True Crime Documentary - Operation Neptune Spear： Killing bin Laden

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60 Minutes Rewind. You are about to meet one of
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the men who shot Osama bin Laden. Mark Owen recently
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left the Navy's elite counterterrorism unit, SEAL Team 6. Mark
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Owen is not his real name. It is the name
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that he used to write a new book about the
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assault on bin Laden's compound called No Easy Day. Owen
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was on the helicopter that crashed into the compound. He
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was the second man in bin Laden's bedroom. and he
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took the pictures of the body that the world has
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never seen. Owen received a silver star for valor and
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a purple heart for a wound suffered in the raid.
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But despite all that, Owen told us in his only
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interview that No Easy Day is not about him. He
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says it's a tribute to the hundreds of Americans who
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gathered intelligence, planned and trained in the 10-year pursuit of
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the world's most wanted man. SEAL Team 6, he told us,
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just took care of the last 40 minutes. Was this
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a mission, was the plan to kill Osama bin Laden
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or capture him before you went in?
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This was absolutely not a kill-only mission. It was made
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very clear to us throughout our training for this that, hey,
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if given the opportunity, this is not an assassination, you
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will capture him alive if feasible. That was the preferred thing? Yes.
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To take him alive, if you could?
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Yeah. I mean, we're not there to assassinate somebody. We
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weren't sent in to murder him. This was, hey, kill
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or capture.
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We've never heard the story from someone who was there.
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The raid, May 1, 2011, had been years in the making.
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But in the moment, the best-laid plans failed, leaving a
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small team of Americans to improvise victory from near disaster.
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This operation was one of the most significant operations in U.S. history,
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and it's something that I believe deserves to be told
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right and deserves to go in a book and stand
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for itself.
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You're in disguise as we do this interview today, and
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I wonder why.
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The focus shouldn't be on me. The focus should be
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on the book. I'm not trying to be special or
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a hero or anything. I'm just trying to tell the
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bigger story.
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But you're in disguise also for your own security.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Tell me about that. What concerns you?
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You know, the enemy has a long memory.
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And so we spent a long time perfecting a new
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look for Owen. Before each interview, the best artist spent
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four hours thoroughly changing his appearance. We've used shadows to
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enhance the effect, and we've altered his voice.
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When I first joined the Navy... Chief.
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Petty Officer Owen was in the Navy 14 years. He
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had read about the SEALs in junior high school and
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set his sights. How many times have you been to
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war since 9-11?
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I've done 13 combat deployments. Afghanistan? Afghanistan, Iraq, all over.
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There are several SEAL teams, but Owen rose to the
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very top. A unit called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group,
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SEAL Team 6.
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SEAL Team 6 is.
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Made up of a number of squadrons, and I wonder,
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why was your squadron chosen for this particular mission?
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Was there something special about you? Nope, nope. Certainly nothing
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special about me, nothing special about the 24 guys that
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were chosen, nothing special about our squadron. It really could
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have been any number of guys. You just happened to
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be available for training. Yes.
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In April 2011, they had just returned from Afghanistan when
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they were told to report to North Carolina for an exercise.
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Give me the lay of the land here. What do
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we see?
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Owen walked into a top-secret briefing room, saw a model
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of a compound, and heard this from his buddies.
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What did they say? They said, hey, we found bin Laden,
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or we think we found bin Laden, and they want
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us to come up, you know, rehearse and come up
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with a plan if there's going to be a ground
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option approved. They want us to rehearse for one. What
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did you think? Awesome.
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The mission was Operation Neptune Spear under the authority of
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the CIA. The agency had tracked a bin Laden courier
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to a curious compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. They'd been watching
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the compound with satellites. The house seemed too big for
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the neighborhood. There was no telephone connection. The people there
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burned their trash.
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There was a wall.
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12 feet high, and a walled-in balcony.
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Who lived up there? They briefed us on the individual
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they were calling the pacer. The pacer? The pacer. So
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he would come out of the house and kind of
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walk around the yard to what was assessed to just
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be getting exercise. Where did the pacer pace? Over here.
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In this courtyard back here? Right. So he'd just kind
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of walk out in here, and a lot of the
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vegetation out here was probably purposely planted, so... surveillance couldn't
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see down on him.
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And he would just go round and round and round?
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Yep. He'd walk around the yard. Sometimes he'd walk with
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the SS to be a female. They'd just walk around
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the yard. They never stopped to help anybody do any work.
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If there was other people in the yard working, he
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never seemed to do any of that. It's almost above it.
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Above doing the manual labor. He was the boss, whoever
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he was.
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Correct.
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The Pacer had been in Abbottabad about five years. It's
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a well-to-do city of one million people, The compound was
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about a mile from the Pakistani military academy. In terms
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of the inside of the house, how much did you know?
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Zero. Zero.
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So once you went through the door, you didn't know
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what you were going to be facing.
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Right. But again, it goes back to that years of experience.
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We've done this a million times.
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Raids like this were common many nights in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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And looking at the model, the SEALs didn't think of
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this as particularly challenging. The tricky part was getting there.
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The U.S.
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Wasn't telling Pakistan so the helicopters could be shot down
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by Pakistan's modern air defenses. The pilots were from the
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Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Two modified Blackhawks, call
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signs Chalk 1 and Chalk 2, would drop 24 SEALs
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and a Belgian Malinois combat dog named Cairo.
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Chalk 1, which is the one I was on, was
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gonna hover over the compound here. We would drop the
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two fast ropes, slide down the ropes into the courtyard here,
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and then go about our business while Chalk Two would
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land out here, just over here by the road, drop
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the external containment team off. They would provide security external.
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We'd have two men and our combat assault dog would
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do a quick patrol of the perimeter down to the
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south and around to make sure that there was no
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tunnels underneath the walls if somebody did hear us coming
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and had time to escape. After dropping those guys off,
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the second helo was going to come up, hover over
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the third floor, drop off the remaining guys. They would
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then hop right down into the balcony, assaulting from the
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top down, and our guys would assault from the bottom up.
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A few days after getting the mission, they had their plan,
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and so began weeks of rehearsals on a full-size version
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of the compound built in North Carolina. How many times
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did you assault it? How many times did you train
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on it?
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A lot. Between when we got the mission and when
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we left for Afghanistan, we probably, you know, probably did
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100 times.
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So how unusual was this kind of training?
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Yeah, very unusual. I've never had all the mock-ups. I've
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never rehearsed for something for three weeks.
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One rehearsal had an audience, the nation's highest-ranking officer, Admiral
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Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. the head of
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special operations, Admiral Eric Olson, and observers from the White House.
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One of the things that I liked after the fact
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was I remember Admiral Mullen coming by and talking to
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each one of us and then Admiral Olson as well,
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and I thought that was cool. They walked by, shook
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each of our hands, and said, hey, are you guys ready?
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Can you guys pull this off? And I'm pretty sure
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to a man we all said yes, absolutely.
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The team got several days off at home around Easter. Then,
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in late April, about a month after they got the mission,
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they loaded on a plane bound for a U.S. base
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in Afghanistan. The president wasn't convinced yet. No one confirmed
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that bin Laden was the pacer, so SEAL Team 6
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was on standby. One of the passengers on their plane
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was a CIA analyst who had spent five years on
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bin Laden's trail.
