Questions raised after SEAL's identity revealed

What does it matter - if Osama Bin Laden died in 2001, or in 2011 in the Seal Team Six raid? As far as the world, and especially Al-Qaeda are concerned, he died in that raid. And now, thanks to Fox News posting this SpecOps members REAL name, age, hometown, and information, all these revenge seekers have a target to go after.

It is heinous that Fox News would post all of this Seal member's real life info. Even if they disagree with the intentions of the book (they obviously hate the fact he wrote this book), they should never have put his life in jeopardy, even when warned by the publisher not to report his name and info.

i guess u guy dont see that the news is posting false/altered info to instigate attacks that will cause a response, the more war the better according to the ppowers that be

reply to post by DocHolidaze

I do wonder about that myself..... This book and a U.S. Navy Seal breaking ranks like this..from his own community (to read the rather unhappy thoughts from other Seals) make little sense. This Seal was also, from reports, involved with the sniper shooting of the Somali Pirates with the cargo ship incident quite some time back.

So.. Indeed... What gives?? These aren't the loose lips kind of people and they dedicate their lives in a way I doubt many of us can ever understand...it makes no sense for what this all appears, does it? HAS to be a whole lot more to this than we're hearing a thing about, or ulterior motives as you suggest.

How is this for a motive?

Book sells and makes him money. End of story.

reply to post by Grimpachi

I'd sincerely hope that isn't the ONLY motive here....because if the most highly trained, screened and supported men our nation literally has to offer have evolved to be THAT shallow and self centered for motives on a thing like this, we have little left....really, very little. I've always thought considerably more of Seals than that.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Oh yeah I forgot making money isn’t patriotic. I guess all the thousands of soldiers that have written books about their experiences should be ashamed of themselves.

Wait a minute what am I saying? Nope there isn’t anything wrong with making money. Everyone should try it IMO.

Nothing at all wrong with writing a book I will probably read it.

reply to post by Grimpachi


You don't quite understand. In a scale of 1 to 100, 30 being a "war hero" and 20 being a "common soldier" - these guys rank about a 80. With a very few select people in the world being better then them. They have HUGE salaries, hazard pay. They are the best. They are NOT soldiers, they are living weapons. DEVGRU and other top tier outfits are walking death.

These are the guys you scare hardened dictators with at night as bogey man stories. You don't mess with these guys. They are well trained to the point that they would kill their good friends if that was the objective (not all yes, but majority.)

These guys don't just go out and go "Oh man I need some money!" They HAVE money and anything else they ask of our government to give them for some "R&R" and "repayment to my family." These are the guys who are so hated that if the enemy knew their family's whereabouts they would go after them simply for revenge.

These are two-bit soldiers trained to go SIR YES SIR. These are the guys who walk the halls with the world's leadership as their only leash.

What he meant by "out for cash" comment earlier was "if one of our most lethal assets is willing to sell out secrets for fame & cash then we have a problem in our training." These are the guys with secrets. The secrets you don't want even remotely hinted at.

reply to post by Foxe


First I do not know where you get your information from about what type of soldiers these guys are but I know from experience in my personal life that you are way off.

Second I cannot say if this person has divulged any classified material in his book (I have not read the book yet have you) to make that assumption would be disingenuous.

Many soldiers have written books in the past some very high ranking and several of the SF community to say there is something wrong with that is just wrong.

Op I get where you are coming from concerning fox, and I agree it is hypocritical of them.

As far as what his motives were, I am sure they were numerous. who knows, maybe the dude really needed to get it off his chest, maybe this was his way of coming to terms with it. Maybe the money was a nice perk too.

Now, if you believe that this is some part of a larger conspiracy, that too is possible. Maybe our prez wanted a reminder put out just before the elections of what a bad ass he was by taking out Osama, and maybe that was the reason for this book coming out.

Everyone gets all patriotic and cries into flags when they hear honorable war stories of the bold courageous soldier defending his country.....that sells books and keeps the "Obama is a strong Commander and chief" dialogue fresh before the election, without Obama having to blow his own horn.......

It is a stretch to believe that the administration did not know about this book. I am sure he had to get some sort of approval from them just to get it published. They must have blessed off on it at some level.

Or we can really go conspiratorial and say, there was no raid, there was no seal team 6 and this guy is some CIA dude they dressed up as a soldier, cooked up a hollywood script for and paraded out so as to give credibility to the "official story" to quite all the folks who think it might be BS.

My guess is as good as yours guys...

Originally posted by Grimpachi
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Oh yeah I forgot making money isn’t patriotic. I guess all the thousands of soldiers that have written books about their experiences should be ashamed of themselves.

Wait a minute what am I saying? Nope there isn’t anything wrong with making money. Everyone should try it IMO.

Nothing at all wrong with writing a book I will probably read it.

edit on 24-8-2012 by Grimpachi because: (no reason given)

Wow... You make a habit of putting words in folk's mouths? I have plenty already... No room for more.

Making money isn't "unpatriotic" and writing books about military service seems to be a natural step after leaving the military these days. I swear over the years of trucking and buying books to pass the time in truck stops I came to think everyone who had so much as been in Vietnam for a week and heard a shot fired, wrote a book about it.

