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This is what the Navy SEAL team looked like when they went in to get Bin Laden... Some items of note: 50 caliber sniper on the right. Knee, knuckle and forearm protection. Various plastic/wire ties. Absolute identity denial to protect their families. Free choice of footwear. Fourth from the right has three artillery simulators and CS gas grenades on his belly... He's the 'shock and awe' guy. Seal Team Six... can you imagine the look on Bin Laden's face when these guys came through the door? This open letter from a retired USMC colonel received via e-mail: ________________________________________________________________________________ Let's be...

WSJ OPINION JANUARY 30, 2012, 11:46 P.M. ET Obama Exploits the Navy SEALs There may be political value in detailing how our special forces hunted bin Laden, but doing so threatens troop safety and future missions. BY LEIF BABIN America's premier Special Operations force is once again in the headlines after a team of Navy SEALs rescued two hostages from captivity in Somalia last week. Elite U.S. forces have carried out such operations periodically over the past decade, always with skill and bravery. The difference in recent months is that the details of their work haven't remained secret. On the...

Judicial Watch filed a freedom of information request for documents pertaining to the possible leak of the information relating to the killing of Osama bin Laden to a Hollywood producer in August 2011. The administration has yet to cough up the information, so Judicial Watch is suing them. The DOD admitted receiving the FOIA request on August 22, 2011, but advised Judicial Watch that “at this time, we are unable to make a release determination on your request within twenty (20) working days” of August 9, which would have been by September 6, 2011. The CIA acknowledged receiving the FOIA...

Nick and I felt privileged to be invited to the special advance screening of Act of Valor, one week ago today. The Navy SEALs in the film weren’t portrayed by drug-addled Hollywood action heroes. They were real-life, active duty Navy SEALs. This morning the world learned, again, what makes these guys worth every dime we pay them and more . . . In an apparently flawless mission that could have been lifted straight from the film, the SEALs infiltrated a Somali pirate compound and rescued two kidnapped aid workers: American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Thisted. The pair were kidnapped...

MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S. military forces flew into Somalia in a nighttime helicopter raid Wednesday, freed an American and a Danish hostage, and killed nine pirates in a mission President Barack Obama appeared to reference before his State of the Union speech, officials and a pirate source said.

WASHINGTON -- In a daring nighttime raid Tuesday, U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two hostages, including one American, who were being held by kidnappers in Somalia, U.S. officials tell NBC News. American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and a 60-year-old Dane, Poul Thisted, were working for a Danish relief organization in northern Somalia when they were kidnapped last October. U.S. officials described their kidnappers as heavily armed common criminals with no known ties to any organized militant group. According to the U.S. officials, two teams of Navy SEALs landed by helicopter near the compound where the two hostages were being held. As the...

Before she became Nafanya, beloved pinniped of the Russian people and star of her own live webcam broadcast, the blue-eyed, rust-colored creature was known only as the Loneliest Seal in the World. The Daily Mail reports that only two months ago, “ginger”-colored Nafanya was shunned by her all-black seal colony on the Russian island of Tyuleniy. Photographer Anatoly Strakhov snapped heartbreaking photos of the forlorn seal cowering under a pile of logs, unable to survive without the support and guidance of flippered breathren.

Jesse’s Statement: The event this man spoke of never happened. I have been to Mc P’s many times since leaving the Navy. I was never there alone. I was always accompanied by other people. If this happened 6 years ago, someone would have known of it before now. Certainly in the UDT/SEAL community it would have been known. This has to be news to all of us. I have always opposed the war in Iraq but I have never spoken or wished any ill will towards the soldiers. My heart aches that soldiers have died or been wounded because this...

Click on the link, it is a video, with vulgarity, of a Navy SEAL who was at a wake that Jesse Ventura attended, and Ventura said that in this war, NAVY SEALS DESERVE TO DIE!!