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I can't give her enough credit. I mean, she, in
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my opinion, she kind of teed up this whole thing,
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and it was just, you know, wicked smart, kind of feisty.
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And she was, you know, we'd always talk back and forth, hey,
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what do you think the odds of this are? What
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do you think the odds of that are? And, you know, hey,
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you know, what do you think? You think he's there?
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She's like, 100%. 100% he's there. And you thought what? Well,
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we'll see.
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Three days later, on April 30th, the president was telling
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jokes at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. CIA Director
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Leon Panetta's belly laugh was heard all across the room.
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Reporters in ball gowns and tuxedos had no idea that
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just a few hours before, President Obama had ordered Panetta
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to launch the raid.
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Mr.
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Obama kept to his schedule, thinking that on this night,
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it was better to have reporters drinking and laughing than
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asking questions. When did you first hear that the president
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had approved your mission?
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The commanding officer of our command walked in and said, hey,
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just got off the phone, the mission's approved. What did
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you think? This is big. This is cool. I'm glad
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I'm a part of it.
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The raid was supposed to be April 30th, but the
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weather was bad. The next night, Vice Admiral William McRaven
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saw the men off. He was a SEAL, and he
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had planned the mission as head of the Joint Special
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Operations Command. Just before midnight, the Blackhawks started the sprint
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from the U.S. base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to Abbottabad, about
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150 miles away. The helicopters were blacked out against a clear,
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moonless night. The Army pilots, guided by night vision goggles,
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flew high speed, treetop level, under Pakistani radar.
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It was roughly an hour and a half. I remember,
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you know, we took off, shut the doors, and the
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radio call I heard was, you know, hey, we're over
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the border. We're crossing the border into Pakistan. And I
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remember thinking, wow, this is okay. This is happening. And
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I swear I glanced around the helicopter and and half
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the guys are sitting there asleep on the ride in.
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It's an hour and a half ride, guys got to
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catch a few Z's on the way in.
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Wait a minute, your team is flying in to Osama
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bin Laden's compound and they're asleep?
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Yeah, no, it's your time to just kind of shut
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your eyes, relax, you know, mentally walk through whatever you
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need to walk through.
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It was about one o'clock in the morning, 66 degrees,
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65% humidity with calm winds.
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At one minute, we opened the door, and I just
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kind of swung my legs out, and I'm sitting there
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looking down. I'm thinking, wow, you know, this is a
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beautiful spot. Houses with pools in the backyard, well-lit, manicured yards. Like, wow,
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this is definitely not, you know, the mud huts of Afghanistan.
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Somehow, there was a blackout in the neighborhood. No one
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will say whether that was luck or design, but it
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meant ideal darkness for the SEALs with their night vision goggles.
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You could see the compound coming.
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You had the door to the Black Hawk open and
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your legs were swung outside.
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Right. To make a little more room, be faster to,
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you know, quicker for everybody to get out and fast
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rope out of the helicopter so everybody's getting ready to
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fast rope. And then all of a sudden we banked
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hard 90 degrees. Once we went hard 90... It was
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very apparent that something was wrong.
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Owen doesn't know what went wrong, but pilots say that
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a chopper can lose lift when it drops into the
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turbulence of its own downdraft. And the turbulence would have
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been much worse because the downdraft was being magnified and
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reflected by the compound's walls.
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These pilots are the best in the world. You don't
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get better than these guys. And typically, they just, boom,
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they move right in and they stick it. It's like
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parking a car for these guys. And it was a
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rough ride. We were pretty low, tail rotor and everything
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happened to miss this wall here. And then we were
244
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just kind of sliding and falling out of the sky
245
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this way. I was now in the front of the helicopter,
246
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although I was sitting on the left side, I was
247
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now the front. My buddy right behind me, he pretty
248
00:13:21.799 --> 00:13:23.320
much should have fallen out. If it weren't for him
249
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hanging onto me, there's a good chance I would have
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been thrown from the helicopter.
251
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As the helicopter is going down, what were you thinking?
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This is gonna suck, you know, hey, wow.
253
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The carefully rehearsed plan was out the window before the
254
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first boot hit the ground. With one helicopter and half
255
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the SEALs crashing, the second helicopter abandoned the roof assault
256
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as too risky and the SEALs began to improvise. One
257
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thing was sure now, the people in the house knew
258
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they were coming. The raid on Bin Laden's house was
259
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supposed to be straightforward. Two helicopters, call signs Chalk 1
260
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and Chalk 2, carried 24 members of SEAL Team 6,
261
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each man hauling 60 pounds of gear. One group planned
262
00:14:09.889 --> 00:14:12.149
to slide down ropes onto the roof of the house.
263
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Mark Owen's group planned to rope down into the courtyard.
264
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But Owen's helicopter crashed, and now everything was changing for
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the most important counterterrorism assault in U.S.
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History. Tell me about the crash. The pilot mentioned, you know,
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I remember him mentioning in the rehearsals, he's like, you know,
268
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if I have to ditch this thing, I'm gonna try
269
00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:35.570
and put it down in this courtyard. So that's exactly
270
00:14:35.610 --> 00:14:37.210
what he did. You could tell, you could hear the
271
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helicopter winding up.
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He was putting all the power on it he could,
273
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but it wasn't helping.
274
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No, nothing. Came in and impacted, boom. Had the angle
275
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been more, the rotors would have hit the ground, snapped
276
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off and caused us to roll. Had the tail rotor hit,
277
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obviously it would have broken, caused us to break and roll.
278
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The load bearing section of the tail, landed precisely on
279
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the wall.
280
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The strongest part of the tail, just happened to land
281
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on the wall.
282
00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:03.580
Yup, and the angle happened to be perfect. It all
283
00:15:03.620 --> 00:15:07.620
came down to inches, really inches either way. We stopped,
284
00:15:07.820 --> 00:15:10.179
the main rotor blades are still turning. I don't think
285
00:15:10.220 --> 00:15:14.899
you could recreate that if you tried. Lucky. Lucky, but again,
286
00:15:15.190 --> 00:15:18.289
huge props to these pilots. I mean, everybody wants to
287
00:15:18.309 --> 00:15:20.570
meet the guy who shot Minh Luong. I want to
288
00:15:20.590 --> 00:15:23.789
meet the pilot. I mean, I wouldn't be here for
289
00:15:23.830 --> 00:15:24.210
more for him.
290
00:15:24.490 --> 00:15:28.850
If the pilot had not brought your helicopter down intact,
291
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would the mission have failed?
292
00:15:31.009 --> 00:15:33.480
No, I don't think so, because Chalk 2 was on
293
00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:37.120
the ground, and as soon as they saw us crash land,
294
00:15:37.399 --> 00:15:41.570
that Chalk 2 helicopter pilot saw that happen, decided not
295
00:15:41.610 --> 00:15:43.659
to push the position to go to the roof. And
296
00:15:43.679 --> 00:15:45.929
that's one thing that Admiral McRaven said in one of
297
00:15:45.990 --> 00:15:49.710
our very last rehearsals, briefs, dry runs right there in
298
00:15:49.970 --> 00:15:52.590
Afghanistan before we launched. He stood up and he said, hey, listen,
299
00:15:52.789 --> 00:15:55.190
don't try any fancy stuff. Just get the guys on
300
00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:56.889
the ground and they'll figure it out.
