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The mission itself has proven controversial to some family members. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Only the pilots, crew, and special operations ground forces commanders knew about the planned flight path and time. One of the other things that we did talk about kind of what youre hitting on, sir, is about the fact that, you know, for three hours we had been burning holes in the sky, the officer told investigators. The loss of a helicopter carrying more than 20 U.S. special forces and as many as 8 other U.S. military service members is an unprecedented one in this war. I find it quite disturbing that the government is not willing to give us the answers we deserve. An Afghan official, speaking anonymously a few days after the attack, speculated that the Taliban had laid a trap, that they had purposely put out false information about a meeting involving the Taliban commander. In interviewing Buddy for background research for my book, The Final Mission of Extortion 17, which chronicles the people, events, and circumstances of the downing of Extortion 17, I realized that this tragedy illustrates Buddy's words more convincingly perhaps than any other incident. Mr. Klayman said the NSA has agreed to provide some information. Conspiracy theories over the years have alleged that President Barack Obama and presumably then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and now Joe Biden had somehow been responsible for the attack, supposedly in order to silence the Seals for something having to do with the Bin Laden raid three months earlier. The next night, the pair had orders to drop off more troops in the same spot. The immediate reaction force (IRF) was assembled hastily for insertion into Tangi Valley to help Army Rangers capture fleeing Taliban. Some of those Seals were members of Seal Team 6 that took part in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, the AP reported today; although they were not actual participants in the Pakistan raid, according to the New York Times. There are no survivors. The co-pilot, Bryan Nichols, was one of Lee's closest friends in the Chinook company. Theyre going after [enemy fighters] in very hostile environments, who know the terrain very well, who know the battlescape very well, Darack said. They loaded onto Extortion 17, and then Carter and Nichols lifted the Chinook into the night sky. When asked what lessons Americans can draw from the crash of Extortion 17, Lees answer is simple: Americans should care about what happens in Afghanistan because theyve sent Americans to war there. The incident comes just months after DevGru's raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Darack did extensive research of what happened next. "He said, 'Mom, there's chatter. While the vast majority of attempts to down helicopters failed, the lucky shot that took down Extortion 17 had a precedent. Legal Statement. The alleged hit on SEAL Team 6 is a reference to the downing of a Chinook transport helicopter by insurgents a few months after the bin Laden raid. A catastrophic crash seemed unavoidable. One of the engines flew off, and the other caught fire. because seals have a habit of writing books once they retire. EXPLOSIVE: CIA Whistleblower Exposes Bidens Alleged Role With the Deaths of Seal Team- Claims to have Documented Proof. In all, 17 members of the SEAL Team 6 counterterrorist force were on board the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, along with its Army National Guard aircrew, several support personnel and seven Afghan commandos. MARTHA RADDATZ, LUIS MARTINEZ and MIKE BOETTCHER, helicopter was shot down today by Afghan insurgents, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. Were handing rifles to 20-year-olds and asking them to shoot people. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Lee earned his wings at Fort Rucker, Ala., then deployed to Pakistan, where he did humanitarian missions, learning to fly into and out of mountainous terrain. Aerial view of Osama bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, made by the CIA. Karen Vaughn says she wants to know why her son Aaron and his team were not using special operations aircraft which have defenses in place to help allow helicopters to go deep behind enemy lines. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage. The helicopter was shot down by insurgents. While the press conference was long on speculation and short on concrete evidence, the family members and their supporters didn't pull any punches. SEAL TEAM SIX - EXTORTION 17 COVER UP theunitedwest 15.8K subscribers Subscribe 683 53K views Streamed 7 years ago WOW, watch author Don Brown blow the lid off of the official government report. "In releasing their identity, they put a target on their backs," said Doug Hamburger, whose son, Army Staff Sgt. Your life is in danger. She also said the team was hindered by rules of engagement that prohibited their firing on potential targets unless they could see a weapon. Extortion 17's pilots and crew ranked among the very best military helicopter pilots in the world (Carter had amassed more than 4,000 hours of cockpit time), and the helicopter, a CH-47D, the fastest and one of the most powerful and nimble in the U.S. military, had been maintained to the highest standards. The conspiracy has a number of moving parts, all of which have surfaced before, but none of which have any truth to them. On board were 22 members of the elite Seal Team Six, two U.S. Air Force Para-rescue men, three Army reserve personnel, a