Article on the secret SEALs from a former SEAL

By Carlos FRIAS

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer



You believe Howard Wasdin when he says he knows why Osama bin Laden is dead.

"The guy either had a weapon, was going for a weapon or was otherwise doing something he shouldn't have been doing," Wasdin said. "That's why he got shot."

He should know - because he has been a member of a strike force so exclusive, so secretive that the U.S. government will not even acknowledge its existence.

Wasdin, a Boynton Beach native, is a former sniper for SEAL Team 6, the highly specialized force that executes surgical-strike missions such as last weekend's takedown of the Al-Qaeda chief.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/the-secret-seals-boynton-native-provides-inside-peek-1462435.html

He kinda forgot that super-remote possibility.

The Team had two options - capture or kill. One way or another, OBL was leaving the building.

Time and timing are critical components in an op such as this is time. Those guys can click off seconds in their head like clockwork. When you practice for months for an op, everyone is (hopefully) on the same tick.

Then the helo went FUBAR, taking precious time against planned, choreographed action.

They had no time to chase OBL around - they had to zip him quick and get the Hell outta Dodge. That's why they tried to pop him on the stairwell.

One could surmise that OBL was taken out by a busted chopper.

I wanted to post this as an OP some days ago, but I am tired of the pissing contests with all of the in-house experts on close-quarters combat who seem to populate DU.

Sonoman

Osama was CAPTURED and killed. That was the deal.

was behind 9/11.

And that is your problem here.

The guy was responsible for over 3000 deaths, if he blinked funny, he was going to get shot.

US troops will not a kill order. They will not shoot captured prisoners. OBL gave them reason...knowing what they would do.

Impossible that the US government, not wanting a Bin Laden trial AT ALL, could issue orders that he not be brought back alive? That's an interesting concept.

To put on order on record to shoot a surrendered prisoner is unacceptable, and would leak over time. Whoever issued it (and it would have had to come from a high administration official) would be dead meat, as would be most of his superiors. If OBL had been found prostrate on the floor with his hands behind his head and not moving, he would not have been killed.

"And none of us look like Charlie Sheen," Wasdin said, referring to Sheen's role in the 1990 film Navy SEALs. "What a jackass."

These days, he looks like Keith Richards.

There may be some Vietnam-era SEALs that now look like Charlie Sheen. Maybe.

My beloved Denis Haysbert was slumming in it.

what I don't get is why wasn't OBL already armed and taking cover when the SEALs arrived at his door? The noise of the helicopters coming in and the shots fired downstairs should have alerted him, no? Asleep? Overconfident/arrogant? Ready to die/commit suicide?

A fifty-eight year old guy who wasn't in sterling health to begin with, who's spent a decade on the run one way or another, has probably left his prime well behind, and things probably started moving pretty quickly by the time the SEALs were on the ground and shooting. Being woken up to something like that's going to leave most people fuzzy for a bit (or a bit too long, in his case).

He was also certainly far enough into true-believer territory to be ready to die in that sort of situation, as well. I imagine he'd seen the possibility coming for years.

In his position, it would be much more logical to flee than to fight, actually.

he expected that we'd want him alive. Being captured would have meant getting lots of publicity and air time (probably through his attorney) and would have required that we provide him with top-notch medical care to keep him alive for a trial. Guess he hadn't heard about healthcare cuts.

that's not necessarily what he should have expected.

It was reported last week that people who knew him said he was determined to never be taken alive.

Suicide by SEAL would have ensured him eternal bliss and a powerful example for his followers.

He was never going to submit to the humiliation of capture and trial.