301
00:15:57.370 --> 00:16:00.269
You mention in the book that one of the Army
302
00:16:00.309 --> 00:16:03.250
pilots that was flying your team looked to you to
303
00:16:03.289 --> 00:16:03.809
be about.
304
00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:05.940
50 years old. He was definitely a little older.
305
00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:08.899
But I guess in this line of work, it's experience
306
00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:09.399
that matters.
307
00:16:09.580 --> 00:16:11.740
Yeah, yeah. He's probably been flying longer than I've been alive.
308
00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:13.559
So I Nothing wrong with that.
309
00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:16.840
They had planned to be on the ground 30 minutes,
310
00:16:16.899 --> 00:16:20.139
but now they were running late. Owen's team landed in
311
00:16:20.259 --> 00:16:23.799
this courtyard, walled off from the house. So your team
312
00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:24.259
does what?
313
00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:27.259
I ran out here. I turned around and looked, and
314
00:16:27.299 --> 00:16:29.200
I see the guys on the left side of the helicopter.
315
00:16:29.379 --> 00:16:31.679
They're sitting right there staring at the front door. So
316
00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:34.100
they simply hop out and go right to the front
317
00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:36.960
door like nothing happened. Go right to this door here? Yep.
318
00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:41.620
The other helicopter landed outside the perimeter wall, dropped all
319
00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:45.470
of its seals, and took off. Now, what's your objective?
320
00:16:45.509 --> 00:16:47.269
What's your team supposed to do right now?
321
00:16:47.690 --> 00:16:49.529
We are clearing and securing the southern compound.
322
00:16:49.570 --> 00:16:52.629
You expect to find people in this building, and you
323
00:16:52.649 --> 00:16:54.820
want to clear that building so the rest of the
324
00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:55.899
team can do what they need to.
325
00:16:55.909 --> 00:16:58.379
Do in here. Exactly. I think what SEALs are good
326
00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:01.100
at is what I consider pickup basketball. We all know
327
00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:04.000
how to play the game. You hear the saying in
328
00:17:04.039 --> 00:17:07.029
the teams is, Can you shoot, move, and communicate? So
329
00:17:07.069 --> 00:17:08.549
we all know how to shoot. We all know how
330
00:17:08.569 --> 00:17:12.450
to move efficiently and tactically, and we can communicate clearly.
331
00:17:12.509 --> 00:17:16.450
So when something goes sideways, we're able to play that
332
00:17:16.490 --> 00:17:18.279
pickup basketball and just kind of read off each other.
333
00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.319
Now the SEALs were in several groups. One group was
334
00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:25.539
outside the perimeter wall to make sure no one escaped.
335
00:17:26.019 --> 00:17:28.160
The group that was supposed to rope to the roof
336
00:17:28.579 --> 00:17:31.849
was outside the wall looking for a way in. Owen
337
00:17:32.109 --> 00:17:35.150
led his team to the outer building. where they expected
338
00:17:35.190 --> 00:17:37.210
to find one of Bin Laden's couriers.
339
00:17:37.910 --> 00:17:40.190
We got to the door. Obviously, we made tons of
340
00:17:40.259 --> 00:17:42.420
noise at this point. It had taken a little longer
341
00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:45.380
to get there. So, you know, the element of surprise
342
00:17:45.539 --> 00:17:49.359
is slipping away quickly. We got to the double doors.
343
00:17:50.140 --> 00:17:52.720
I tried it once real quick. It was locked. My
344
00:17:52.740 --> 00:17:55.160
buddy who was with me is carrying a sledgehammer, pulls
345
00:17:55.180 --> 00:17:57.599
it out, gives it a couple good swings. Nothing. Door's
346
00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:01.859
not going anywhere. Kind of solid metal. So I'm like, okay,
347
00:18:02.059 --> 00:18:05.440
we're going explosive. They all carry explosive charges. I pulled
348
00:18:05.509 --> 00:18:08.609
one off, got on my knee, and started setting it.
349
00:18:08.990 --> 00:18:11.109
And right as I was attaching it, a round started
350
00:18:11.150 --> 00:18:12.089
coming through the door at us.
351
00:18:12.289 --> 00:18:14.910
Somebody started shooting at you from inside the house, and
352
00:18:14.950 --> 00:18:16.170
the bullets were coming through the door.
353
00:18:16.309 --> 00:18:20.490
Yep. Immediately, my buddy who was standing up started returning fire.
354
00:18:21.450 --> 00:18:25.269
I kind of rolled away from the door, blindly returned
355
00:18:25.309 --> 00:18:27.130
fire back through. You couldn't see what was on the
356
00:18:27.150 --> 00:18:30.859
other side, and then it went quiet. Thankfully, the SEAL
357
00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:33.380
that was there with me, that initially returned fire with me,
358
00:18:33.660 --> 00:18:35.900
spoke Arabic. So he immediately started calling out to the
359
00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:39.339
people inside, started hearing the metal latch on the inside
360
00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:40.980
of the door. What are they, are they going to
361
00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:42.400
come out with a suicide vest? Are they going to
362
00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:44.019
throw a hand grenade out? Are they going to, you know,
363
00:18:44.519 --> 00:18:48.500
spray their AK? Door opens up, a female holding the kid,
364
00:18:48.519 --> 00:18:50.059
a couple of kids right behind her.
365
00:18:50.740 --> 00:18:53.079
You got your finger on your trigger and you're looking
366
00:18:53.400 --> 00:18:55.259
at a woman with her children.
367
00:18:55.420 --> 00:18:58.640
Yeah. Yeah. Split second. I mean, we just received fire.
368
00:18:59.619 --> 00:19:02.240
My buddy's speaking Arabic. He's asking her, you know, hey,
369
00:19:02.259 --> 00:19:05.869
where's your husband? What's going on? And she replies back
370
00:19:05.910 --> 00:19:07.089
to him, he's dead, you shot him.
371
00:19:08.490 --> 00:19:11.789
Owen didn't notice until later, but he was bleeding, a
372
00:19:11.849 --> 00:19:15.329
shoulder wound from a fragment of something in the firefight.
373
00:19:15.990 --> 00:19:17.859
Yeah, I just got a little piece of frag in
374
00:19:17.900 --> 00:19:19.640
my shoulder from some of the rounds that came through.
375
00:19:19.660 --> 00:19:23.819
It really wasn't a major wound at all. But I
376
00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:26.400
carry a set of bolt cutters to cut locks with.
377
00:19:26.940 --> 00:19:29.660
When I got back, I was checking my gears, any
378
00:19:29.700 --> 00:19:31.920
holes or anything, and I pull out the bolt cutters,
379
00:19:31.940 --> 00:19:33.980
and I've got the bullet stuck in the handle. So
380
00:19:34.460 --> 00:19:36.599
the bullet just missed me by a little bit, and
381
00:19:36.619 --> 00:19:38.500
it'll stick up either side of my head.
382
00:19:38.740 --> 00:19:41.440
Right by your neck. But you don't consider that to
383
00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:42.089
be a big deal?
384
00:19:42.890 --> 00:19:46.690
No. Plenty of other guys have suffered much, much, much worse.
385
00:19:46.730 --> 00:19:47.849
So it's not a big deal.