U.S. Air Force Combat Controller, the pilot and co-pilot, a U.S . You never want to use the same landing zone twice, Darack said. The Chinook was descending on a noisy battlefield where Apache helicopters and a C-130 gunship had been buzzing overhead for three hours, alerting Taliban fighters. He finished his contract with the Army shortly afterward, and that September enrolled in Southern Methodist Universitys Dedman School of Law. "We simply didn't know those guys with those RPGs were there," he said. They heard a helicopter coming, they grabbed their RPGs, and they fired in quick succession, Darack said. In addition to the 30 Americans, the official said there were seven Afghan army soldiers and an interpreter on the helicopter. Three months after bin Ladens death, members of the SEAL Team 6 force -- though apparently not the same ones who carried out the bin Laden raid -- were on board the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, along with its Army National Guard aircrew, several support personnel and seven Afghan commandos. This incident could be a sign of things to come: The crash happened in Tanji, where the U.S. closed a combat outpost in April. The team boarded Extortion 17 with Dave Carter and Bryan Nichols at the controls. However, the AP has reported, the Afghan forces never staffed the outpost after American forces left, and the Taliban moved back in. But over time, they became more disturbing, including one that suggested the Taliban had been tipped off by someone inside the Afghan government as revenge for bin Ladens killing. Fallen Angel.. The team was responding to an Army Ranger unit that was engaged in a firefight with the Taliban and needed backup. Their names and their missions had never been revealed before. These helicopters have been well protected from long-range missile attacks for years, but still have few defenses against a simple RPG fired at short range while the Chinook hovers in place. They knew. In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. "A NATO helicopter crashed last night in Wardak province," Karzai said in the statement. They were sitting there, waiting. One of the things I vowed, I will never forget. An official report was released in October 2011 but family members say it did little to fill in the details and left more questions than answers. Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. They believe SEAL Team 6 had a target on its back and that persons inside the Afghan National Security Forces may have tipped off the Taliban that night in Tangi Valley. That June, the U.S. military launched Operation Hammer Down to drive out insurgents entrenched in remote strongholds of eastern Afghanistan. On a moonless night, an Army helicopter carrying 17 members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden, is shot down in Afghanistan. These materials provided much-needed intelligence about bin Ladens role within al-Qaeda and the organizations inner-workings. President Trump has been known, over the years, to tweet some bizarre things. The aircraft jerked. Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalersthe Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion, Navy SEAL's Savior Claims 'Lone Survivor' Got It Wrong. On the fourth anniversary of the worst one-day loss of military life in the war on terror, families of the dead say they are aghast that the government will not honor basic requests under the Freedom of Information Act. With David Boreanaz, Max Thieriot, Jessica Par, Neil Brown Jr.. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. But what if it was a more advanced missile? Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data. May 1 (EDT)1:25 p.m. President Obama, along with other top officials, formally approve the execution of Operation Neptune Spear.1:51 p.m. Stealth Black Hawk helicopters take off from Afghanistan, carrying a group of 25 Navy SEALs.3:30 p.m. The choppers land on the compound in Abbottabad. Its lawyers have told the judge that the process of locating relevant documents and removing classified information takes time. Insurgents in Iraq have used Russian-made SA-7s, shoulder-fired missiles tipped with infrared homing devices, against U.S. and British aircraft. Or when something went terribly wrong. The loss of a Chinook helicopter carrying members of Navy SEAL Team Six made yesterday the deadliest single day in the entire Afghan War for the U.S., 3 Questions About the SEAL Team Six Crash, Russian Cargo Plane Explodes During Pressure Test, better protected from newer, more sophisticated threats, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. See production, box office & company info, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words. The U.S. military claimed that the Chinook was blown to pieces by a shoulder-fired missile, in which everyone on board was burned beyond recognition. President Trump has also claimed, including in the first presidential debate, that Biden opposed the raid that took out Bin Laden. One source says the team was thought to include 22 SEALs, three Air Force air controllers, seven Afghan Army troops, a dog and handler, and a civilian interpreter, plus the helicopter crew. