The Identity of EX-SEAL who shot and killed Bin Laden is revealed

By Ali Younes

English: Osama bin Laden interviewed for Daily... — English: Osama bin Laden interviewed for Daily Pakistan in 1997; behind him on the wall is an AK-47 carbine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Robert James O’Neill the former American Navy Seal commando who shot and killed Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden on May, 2, 2011 has been outed by an organization of former Special Forces members called SOFREP .

The group posted on its web site that it decided to leak O’Neill’s name preemptively because of his decision to appear on FOX News to reveal himself which it considers a violation of its professional ethos that its members must not seek publicity or recognition of their work as members of the United States Special forces.

The commander and master chief of the Navy Special Warfare Command of SOFREP said in a letter published on its web site that it is critical for its members not to advertise their actions.

The website said that “the SEAL leaders point out in the letter that revealing classified information is a violation of the law, and that the command will actively seek “judicial consequences” for members who violate the law. This seems to be a broadside directed against both Bissonnette and O’Neill, as well as any other current or former SEALs who might consider in the future selling their stories of highly classified operations.”

O’Neill the ex-navy seal that was part of the Navy Team that stormed and killed Al Qaida leader said in a Washington Post interview that he was not expected to come out of the raid alive. “I didn’t think I would survive,” he said.

The killing of Bin Laden ended a decade long manhunt for Al Qaida leader after he eluded being captured and killed in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

O’Neill decision to come out publically will not have much of an impact in the Middle East.This is because people in the Middle East, especially Jihadists and Salafist groups are holding the United States as whole responsible for the killing of Bin Laden and for much of chaos and destructions in many countries in the Arab world today. Although Al Qaida is no longer a viable organization the way it was prior to September 11 attacks, it’s ideology and ideas have persisted and many groups popped in the Middle East, North Africa, and in the Indian subcontinent have declared itself as part of Al Qaida and pledged allegiance to its current leader Ayman Zawaheri

Bin Laden’s shooter also said that it was a matter of time that his identity will be known by the public. This is because, he argued, of another special forces member who participated in the raid, Matt Bissonnette, wrote and published his own account of the raid in the book titled, “No Easy Day.”

O’Neill described in his Washington Post interview his “agonizing personal struggle, as he weighed concerns over privacy and safety against a desire to have a least some control over a story that appeared likely to break, with or without his consent.”

The raid to kill Bin Laden was a multi agency operation that included the Department of Defense and the CIA . Prior to September 11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden was not considered as a legitimate Jihadist leader by many Jihadist and Salafist groups and not many pledged allegiance to him to his Al Qaida. But After September, 11 and the US war in Afghanistan, Jihadists groups and religious figures flocked to pledge allegiance to him and Al Qaida and vowed to fight the United States.

Ali Younes is the Editor of the Arab Daily News. He can be reached at: [email protected], and on twitter @clearali

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Ali Younes

Ali Younes

Ali Younes is a Senior Political Analyst for The Arab Daily News online newspaper. He is a veteran news-editor, Journalist, and a Middle East analyst working for major American news network . He is based in Washington, D.C.

Reach Ali at [email protected]