386
00:19:49.670 --> 00:19:53.130
Within five minutes, Owen's team cleared the outer house. More
387
00:19:53.210 --> 00:19:56.970
SEALs entered the compound and converged on the first floor
388
00:19:57.210 --> 00:20:01.630
of the main building. Inside, they found another courier with
389
00:20:01.670 --> 00:20:04.470
an assault rifle. Those SEALs were in the process of
390
00:20:04.509 --> 00:20:05.799
shooting the second gunman.
391
00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:06.299
Right.
392
00:20:06.950 --> 00:20:08.019
And his wife jumped in.
393
00:20:08.019 --> 00:20:11.589
Front of him. All the women on target were very hostile.
394
00:20:11.650 --> 00:20:13.829
It's something very different than what we see in Afghanistan
395
00:20:13.890 --> 00:20:16.609
or Iraq. You typically don't see the women that are
396
00:20:16.650 --> 00:20:20.950
this aggressive and hostile. Even though the females had come
397
00:20:21.029 --> 00:20:23.390
out of this building and talked to us, they were
398
00:20:23.410 --> 00:20:26.970
still very combative and aggressive. And we saw that throughout
399
00:20:27.009 --> 00:20:28.630
the entire compound, even all the way up on the
400
00:20:28.650 --> 00:20:29.109
third floor.
401
00:20:29.869 --> 00:20:32.609
They secured the ground floor and then the second floor.
402
00:20:33.210 --> 00:20:36.210
The team continued to head up these stairs single file.
403
00:20:36.940 --> 00:20:40.000
The first SEAL in line is called the point man. Owen,
404
00:20:40.019 --> 00:20:43.019
at this point, was right behind him, number two, going
405
00:20:43.079 --> 00:20:46.029
up to the third floor. The SEALs had been told
406
00:20:46.509 --> 00:20:49.289
they could expect one of Osama bin Laden's sons.
407
00:20:50.150 --> 00:20:53.950
Guys start making their way up the stairs, and it's quiet.
408
00:20:54.190 --> 00:20:57.470
It's pitch black in the house. No lights, all night vision.
409
00:20:58.130 --> 00:21:01.359
Get to the second floor. Intel had said, we think
410
00:21:01.730 --> 00:21:05.319
that Khalid, his son, lives on the second floor. this
411
00:21:05.430 --> 00:21:09.000
is Osama bin Laden's son. Yeah. The guy in front
412
00:21:09.019 --> 00:21:11.380
of me who's his appointment, he sees the head pop
413
00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:15.619
out and disappear really quick around the corner. It's like, okay,
414
00:21:15.940 --> 00:21:18.220
you know, what do you, who is it? What do
415
00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:18.460
you think?
416
00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:19.039
I don't know.
417
00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:24.700
He literally whispers, not amped up, not yelling, not anything.
418
00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:31.259
He whispers, hey Khalid, Khalid. Whispers Khalid's name. Doesn't know
419
00:21:31.299 --> 00:21:34.339
if it's Khalid or not. Khalid literally looks back around the,
420
00:21:35.029 --> 00:21:37.769
around the edge of the hall, and he shoots him.
421
00:21:38.490 --> 00:21:41.769
What was Khalid thinking at that time? Look around the corner,
422
00:21:42.099 --> 00:21:46.170
you know, curiosity killed the cat. I guess Khalid too.
423
00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:50.160
It had been 15 minutes since the crash. It was
424
00:21:50.220 --> 00:21:54.279
now about 1.15 a.m. Give me a sense of what
425
00:21:54.359 --> 00:21:57.160
this scene is like in there. I mean, are these
426
00:21:57.539 --> 00:22:00.619
guys yelling and charging up the stairs? Is there a
427
00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:01.339
lot of action?
428
00:22:01.380 --> 00:22:04.309
How's it unfolding? You know, it's not like the movies.
429
00:22:04.490 --> 00:22:06.349
You know, movies make it out to be, you know,
430
00:22:06.369 --> 00:22:10.299
loud and crazy and everybody's yelling. This is what we do.
431
00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:14.799
We're really good at it. So it's quiet, calm, like
432
00:22:14.819 --> 00:22:17.220
we've done it a million times before. We have a saying,
433
00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:20.259
you know, don't run to your death. So nice and slow,
434
00:22:20.900 --> 00:22:24.079
and we head up the stairs. Khalid is dead on
435
00:22:24.119 --> 00:22:24.720
this landing.
436
00:22:25.539 --> 00:22:30.059
The point man is stepping past Khalid, and now you're
437
00:22:30.119 --> 00:22:31.200
number two in the stack.
438
00:22:31.220 --> 00:22:33.920
You're right behind the point man. Yep. I kind of
439
00:22:34.259 --> 00:22:36.759
tried to look around him, hear him take a couple shots,
440
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:39.960
kind of see a head. Somebody disappeared back into the room.
441
00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:42.339
The point man had seen someone stick his head out
442
00:22:42.380 --> 00:22:45.960
a door and shot him just the way he'd shot Khalid.
443
00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:49.640
Yep. What did you do then? Inside the room, I
444
00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:53.140
could see a body laying on the ground. Over him
445
00:22:53.180 --> 00:22:57.279
was two females real close to the door. They looked
446
00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:01.109
up and saw the point man. He steps in to
447
00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:05.230
the room. literally rushes the two women, grabs one under
448
00:23:05.289 --> 00:23:07.869
each arm and pushes them back against the far wall.
449
00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:10.150
So if they did have a suicide vest on and
450
00:23:10.190 --> 00:23:13.710
they did blow themselves up, that they wouldn't, that that
451
00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:15.099
wouldn't affect the rest of the guys.
452
00:23:15.630 --> 00:23:16.480
But it would have killed him.
453
00:23:16.500 --> 00:23:17.500
Yeah.
454
00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:23.339
You stepped into the room and saw the man lying
455
00:23:23.380 --> 00:23:23.740
on the floor.
456
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:27.480
What did you do? Myself and the next assaulter in,
457
00:23:28.059 --> 00:23:31.349
we both engaged him several more times. and then rolled
458
00:23:31.450 --> 00:23:33.470
off and then continued clearing the room. When you say
459
00:23:33.509 --> 00:23:37.910
you engaged him, what do you mean? Fired. You shot him? Yeah.
460
00:23:38.309 --> 00:23:41.630
He's still moving? A little bit, but you couldn't see
461
00:23:41.670 --> 00:23:43.829
his arms, couldn't see his hands, so he could have
462
00:23:43.869 --> 00:23:45.930
had something, could have had a hand grenade or something
463
00:23:45.950 --> 00:23:46.730
underneath his chest.
464
00:23:47.089 --> 00:23:50.190
So after Osama bin Laden is wounded, he's still moving,
465
00:23:51.109 --> 00:23:53.009
you shot him twice?
466
00:23:53.710 --> 00:23:54.410
A handful of times.
467
00:23:54.779 --> 00:23:57.940
A handful of times, and the seal in the stack
468
00:23:58.140 --> 00:24:02.279
behind you also... shot Osama bin Laden, and at that point,
469
00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:03.140
his body was still.
470
00:24:03.559 --> 00:24:07.900
Yes. Did you recognize it? No. You know, everybody thinks
471
00:24:07.980 --> 00:24:09.680
it was like, you know it's him.
472
00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:10.519
No.
473
00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:13.000
To us at that time, it could have been anybody.
474
00:24:13.160 --> 00:24:15.319
Maybe this was another brother. Maybe this was a bodyguard.