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? The guy was incredibly skilled.. And thats fine; thats what you signed up for, Lee said. But why? Virginia-based Navy SEALs in a training exercise. Enterprise writer at The Dallas Morning News. The families hope to raise awareness of the incident, which they say the government has largely forgotten since the official report was released in October 2011. It launched in the belly of the aircraft which made a hard landing and only two soldiers were injured in that attack but this time all on board were killed. How SEAL Team 6 . What in the world was that Navy Seals conspiracy that Trump retweeted? In combat, its mission is to transport large teams of elite assault troops, including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, to and from the battlefield. Many of these family members are undergoing psychological care over what has become a double tragedy: the deaths of their sons and the cover-up for which these family members feel betrayed by their own government.. The attack on August 6 was the most devastating day in SEAL Team Six history, as well as the single largest loss of life for U.S. forces since the war in Afghanistan began in October. In 2006, he was called into Afghanistan, where he turned 25. Onboard were 17 members of SEAL Team 6; five naval special warfare operators, including one to intercept communications and another to handle Bart the war dog; five Army flight crewmen, including a National Guard and an Army Reserve pilot; and three Air Force personnel. Does Donald Trump believe that Joe Biden played a part in murdering those Navy Seals? With Sean Hannity, Raj Kala, Justin Torrence, Vee Bhakta. Charles Strange, whose son Michael, 25, died in the attack said Obama personally promised him a thorough investigation of what happened but has failed to deliver. There was no conspiracy. Furthermore, according to the lore, due to the alleged Iran angle, the Iran nuclear agreement in 2015 was in fact a payoff to Iran for whatever role they played in the earlier conspiracy. Rowan Scarborough can be reached at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com. I would say that on the three-minute call is when Gun 2 started looking at the LZ, giving an LZ brief op. And the shooters had no reason to know that Extortion 17 or any other helicopter would be flying through their quiet extremity of the valley. Apparently, someone tipped them off that the SEALs were coming; the helicopter was attacked from three sides in a coordinated ambush. Flying low, the pilots have to maneuver a machine weighing up to 50,000 pounds over mountains, under cover of darkness, in swirling wind and dust, wearing night vision goggles. A number of the DEVGRU SEALs were devastated by this loss . In fact, the conflict was heating up. Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Helicopter raids are dangerous and unpredictable. Additional forces were then sent to secure the crash site. The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers.On a moonless night, an Army helicopter carrying 17 members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden, is shot down in Afghanistan. Hes also sent more than his fair share of curious retweets, often of the accounts of conspiracy theorists and those associated with QAnon and other outlandish conspiracy frameworks. .css-v1xtj3{display:block;font-family:FreightSansW01,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:100;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-v1xtj3:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.1387rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-v1xtj3{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-top:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}Russian Cargo Plane Explodes During Pressure Test, Air Force's IRON Wireless Network Protects Nukes, Watch Opposition Group Land Drone on Russian Jet, Pentagon's Mysterious Aircraft Won't Need a Runway, The Secret War to Take out Iran's F-14 Fighters, Meet the E-7 Wedgetail, the Air Forces New Plane, Report: Pilot Error Ruined a $112 Million F-35 Jet, Air Force Grounds Jets: Their Tails May Fall Off, The Messy Battle to Build the F-35's Next Engine, Russia Dredges Up Ancient BTR-50 Vehicles. International reactions to bin Ladens death ranged from favorable to mixed. It marked the greatest single incident loss of American life in the war in Afghanistan, the deadliest moment in the history of SEAL Team Six and the entirety of the Navy SEALs, and the deadliest single incident in the history of U.S. Special Operations Command. My life is in danger. Finally Sells Japan Tomahawk Missiles. These missiles add ultraviolet tracking to infrared seekers, making them less susceptible to the flares that Chinooks fire to try to throw incoming missiles off course. The U.S. Army knows the risks when it plans air assault operations in Afghanistan. Six weeks into his deployment, Lee experienced his worst day as a helicopter pilot to that point. On his right wrist, he wears a bracelet with the names of the five crew members of Extortion 17. In all 38 troops died after the helicopter was shot down by what a review determined to be a Taliban RPG over Wardak Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2011. The SEALS intentionally . On a moonless night, an Army helicopter carrying 17 members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden, is shot down in Afghanistan. Chance, however, a component of war intimately understood by war fighters, can never be completely mitigated. President Trump has been known, over the years, to tweet some bizarre things. Neither did the risk he and his pilots faced every night. The second shot hit the rear tail rotor assembly. Members of Navy SEAL Team Six formed the core of the IRF, with other American special operations personnel and highly-vetted Afghans playing integral roles. The families accept the fact that a single shot brought down the helicopter. The Justice Department said at least 50 documents in the Pentagon have been identified as relevant, but only one has been turned over. