Bin Laden 'was unarmed' when shot dead

Originally posted by Lemon.Fresh
So you support execution without a trial.

Good to know.

No, but it is clear that you are confused as to the difference between the two distinct games of Cops and Robbers and Solders and Terrorists.

Ok, I’ll cover this one for you slowly as it is an area in which I have some particular experience. I am a retired Officer who served as A Special Forces Engineer Sergeant, Team Leader and Company Commander so I have participated in a few raids just like the one for OBL in my day.

First point, much like the Navy Seals, Special Forces Soldiers are not law enforcement officers and do not serve arrest warrants. Again, key point here is for you to not confuse cops and robbers with soldiers and terrorists – different game different rules.

That said we sometimes are tasked to conduct a direct action mission that requires the taking of prisoners or specifically a particular named personality for questioning.

When the orders for these missions are given the rules of engagement are established and usually it is a kill or capture. So, for OBL I’m quite sure that the POTUS gave the order and because of compartmentalization there are probably less than 60 people who will actually ever know the content of those orders.

Once the orders are issued to DOD and then SOCOM to JSOC they decide which assets will be used and what team will do the mission. They give that team leader the authority and autonomy to make his plan and they put them in isolation so that they can plan, prepare and rehearse. Of course his plan must be back-briefed to his leaders and so on for their approval.

When as a SF Team leader you make your plan for actions on the objective you decide who will clear what rooms in what order, who will secure the perimeter, how any supporting fires will be used and such, code words, signals and even what each person will carry.

Also, you being responsible for the men under your command give them the ability to protect themselves and each other from perceived threats. That is to say even if the mission is to capture X – Hajji if it cannot be done without wounding him so be it; if he also is surrounded by armed security and you have to kill him to meet your success measures you do that and well – he dies.

Along with the kill capture orders are the rules for what risk to the personnel and equipment we will take to consider the mission a success. Some missions will scrub if a bird loses enough fuel in flight to return, some will switch from capture to kill if any team member is hit so that the focus can shift from taking the bad guy to saving our own, some will scrub if there are too many civilians in the objective area etc. That is all decided way in advance.

In this situation even if it was a capture order all it would take is for him to reach for something unseen to result in a cranial lead injection - least that's the order I would have given to my Operators.

I would not risk losing one man to bring this bag of crap back alive. Again, I don't, nor will any of us ever know what the real mission was.

If it was to kill him then his death rests on the head of the POTUS not the dutiful SEAL who pulled the trigger. The order he was given was for the lawful targeting of an enemy commander during war.

The bottom line is we do not serve arrest warrants we conduct military operations – OBL is an enemy commander and a valid military target we don’t need an enemy be armed to kill them only the order. We are not cops and do not work on a strictly threat/counter-threat basis only.

reply to post by SpeachM1litant


He wasn't entirely unarmed. Apparently he was using his one wife as a shield.

Gotta love the heartfelt notion of that...

reply to post by SpeachM1litant


the reason he was shot right away (going with the official story) was because OBL had consistently claimed in the past he would not be taken alive and would Martyr himself. With this in mind it is a fair assumption for the members of SEAL Team Six to have assumed he was wearing a suicide vest and that is why they shot him.

oh and this was just a good o' assasination, its really very simple