475
00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:18.980
It doesn't matter. The point is to just continue clearing.
476
00:24:20.140 --> 00:24:24.160
By now, 20 minutes had passed. Every single thing the
477
00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:26.680
woman with the CIA had told them on the plane
478
00:24:27.019 --> 00:24:30.730
had been right. But time was running out. Throughout the raid,
479
00:24:30.789 --> 00:24:33.589
the remaining helicopter was in the air. It only had
480
00:24:33.650 --> 00:24:37.250
enough gas to stay for 30 minutes or so. Pakistani
481
00:24:37.289 --> 00:24:41.569
neighbors had discovered the SEALs posted outside the compound wall,
482
00:24:41.990 --> 00:24:45.180
and it couldn't be long before the Pakistani military would
483
00:24:45.220 --> 00:24:48.740
know they were there. One SEAL was charged with keeping
484
00:24:48.779 --> 00:24:51.900
an eye on his wristwatch and calling out the dwindling
485
00:24:51.960 --> 00:24:56.869
time on the radio. 20 minutes, 15, 10.
486
00:24:56.869 --> 00:24:57.589
We'll be right back.
487
00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:01.880
As time was slipping away, Mark Owen and a couple
488
00:25:01.900 --> 00:25:05.200
of other members of SEAL Team 6 kneeled around a
489
00:25:05.299 --> 00:25:09.269
mangled body on the third floor of the house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
490
00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:13.150
Everything the CIA analysts told them about the raid on
491
00:25:13.230 --> 00:25:17.430
Osama bin Laden's house had checked out exactly as she said.
492
00:25:17.970 --> 00:25:20.170
But was this bin Laden?
493
00:25:21.490 --> 00:25:24.369
You know, in my mind, he looked way younger than
494
00:25:24.410 --> 00:25:26.420
I thought he was going to be. His beard wasn't
495
00:25:26.460 --> 00:25:29.839
gray at all. I'd studied lots of photos of him, and,
496
00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:34.930
you know, they were always gray. His beard was dark black. Identifiably,
497
00:25:34.970 --> 00:25:37.190
he was very tall. So, okay, you know, you can
498
00:25:37.210 --> 00:25:39.970
kind of chalk that up as something. Bin Laden was
499
00:25:40.109 --> 00:25:43.950
about 6'4. Right. His nose, to me, was something that
500
00:25:44.029 --> 00:25:46.509
I could kind of identify. So, you know, kind of
501
00:25:46.609 --> 00:25:48.829
looking at the profile shots and everything, I was like, okay,
502
00:25:49.490 --> 00:25:51.369
I was pretty sure that was him. But, you know,
503
00:25:51.390 --> 00:25:54.640
I'm not willing to make that call. Certainly not at
504
00:25:54.670 --> 00:25:55.039
that point.
505
00:25:55.950 --> 00:25:59.369
Not willing because Owens says they suspected the president was
506
00:25:59.450 --> 00:26:03.029
listening at the White House, and he was right. The
507
00:26:03.069 --> 00:26:06.089
helicopter crash had been reported up the chain of command.
508
00:26:06.710 --> 00:26:10.819
Owens says the SEALs wanted proof before anyone said anything
509
00:26:10.890 --> 00:26:14.900
on the radio about killing Osama bin Laden. They turned
510
00:26:14.940 --> 00:26:17.599
to one of the SEALs in the room, who spoke Arabic.
511
00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:19.980
So he moved out to where the women and kids were,
512
00:26:20.279 --> 00:26:23.680
grabs one of the younger kids, says, hey, who is
513
00:26:23.700 --> 00:26:28.880
that inside? She says, Osama. Osama who? Osama bin Laden.
514
00:26:28.980 --> 00:26:32.079
The child? The child. Identified him? No. Grabbed one of
515
00:26:32.119 --> 00:26:35.599
the females, asked her again, said, who is that? She said,
516
00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:36.920
Osama bin Laden.
517
00:26:37.549 --> 00:26:39.630
Does a cheer go up among the SEALs? You start
518
00:26:39.650 --> 00:26:41.369
shaking hands, patting each other on the back?
519
00:26:41.849 --> 00:26:44.910
Nothing. It's all business. We're on a clock here. So
520
00:26:45.490 --> 00:26:48.690
we call up the commanding officer. He comes upstairs, looks
521
00:26:48.730 --> 00:26:51.000
at the body. We give him what we have so far. Hey,
522
00:26:51.240 --> 00:26:53.660
here's what he looks like. Take a look. He's tall.
523
00:26:54.099 --> 00:26:56.700
women and kid confirm it. He took one look, said, okay,
524
00:26:57.019 --> 00:26:57.619
I think that's him.
525
00:26:58.740 --> 00:27:02.220
The commander used the code word for bin Laden, Geronimo,
526
00:27:02.619 --> 00:27:06.329
as he passed the message to Admiral McRaven. For God
527
00:27:06.509 --> 00:27:13.650
and country, he said, I pass Geronimo, Geronimo, E-K-I-A, which
528
00:27:13.710 --> 00:27:19.319
stands for enemy, killed in action. 20 minutes had passed,
529
00:27:19.319 --> 00:27:21.619
10 minutes left on the schedule.
530
00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:25.170
We wanted to collect information. DNA samples. We wanted to
531
00:27:25.230 --> 00:27:28.339
take photographs of them, and then we wanted duplicate copies
532
00:27:28.380 --> 00:27:31.640
of that. So obviously we're taking the body out, but
533
00:27:31.859 --> 00:27:33.779
if a helicopter got shot down on the way out
534
00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:36.380
and it had the body, we wanted the other helicopter
535
00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:39.579
to have DNA and photos so they'd have some sort
536
00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:41.480
of evidence that said, hey, we do have them, and
537
00:27:41.500 --> 00:27:43.839
here it is. You wanted duplicates of everything. Yeah, just
538
00:27:43.859 --> 00:27:46.519
in case. You thought of everything. We tried.
539
00:27:47.460 --> 00:27:51.539
One SEAL took blood and saliva samples. Owen took the pictures.
540
00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:54.009
I figured these were the Probably some of the most
541
00:27:54.049 --> 00:27:56.650
important photos I'd ever take in my life. So, you know,
542
00:27:56.950 --> 00:27:59.109
make sure I do it right, get good angles and
543
00:27:59.130 --> 00:28:00.990
all this other stuff. But, you know, you got to
544
00:28:01.450 --> 00:28:06.900
clean off the face as identifiable as possible. So one
545
00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:09.210
of my buddies had a camelback with some water in it.
546
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:13.480
Got some, you know, spread some water on him, took
547
00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:15.079
a sheet off the bed, kind of wiped the blood
548
00:28:15.140 --> 00:28:16.259
off and then took photos.
549
00:28:16.819 --> 00:28:20.380
Wiping the blood off of Osama bin Laden's face? Camelback
550
00:28:20.430 --> 00:28:22.859
is one of those backpacks that has a water bladder
551
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:25.140
in it, and you use it to drink water out of,
552
00:28:25.180 --> 00:28:27.940
but you used it to wash his face, and you
553
00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:30.880
shot pictures of his face in a profile. Can you
554
00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:32.000
describe what they look like?