In north-central Texas, Kyle grew up dipping tobacco, riding horses and hunting deer, turkey and quail — a cowboy at heart. The son of a Sunday-school teacher and a church deacon, Kyle credits a higher authority for his longest kill. From 2,100 yards away from a village just outside of Sadr City in 2008, he spied a man aiming a rocket launcher at an Army convoy and squeezed off one shot from his .338 Lapua Magnum rifle. Dead. From more than a mile away. “God blew that bullet and hit him,” he said.

Experts not sure if woes, from hair loss to bloody lesions, tied to Fukushima nuclear plant. SEATTLE — Scientists in Alaska are investigating whether local seals are being sickened by radiation from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Scores of ring seals have washed up on Alaska's Arctic coastline since July, suffering or killed by a mysterious disease marked by bleeding lesions on the hind flippers, irritated skin around the nose and eyes and patchy hair loss on the animals' fur coats. Biologists at first thought the seals were suffering from a virus...

THE EXECUTION OF THE SEAL TEAM SIX - PARTS 1 and 2 - By Ann Barnhardt - August 2011, #0, by macaense, 01 September 2011 08:26 PM THE EXECUTION OF SEAL TEAM SIX (PART 1) POSTED BY ANN BARNHARDT - AUGUST 6, AD 2011 4:08 PM MST You're damn right I said it. On May 5th I had an email conversation with a retired military man with spook contacts. All were in total agreement that the Bin Laden episode was pure theater. The SEALS were sent into a compound as evidenced by the lost chopper on site. But Osama Bin...

The Fast and Furious scandal is causing the Obama administration to try to suppress evidence from public view. Judicial Watch reports: The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military is denouncing a former Navy SEAL's book that claims to describe the "real" version of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. "It's just not true," U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Col. Tim Nye said. "It's not how it happened." Laden with conspiracy theories and attacks on the Obama White House, Chuck Pfarrer's "SEAL Target Geronimo" claims an alternative version of the raid in which the SEAL team shot bin Laden within 90 seconds of arriving at the Pakistan compound where the al-Qaida mastermind was holed up. Pfarrer claims the White House issued a fictional...

Published: 12:42 AM 11/07/2011 | Updated: 3:28 PM 11/07/2011 Forget whatever you think you know about the night Osama bin Laden was killed. According to a former Navy SEAL who claims to have the inside track, the mangled tales told of that historic night have only now been corrected. “It became obvious in the weeks evolving after the mission that the story that was getting put out there was not only untrue, but it was a really ugly farce of what did happen,” said Chuck Pfarrer, author of Seal Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama...

Some of you may recall that I popped up on the B5 grid in May after my NSW colleagues at long last punched bin Laden's ticket. Let me assure you right now that there is no such thing as a “Kill only “ mission. If that SEAL operator came through the door to find UBL with his hands up, compliant, and unarmed (including no evidence of a suicide vest) he would have taken a muzzle strike to the face, but not any rounds. He would have swallowed some teeth, been flex cuffed, and dragged roughly out to a marshalling area...

In the official photograph, he looked every inch the commander in chief. Strain etched on his face, Barack Obama watched as the raid to kill Osama bin Laden played out on a television in front of him. According to a new book, however, the President was not nearly that engaged – and was actually playing golf until 20 minutes before the operation began in earnest.Only then did he down his clubs and return to the White House to watch what he later trumpeted as a great success of his presidency. A new book claims the official account was

By the time the CH-47 transport helicopter descended to 150 feet above an unprotected landing zone in Afghanistan around 2 a.m. on Aug. 6, the element of surprise had been lost. Hours earlier, two other Chinooks had deposited 47 Army Rangers at another nearby landing site, undetected. The landing triggered a nighttime ground and aerial firefight that raged for several hours as a few Taliban “squirters,” as the military called them, tried to escape from the targeted compound and regrouped with other fighters. *snip* When the third chopper — carrying 38 passengers and crew, and one dog, in a reinforcement...

See the trailer at the link. Looks interesting.

