'OOPS' Of The Day: US Navy SEAL Who Shot And Killed Obama Osama Named By CNN
Robert O'Neill, that's the name of the special forces operative who killed America's public enemy number one on 2 May 2011 in a raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottobad, Pakistan.
Well, that's unless you just happened to be watching CNN on Friday evening and witnessed their 'slight' Freudian on-screen error during a news segment over the Navy SEAL - 'OOPS'.
One can only wonder if the results of the recent mid-terms might have had something to do with this humorous mistake which didn't go unnoticed as hoards of individuals turned to Twitter to poke fun at CNN’s error.
Even BuzzFeed’s deputy news director Jon Passantino jumped in on the fun and wrote:
And as you all know by now the rest will become another event in social history as it exploded on Twitter.
But lets' not lose focus on the story at hand as it's a very interesting one (once you get the name 'Obama' out of your head). Robert O'Neill is now a retired Navy SEAL but says in an interview with the Washington Post that he fired the fatal shots that killed Bin Laden.
O’Neill, one of dozens of U.S. special operators to storm bin Laden’s hideout on May 2, 2011, said he mentally prepared himself to face death from heavily armed gunmen or from the elaborate booby traps that would surely line the approaches to the al-Qaeda leader’s inner sanctum. What he never expected was that he would secure a place in history that night, as the man who fired the bullet that ended bin Laden’s life.
O’Neill confirmed to The Washington Post that he was the unnamed SEAL who was first to tumble through the doorway of bin Laden’s bedroom that night, taking aim at the terrorist leader as he stood in darkness behind his youngest wife. In an account later confirmed by two other SEALs, the Montana native described firing the round that hit bin Laden squarely in the forehead, killing him instantly.
(via).
O'Neill's declaration that he was the man who fired the deadly bullet is a break of protocol, as Navy SEALS usually follow a code of silence which means they never publicly take any credit for their actions on the battlefield.
O'Neill's identity was due to be unveiled in a documentary on Fox News scheduled for the 11 and 12 November called The Man Who Killed Usama Bin Laden.
But his named was outed early a couple of days ago by a website run by a former special forces operative, claiming O'Neill is "seeking notoriety for his own story."
O'Neill first spoke about storming Bin Laden's compound in an anonymous interview with Esquire titled The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed back in February 2013.
In it he recounted what happened after he recognised Bin Laden through his night vision scope, noting how the 9/11 mastermind looked confused and was taller than he expected—but he was certain it was him.
Bin Laden was with his youngest wife Amal.
I'm just looking at him from right here [he moves his hand out from his face about ten inches]. He's got a gun on a shelf right there, the short AK he's famous for. And he's moving forward. I don't know if she's got a vest and she's being pushed to martyr them both. He's got a gun within reach. He's a threat. I need to get a head shot so he won't have a chance to clack himself off [blow himself up].
In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he's going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! same place. That time I used my EOTech red-dot holo sight. He was dead. Not moving. His tongue was out. I watched him take his last breaths, just a reflex breath.
And I remember as I watched him breathe out the last part of air, I thought: Is this the best thing I've ever done, or the worst thing I've ever done? This is real and that's him. Holy shit.
Everybody wanted him dead, but nobody wanted to say, Hey, you're going to kill this guy. It was just sort of understood that's what we wanted to do.
His forehead was gruesome. It was split open in the shape of a V. I could see his brains spilling out over his face. The American public doesn't want to know what that looks like.
Amal turned back, and she was screaming, first at bin Laden and then at me. She came at me like she wanted to fight me, or that she wanted to die instead of him. So I put her on the bed, bound with zip ties. Then I realized that bin Laden's youngest son, who is about two or three, was standing there on the other side of the bed. I didn't want to hurt him, because I'm not a savage. There was a lot of screaming, he was crying, just in shock. I didn't like that he was scared. He's a kid, and had nothing to do with this. I picked him up and put him next to his mother. I put some water on his face.
The point man came in and zip-tied the other two women he'd grabbed.
The third-floor action and killing took maybe fifteen seconds.
Video of Robert O’Neill the 38-year-old Navy SEAL who was part of a team of 25 who took part in a secret raid on the al-Qaeda leader’s compound in Pakistan in May 2011.