The teams just get a better opportunity at it or more chances. And it hurtsyou know, their view to the CIA, I think, was really interesting. And thats the point, you know, that no one has looked deeply at whats occurred. AMY GOODMAN: The title of your investigative expos in The Intercept is The Crimes of SEAL Team 6. The crimes. In fact, he was much further back down the line, comes in later. Theyre essentially trophies. So McRaven orders a stand-down, about a two-week stop in almost all special operations forces. They didn't pick the targets or the place they were sent to, they are just willing to do the job others won't. Navy Chief Special Warfare Operator Aaron C. Vaughn Died August 6, 2011 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom 30, of Stuart, Fla.; assigned to an East Coast-based SEAL team; died Aug. 6 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when the CH-47 Chinook helicopter in which he was riding was shot down. Ultimately, Roberts, Chapman,and five others were killed over the course of the battle, which became known as Roberts Ridge. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/06/nadia-murad-isis-sex-slave-nobel-peace-prize. After Vice President Joe Biden revealed that SEAL Team 6 carried out the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, Strange said the members of his son's team gave startling indications to their families they were about to meet their demise. Both in the book but then also in the official debrief that SEAL Team 6 did with a lawyer in Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, he lied and said that he had killed the courier. Top photo: An undated official portrait of retired Master Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Britt K. Slabinski. 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. AMY GOODMAN: Matthew Cole, I want to thank you for being with us, national security reporter for The Intercept. You will step over the line and you start dehumanizing people. Are you going to call the Ku Klux Kops and have ME murdered for not supporting your genocidal wars? Would you rather shoot a dead guy in the head (where you know he won't get back up) or maybe let him get back up because he is all hopped up on opium and shoot your buddy. And . Again, its being played here publicly for the first time. I have sources that argue that it hasnt happened since they were started in 1980. You dont like that, yall can line up and take turns helping yourselves to a Texas-size all-you-can-eat buffet of Kiss My Liberal ASS. He was killed because there was an order to kill him, no matter what. SEAL Team 6s 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 younger ones didnt. Would I also do my best to be sure I didn't kill anyone that didn't need it and that I didn't make a habit of using that stuff? Updated: May 05, 2011 00:18 IST. In reality, its bullshit. Other military and intelligence officials who have served with or investigated the unit were also interviewed. A previous version of this article stated that John Chapmans Medal of Honor was announced by the White House on May 7 along with Britt Slabinskis. And in the aftermath, one of the young operators begins to try to cut off the head of one of the fighters. So, thats thethat really gets at the heart of what is at this story, which is that they knew what was going on. Its a reprimand. After learning that he would never again serve at SEAL Team 6, Slabinski was thrown a lifeline by Szymanski, then commodore of Naval Special Warfare Group 2, who selected him to be his command master chief. Chapman and Slabinski both received service crosses, the militarys second-highest award. Author: Eric Sof. And Captain Pete Vasely, Peter Vasely, who iswho may in fact behave already made promotion to admiral, who isalso has a senior position inside JSOC. This will be the one and only warning. | Skip to content 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 Last modified: January 8, 2023. He was spending government time and resources for his own personal efforts on a home, essentially. I think it might have lessened. MATTHEW COLE: He was awarded a Navy Cross, and that wont ever be taken away from him. He sticks by it and is still in. MATTHEW COLE: Vasely initially reported the beheading in Afghanistan in 2007, but, effectively, allowed Slabinski to cover it up. Related searches: navy seals special forces military soldier war of 11 NEXT 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. success and motivation icons - classic line series - seal team stock illustrations. But Slabinskis dishonorable actions are only a part of a much larger problem. Beyond body mutilation, the report also details disturbing accounts of war profiteering and theft, including on high-profile missions. And that became a big deal, because thats something youeven within their code, thats something you dont do. We killed bad guys. Both current and former military members say the inter-service fight between the SEALs and the Air Force special operations command has been ugly and unbecoming. That kind of suspicious activity. AMY GOODMAN: You talk a lot about Britt Slabinski, the legendary member of SEAL Team 6. And Slabinski, Britt Slabinski, is reallyhis story, which is really a tragic one, and it starts in 2002 on Roberts Ridge, and it extends all the way out to being blackballed by SEAL Team 6, is really indicative of sort of the worst of what can happen at a unit like this. Muckraking Awards, Books, Films, and Organizations, joint special operations commander general stanley mccrystal, naval criminal investigative service (ncis), naval special warfare development group (seal team 6), the wedding party massacre (in afghanistan on 6 march 2002), Trump administration/Republican House and Senate/Supreme Court. And what I thinkwhat I took away from this investigation, what I hope happens is that the senior leaders of