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. Per factcheck.org, while Obama and his advisers were deliberating over which mission to authorize for attacking Bin Ladens compound, Biden advised the president to wait for further confirmation that bin Laden was actually in the compound in Pakistan before acting. Biden was not, as implied, altogether opposed to killing Bin Laden. His unit called itself Extortion Company. One of his Chinooks, flying under the call sign Extortion 17 (one-seven), was tasked with the special operations mission the night of Aug. 6. Some congressional lawmakers demonstrated their support for the group, including former Florida Republican Rep. Allan West -- an Iraq war vet -- and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. The CH-47D that embarked on the mission that day had been built in the 1960s, she said, and last retrofitted in the 1985. A man reads the front page of a newspaper featuring the news that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was shot dead deep inside Pakistan in a night-time helicopter raid by US covert forces, ending a decade-long manhunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. Family members question SEAL Team 6's most deadly incident. The Obama administration is violating a judges order to turn over documents in the Aug. 6, 2011, shootdown of a U.S. helicopter call sign Extortion 17 that killed members of SEAL Team 6 in Afghanistan, a watchdog group is charging. The RPG that struck Extortion 17 threw the helicopter into an uncontrollable spin. Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who served as deputy undersecretary of defense for Intelligence and was a commander in the Army's super-secret "Delta Force," denounced politicized rules of engagement as a "deliberate plot" within the American armed forces that he says puts political correctness above the safety of the troops. Lees wife, Christy, hoped the news would bring a sudden end to the war. The Pentagon on Thursday identified the Americans as 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALs, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and. Almost 10 years after 9/11, here's what led to the death of Osama bin Laden. The police chief of Wardak said the attack occurred around 1 a.m. Saturday after an assault on a Taliban compound in the village of Jaw-e-Mekh Zareen in the Tangi Valley. File: A US Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter in flight. Were asking people to do incredible things. On May 2, 2011, U.S. Special Forces raided an al-Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed the worlds most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden. But some say the official report, which contained no direct criticism of decision-makers that day, did not delve deeply enough. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. The former vice president has become the Democratic front-runner with primary victories across the country. Three of the . Around 2:40 a.m., an Apache pilot flying in support came on the radio and shouted: Fallen Angel. Seven Afghan commandos were also reportedly killed. But at least you should care about them and appreciate what were asking of them.. A Defense Department special operations official told a House subcommittee last year that there is no indication the mission was compromised by the Afghans. The Pentagons witness stuck to a theme that no mistakes were made that night, though the investigative file contained testimony from a number of witnesses saying the mission was riddled with missteps. The story itself is tragic, but tons of war propaganda. Coincidence or not, any Chinook shoot-down is a coup for the Taliban. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! "Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan," Obama said in a statement. The Rangers were not in need of rescue. "One minuteone minute," transmitted Bryan Nichols, the pilot in command of the helicopter. Not all will end as well as bin Laden's takedown, as PM noted in July. That is why, they say, a fighter just happened to be stationed in a turret within 150 yards of a landing zone that had never been used before. Winds whipped through the fir trees. During a press conference on Washington Thursday, family and advocates for the fallen troops called into question the rules of engagement that they say prohibited their sons from being able to return fire, and the White House's decision to announce shortly after the killing of Osama bin Laden that SEAL Team 6 was responsible for the raid. Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. One helicopter crashes, but there are no injuries. Some of those Seals were members of Seal Team 6 that took part in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, the AP reported today; although they were not actual participants in the Pakistan raid, according to the New York Times. Just after entering the Tangi, as Extortion 17 continued to descend and decelerate toward its landing zone, the helicopter passed through the narrowest portion of the valley. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! In the rear of the aircraft, the Chinook's passengers stood and prepared to storm out into moonless night once the wheels touched the ground. This time, they might simply have run out of luck and encountered an RPG-armed enemy who was in the right place at the right time. Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, BroadStreet Review and Splice Today.