them when they committed war crimes. So stuff your stupid rationals where the sun doesn’t shine.
There is no excuse-not the heat of battle, not “they do it too”, none of that crap. This is a direct result of having a volunteer military, where only the haters, adrenalin junkies, former athletes and people who are unemployed, get paid to go to other peoples countries and, once unleashed, get to do as they will. Please don’t wave the flag at me, I was in the Marines, while there was still a draft. We have created a big problem here and it’s getting bigger because even though the volunteer military makes it easier to throw our weight around, it also acts as a provocation to those who are patriots in their own countries. We are making enemies all over, especially with these middle of the night assassinations.
“The current commanding officer of SEAL Team 6 is a longtime member of the unit and was the senior officer on the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Intercept is not publishing his name because he is an active-duty member of the unit.”
Publish his name, so another terrorist is exposed.
I’m sure they’re all reading it anyways. The excessive, gratuitous violence Mr. Cole describes is most tragic and reflects very badly on our military. Where is the honor or decency in the 21st century U.S. military that the WWII generation demonstrated? “Canoeing” dead Afghan fighters, i.e. firing an automatic weapon into their head so as to carve a ‘V’ into it!? Think that’s cool? funny? That is sick, twisted and totally wrong. Period. You lose your humanity if you do that to another person. You have become a sub-human life form.
You know, I think of myself as liberal the way liberal is supposed to be meant, and I wonder what planet you’re coming from. I can’t believe there is a huge bloc of people out there who are outraged that these people shot Osama bin Laden in the head! I mean, imagine for a moment that by some extraordinary error you’ve climbed the stairs into an al-Qaida safe house, one that’s been occupied by Arab terrorists and bomb-makers for years, the home of someone who has sworn to die rather than be captured, and you’re looking around wondering where the explosives are, and then you see bin Laden in front of you. You’d shoot him, wouldn’t you? I mean, rather than end up in one of those videos of some guy having his head cut off. And after he drops to one side of the room, you see him twitching, fingers moving back and forth a little, you gotta wonder … does he have a detonator? A cell phone with an IED on speed dial? Maybe a stray wife in the attic is waiting to hear him give her the word to push the plunger? What are you going to do?
The “canoeing” seems like a cheap trick here. I mean yes, shooting someone in the head might produce a distinctive wound, but is the purpose to make a funny wound or is the purpose to shoot the guy in the head? I guess it’s to shoot him in the head, usually. Now it’s all fine and good to say that soldiers shouldn’t shoot the wounded, of course they shouldn’t, of course they should try to keep the intel… but does that apply when they have that much reason to worry?
Judging by your post here, you might consider thinking of yourself as an apologist for targeted killing and war crimes. Is that what “liberal” is “supposed to mean?”
the purpose of canoing is to blow the face off and mutilate the corpse. that’s why they do it after the target is dead. kind of hard to be that precise during combat with a live foe, don’t you think?
Wnt works at the Andy Rooney Memorial Institute of Common Sense & Stuff
i find it beyond interesting that so many of the players we could learn the most from (bin laden, oswald, johnny rosselli,sam giancana) end up being shot dead before they can be publicly interrogated.
The “no fly list” for you!
The “canoeing” was mutilation done on the body after the individual had been killed.
Yeah the WWII generation wouldn’t do that. They would firebomb and deploy nuclear weapons against civilian targets but they would never shoot some people who were already dead. The horror!
Don’t be a baby. Of course GI’s committed atrocities. We’re all just human.
yep atrocities were committed in ww2 also. we prosecuted the germans and japanese for them, but when our soldiers committed them, mostly not. what’s your point again?
You lose your humanity in war, generally. If you think there weren’t atrocities and indecencies committed by US troops in WWII (particularly in the Pacific theater), then you are ill-informed or fooling yourself. When reading your comments and those of others, I would ask where is the honor and the praise for these former and current team members who have come forward with this information?
Like Warrant Officer (WO1) Hugh Thompson, Jr., who stopped the massacre at My Lai? With LBJ as President, this devout, religious white guy from Georgia was vilified by Democrat Mendel Rivers.
The Democrats have a sorry history of this, so I must defer to Republicans to defend WO Thompson…(crickets)
Canoeing with automatic weapons eh? Canoeing is 1 shot. And this is simply a tug on the truth. Go cry to the families of all the beheaded victims of these afghan monsters or maybe the 911 victims. Your moaning about canoeing dead bodies…you want the meanest toughest sickest seal team to kill and die for 15 years and cry when they get to far into it. Your a liberal apologist
And you’re a cheerleader for war crimes and war criminals.