Heart-Wrenching Image: Dog Keeps Watch Over Fallen SEAL’s Casket During Funeral Posted on August 23, 2011 at 1:25pm by Christopher Santarelli Petty Officer Jon T. Tumilson was laid to rest Friday in Rockford, Iowa, where an estimated 1,500 mourners came to pay respects for the fallen Navy SEAL, including his dog Hawkeye. In fact, Hakeye’s loyalty to his owner at the funeral was visible, creating a heart-wrenching image as he laid down by the casket of his owner during the entire service:

Paying tribute to the nation's heroes would seem to be a perfect fit for the nation's pastime. Not so fast, says Major League Baseball. The Washington Nationals had planned to honor the Navy SEALs who died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan by wearing special tribute hats on the field, but that plan didn't pass muster with league officials.

Leadership: Disrespecting grieving families, the president sneaks a photographer into the ceremony honoring the SEALs who died in Afghanistan. The presidential scrapbook and campaign are more important. We thought perhaps the White House had received a sufficient dose of condemnation as well as some sensitivity training over a planned Sony film hyping President Obama's "gutsy call" regarding the successful Navy SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden. The film was to be released three weeks before the 2012 vote. We were wrong. When 30 U.S. Special Operations forces, including Navy SEALs from SEAL Team 6, the unit that got the...

I am quoting from an article in the New Yorker, a source we are not allowed to post on Free Republic. I hope people will take the time to read this entire account of the mission.

In order to display some gravitas, Obama’s White House is assisting an Oscar winning filmmaker to spin it into a leadership role in the killing of Osama Bin Laden just in time for the 2012 Election. As is typical of Hollywood,this is another movie aimed at showing Democrat Presidents in a positive light while in and out of office. Kathryn Bigelow director of the Oscar-winning Iraq War movie “The Hurt Locker,”has teamed up with its writer Mark Boal to start on the preproduction research for a movie about the killing of Bin Laden. The project is being billed as a...

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral will hold a memorial service Saturday for Chief Petty Officer Robert Reeves - one of two Navy SEALs from Shreveport killed when their helicopter was ambushed in Afghanistan. Cathedral spokeswoman Bess Maxwell tells The Times that Reeves had said he wanted to be buried at sea, and that burial will take place later. Maxwell says 33-year-old Lt. Cmdr Jonas Kelsall will probably be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. His family now lives in California. The two were friends from childhood and classmates at Caddo Magnet High School. They were among...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=28FxtSSMIwA#at=173

The top NATO commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday that the doomed Navy SEALs mission that claimed 30 American lives was intended to stop fleeing Taliban fighters and not necessarily a rescue mission as first reported. After the crash Saturday, news reports quoted NATO officials as saying commanders dispatched the CH-47 Chinook helicopter with 22 SEALs onboard to rescue an Army Ranger team pinned down by the Taliban. The huge twin-engine CH-47 was downed by a rocket-propelled grenade as it approached a “hot” landing zone. U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, told Pentagon reporters via...

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of 30 servicemembers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Aug. 6 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed. The following sailors assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit were killed: Lt. Cmdr. (SEAL) Jonas B. Kelsall, 32, of Shreveport, La., Special Warfare Operator Master Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Louis J. Langlais, 44, of Santa Barbara, Calif., Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Thomas A. Ratzlaff, 34, of Green Forest, Ark., Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Senior Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare...

Secret exploratory peace talks between the United States and the Taliban leadership have broken down after details of the negotiations were leaked, Western diplomats have told The Daily Telegraph. The breakdown in the talks at such an early stage has led to recriminations and claims that the details of the meetings and the identity of the Taliban's chief negotiator were deliberately leaked by 'paranoid' Afghan government figures. Absolute confidentiality had been a key condition for the meetings which were held in Germany and Qatar earlier this year between Tayeb Agha, Taliban leader Mullah Omar's former private secretary, and senior officials...