555
00:28:33.410 --> 00:28:36.529
They're pretty gruesome. Well, when you say gruesome, what are
556
00:28:36.549 --> 00:28:39.410
we talking about? He had a bullet wound in the head,
557
00:28:40.130 --> 00:28:42.490
so that gruesome.
558
00:28:43.930 --> 00:28:47.440
Two SEALs took the body downstairs and zipped Bin Laden
559
00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:50.980
into a bag. In the bedroom, Owen found an assault
560
00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:53.180
rifle and a pistol on a shelf.
561
00:28:54.220 --> 00:28:57.160
And some people would argue that, you know, why did
562
00:28:57.740 --> 00:29:01.980
that point man take those shots? Well, immediately, the first
563
00:29:02.039 --> 00:29:05.509
door we went to, my team was engaged by enemy
564
00:29:05.549 --> 00:29:08.369
fire through the door. So automatically, we know we're going
565
00:29:08.410 --> 00:29:14.630
into an enemy compound. Shots being fired back at us immediately.
566
00:29:15.190 --> 00:29:18.460
AK found next to Khalid on the stairs. All those
567
00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:21.970
boxes have been checked. that if a guy sticks his
568
00:29:22.009 --> 00:29:24.869
head around the corner, he very easily could have a gun.
569
00:29:25.210 --> 00:29:29.130
You don't wait to get that AK or the grenade
570
00:29:29.170 --> 00:29:31.970
thrown down the hall or the suicide vest. So in
571
00:29:31.990 --> 00:29:34.099
the split second, that's when he engaged.
572
00:29:34.779 --> 00:29:37.289
He did have a gun, but he didn't use it.
573
00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:43.700
And I wonder what you make of that. I think
574
00:29:44.380 --> 00:29:47.019
in the end, he taught a lot of people to do,
575
00:29:47.380 --> 00:29:51.140
you know, martyr themselves, and he masterminded the 9-11 attacks.
576
00:29:51.539 --> 00:29:53.859
But in the end, he wasn't even willing to roger
577
00:29:53.900 --> 00:29:56.589
up himself with a gun and put up a fight.
578
00:29:56.670 --> 00:29:58.250
So I think that speaks for itself.
579
00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:03.640
Back on the second floor, the SEALs were grabbing computers, disks,
580
00:30:03.779 --> 00:30:08.579
flash drives, videotapes, more priceless intelligence than they could carry.
581
00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:11.200
There was so much stuff in this house.
582
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:14.029
The guys were just stuffing this stuff in garbage bags?
583
00:30:14.329 --> 00:30:16.869
We had carried bags with us, but we filled all
584
00:30:16.910 --> 00:30:19.190
these bags up. So you just find some, you know,
585
00:30:19.390 --> 00:30:22.009
an old gym bag on target, dump out whatever's in
586
00:30:22.049 --> 00:30:24.819
it and use that. As we were running out, I
587
00:30:24.859 --> 00:30:26.460
look over at my buddy. He's got a bag of
588
00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:29.299
stuff in one hand, like Santa Claus running out of there,
589
00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:32.019
but a bag full of goodies in one hand that
590
00:30:32.039 --> 00:30:35.349
he'd collected and a computer terminal in the other.
591
00:30:36.029 --> 00:30:38.049
The plan had been to be on the ground for
592
00:30:38.049 --> 00:30:40.789
30 minutes, but now they were a few minutes late.
593
00:30:41.230 --> 00:30:43.029
It was after 1.30 a.m.
594
00:30:43.789 --> 00:30:45.990
Now things are starting to pick up outside. People have
595
00:30:46.250 --> 00:30:49.279
obviously woken up at this point. They're coming over to
596
00:30:49.339 --> 00:30:51.980
investigate what's going on. They were the neighbors.
597
00:30:52.490 --> 00:30:54.829
And they had a lot of questions for the SEALs
598
00:30:54.930 --> 00:30:56.869
standing guard outside the wall.
599
00:30:57.670 --> 00:31:00.349
So that's where things could get real dynamic for that
600
00:31:00.390 --> 00:31:02.930
team outside. Everybody wants to know what was going on inside.
601
00:31:03.410 --> 00:31:07.079
That team had way more responsibility than just about anybody
602
00:31:07.130 --> 00:31:10.930
else because they were dealing with all the what-ifs outside.
603
00:31:11.690 --> 00:31:15.160
What if the police showed up or the military? We're
604
00:31:15.180 --> 00:31:17.059
running out of time. We've got to get going. There's
605
00:31:17.099 --> 00:31:20.240
neighbors approaching. The interpreter that was out here said, hey,
606
00:31:20.660 --> 00:31:22.900
There's a police operation going on here. Go back to
607
00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:25.160
your homes. And they'd simply go back away.
608
00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:30.170
Among the unfinished business was the crashed helicopter. It was
609
00:31:30.230 --> 00:31:32.869
a secret design loaded with secret gear.
610
00:31:33.430 --> 00:31:34.349
They had to blow it up.
611
00:31:35.069 --> 00:31:38.130
A message was passed to their explosives expert called the
612
00:31:38.329 --> 00:31:42.089
EOD man. Prep it to blow, they said. But the
613
00:31:42.309 --> 00:31:44.869
it in the message was a little vague.
614
00:31:45.549 --> 00:31:49.950
The EOD guy thinks he means prep the house to blow.
615
00:31:51.890 --> 00:31:53.690
So there we are in the middle of this and
616
00:31:53.710 --> 00:31:55.529
he's like, okay, Roger that, prep it to blow. So
617
00:31:55.569 --> 00:31:57.589
he's running around the first floor of the house, setting
618
00:31:57.609 --> 00:32:00.089
his charges, getting ready to blow up the house. And
619
00:32:00.150 --> 00:32:02.410
somebody looks over at him and is like, dude, dude,
620
00:32:02.430 --> 00:32:03.839
what are you doing? He's like, oh, I'm prepping it
621
00:32:03.859 --> 00:32:07.170
to blow. He's like, not the house, the helicopter. Well,
622
00:32:07.210 --> 00:32:09.220
he hadn't got the word that there was a helicopter
623
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:12.140
even down. He's like, what helicopter? He's like, the one
624
00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:15.220
in the courtyard, go take a look. So he runs outside,
625
00:32:15.779 --> 00:32:19.059
sees the helicopter and then they proceed to rig it
626
00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:19.339
to blow.
627
00:32:20.259 --> 00:32:25.490
It was past time to go. Two large helicopters called CH-47s,
628
00:32:25.990 --> 00:32:29.950
filled with reinforcements and fuel, had been standing by during
629
00:32:29.990 --> 00:32:33.450
the raid. The remaining Blackhawk would return for half of
630
00:32:33.490 --> 00:32:36.650
the seals. A CH-47 would pick up the rest.
631
00:32:37.609 --> 00:32:41.500
The Blackhawk that's picking us up lands first. We run
632
00:32:41.519 --> 00:32:44.680
through the field carrying the body in the body bag,
633
00:32:45.460 --> 00:32:50.019
load the remaining Blackhawk, and then we slowly lift off
634
00:32:50.059 --> 00:32:53.400
and move away. While they're waiting for the 47 to
635
00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:56.460
come in, the timer on the charges is ticking down.
636
00:32:56.799 --> 00:33:00.000
The explosion on this helicopter is coming. How much time
637
00:33:00.019 --> 00:33:00.420
have they got?
