Eyes on Target: Inside Stories From the Brotherhood of the U.S. Navy SEALs
Page 26
MNF: MultiNational Force
MOB-6: Mobility-6; SEAL Two’s counterterror unit, a precursor of SEAL Team Six
MP5: an HK submachine gun favored by CT units including SEAL Team Six and GSG-9
NAVY PLATFORMS: ships and other assets of the U.S. Navy used to launch or go to during an operation
NCO: NonCommissioned Officer
NVDS: Night Vision Devices. Also NVGs: Night Vision Goggles. Electro-optical devices that are handheld, weapons mounted, or worn over the eyes to magnify or convert available light and allow vision at night.
OPSEC: OPerational SECurity. Very important in black ops.
P-3 ORION: Navy spy plane
PEARY, CAMP: CIA training facility near Williamsburg, Virginia, also known as the Farm
PLASTIQUE: plastic explosive (see C-4)
RH-53D: Pave Low special operations chopper
RPG: Rocket-Propelled Grenade (Soviet-made)
SAS: British Special Air Service. Motto: “Who dares, wins.”
SATCOM: SATellite COMmunications
SCIF: Special Classified Intelligence Facility. A secure room that cannot be eavesdropped on using electronic or human means
SDV: Swimmer Delivery Vehicle
SEALS: the Navy’s Sea-Air-Land units
SECDEF: SECretary of DEFense
SECNAV: SECretary of the NAVy
SFOD-D: Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (Delta Force).
SIGINT: SIGnals INTelligence. Intelligence gathered by intercepting signals between people and intercepting electronic signals
SNARE: horse-collar loop used for snatching SEALs from the water into an IBL
SOF: Special Operations Force
SPECWAR: Special Warfare
STAB: SEAL Tactical Assault Boat
TAD: Temporary Additional Duty (in SEAL slang: Traveling Around Drunk)
TASK FORCE 160: nicknamed the “Night Stalkers,” this army helicopter unit usually operates at night, flying fast and low, to avoid radar detection
TAT: Terrorist Action Team
TECHINT: TECHnical INTelligence
TRIDENT: the common name for the naval special warfare insignia. It is a large, gold, uniform device made up of four parts: the anchor, which symbolizes the Navy; Neptune’s three-pronged trident, which symbolizes the underwater world; a cocked flintlock pistol that shows the Team’s constant preparedness for war; and behind it all is the bald eagle, symbol of the United States of America.
UDT: Underwater Demolition Team. The frogmen, ancestors of the SEALs.
WARCOM ( also SPECWARCOM and NAVSPECWARCOM): the Navy Special Warfare Command, the overall command structure for the Navy SEAL Teams and all their attached units
WIA: Wounded In Action
WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction. Nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons that will affect an area or population far out of proportion to the physical size of the weapon
WPS ( also WILLY PETERS): White Phosphorous grenades
XO: Executive Officer
ZULU: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) designator, used in all formal military communications
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our researchers and assistants, Martin Moorse Wooster, Lisa Merriam (of Merriam Associates, LLC.), Rhiannon Burruss, Tonya Johnson, and Anastassiya Ravdugina.
We’d also like to thank our literary agent, Ian Kleinert, at Objective Entertainment.
We’d like to thank our editor Kate Hartson.
Additional thanks are due to: David Martosko of the Daily Mail (U.K.), John Tamny at Forbes, John Fund, and James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal.
We also thank Nathaniel C. Moffat of American Media Institute.
We would also like to thank all current and former members of the United States Navy SEAL Teams that agreed to be interviewed for this work. One Team—One fight!
Notes
Introduction
1. Dennis Chalker with Kevin Dockery, One Perfect Op: An Insider’s Account of the Navy SEAL Special Warfare Teams (New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2011), page 34.
Chapter 1: The Froggy Origins of the Navy SEALs
1. Bill Sizemore, “Medal of Honor Recipient Shares Story in Beach,” Virginian Pilot, May 19, 2010.
Chapter 2: The Violent Birth of SEAL Team Six
1. T. L. Bosiljevac, SEALs: UDT/SEAL Operations in Vietnam (Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1990).
2. Thomas H. Keith, and J. Terry Riebling, SEAL Warrior: The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday (New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Griffin, 2010).
3. “Man of the Year: The Mystic Who Lit the Fires of Hatred,” Time, January 7, 1980, www.content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923854,00.html.
4. Fereydoun Hoveyda, The Shah and the Ayatollah: Iranian Mythology and Islamic Revolution (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003).
5. Richard A. Radvanyi, Operation Eagle Claw—Lessons Learned (Quantico, VA: United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 2002).
6. The full account comes from Tim Wells, 444 Days: The Hostages Remember (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985): “Fortunately, we were sequestered from the press. They were kept down at the front gate of the hospital where they couldn’t get to us. We were free to wander down there and talk to them if we wanted to, but we didn’t have to. I remember Bruce German walked by the gate, and one of the reporters asked him if he’d ever go back to Iran. Bruce said, ‘Yeah, in a B-52.’ ” (page 438)
Chapter 4: Drago’s War
1. Based on an author interview with Drago in April 2013.
2. Ibid.
Chapter 6: Fallujah The Perfect Op That Led to Prosecutions
1. Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (New York, NY: Nation Books, 2007), page 88.
