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Must-see morning clip: “60 Minutes” explores Osama bin Laden’s closet

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:31:00 +0000

The Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden has, for the first time, opened up about the infamous raid (that's now been fictionalized in "Zero Dark Thirty"). Using the name of Mark Owen (the SEAL remains anonymous), he spoke with "60 Minutes" about the night.

In the clip below, "60 Minutes'" producer Henry Schuster tells Ann Silvio about what Owen found in the third floor of Osama bin Laden's compound. According to Owen, bin Laden's belongings were so well-organized that "Somebody there had to have had OCD."

What really happened in the bin Laden raid

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:20:00 +0000

The story of the CIA's manhunt for Osama bin Laden is back in the media spotlight thanks to Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," the fictionalized account of the raid, which is up for best picture in today's Oscar ceremony.

Amid the discussion over the film's accuracy (which even triggered a Senate investigation into the CIA's cooperation with Biglelow), the Navy SEAL who fired those three critical shots into bin Laden has for the first time ever relayed his account of what happened, including its aftermath, in a profile by Phil Bronstein for Esquire. Bronstein reported the story in conjunction with the Center for Investigative Reporting, which has released an 18-minute film version of the Navy SEAL's gripping story. The film is relayed in graphic novel format and narrated by a voice actor to protect the shooter's anonymity.

Watch it below:

“I killed Osama bin Laden”

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:54:00 +0000

Esquire has published a profile of the man who shot Osama bin Laden, though the SEAL is never named in the piece. Author Phil Bronstein notes that he developed a relationship with the shooter, drinking Scotch together, and learning some startling revelations about the day bin Laden died.

Some of the things Bronstein learned include:

Bin Laden's shooter will be leaving the military shortly with "No pension, no health care, and no protection for himself or his family." (His health insurance ceased at midnight the day he left the service.) He's obsessed with protecting his family as a consequence of his role in the death of bin Laden and "he has trained his children to hide in their bathtub" and his wife in marksmanship.
In order to further protect his family, the shooter is officially separated from his wife (though they live together) and the family is considering removing his name from the deed to their house. As his wife puts it: "Essentially deleting him from our lives, but for safety reasons. We still love each other."
The military considered various options when it came time to kill bin Laden. "They were either going to bomb the piss out of the compound with two-thousand-pound ordnance, they were going to send us in, do some kind of joint thing with the Pakis, or try what was called a 'hammer throw,' where a drone flies by and chucks one fucking bomb at the guy." The government hoped both to minimize collateral damage and to make certain bin Laden was dead.
Another Navy SEAL tackled two women he believed to be in suicide-bomber vests in order to allow the shooter a clear shot at bin Laden. "He thought he was going to absorb the blast of suicide vests," says the shooter. "He was going to kill himself so I could get the shot. It was the most heroic thing I've ever seen."
The film "Zero Dark Thirty" has some accuracy issues, per the SEAL: "The tactics on the screen 'sucked,' he says, and 'the mission in the damn movie took way too long' compared with the actual event." He had praise, though, for Jessica Chastain's character, based on a real CIA operative.
It wasn't just a desire for greater safety that led the SEAL to leave Seal Team Six. "I realized that when I stopped getting an adrenaline rush from gunfights, it was time to go."

Navy SEAL killed rescuing US doctor in Afghanistan

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:45:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — A member of a U.S. special operations team was killed during a weekend rescue mission in Afghanistan that freed an American doctor abducted by the Taliban outside of Kabul five days ago.

The U.S. did not immediately identify the special operator killed in the mission. News outlets including CNN and NBC reported that the service member was a Navy SEAL.

President Obama praised U.S. special forces on Sunday, saying the mission was characteristic of U.S. troops’ “extraordinary courage, skill and patriotism.”

A spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Dr. Dilip Joseph of Colorado Springs, Colo., was rescued early Sunday, local time, in eastern Afghanistan. Joseph, a medical adviser for Colorado Springs-based Morning Star Development, was rescued after intelligence showed he was in imminent danger of injury or possible death, according to the military.

The president praised the fallen service member.

“He gave his life for his fellow Americans, and he and his teammates remind us once more of the selfless service that allows our nation to stay strong, safe and free,” Obama said in a statement.

“SEAL Team Six”: Harvey Weinstein’s dull Obama endorsement

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 15:00:00 +0000

“SEAL Team Six,” a shallow TV movie about the raid to kill Osama Bin Laden, stars a bevy of beefcakes in Navy SEAL costumes -- and Barack Obama. Real audio and video footage of the president has been threaded into a fictional, melodramatic account of the attack on Abbottabad. Couple this with the film’s air date, tonight on National Geographic, just three days before the election, and “SEAL Team Six” has been accused of being Democratic propaganda, burnishing Obama's accomplishments, though its creators — director John Stockwell and producers the Weinstein brothers — have said they included Obama only to increase verisimilitude. But as either propaganda or realist fiction “SEAL Team Six” is ineffective. It’s on the level of those “The army is just like a character-building video game!” enlistment ads you see before movies, simple-minded and, at most, superficially rousing. Barack Obama probably isn't wild about help this dim.

Obama added to SEAL Team Six documentary

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:30:00 +0000

A National Geographic documentary about the hunt for Osama bin Laden is adding additional news footage of the President to the final cut of the film, set to air November 4th.

From the New York Times:

"But the star turn is virtually certain to bolster claims that the approximately 90-minute film amounts to a political stunt. Set for a prime-time debut on Nov. 4 on the National Geographic Channel, and a release the next day on Netflix, the film — 'SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden' — is being backed by Harvey Weinstein, a longtime Democratic contributor and one of the Obama campaign’s most vigorous backers. Mr. Weinstein bought the rights to the film for about $2.5 million at the Cannes festival in May."

National Geographic contends that the film is not political, and told the Times that it removed a scene suggesting Mitt Romney opposed the raid. “We wouldn’t air this if it were propaganda,” said Howard T. Owens, the chief executive of the network.

Romney to shut up about Benghazi victim

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:48:00 +0000

Mitt Romney has agreed to stop referencing a chance Christmas party encounter with Glen Doherty, one of the Navy SEALs who was killed in Libya, after Doherty’s mother denounced it.

“I don’t trust Romney. He shouldn’t make my son’s death part of his political agenda,” Barbara Doherty said in an interview with Boston’s WHDH TV.

At several speaking engagements recently, Romney has emoted about the ex-SEAL, like in Iowa on Tuesday when he first revealed his connection to Doherty, “You can imagine how I felt when I found out that he was one of the two former Navy SEALs killed in Benghazi on Sept. 11."