Afghan Benghazi: Extortion 17, Betraying Seal Team 6

Investor's Business Daily ^ | May 28, 2013 | IBD EDITORIALS

[raptor22]

War On Terror: As in Benghazi, we still don't know the full story of the greatest single loss in Afghanistan and the largest SEAL loss ever — members of a renowned group outed by a loose-lipped vice president.

It's not officially on the growing list of Obama administration scandals, but earlier this month families of Navy SEAL Team 6 members killed in a disastrous August 2011 shoot-down of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan gathered at the National Press Club asking for answers, calling for a congressional investigation and blaming their government for the tragedy, the indifference and the secrecy that followed.

Extortion 17 was the call sign of a special operations mission in Afghanistan on Aug. 6, 2011, that responded to an Army Ranger unit engaged in a firefight with the Taliban and in need of backup.

The Chinook helicopter carrying the rescue team was shot down by a Taliban-owned rocket-propelled grenade over the Wardak Province on Aug. 6, 2011, killing 38, including 30 Americans and 15 members of Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama bin Laden just three months prior.

The shoot-down was described at the time as a "lucky shot," but the families of the dead SEALs believe that, like Benghazi, it was a pre-planned operation of revenge facilitated by a government that put them in harm's way without adequate support and with a bull's-eye painted on their backs.

At a Pentagon briefing on Monday, May 2, 2011, a senior defense official was asked if it was a Navy SEAL team that found and killed the world's most wanted man. The terse and proper response was: "Not going to comment on units or numbers."

[raptor22]

Will the yahoo who made this Front Page News, please refrain from doing so in the future. It is just an editorial, as I posted it.

[raptor22]

IBD EDITORIAL PING

[American in Israel]

The night her son Aaron died, he was in a helicopter that was built in the 1960s and last retrofitted in 1985.

Like Benghazi, where rescue teams were ordered to "stand down," suppressive fire was forbidden as the Chinook flew into disaster.

The rules of engagement prevented suppressive fire from being aimed at the tower firing on the Chinook.

Was Seal Team Six sold out and sent to their deaths deliberately for a Muslim Payoff? If so, what part of this repeating pattern is not TREASON?!

[Texas Eagle]

This will be a topic of discussion on The Inside Education Radio show tonight from 7 to 9 pm Pacific Time.

Here's the link...The Inside Education Show

Click on the "Listen Live" button.

[American in Israel]

What surprises and actually horrifies me is that the US Military is doing nothing.

What is surprising me and horrifying me is that it appears the US Military is doing something despicable.

[matginzac]

I have also heard this said by military hello pilots who said it all stinks because the standard protocols were not followed.

[sarasmom]

“What is surprising me and horrifying me is that it appears the US Military is doing something despicable.”

Please clarify that statement.

Note-I just got my copy of “No Easy Day” back from one circle of people who would normally never have read it at all, and it will be passed on to another in less than a week. I might be a tad sensitive on this topic...

[Broker]

Yearly Coalition Military Fatalities in Afghanistan

Team “Bush”
Total
2001 12
2002 70
2003 58
2004 60
2005 131
2006 191
2007 232
Team “Obama”
2008 295
2009 521
2010 711
2011 566
2012 402
2013 67

Lets get f out of Afghanistan

[Bravo six]

You don’t do combat assaults into a hot lz with a chinook...that’s just crazy.we learned that via experience in Vietnam....

[Brad from Tennessee]

It's plausible that Al Qaeda had Afghan informants on the base that learned there was a SEAL platoon there that might be used as a reaction force if a U.S. unit was in danger of being overrun. If the insurgents had some intel inside the base they might learn when units of Rangers were leaving the base to operate in the bush. From there they might try to track the Rangers a good distance from the base them attack them with overwhelming numbers. This would trigger a request for a rescue force.

If this trap was planned over a period of days it might give Al Qaeda time to acquire a man-portable SAM to attack the Chinook. Instead of a “lucky shot” with an RPG the chopper might have been hit by something like a Russian 9K34 Strela-3 or even a Stinger from friends in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

But the insurgents wouldn't necessarily need a “lucky shot” with an RPG if the path between the LZ and the Rangers took the Chinook through a pass. A group of insurgents, up in the pass with RPGs, could fire a volley of rockets horizontally as opposed to trying to fire a much more difficult shot, at a high angle, from a valley floor.

I'm not saying any of this happened but it could have. We are left with whatever story the government releases. But if some news media and a few members of Congress got curious it make shake something loose.

[Broker]

Obama teams bravado disclosing SEAL TEAM SIX identities is treasonous . Our many enemies most likely posted significant financial & spiritual BOUNTIES for their death or capture. How many remain?

Parallels Nelson Demille’s “the Lion” saga of Libyan revenge for Reagan’s F-111 Strikes. Libyan terrorist searched USA to kill all pilots Andy crews . Is the truth stranger than fiction?

[Taggart_D]

Perhaps the members of the muslim brotherhood sitting in the white house can help with that one.