2. Jeffrey Gettleman, “Enraged Mob in Falluja Kills 4 American Contractors,” New York Times, March 31, 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/international/worldspecial/31CND-IRAQ.html?pagewanted=all.
Chapter 7: Benghazi, Libya: SEALs Alone
1. U.S. State Department, daily press briefing, April 5, 2011, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2011/04/160022.htm#LIBYA.
2. Joby Warrick and Liz Sly, “U.S. Envoy Arrives in Libya To Seek Ways to Help Rebels,” Washington Post, April 6, 2011.
3. U.S. State Department, daily press briefing, April 7, 2011, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2011/04/160298.htm#LIBYA.
4. Juliane von Mittelstaedt and Volkhard Windfuhr, “The Benghazi Mission,” Der Spiegel, June 21, 2011.
5. “Security Incidents Since June 2011,” compiled by the Regional Security Office, U.S. embassy, Tripoli, Libya, November 2012, page 1. This document was obtained by ABC News and posted on its website (abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/7.19.12%20Libya%20Security.pdf). We are reporting only the incidents in Benghazi detailed in this document.
6. U.S. State Department, “On the Record Briefing: U.S. Representative to the Transitional National Council Chris Stevens on Libya,” August 2, 2011, www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/08/169486.htm.
7. U.S. State Department, “Background Briefing on Libya,” October 9, 2012, www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/10/198791.htm.
8. “Security Incidents Since June 2011,” page 1.
9. Ibid.
10. Tabassum Zakaria, Susan Cornwell, and Hadeel al-Shalchi, “For Benghazi Diplomatic Security, U.S. Relied on Small British Firm,” Reuters, October 17, 2012, www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/18/us-libya-usa-bluemountain-idUSBRE89G1TI20121018.
11. “Security Incidents Since June 2011,” page 10.
12. Ibid., page 12.
13. Ibid., page 13.
14. Ibid., page 15.
15. Ibid., page 16.
16. Ibid., page 18.
17. Sheryl Attkisson and Margaret Brennan, “Security Dwindled before Deadly Libyan Consulate Attack,” CBS News, October 8, 2012, www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57528335/security-dwindled-before-deadly-libyan-consulate-attack/.
18. “Security Incidents Since June 2011,” page 23.
19. U.S. Senate, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Flashing Red: A Special Report on the Terrorist Attack at Benghazi, by Joseph I. Lieberman and Susan M. Collins, December 30, 2012, page 17.
20. “Security Incidents Since June 2011,” page 24.
21. Ibid., pages 24–25.
22. Ibid., page 25.
23. Ibid.
24. Cable from U.S. embassy in Tripoli, Libya, to Secretary of State in Washington, D.C., dated March 28, 2012.
25. “Security Incidents Since June 2011,” page 28.
26. Ibid., page 29.
28. Chris Stephen, “US Diplomatic Mission Bombed in Libya,” Guardian (London), June 6, 2012, www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/06/us-embassy-attack-libya.
29. “Security Incidents Since June 2011,” page 33.
30. Ibid., pages 33–34.
31. Ibid., page 39.
32. Ibid., pages 39–40.
33. Ibid., page 40.
34. Ibid., page 41.
35. Ibid., page 44.
36. “Libyan Jihadis Claims US Consulate Attack,” Agence France Presse, June 11, 2012.
37. U.S. Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, Al Qaeda in Libya: A Profile, August 2012, page 3, available at www.fas.org/irp/world/para/aq-libya-loc.pdf.
38. “Supporters of Shariah Call for Implementation of Islamic Law in Libya,” BBC Monitoring Middle East, June 16, 2012.
39. Steve Inskeep, “In the New Libya, Lots of Guns and Calls for Shariah,” NPR Morning Edition, June 13, 2012, www.npr.org/2012/06/13/154839952/in-the-new-libya-lots-of-guns-and-calls-for-shariah.
40. Tara Bahrampour, “As Libya Holds Post-Gaddafi Election, Islamists’ Strength to Be Tested,” Washington Post, July 4, 2012, articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-07-03/world/35487400_1_islamist-group-libyan-voters-secular-parties.
41. George Grant, “British Ambassador Escapes Missile Attack on Car,” Times (London), June 12, 2012, www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article3442776.ece. Ibrahim Majbari, “RPG Hits British Diplomatic Convoy in Libya, 2 Hurt,” Agence France Presse, June 11, 2012.
42. “British Guns Accounted For after Benghazi Consulate Attack,” Tripoli Post, October 12, 2012, www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=9292. But the article says the guns were unaccounted for!
43. Mohamed Al-Tommy and Hadeel al-Shalchi, “Gunmen Attack Tunisian Consulate in Benghazi,” Reuters, June 18, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/18/us-libya-gunmen-tunisia-idUSBRE85H1V620120618. “Gunmen storm Tunisian Consulate in Libya’s Benghazi,” Agence France Presse, June 18, 2012.
44. Chris Stephen, “Libyan Military Prosecutor Shot Dead in Benghazi,” Guardian (London), June 22, 2012, www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/22/libyan-military-prosecutor-shot-benghazi.