Ex-SEAL who shot bin Laden identifies himself

CNN ^ | 11/6 | Justin Peligri

[TangledUpInBlue]

Former Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill said in an interview with The Washington Post that he was the one who fired the final shot to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011.

The 38-year-old Montanan also said that other SEAL team members were involved in the raid, including Mark Bissonnette, who detailed the group's experiences in his memoir, "No Easy Day."

O'Neill, who had been serving as a SEAL for 15 years at the time of the bin Laden raid, had participated in other missions before -- but he said he feared this mission would be his most difficult.

I didn't think I would survive," he told the Post.

He said it was clear that Bin Laden had been killed and not merely injured from his shot when he fell to the floor with a split skull. Before he was shot, bin Laden "had his hands on a woman's shoulders pushing her ahead," O'Neill recounts, likely to deflect the attack.

[TangledUpInBlue]

I don't get this. Other than money, what's the play here? Not sure how to feel about this.

[rarestia]

Agreed. I don’t understand the purpose behind this. This man (and his family) is going to live the rest of his life with a target on his back.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

I don’t know if I buy this. First off unless they were able to shrink the length of this guys head this ain’t the same guy who appeared on CBS in disguise, his face is too long. And wasn’t the shooter already ID’ed as Mark Bissonnette?

[Veggie Todd]

If it’s him, I’d like to buy him a beer.

[thackney]

until his identity was linked to the story on a military blog earlier this week without his consent.

[Plummz]

Didn’t they tell us all of these guys died in a helicopter crash?

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Same guy? I don't think so....Yes I understand the bottom pic is him in disguise, but unless they were able to alter his skull that ain't the same dude. Look at his eyes for example, the top pic his eyes are close together and slope slightly down, the bottom they are wide apart and don't slope at all. Same with the chin, how do you shrink a guys chin?

[ryan71]

I suspect the active SEAL community does not like this. Attention is not a good thing. Best your enemy knows as little about you as possible when you’re at 50 to 1 odds and a long way from home.

[FreedomStar3028]

Not all of them. Many of their team did.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Something weird is going on here, Mark Bissonette said he fired the fatal shot and now this guy said he did, so what is going on here? Bissonette never revealed what he really looked like.

[Iscool]

Definitely not the same guy...

[Buckeye McFrog]

Not smart. All the sleeper cell jihadis will be out looking for him now.

[SevenofNine]

Probably the money

[yarddog]

He may have thought the true story needed to be told. He may have needed the money.

I don’t blame him tho if I knew more about it that opinion could change.

[353FMG]

No way the two pics are of the same person. The top photograph shows a person with a more elongated face than that on the bottom pic.

[TangledUpInBlue]

Bissonette never claimed to be the shooter. Just that he was on the raid.

[dfwgator]

Came up right before the election. Coincidence? I think not.

[TangledUpInBlue]

You can do anything with video/photoshop. How do you think they make entire movies with CG?

[TangledUpInBlue]

Bissonette has been on several TV shows. His face is all over....

[colorado tanker]

I’ve never walked in his shoes, so I won’t judge him. Not sure this is his best play, though.