the command, who knew about it or should have known about it, are held to account from the standpoint of their ability to be promoted. Members of SEAL Team 6 have told me they believe the award is meant, in large part, to help validate and cover up a series of ultimately fatal decisions taken by Szymanski and other senior SEAL Team 6 officers. They arethey have no bullets in them. For 15 years, as SEAL Team 6 senior officers and leaders received reports that their operators were skinning, scalping, canoeing, and otherwise mutilating enemy corpses with custom-made hatchets in Afghanistan and Iraq, they either ignored the warnings or helped cover them up. And you can be removed from a unit, but it saves your career. Some openly talk about it and it's all bullshit, but there are some that actually join to do it. War is an adrenaline rush. And so, McRaven orders the stand-down, gives them new rules. Publicly, he has stated that these were training trips. And so, what happens? For almost four years after Roberts Ridge, SEAL Team 6 intentionallylimited Slabinskis battlefield exposure. And thats described in both ONeill and Bissonnettes book. delivered to your inbox every day? Could hear certain things, but there wasnt a lot of noise. And the Smethers issue, the whistleblowing, just sort of fades off into the sunset. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? Another insight revealed by the Intercept: The British aid captive Linda Norgrove, who was killed during a botched rescue attempt, wasnt killed by her captors, but by a grenade thrown at her by a Seal Team operators, perhaps because the goal of reaching Norgrove was not rescue but exposure control. The former unit leader who served several years with Szymanski said he had no doubt that his former teammate pushed for the upgrade to assuage his own guilt about putting Slabinski and his team in what became a disastrous position. The officer's wife nearly shot the members of the red cell, but the officer told her it was an exercise rather than a real kidnapping. We are just the ones who are willing to do what others won't. And thatscanoeing requires a certain location in the head. They understood that he had deep psychological scars from what happened on Roberts Ridge. And one of the things that it uses is a Navy system called non-judicial punishment. MATTHEW COLE: NCISfind no evidence to support a violation of the law of armed conflict. You've always been the voice of reason on this forum. In 2007, Slabinski was sent back to Afghanistan as a squadron master chief, which made him the senior noncommissioned officer of Blue Squadron. Trumpistas, flagging and what might be done about it, Propaganda film now out "Patriot anti-Muslim Day". And they did. And I think the lesson you can learn from that is, is that they go to great lengths to make sure that it goes away. Explain what happens to someone who wants to challenge the practices. And Slabinski tries to protect him, but also protect himself. Advisor services offered through BridgeLight Capital, LLC. Three years later, in 2010, Slabinski was up for a promotion when SEAL Team 6 decided to re-examine his tour with Blue Squadron. MATTHEW COLE: Well, because he is a silent professional. Leaked Seal Team 6 Helmet Cam Footage Cia Operative . They have a whole terminology, which is, Dont run to your death. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. And those guidelines were, in a lot of ways, done to protect SEALs. By awarding Slabinski the Medal of Honor, the military essentially ignores the Chapman narrative and supports the notion that Slabinskis actions that day were heroic. It was an assassination, an execution, however youd like to call it. And then he wouldhe would tell some of his men and others that he wanted them to go out and bloody their hatchet. 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. Again their helicopter took fire as it landed near the top. And thatthats the kind of thing that has occurred at a small level for SEAL Team 6 and at a bigger level. We were told multiple times, in the range of four or five times. They had encountered an enormous amount of resistance and violence from the Taliban. National security reporter Matthew Cole spent two years investigating accounts of ghastly atrocities committed by members of the unit, including mutilating corpses, skinnings and attempted beheadings. Air Force Tech. And the inquiry finds that, you know, hewas no question that this was a result of Slabinskis leadership. According to two senior SEAL Team 6 sources, however, the leadership dynamic in Blue Squadron was a failure. Sub humans that take young girls and women as sex slaves and torture and murder without a single thought. But no one else is told, going forward, in any other assignment that you get, that thats what happened to you. Alert: German Newscast Displays Star Trek Logo as Seal Team 6 Patch Ghost Soldiers Us Soldiers Survival Scifi Military Gear Military Army And we dont want to do that. I feel terrible for you when you have to answer for what youve done. And Slabinski comes back and says, No foul play. AMY GOODMAN: And what is your sense of why the Obama administration wanted him dead, not alive? In the Special Operations Forces community, SEAL Team 6 is renowned as one of the most capable fighting forces. And every time youd kick him or shoot him, he would kick up, and you could see his body twitch and all that. 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 They didnt put his name on after they blacklisted him for suspicion of war crimes. 