No. We want our military to be deployed for the only proper and moral purpose: defense. There was and is nothing defensive about the special ops undertaken in the Middle East and Central Asia over the past 15 years.
And if they are so “mean and tough” that they are “sick,” we want them treated for that sickness so that they may live productive lives and not be dangerous to themselves or others.
Hope this helps.
as if these wars had anything to do with protecting the us, or as if we were under some kind of existential threat that justified acting like butchers. those are just lies you tell.
Seal Team 6 are REAL MEN, not REALLY REAL MEN. Besides , attacking and invading invading Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, ten square blocks of Panama City, Grenada, … is wholesome American entertainment. Where’s the fun in attacking and invading China or Russia, or even Iran?
A few things are worthy of note here that may be so obvious they are often overlooked:
1) If the special operations community operated with more transparency, commanders wouldn’t have to complain that outsiders had gained visibility into their processes.
2) By the same token, SOF troops would be less likely to perform war crimes.
3) It speaks volumes that the organization is leaky enough, despite being shrouded in secrecy, that internal documents such as these are immediately leaked. To me, that says that there are internal constituents who are grievously dissatisfied with their mission and tactics.
and 4) It makes total sense, given the current climate of us-vs-them within the United States, that their first instinct would be to consider how they might ‘attack’ your publication.
Didn’t Osama die late 2001? Whoever the Seal team captured was likely just one of Osama’s many sons. Buried at sea, no confirmation.
I have to agree with you. Does it make any sense to spend millions of dollars searching for bin Laden over the course of 10+ years, millions of man hours devoted to searching for this guy–then one day kill him and dump his body at sea!? Never allowing any foreign or independent government to verify the killing or perform an autopsy? No. All you have is their word all this happened as they claim….nevermind they kept changing the basic facts of the event numerous times after the ‘fact’. Fake news, anyone?
My own interpretation is that bin Laden had to be murdered to prevent him from revealing sources of his funding in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. It simply would not do to have our wonderful allies, those paragons of humanitarianism, egalitarianism and tolerance, implicated in a terrorist attack on US soil, would it? Besides, think of the damage it would do to the US petroleum industry.
For shame, making claims that are not only grievous but also accusatory.
Drew Brees + the NFL’s pro-war propaganda machine + Louisiana’s state government operating solely to subsidize and support fossil fuel refinement at the expense of its citizens’ health and welfare = Brees will be he next governor of Louisiana – yay! “What a Saint!” they’ll say – which is currently $2b+ in debt from Jindal’s two massively fucked up, self-and-Koch serving terms. *spit noise*
Who doesn’t like Drew Brees?
He is awesome!
Why is he awesome? Can you elaborate, please?
Phuck sports.
Phuck the military industrial complex.
Well, governors actually have to do work, so he’ll probably serve a few terms in Congress while he waits for a Senate seat to open up.
Louisiana has a long and to most residents proud tradition of electing celebrities to high public office. Perhaps the most noteworthy to date was Jimmy Davis, country singer and popularizer of the song “You are my sunshine”. During his term, some banker friends of his financed the state project to build the Sunshine Bridge across the Mississippi about halfway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Even now, more than a half century later, the bridge is essentially unused. But the state still spends millions on its maintenance.
As a former resident of Louisiana I am proud to see that the nation as a whole has abandoned the pretense of demanding qualifications and integrity on the part of our highest elected official, opting instead for the more entertaining prospect of unstable celebrity.
Hopefully,they pay you a visit in the dark of the night…
That is a very un-american hope to have, to desire that an American citizen dissenter be silenced by a military special operations team. I’m curious about why anyone would attack the author after reading the article, support for the troops for support for the troops’ sake is not wise in my opinion.
There is a thing called the US Constitution. Have you heard of it?
Heck, with how lousy our intelligence agencies seem to be sometimes, they might miss Cole’s residence and hit yours by accident! So yes, it’s a GOOD thing for EVERYONE if the Constitution and International law is respected and upheld.
While taking a week to turnaround a non-denial denial is pretty standard, at least come up with something worth committing to print. Their response looks and reads both tepid and weak. They could have done a lot more with less, and instead doubled-down on a bad hand.
Well, Mr. Cole, it looks like you really got to them.