[Tugo]

These increases in Coalition deaths and injuries suffered in Afghanistan correlate directly with "Rules of Engagement" (ROE). Soldiers can only return fire when shot at twice?? Obama's ROE demoralize and discredit as they destroy our soldiers.

With friends like VP JOE BIDEN, who needs enemies?

[McGruff]

The shoot-down was described at the time as a "lucky shot," but the families of the dead SEALs believe that, like Benghazi, it was a pre-planned operation of revenge facilitated by a government that put them in harm's way without adequate support and with a bull's-eye painted on their backs.

I've always had a suspicion about this incident. Payback to the terrorist for the killing of Osama?

[SilverMine]

What is surprising me and horrifying me is that it appears the US Military is doing something despicable.

It does seem that all at the rank of E-8 and above and O-7 and above ahve sold out.

[Admin Moderator]

Please remove us from your ping list.

[ansel12]

From there they might try to track the Rangers a good distance from the base them attack them with overwhelming numbers. This would trigger a request for a rescue force.

There was no "rescue" mission, the Rangers wanted someone to cut off the surviving Taliban who were fleeing for their lives.

If this trap was planned over a period of days it might give Al Qaeda time to acquire a man-portable SAM to attack the Chinook. Instead of a “lucky shot” with an RPG the chopper might have been hit by something like a Russian 9K34 Strela-3 or even a Stinger from friends in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
But the insurgents wouldn't necessarily need a “lucky shot” with an RPG if the path between the LZ and the Rangers took the Chinook through a pass. A group of insurgents, up in the pass with RPGs, could fire a volley of rockets horizontally as opposed to trying to fire a much more difficult shot, at a high angle, from a valley floor.
I'm not saying any of this happened but it could have.

Since the helicopter was hit with an RPG, just what is all that nonsense about?

[Brad from Tennessee]

Initial reports about this event said the SEALs were sent to help a unit that was pinned down and needed to be extracted. I hadn't read anything about this tragedy since 2011 although I did think about it a lot.

This is a long headline from the UK’s Daily Mail a day after the tragedy:

Inseparable in life and in death: The high school best friends who died together on Navy SEAL rescue mission when helicopter was shot down in ‘lucky shot’ in Afghanistan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023123/Special-forces-helicopter-shot-Afghanistan-mission-rescue-fellow-Navy-SEALs.html

Here's one from CNN:

NAVY SEAL TEAM SIX KILLED DURING RESCUE MISSION

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Nearly two dozen U.S. special forces killed early Saturday in Afghanistan were on a mission to rescue another team of military personnel pinned down by insurgents, a U.S. military official told CNN.

The helicopter that went down in eastern Afghanistan carried 31 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALs, who were part of a “quick reaction force” sent in to pick up others engaged in a fierce firefight, the official said. . .

http://www.realnewsreporter.com/?p=7002

USA TODAY:

SEALS KILLED IN AFGHAN CRASH ON RESCUE MISSION

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. Navy SEALs and other troops whose helicopter was shot down in eastern Afghanistan had rushed to the mountainous area to help a U.S. Army Ranger unit that was under fire from insurgents, two U.S. officials said Sunday.

The rescue team had completed the mission, subduing the attackers who had the Rangers pinned down, and was departing in a Chinook helicopter when the aircraft was apparently hit, one of the officials said. . .

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/afghanistan/2011-08-06-nato-helicopter-crash_n.htm

This FR thread infers that a conspiracy exists to hide what was a Taliban or Al Qaeda plot to exact revenge
on Navy SEALS for the death of Osama Bin Laden. If one accepts that premise then public information about the Aug. 6, 2011 event may be distorted or made up.

The conspiracy theories arose in part because the Afghan military, who also lost people in the crash, was telling a story that conflicted with the U.S. account:

From WIKIPEDIA:

. . .Other reports alleged that the Taliban had laid an elaborate trap for U.S. special operations forces, luring them in with false information. A senior Afghan government official, speaking anonymously, said that Taliban commander Qari Tahir had fed U.S. forces false information about a meeting of insurgent leaders and fighters waited for the helicopter from both sides of a steep valley: “The Taliban knew which route the helicopter would take. That's the only route, so they took position on either side of the valley on mountains and as the helicopter approached, they attacked it with rockets and other modern weapons. It was brought down by multiple shots.”[26]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Chinook_shootdown_in_Afghanistan

If I believe the conspiracy theory over the CENTCOM explanation then I try to find an alternative to the Chinook hit by a “lucky shot” with an RPG. I offer an alternate scenario which you label as “nonsense.” You may believe the RPG explanation because that's what was reported. I'm not saying you're wrong in anything you stated. But I try to keep an open mind.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

On...

[ansel12]

I hadn't read anything about this tragedy since 2011 although I did think about it a lot.

So naturally you just decided to start making up theories and conspiracies and posting them in mid 2013.

Post 30 was pretty goofy.