Who really got bin Laden

Monday we wrote that SOFREP was expressing their doubts that Esquire’s “Shooter” was the fellow who shot bin Laden. Today, TSO sends us a link from CNN’s Peter Bergen expressing similar doubts;

SEAL Team 6 operators are now in “serious lockdown” when it comes to “talking to anybody” about the bin Laden raid and say they have been frustrated to see what they consider to be the inaccurate story in Esquire receive considerable play without a response. Phil Bronstein, who wrote the 15,000-word piece about the Shooter for Esquire, was booked on CNN, Fox and many other TV networks after his story came out.

Twenty-three SEALs and their interpreter assaulted the bin Laden compound just after midnight on the morning of May 2, 2011. They shot and killed bin Laden’s two bodyguards, one of bin Laden’s sons and the wife of one of the bodyguards and they also wounded two other women.

The article describes the events that transpired that night, but I’m not comfortable pasting that much text into this blog – the account more closely follows the account of Matt Bissonette, the SEAL who wrote “No Easy Day” under the pseudonym Mark Owen, and the events as they are depicted in the movie Zero-Dark-Thirty.

Now it really doesn’t matter who, exactly, shot bin Laden in terms of the historical aspect of the death, but it does affect the main premise of the article written by Sharon Stone’s ex-wife in Esquire. That being that the young man was tossed aside by the country with no health care. If the man would lie about the events of the raid, surely he’ll lie about the way hes been discarded by the country. And Mrs. Stone, or whatever her name is, was certainly a sucker for it, because he was more interested in the story supporting his preconceived notions than he was reporting the truth. Especially for someone who is the executive director of an organization called “Center for Investigative Reporting”.

Category: Military issues, Veterans Issues