638
00:33:00.619 --> 00:33:04.190
Not much left. Minutes. They're under 30 seconds. They're running down.
639
00:33:04.470 --> 00:33:06.450
The team leader that was in charge of the demo team,
640
00:33:07.390 --> 00:33:10.369
he gets a hold of the commanding officer, gets him
641
00:33:10.450 --> 00:33:13.109
on the radio talking to the 47, tells the 47
642
00:33:13.109 --> 00:33:16.170
to do a go-around as he's doing the go-around of
643
00:33:16.190 --> 00:33:19.670
the south. Boom, the charge goes. Our Blackhawk's already gone.
644
00:33:20.529 --> 00:33:26.599
This explodes, big, huge explosion. The 47 comes right back around, lands,
645
00:33:27.160 --> 00:33:30.160
the guys load on, and now they're airborne. We're done.
646
00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:31.140
We're clean from the target.
647
00:33:33.220 --> 00:33:37.140
That glow at the compound was the helicopter on fire.
648
00:33:39.470 --> 00:33:42.789
The SEALs were on the ground about 38 minutes, which
649
00:33:42.869 --> 00:33:46.039
meant their Blackhawk had been in the air waiting a
650
00:33:46.099 --> 00:33:47.440
little longer than planned.
651
00:33:48.059 --> 00:33:50.599
Sure enough, I'm sitting in the helicopter, and you turn
652
00:33:50.619 --> 00:33:52.559
around and look in the cockpit, and I see flashing
653
00:33:52.619 --> 00:33:55.799
red lights. Well, I'm not a pilot, but anything flashing
654
00:33:55.859 --> 00:33:59.930
red in a vehicle is typically not good. Those gas
655
00:33:59.950 --> 00:34:02.150
gauges were about to run out of fuel.
656
00:34:03.170 --> 00:34:07.410
During their escape, the SEALs were forced to land in Pakistan.
657
00:34:08.010 --> 00:34:11.210
One of the CH-47s was waiting on the ground and
658
00:34:11.289 --> 00:34:15.150
refueled their Blackhawk. Pakistanis didn't get you on the way in,
659
00:34:15.190 --> 00:34:16.590
but you're concerned they're going to get you on the
660
00:34:16.630 --> 00:34:16.880
way out.
661
00:34:16.949 --> 00:34:18.010
Sure. We got to get out of here.
662
00:34:18.869 --> 00:34:20.659
When did you know that you were out of Pakistan?
663
00:34:20.929 --> 00:34:24.280
They radioed over, came on over the radio, said, hey,
664
00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:26.800
we're back. We're back in Afghanistan. And you thought what?
665
00:34:28.980 --> 00:34:31.739
Big sigh of relief. Wow. We might have actually pulled
666
00:34:31.780 --> 00:34:32.820
this off. This is crazy.
667
00:34:32.980 --> 00:34:36.380
Was there ever a point, Mark, in which you shook
668
00:34:36.440 --> 00:34:38.780
hands with each other, slapped each other on the back?
669
00:34:38.940 --> 00:34:42.260
Yeah. Once we landed, everybody kind of hugged and high-fived
670
00:34:42.300 --> 00:34:45.000
and Took a couple photos, and, you know, it was
671
00:34:45.460 --> 00:34:49.650
our five-minute, hey, cool, we pulled this off, good job,
672
00:34:49.909 --> 00:34:50.809
and then it was back to work.
673
00:34:51.849 --> 00:34:54.710
In his book, Owen describes how they loaded the body
674
00:34:54.789 --> 00:34:57.510
onto a pickup truck and brought it to a hangar
675
00:34:57.610 --> 00:35:01.320
where Vice Admiral McRaven, head of Joint Special Operations Command,
676
00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:05.960
was waiting. They unzipped the bag. Standing nearby was that
677
00:35:06.099 --> 00:35:09.679
CIA analyst who had spent years on Bin Laden's trail.
678
00:35:10.710 --> 00:35:11.070
Ms.
679
00:35:11.070 --> 00:35:14.269
100%, the woman who told you that she was 100%
680
00:35:14.269 --> 00:35:16.110
certain that they had Osama bin Laden.
681
00:35:16.389 --> 00:35:21.039
Right. So we're all in the hangar. Immediately we saw her,
682
00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:24.219
and she started crying. It was a pretty significant event
683
00:35:25.320 --> 00:35:26.280
in her life, I'm sure.
684
00:35:27.639 --> 00:35:30.860
Six hours later, the president announced it to the world.
685
00:35:31.579 --> 00:35:34.760
Tonight, I can report to the American people and to
686
00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:38.260
the world that the United States has conducted an operation
687
00:35:38.300 --> 00:35:41.659
that killed Osama bin Laden, The leader of Al Qaeda.
688
00:35:42.300 --> 00:35:46.090
Yeah, we watched it live. They had some TVs set
689
00:35:46.130 --> 00:35:49.389
up in the hangar that we were at and literally
690
00:35:49.449 --> 00:35:53.670
still in your camouflage uniform. Our gear kind of set
691
00:35:53.690 --> 00:35:55.659
to the side and we heard it was coming on.
692
00:35:55.699 --> 00:35:58.559
We went and gathered around and watched the address. What
693
00:35:58.579 --> 00:36:04.119
did you think? Now the world knows that we've got them.
694
00:36:10.039 --> 00:36:12.380
When you landed back in the United States, I mean,
695
00:36:12.599 --> 00:36:14.159
what did you think of all the media coverage?
696
00:36:14.460 --> 00:36:16.420
It was all surreal because, you know, this had all
697
00:36:16.440 --> 00:36:19.719
been so hush-hush leading up to it. We went and
698
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:22.469
did it. Now it was the biggest news story ever.
699
00:36:22.989 --> 00:36:25.550
We got on a bus. They drove us back to work.
700
00:36:26.070 --> 00:36:28.090
I didn't even go in. They told us we had
701
00:36:28.110 --> 00:36:30.269
a couple days off, and I grabbed my keys, went
702
00:36:30.289 --> 00:36:34.090
and got in my truck, and, you know, I put
703
00:36:34.110 --> 00:36:36.219
it in the book. But, you know, I hit Taco
704
00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:39.699
Bell on the way home, hit the drive-thru, a couple tacos.
705
00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:44.139
and ate it in my car right there and then
706
00:36:44.159 --> 00:36:44.519
drove home.
707
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:47.960
You were part of the team that killed Osama bin Laden,
708
00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:49.260
and the first thing you do when you get back
709
00:36:49.280 --> 00:36:49.880
to the United.
710
00:36:49.699 --> 00:36:52.199
States is go to Taco Bell. Two tacos and a
711
00:36:52.219 --> 00:36:53.900
bean burrito. It's routine.
712
00:36:56.179 --> 00:36:59.579
Life has been anything but routine for Mark Owen since
713
00:36:59.619 --> 00:37:01.510
the publication of his book was announced.
714
00:37:01.929 --> 00:37:03.570
We'll have that when we come back.
715
00:37:04.789 --> 00:37:08.860
Days after returning from the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Mark
716
00:37:08.980 --> 00:37:13.840
Owen's squadron boarded an ancient C-130 transport plane for one
717
00:37:13.900 --> 00:37:17.690
more mission. The men wondered why the plane was so old.
