Free Republic

The Obama administration is violating a judge’s 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.

On a moonless night, an Army Chinook helicopter swept low over the Tangi Valley, a strip of forbidding terrain in eastern Afghanistan teeming with Taliban and located just 35 miles south of Kabul. Among the 38 occupants inside the Chinook were some of the most highly trained and battle-seasoned fighters in the U.S. military, including 15 commandos from the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, the unit that three months earlier had killed Osama bin Laden. Their target was a Taliban commander responsible for ambushes and other attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces. Missions like this one to insert or remove an...

The Obama administration is violating a judge’s 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. 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. “It has now been four years since Extortion 17 was shot down,” said Doug Hamburger, whose Army air crew...

There was a time when America’s Commander-In-Chief held a certain poise, a refinement of manner, a humble je ne sais quoi. And nothing could be more important to the families of America’s soldiers than assurance that the lives of their sons and daughters are valued above everything except the liberty they defend. Aaron Carson Vaughn, a member of the elite SEAL Team VI special forces once wrote a note of assurance to his concerned parents about his chain of command saying, “They won’t let me die.” This week, America honors her heroes in recognizing Veterans Day, including our brave SEALs....

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...