President Obama came into office unfamiliar with the culture of the military he found himself commanding -- but over time it’s become clear that his appreciation for the troops has grown as they have performed every task he has asked of them. This week, he went to Dover Air Force Base to personally greet the honored dead from SEAL Team 6 and other units killed in last weekend’s helicopter tragedy. Yet his campaign operatives are another story: They’re set on using the SEALs and other warriors who hunted down bin Laden in a clumsy attempt to gin up support in...

There may be an overtly political reason that moviegoers will be seeing the story of the Osama bin Laden raid just before they vote for president. Sony Pictures, the company distributing next year's film, hosted a fundraiser for Barack Obama on their studio's premises in California last April. So far, Sony is the only major studio to hold a political fundraiser this cycle. According to Deadline Hollywood, Sony will release the bin Laden movie, directed by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, on October 12, 2012--less than a month before the presidential election. "The eyebrow does go up when you see...

Does anyone have an updsate on whether or not Barack Obama had ordered the Flag to be flown at half-staff at the White House in honor of the death of the Navy Seals in Afghanistan?

Call the White House and remind them to lower the flag to half mast in remembrance of our Navy Seals. Switchboard # is 202-456-1414. Voice mail comments # is 202-456-1111. Thank you. God bless America. I was not sure if this has been posted yet.

When the coffins of the fallen Navy SEALS came back to US soil, the Pentagon and the White House closed the event to the press.That's understandable. After all, the Bush administration made similar restrictions for such ceremonies, although Obama overturned the policy.The press complied as well, but when the White House released a photo yesterday of President Obama saluting the coffins at the ceremony, they raised their eyebrows.When Associated Press reporter Ben Feller asked about the photo today at the White House Press briefing, Carney answered:

An air strike by NATO-led forces in Afghanistan killed Taliban fighters, including a local leader, who were responsible for a weekend helicopter crash that killed 38 troops, the worst single incident in 10 years of war. "We dealt with them in a kinetic strike," General John Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told reporters at the Pentagon. Gen. Allen said the military tracked the Taliban fighters for several days after the helicopter went down. Forces reportedly trailed the fighters to a position in Chak District, Wardak Province, and then US F-16s struck and killed them Tuesday....

Rangers’ danger, single helicopter among questions Some in the special operations community are privately criticizing the wisdom of Saturday’s failed rescue mission in Afghanistan, saying commanders should have sent more than the one Chinook helicopter that was shot down, killing 30 American troops, including 23 elite Navy SEALs. They also questioned whether the quickly assembled mission was necessary to rescue a band of Army Rangers reportedly under fire from Taliban militants. “I squarely blame whoever planned and authorized the mission for the deaths,” said a Special Forces soldier who served in Afghanistan. “It was simply uncalled for unless Rangers were...

So Barack Obama made a no media allowed jaunt to Dover Air Force Base today. As if he’d have bothered if his ratings weren’t in the tank. Yet here, shamefully, from whitehouse.gov, are photos of Obama, including this one of Obama, calling it the Photo of the Day. Can it get any more ghoulish?

Our utter failure of a president is looking to Hollywood for an October 2012 Surprise to save his hopes for a second term. Maureen Dowd says out loud what we all knew the moment the movie’s release date was announced: The White House is also counting on the Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal big-screen version of the killing of Bin Laden to counter Obama’s growing reputation as ineffectual. The Sony film by the Oscar-winning pair who made “The Hurt Locker” will no doubt reflect the president’s cool, gutsy decision against shaky odds. Just as Obamaland was hoping, the movie is scheduled...

War On Terror: The deaths of more than 20 Navy SEALs from the unit that took out Osama bin Laden may be linked to a loose-lipped vice president and a presidential action figure. The last scene of the 1954 Korean War film "The Bridges at Toko-Ri," based on the James Michener novel, shows a carrier commander watching planes take off for another mission and asking, "Where do we get such men?" The same may be asked of the members of Navy SEAL (sea, air, land) Team 6 who died when the helicopter they were riding was hit by a Taliban-launched...