This sort of thing is rampant throughout the halls of government bureaucracies when senior administration officials and commanders start to practice what they preach, middle and lower ranking personal would follow suit . until the idea is realized that those who are in the halls of power are not above the law this will continue under the guise of dont ask, dont tell.
Love it; these usa_nazi’s are in some small way reading the out pourings of good people. Who know fully well how sick & twisted the military in america has become. They willfully dismiss domestic & foreign commentators remarks as (reading between the lines) not understanding the predicament our societies would face if they didn’t kill enemies in their sleep. Whilst another arm of the (17 secret service agencies in usa_naziland) government is funding & financing these groups. Just in a giant catch-22 scenario they get to murder freedom fighters & pretend its for the well being of 1st-world nations globally. Man the military-industrial complex has fully enveloped the upper echelons of the pyramid of power. We are probably going to see america labeling allied nations as hostile within a few years & the usual vile ‘nothing is off the table’ meaning nuclear weapons could be used. Just like isreali’s have touted those against its actions tyrannical whilst been a tyrant.
Go home US-soldiers because you’ve fostered so much hatred & revenge that its going to be your children who will pay the price now. You cannot wholesale slaughter towns & villages & expect to pour scorn over lone-wolves who will burrow into our societies & target the weakest protected sites. You are the epitome of evil, blindly killing for actual emotional recognition within your confined sphere of trust. I pity the american public when the vomit inducing photographic truth fully emerges & we all have too acknowledge in some small way,, blood is on our hands due to the profits of some megalomaniac armament outfit.
These stories providing reality into our homes need to be shared more widely. Well done TheIntercept for raising us above the mire.
Impressive! As this usually means everything you wrote is true. What a horrible group of people though, then.
Stop it.
You are propagating a myth.
There has been no evidence presented whatsoever that Bin Laden died in May 2011. Quite the contrary, all evidence was destroyed or hidden. And by the most untrustworthy of entities – the CIA.
Sooo…produce the evidence of the myth.
ps…”I saw it on cable!” doesn’t count.
This is one of those myths that has been repeated 100 million times (more! way more!) and thus people believe that that makes it true.
*One* CIA agent enters a room and proclaims to Admiral McRaven and the Seals that, “it is verified, you got him”. And that *one* statement starts an echo that goes on and on and on like multiplying rabbits.
Doesn’t make it true. Makes it an echo. And a myth.
General Scotty Miller’s quip, “…unfortunately I note that our PA [public affairs] machine is not geared to respond and attack back except in rare cases.”, could be amended with.. …”BUT, instead we are geared towards promoting our brand to the mainstream media as entertainment..”
http://www.history.com/shows/six?&mkwid=slziXzzwK%7Cdt_pcrid_161970729545_pkw_%2Bsix%20tv_pmt_b&utm_source=google_tune&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%2Bsix%20tv&utm_campaign=&paidlink=1&cmpid=PaidSearch_google_tune__%2Bsix%20tv&gclid=CPzNx_KKzNECFURqfgod2JMBLA&s_kwcid=AL!4850!3!161970729545!b!!g!!%2Bsix%20tv&ef_id=WH@T4wAAAHxyOWAs:20170118161219:s
Basically, what is meant by that line is that the usual attacks and smears against anyone criticizing America’s military, combined with the war porn entertainment industry is likely going to be enough to bury the revelations about the brutality of America’s (nondrone) death squad. If it doesn’t work out that way, then its time to escalate to the sort of level of propaganda the Israeli regime uses these days.
Still obsessing over Jews defending themselves I see.
What began as a sane comment was scrubbed clean by your last line’s admission that you are obsessed with Jews defending themselves to the exclusion of all other nastiness and evil regimes on earth.
It is precisely this false moral equivalence, as Palestinians celebrate the murder of Jews, run them down with trucks, stab them in their homes and on the streets, and pay them salaries for doing so, that leads the far right crazies to elect the likes of a scumbag like Donald Trump.
You are being part of the problem.
But wait!! There’s more!!! [my goodness, this gives new meaning to the phrase fallen hero]
OK, wasn’t there another seal accused of travel fraud? Besides this: “Commander Richard Diviney, claimed weekend trips to spend time with NFL quarterback Drew Brees”
^ never mind, duh, I just saw it in the related.
This behavior’s responsibility should go squarely on the shoulders of the Bush administration and the Military Industrial Complex who endorsed the 9/11 fraud for self enrichment purposes.