No, I said what I did about motivation because if money is the *ONLY* .....and I meant *ONLY* reason that a an Elite US Navy Seal is breaking ranks, making real discontent within the Naval Special Warfare Community and generally making a national spectacle of himself by the action then he's really a shallow and pathetic human being to have spent such FORTUNES to train and trust.

In a more likely scenario, I'm thinking he has some things to get off his chest and have been eating at him since that night, either in how it's been reported....who takes credit for it....or things that may have happened and we're not even aware at this point.

I'm concerned he's burning sensitive information about methods, as I've read some fellow Seals are as well. I guess we'll all know what is what when the book gets out. IF it makes it out intact, that is.

Originally posted by Foxe
reply to post by Grimpachi

 

...They have HUGE salaries, hazard pay....

...These guys don't just go out and go "Oh man I need some money!" They HAVE money and anything else they ask of our government to give them for some "R&R" and "repayment to my family." .....

I don't know about the US special forces, but in the UK, special forces pay isn't as much as you would think or as much as it should be.

This is the reason that many UKSF members are leaving and joining the private sector...

Gnobody

reply to post by Gnobody


I could be wrong on this one, but I am pretty sure that pay is according to rank and time in service, plus hazardous duty pay, seperation pay, maybe per diem or tdy pay, imminent danger, diving pay, sea pay and maybe a bonus for being SF. I am not aware of any other pay perks. Perhaps some of our more knowledgable military members can comment.

Have they disclosed this guys rank? That would give us a rough estimate of his pay. the military pay scales are online.

www.dfas.mil... html

reply to post by Mijamija


In the UKSF, pay is also based on rank, length of service and 'special forces pay rates'.

However, it does not compare to the pay when working for a private military/security company in known 'hot spots' around the world where you can earn £6000+ a month for doing work either similar to or a lot less danerous than before...

Gnobody

For anyone who is interested, ABC had a story from May saying pay for an E-7 Seal with time in would likely be around $54,000. It went on to note though, the military has a number or incentive and bonus pay programs for training and retention of special skills which can put that over the 6 figure mark once all that is considered.

Heck... it still isn't much considering what they do to earn it and knowing where it's most dangerous and the odds more slimmest to survive something, is exactly where they are being sent. With sports figures making mega millions? I think they're underpaid in the Seals, if anything IMO.

ABC Story details

If they killed been Lay dean then they'd likely show proof. But since they didn't provide any proof that means he's retired on some prison resort island with Gaddaffi and Sadam and his sons and other high level politicial operatives

reply to post by r2d246


Ummm Gadaffi was repeatedly raped in a filthy street and then executed by the same rebels we supported there and now support in Syria. The whole world had and still has access to the footage of Saddam Hussein being executed by hanging. Iraq would have exploded if any funny business had been done around that man and his ultimate fate...which Iraq's administered themselves in the end.

I agree that Usama is a big question mark...because Obama decided we didn't rate anything like proof. His word and his word ALONE is supposed to be enough. Umm.. Yeah.. right... I wouldn't take a previous President's word that the sky was blue after Iraq...I won't take Obama's word for anything either.... Although I personally think Usama died screaming like a school girl while under the tender mercies of the CIA's best turkey doctors in some very secluded black site. I have a hunch which one too...but some day that will all come out as historical notes to fill the blanks.

I just can't believe folks would question the fate of Gadaffi or Saddam. No questions there..and the world DID get their proof. In the case of Gadaffi....the kind of proof I wish to God I could UN-see and forget ever happened.

reply to post by Cuervo


whats the bet this "Mark Owen" does'nt really exist

The CIA wrote the propaganda piece titled "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden." The use of a pseudonym and the subsequent revelation of an actual name is a ruse.

All of this nonsense comes out of the CIA propaganda machine and is known as the myth of Al Queda, which is part of a greater mythic construct known as the "war on terror." Every aspect of a great myth has its hero figure and in the case of the M.E. its OBL. The same can be said of its counterpart in the west - another mythic invention conjured by the CIA - namely BHO - the hero of the American myth of the "war on terror."

Originally posted by Cuervo

Originally posted by buster2010
The guy was an idiot for thinking his name would never be revealed anyway. He just better hope he can stay out of jail for writing this book. Because he didn't did not get his manuscript approved, as required, by the Pentagon, the White House or the CIA.

That's not the point. Don't you see the hypocrisy? FOX news is a cheerleader against Wikileaks and Bradley Manning, saying they endanger the lives of our soldiers yet they are the first one to publicly reveal the private details of one of the dudes who killed Osama.

The only hypocrisy you see here is in your mind because they are in no way similar. Manning didn't try to make a profit off the secrets he released while this guy is trying to make a profit. And this guy is endangering our soldiers as well nice to see how you chose to overlook that part.

reply to post by buster2010


I do not understand how that changes anything about FOX's blatant hypocrisy here.
If they condemn Manning for "endangering out troops" they why do they not condemn themselves for also doing it?
You can complain about the differences between the two men until the cows come home but it will not change the fact that FOX is obviously quite wrong here.