Navy SEAL Veteran Robert O'Neill Not Apologizing

Ex-Navy SEAL makes no apologies for going public
The Associated Press
KEN DILANIAN
Nov 15th 2014

Robert O'Neill, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, speaks at the 'Best of Blount' Chamber of Commerce awards ceremony at the Clayton Center for the Arts in Maryville, Tennessee, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014. O'Neill, in an interview with the Washington Post, identified himself as the person who killed Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill, who says he fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden, played a role in some of the most consequential combat missions of the post-9/11 era, including three depicted in Hollywood movies. And now he's telling the world about them.

By doing so, O'Neill has almost certainly increased his earning power on the speaking circuit. He also may have put himself and his family at greater risk. And he has earned the enmity of some current and former SEALs by violating their code of silence.

But O'Neill, winner of two Silver and five Bronze Stars, makes no apologies for any of that. In a wide-ranging interview Friday with The Associated Press, he said he believes the American public has a right to more details about the operation that killed the al-Qaida leader and other important military adventures. And he insisted he is taking pains not to divulge classified information or compromise the tactics SEALs use to get the drop on their enemies.

"The last thing I want to do is endanger anybody," he said. "I think the good (of going public) outweighs the bad."

"We work in secret and we pride ourselves on that, so if somebody comes out and spills this much, it angers the rest of us," Jonathan Gilliam, a former SEAL, said in an interview.
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Navy SEAL "No Easy Day" author sues lawyer for bad advice

Ex-SEAL author sues city lawyer
Blames him for trouble with bin Laden book
The Journal Gazette
Rebecca S. Green
November 7, 2014

There was money to be made with the publication of a book, movie rights and continued speaking engagements for retired Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette.

But when his book, “No Easy Day,” an account of the killing of Osama bin Laden, drew the ire of his brother SEALs and the U.S. government, Bissonnette targeted a local attorney, accusing him and his former employer of negligence in helping him ensure the book contained no inappropriate disclosures of classified information.

On Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Bissonnette – under his pseudonym Mark Owen – sued Kevin Podlaski and the Fort Wayne law firm of Carson Boxberger LLP.

In his 20-page lawsuit, Bissonnette, a former member of the clandestine Navy SEAL Team 6, accused Podlaski of “committing (Bissonnette) to a conflict with the government that he could not win.”
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Naval Special Warfare Leadership Responds to Latest Outing

Naval Special Warfare Leadership Responds to ‘The Shooter’ and Mark Owen
SOFREP
November 3, 2014

The senior leadership of the Navy’s SEAL community—the commander and force master chief of Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC)—have officially, and preemptively, responded to the upcoming Fox News appearance on November 11 and 12 of a former SEAL Team Six member, labeled in an Esquire Magazine article as ‘The Shooter,’ who appeared in the press claiming to have been the operator who shot Usama Bin Ladin in the 2011 raid that killed the Al-Qaeda leader.

In a letter signed by both the senior commander and enlisted man of Naval Special Warfare Command, the SEAL leadership emphasized that the majority of SEALs spend each day living up to the label “quiet professionals.” Unspoken is the implication that the former SEAL, who is in fact, former Red Squadron SEAL Robert O’Neill, is seeking notoriety for his own story.

The two SEAL leaders go on to point out that members of the Naval Special Warfare community not only serve alongside other U.S. military members, but also other U.S. government agencies and foreign allies. “Little individual credit” is ever given, according to the letter, due to the “nature of our profession.” The two also point out the years of hard work that go into operations like the one that targeted Bin Ladin, seemingly defying one or two individual shooters’ claims on the glory and fame that result from the success of such a mission.

The point they make is that it took so much more than the final trigger pull to kill Bin Ladin, so why should one SEAL assume the moniker, “The One Who Killed bin Ladin?”
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Navy SEAL: Inspired movies, killed Osama and now living in poverty?

Navy SEAL: Inspired movies, killed Osama and now living in poverty?

Navy SEAL who shot al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden dead revealed, nearly broke
By RYAN GORMAN
Nov 6th 2014

The Navy SEAL who shot dead al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is now reportedly living in poverty after leaving the military four years short of being eligible to receive his pension, he claims.

Robert O'Neill, 38, from Montana, went public with his identity after meeting family members of 9/11 terror attack victims, he told the Washington Post. And now the heroic commando is saying he was left high and dry by the government he dedicated his life to serving.

"The families told me it helped bring them some closure," said O'Neill, of killing the al-Qaeda founder.

O'Neill's career has inspired three movies: "Captain Phillips," about the rescue of a ship captain from Somali pirates; "Lone Survivor," which dramatized the hunt for Taliban leader Ahmad Shah; and "Zero Dark Thirty," about the bin Laden mission.

O'Neill now tours the country as a motivational speaker but claims he is barely making ends meet.

A man who carried earned more than 50 medals serving over 400 combat missions during his 16 years as a Navy SEAL does not even have health insurance, his father told the Daily Mail.

He also has no military pension.
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