718
00:37:18.269 --> 00:37:22.130
Then they found out the plane had been used in
719
00:37:22.130 --> 00:37:26.269
1980 in the failed attempt to rescue the American hostages
720
00:37:26.510 --> 00:37:29.670
in Iran. Somebody thought it was a fitting piece of
721
00:37:29.750 --> 00:37:33.269
American history to carry the men to their secret meeting
722
00:37:33.769 --> 00:37:35.809
with the President of the United States.
723
00:37:37.059 --> 00:37:40.500
The terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9-11 will
724
00:37:40.519 --> 00:37:42.119
never threaten America again.
725
00:37:42.860 --> 00:37:46.170
President Obama was making a speech at Fort Campbell, Kentucky,
726
00:37:46.329 --> 00:37:49.590
and he met with the bin Laden team privately. All
727
00:37:49.630 --> 00:37:52.630
of the men would receive a silver star for valor.
728
00:37:53.409 --> 00:37:56.809
Did the president ask you guys which ones of you
729
00:37:56.869 --> 00:37:58.349
had shot Osama bin Laden?
730
00:37:58.849 --> 00:38:01.940
Yeah, he asked. He asked who was the one, and
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00:38:01.980 --> 00:38:03.840
we told him we wouldn't tell. You wouldn't tell him?
732
00:38:03.880 --> 00:38:06.469
Why not? Pulling a trigger is easy. A couple pounds
733
00:38:06.510 --> 00:38:08.210
of pressure on your trigger finger, and I've done it
734
00:38:08.250 --> 00:38:11.670
millions of times, and it's not that hard. So it's
735
00:38:11.710 --> 00:38:14.769
not about who that one person was. It's who was
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00:38:14.789 --> 00:38:18.989
on the team or the helicopter pilots or the intel
737
00:38:19.030 --> 00:38:21.659
folks that teed this whole thing up. Who cares who
738
00:38:21.679 --> 00:38:22.909
the one person is? It doesn't matter.
739
00:38:23.900 --> 00:38:26.719
I wonder, in writing this book, whether you're worried that
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00:38:26.780 --> 00:38:29.059
some of your fellow SEALs will be angry with you.
741
00:38:29.929 --> 00:38:32.090
I've had nothing but an outpouring of support from the
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00:38:32.130 --> 00:38:34.150
guys who know me. To quote one of my friends,
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00:38:34.190 --> 00:38:36.289
he said, hey, if anybody can tell this story and
744
00:38:36.309 --> 00:38:38.280
do it right, it's you. And I'm not taking that.
745
00:38:38.320 --> 00:38:39.940
I'm trying to toot my own horn. They know I'm
746
00:38:39.960 --> 00:38:40.400
doing it right.
747
00:38:40.719 --> 00:38:43.639
You say in the preface to the book that if
748
00:38:43.699 --> 00:38:46.840
a reader is looking for secrets, this isn't their book.
749
00:38:47.260 --> 00:38:51.570
No, absolutely not. I'm not talking secrets. I'm not talking tactics.
750
00:38:51.610 --> 00:38:53.750
I don't even get into any of that stuff. But
751
00:38:53.809 --> 00:38:55.989
I really try and give the reader a sense of
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00:38:56.050 --> 00:38:57.670
what it's like to be there.
753
00:38:58.920 --> 00:39:02.150
Publicly, the Pentagon is not happy about No Easy Day.
754
00:39:02.630 --> 00:39:05.550
They have a differing account of bin Laden's final minutes,
755
00:39:05.809 --> 00:39:08.349
saying that he was first shot when the SEALs were
756
00:39:08.530 --> 00:39:13.750
inside his bedroom. Spokesman George Little said last week that
757
00:39:13.989 --> 00:39:17.139
Owen signed a secrecy agreement as a SEAL and should
758
00:39:17.159 --> 00:39:19.760
have submitted his book for editing by the government.
759
00:39:20.139 --> 00:39:22.579
And the author is in material breach of his secrecy
760
00:39:22.599 --> 00:39:26.119
agreements with the United States government. We believe that sensitive
761
00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:28.480
and classified information is contained in the book.
762
00:39:29.309 --> 00:39:30.519
I don't think I could be any clearer than that.
763
00:39:31.400 --> 00:39:34.059
But Owen insists there is nothing in the book that
764
00:39:34.139 --> 00:39:37.619
compromises the secrets of the United States or the safety
765
00:39:37.659 --> 00:39:40.480
of the SEALs. And there was one more thing that
766
00:39:40.500 --> 00:39:43.230
he wanted to say. The release of the book was
767
00:39:43.289 --> 00:39:45.610
timed to the anniversary of 9-11.
768
00:39:46.829 --> 00:39:48.710
My worry from the beginning is, you know, it's a
769
00:39:48.750 --> 00:39:55.119
political season. This book is not political whatsoever. It doesn't
770
00:39:55.179 --> 00:40:01.260
badmouth either party. And we specifically chose September 11th to
771
00:40:01.300 --> 00:40:04.260
keep it out of the politics. You know, if these
772
00:40:04.300 --> 00:40:06.860
crazies on either side of the aisle want to make
773
00:40:06.920 --> 00:40:08.679
it political, shame on them.
774
00:40:09.889 --> 00:40:13.230
The Bin Laden raid was Mark Owen's last. A few
775
00:40:13.289 --> 00:40:16.590
months later, he went to New York and saw Ground
776
00:40:16.650 --> 00:40:18.309
Zero for the first time.
777
00:40:19.710 --> 00:40:22.389
Our team played a small little piece. Some people would
778
00:40:22.429 --> 00:40:24.989
argue bigger, but you know, to us, it's very, we
779
00:40:25.010 --> 00:40:26.469
were just doing our job. It's not a big deal.
780
00:40:26.489 --> 00:40:27.800
We were just lucky to be at the right place
781
00:40:27.820 --> 00:40:30.059
at the right time. But then going to New York
782
00:40:30.539 --> 00:40:33.559
and where the World Trade Center stood at one point,
783
00:40:33.960 --> 00:40:36.239
and it was just very, very emotional.
784
00:40:36.780 --> 00:40:39.480
Nearly 3,000 people were killed right there alone.
785
00:40:40.860 --> 00:40:44.199
It was emotional, and it was like, you know what?
786
00:40:44.760 --> 00:40:48.139
It was ready to move on, full circle. your team
787
00:40:48.199 --> 00:40:51.159
had avenged those deaths. Absolutely.
788
00:40:53.809 --> 00:40:56.309
When word of the book No Easy Day came out
789
00:40:56.349 --> 00:41:00.289
last month, a cable news channel learned Mark Owen's real
790
00:41:00.369 --> 00:41:04.530
name and reported it. Since then, others have reported his name.
791
00:41:04.949 --> 00:41:05.889
We will not.
792
00:41:06.780 --> 00:41:09.360
Owen intends to donate most of the profits from the
793
00:41:09.400 --> 00:41:13.000
book to charities that support families of fallen troops. He
794
00:41:13.039 --> 00:41:15.420
wanted us to know that he thinks of what he's
795
00:41:15.460 --> 00:41:18.639
written as a public service to get the history straight,
796
00:41:19.320 --> 00:41:23.380
and as a tribute to every Navy SEAL wherever they
797
00:41:23.420 --> 00:41:24.639
may be serving tonight.