*excerpt* Part of the post-incident investigation is a probe into how the Taliban acquired night vision technology and other high-tech equipment that allows them to attack a U.S. military force in the darkness of night. Some experts believe Iran is responsible for the transfer of military equipment and weapons to terrorist groups and organized crime organizations.

"Now it's confirmed that the helicopter was shot down and it was a trap that was set by a Taliban commander," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said the commander lured US forces to the scene by telling them there was a Taliban meeting taking place there.

Tip: ... "Almost immediately, after news of the crash began to spread, we were placed in an internet and phone blackout. This means communication with family, friends and "others" back home, in real time, is prevented until further notice. ... One of confirmed details they have been discussing is that the chinook shot down belonged to a National Guard unit. Which is causing people to whisper in astonishment, "why were some of the most elite of America's military, in such large numbers, tooling around on a National Guard aircraft?" ... ... Hollywood Pic Commissioned Yep. Published this very day, written...

After Bin Laden was killed, Robert Gates was insistent that nothing be revealed about the unit that accomplished the deed. But one man could not keep his mouth shut: Joe Biden, who credited the SEALs in a speech: Let me briefly acknowledge tonight’s distinguished honorees. Admiral James Stavridis is a, is the real deal. He can tell you more about and understands the incredible, the phenomenal, the just almost unbelievable capacity of his Navy SEALs and what they did last Sunday. Further irresponsible leaks from the Obama administration revealed the unit involved, causing the unit members to fear for their...

  33 Americans Including 25 SEALs Killed Every Time History Repeats Itself, the Price Goes Up David C. Stolinsky Aug. 8, 2011 Afghan insurgents shoot down Chinook helicopter with rocket-propelled grenade, killing 30 Americans, including 22 SEALS, some of whom were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden. Three more SEALs were killed on the ground, for a total of 33 American dead. − News item Some time ago, I was driving my old car. As I pulled out of a parking lot, I heard a terrible screeching noise. Looking under the car, I found...

U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, secure the area after existing a Chinoonk helicopter, Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in this Sunday, June 18, 2006 file photo. Insurgents apparently shot down a U.S. military helicopter Saturday Aug. 6, 2011 similar to this one shown during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite Navy SEALs unit that killed Usama bin Laden, as well as seven Afghan commandos, U.S. officials said. An Afghan official says there is fighting in the area where a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter was apparently...

KABUL, Afghanistan — In the deadliest day for American forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter on Saturday, killing 30 Americans, including some Navy Seal commandos from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as 8 Afghans, American and Afghan officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook helicopter during an overnight operation in eastern Afghanistan, killing 37 people on board, a military official said on Saturday.

President Obama praised the sacrifice of 31 U.S. troops who died early Saturday morning in helicopter crash in Wardak Province, Afghanistan. The Taliban has claimed it shot down the aircraft with a rocket-propelled grenade. Seven Afghan soldiers on board the helicopter also died. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the Americans who were lost earlier today in Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement. “Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan.” Obama said...

Twenty-five U.S. special forces killed early Saturday in Afghanistan were on a mission to rescue another team of military personnel pinned down by insurgents, a U.S. military official told CNN. The helicopter that went down in eastern Afghanistan carried 30 U.S. military members, including 22 Navy SEALs and three other special forces. They were part of a "quick reaction force" sent in to pick up others engaged in a fierce firefight, the official said. In the single deadliest incident since the start of the decade-long Afghan war, the Army Chinook carrying a team of U.S. special forces and U.S. and...

After Bin Laden was killed, Robert Gates was insistent that nothing be revealed about the unit that accomplished the deed. But one man could not keep his mouth shut: Joe Biden, who credited the SEALs in a speech: Let me briefly acknowledge tonight’s distinguished honorees. Admiral James Stavridis is a, is the real deal. He can tell you more about and understands the incredible, the phenomenal, the just almost unbelievable capacity of his Navy SEALs and what they did last Sunday. Further irresponsible leaks from the Obama administration revealed the unit involved, causing the unit members to fear for their...