The lion’s share of blame should fall on the governance of all parties, persons and political that send soldiers to fight without congress declaring war or giving the America people some basic account of what the costs and killing is for. Soldiers set to hell asked to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea and then damned for it. I would not want to walk a mile in their boots, are we are asking more than men can deliver and how do you judge that. When due diligence is not practiced top down their will be blow-back from the bottom up.
While I agree with you, Fred, it is also true that the special forces are volunteer organizations within volunteer organizations. It is bad enough that so many of our young people are either deluded into joining, or can find no alternative way out of their dreadful situations other than joining the military. But the people who sign up for special forces are somehow flawed.
Long ago my job brought me into contact with some Navy special forces people. I don’t like to generalize or be inflammatory, but it was clear to me at the time than none of them would rightly be judged as being particularly sensitive or humane. Based on that admittedly limited experience I am not shocked in the least to read what is being now written about them.
I served on a Special Forces A team 1969-71 many served many reasons. There was the draft “pot luck” or you could choose where you served. Most served and came home, ever male citizen was a potential soldier. I and most others were never caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Bad policy, war too much and think too little. is the author of most bad actions. Today the soldier must shoulder the burden of war and their actions while most do not serve. Those that volunteer today with no draft are making a hard choose, most perhaps myself included would pass on.
In defense of Special Forces (SF), as opposed to SEALs, the SF personnel I knew in Vietnam were very involved in Civil Affairs and pacification programs, where they rebuilt villages, bridges and schools, as well as providing much needed medical care, etc. Although I met not not one SEAL since I worked in II Corps, I am not aware of them being anything but killing machines. That is a remarkable distinction IMO.
Yes, the SEALs are more excursively in the “muscle” end of the business, “shitty end of the stick.” Yet in war, service and life the “darkside” is always present, choose wisely, act and judge carefully lest you crossover.
FYI Fred, I am meeting a former member of A-414 next week. As you no doubt know, this is the team that had a double or triple agent as their interpreter, which led to the “Green Beret Affair”. I followed the case closely of Captain Marasco and others when they were charged with his execution before charges were dropped. Our interpreter in Nha Trang always passed his polygraphs, although we all suspected he was a double agent.
I did not serve in the Nam but Yes I remember that one. Lots of folks were getting killed, this guy got the blame. If you have a “double or triple” agent that is passing on operational information your team are dead men walking. Devil and deep blue sea was literally in play on this one. Hard to judge from a distance. mistake or necessity?
The consesus is that the CIA threw SF under the bus on this one, which I fully concur with. As I mentioned on here before, the CIA Station Chief in Nha Trang was an out of control alcholic who had no doubt been replaced by this time. Let’s just say they were not a fun bunch to work with.
Yes, well. . .
War is a horror were rules and reason perish. Many lose life or are damaged body and/or spirit, some lose their soul. Such a hopeless endeavor should be rare or at least well planed, sadly it is plentiful and without much insight.
That might be an excuse for the men…it is no excuse whatsoever for the medal-collecting, educated officer corps.
By the way…it was an enlisted man, WO Thompson, who stopped the massacre in My Lai, Vietnam run by officers, and an officer named Colin Powell(yep…same one) who tried to whitewash the massacre.
Once war starts chaos and mayhem will occur and something bad will happen. Why the war post should be struck only by congressional vote, war should be a last resort not a first reaction.
heard that.
Most politicians and much of the public, We the people, have been AWOL in “the war on terrorism.” This lack of due diligence and dereliction of duty has left the executive unchecked to engage in war in multiple countries and multiple deployments that can exceed the self-life of a soldier’s humanity. Even Agencies and police have need more training and awareness of the Constitution.
Those than contribute here have at least weighted in. All should work for a more perfect Union that better controls when and where we war. War, the soldier in it and the World is imperfect Further command and control top to bottom must assert that even war has rules, even enemies can show respect. The first step towards peace.
Kudos to The Intercept and Matthew Cole for bravely taking on a sacred cow.
“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.”
This statement coming from just about any other group could be easily ignored, but coming from ST^, it can and should be easily viewed as a direct threat.
YES – Kudos are due!!!!!!!……….. but I sure hope we do not see these authors or other TI staff declared innocents in a drone strike which was targeting “high-level terrorists”. The “opps sorry” principle does you no good after the fact.
Take care TI – never underestimate the impact your work has. While I appreciate your efforts to keep us informed – Please be careful out there!