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. AMY GOODMAN: You write that even before the killing, that two of the Team 6 members, Matt Bissonnette and Robert ONeill, had an argument that had to be broken up by their fellow SEALs about who would tell the story after. There are dudes who join because they want to kill people. He didnthe portrayed it as asomething that was justifiable, but that the Navy ultimately decided they wouldnt pay for. by inciting war among all parties and selling arms and drugs all around. In the room with four of the suspected insurgents, four SEALs counted down and canoed each sleeping man with a shot to the forehead. They spun a story to make themselves heroic and make money off of it, and it wasnt accurate. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. And I shared that, the transcript of it, with two of his former bosses, who were horrified that he said this, and not only that he said it, but that he said it in an interview to an author, and that the younger men around him were undoubtedly influenced by that kind of talk, by that kind of bravado and bloodlust. One of his men interpreted that remark as an order, as a direction to be given and followed through. 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. MATTHEW COLE: Howard wasHoward is a very interesting individual. 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. The real question became: Why had he done it? 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. MATTHEW COLE: Right. 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. 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. "There is and was no military reason whatsoever to split someone's skull open with a single round," said a former SEAL Team 6 leader. Not fired. AMY GOODMAN: Matthew Cole, as you talk about, really, in some of these cases, for the first time, what this unit has done, TeamSEAL Team 6, and you talk about canoeing, in general, there are those who wanted to expose this, like a CIA paramilitary officers attempt to blow the whistle on this. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. Scottsdale AZ 85254, P: 480-270-5240 admiin August 2, 2022. Thanks for joining us. Guys who don't want to be a part of the conventional forces and who want to think outside the box. AMY GOODMAN: And explain further what he did and how many times he did it. It just doesnt happen. Both versions of what happened at Takur Ghar cannot be true. Audio from an unpublished interview with Britt Slabinksi conducted by Malcolm MacPherson, author of a 2005 book on the battle of Roberts Ridge. Describe where that his and what happened. No one was upset that he ordered a beheading or all the men shot even if they were unarmed. And she was unfortunately killed in the raid, unintentionally, by SEAL Team 6, as theas a firefight broke out when they arrived. And he dies with nohe has two weapons in the room that they find later in a search. TIL A US Navy red cell kidnapped a civilian security officer as an exercise and proceeded to torture and beat him in a hotel room. Screenshot today from SoBTactical Instagram. Theresyou know, theres very little chance that anyone will look back into and reopen these investigations. Yes, we they committed war crimes. But Intercept national security reporter Matthew Cole reveals a darker side of the celebrated group. So, after a mission, he tries to cut a mans head off. Its murder and its done to use force to take over property of the targeted nation. And he opened it up, and someone said to him, This is our greatest hits. And he looked down, and they were a collection of canoed heads since 9/11. With no mention that the US Navy, in their propaganda shows like the Six series and of course their recruitment commercials, boast loudly that THEY illegally enter territorial waters and land masses routinely. I really like to think so. He was just trying to take gear off of the mans body, and nothingnothing was untoward. But the officer doesnt believe it. This occurs all the way up. And so, theres an enormous amount of animosity inside the unit at these two guys. But we never could prove anything. And, you know, I think thats probably largely true for a lot of people. MATTHEW COLE: Absolutely. He was on the ground bleeding out from histhe shot to his chest. And they knew he was troubled. After The New York Times article was published, Britt Slabinskis name was added to that list. 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. Is that right? Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. Yeah. Check the background of this firm on FINRA'sBrokerCheck. What kind of response did you get to your piece? And so, he did exactly as he was trained to do, which was to go slowly to the doorway and see and assess whether or not the person he shot was still a threat. Its minutiae. No evidence to hold Sabar Lal Melma in Guantanamo, but enough to kill him? See more ideas about seal team 6, navy seals, special forces. These details are largely agreed upon. Talk about what he did as a Navy SEAL and why, ultimately, he was forced out. A member of the Navy's SEAL Team 6 has been found guilty of catfishing three women and soliciting nude photos of them. Dam Neck should have rules, and those guys should be violating those rules sometimes, when it's called for, because the moral thing and the right thing and the legal thing are not always the same thing. And one of my sources, who was a former senior member of the command, said to me somethingIm paraphrasing roughly, but he said, You know, to this day, Slabinski thinks that the guys turned on him. Unit were also interviewed upset that he had deep psychological scars from happened. Beyond body mutilation, the report also details disturbing accounts of war profiteering theft!, their view to the CIA, I think thats probably largely true for a lot of.... What kind of response did you get to your piece after the new York times article was published Britt. Going forward, in the room that they find later in a.!: and explain further what he did and how many times he did it years after Ridge! They understood that he wanted them to go out and bloody their hatchet forward in! 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