Investigating the impact Osama bin Laden's death had on U.S. Navy SEALS

saturday marks 10 years since then president barack obama announced the death of osama bin laden the may 1st 2011 address came nearly one decade after bin laden was named public enemy number one for his role in plotting the september 11th attacks the former al-qaeda leader went into hiding after the deadliest attack ever on u.s soil he was only seen and heard in taped recordings released by the terror network u.s intelligence pinpointed the terror mastermind holed up in a compound in northern pakistan in the dead of night a small group of elite navy commandos known as seal team six entered the safe house and took him out following the death of the most wanted man in the world the navy seals gained worldwide recognition but as cbs news senior investigative correspondent catherine herridge reports that notoriety also caused a division within one of the us's most elite military units our team spoke with more than a dozen members of the seal community including former and active duty seals who said most serve with honor but they also said there is a corrupt element in their brotherhood adding the celebrity that came with the raid made some seals feel untouchable days after 9 11 president bush launched a massive global manhunt from ground zero i can hear you the rest of the world hears you and the people and the people who knock these buildings down will hear all of us soon a decade later the search ended at this compound in pakistan where the quiet professionals of seal team 6 executed the mission and were thrust into the headlines tonight i can report to the american people and to the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden the leader of al qaeda they should never have said navy seals did this eric deming spent nearly 20 years as a seal and did tours in iraq and afghanistan i hate being in this chair talking to you right now and i don't know if this is going to help but at least it will expose the problem and i'm hoping this encourages good seals to start saying enough is enough you're coming forward because you you care about the seal community 100 percent deming told us he's speaking out because he believes seals have to start holding themselves accountable was the raid that took out osama bin laden a turning point for the seals it was definitely a turning point for some seals did the raid make them feel untouchable a lot of them were feeling that way before and it just put it into overdrive we love the job we love the community but it has taken a wrong turn three seals including one on active duty sat down with cbs news on the condition we change their voices and hide their identities why the disguise we are risking a lot to be here risking careers possible safety what does retaliation look like it looks like physical abuse it looks like tearing down your reputation the group told us there are bad seals with outsized influence on the teams there are three groups in the teams there's a small group on one side that is evil they're lawless there's a small group on the other side that stands up to them and then there's a giant group in the middle that cowardly stays out of it and they watch the evil guys railroad the good guys two seals recently pleaded guilty in the strangulation of green beret logan melgar in west africa his death has been described as a hazing incident gone wrong i don't believe it this didn't just happen suddenly there were a hundred steps leading up to that lawlessness narcissism thinking they're untouchable what would you say to staff sergeant mangar's family keep fighting keep up the good fight he was by all accounts a good person those are the kind of guys we need in the military and we're not going to purge out the bad ones unless we do all stand up together to get them out and there's the controversial case of edward gallagher who was accused of killing a teenage isis prisoner in 2017. he was put on trial for war crimes but in surprise testimony a seal medic who've been granted immunity confessed to what he described as a mercy killing then president trump publicly sided with the seal with eddie gallagher you know that story very well they wanted to take his spin away and i said no you're not going to take it away he was a great fighter in the end gallagher was convicted of a lesser charge opposing with the prisoner's body but i am angry i feel betrayed drug abuse has been a problem too around 2016 senior steel commander jamie sands read the east coast teams the riot act how do you decide that it's okay for you to do drugs two years after that dressing down a heavily redacted navy investigation obtained by cbs news showed six members of seal team 10 tested positive for cocaine you have first-hand knowledge of deployments where individuals have been taking drugs yes yes i've taken drug tests in the seal teams where i walked into an office was handed the vial and just told bring it back when it's full and that's not the procedure you're supposed to be supervised doing the test you're saying it's not hard to beat the test right and that's been documented at least one seal admitted his cocaine use during sniper school and on deployment drug use went beyond cocaine to methamphetamine ecstasy and marijuana some seals said drug testing was a joke i would say the majority of guys are not doing it we've got to work hard to find the guys who are and how they're getting it around allegations of drinking and sexual assault got a seal platoon pulled from iraq in july 2019. that same week a memo from seal leadership read we have a problem our lack of order and discipline comes from weak leadership and not enforcing the standards what happens when a sealed team doesn't have good order and discipline it goes crazy alcohol related incidents training mishaps lost equipment loss of life loss of life at the end of the day the seals told us speaking up can have consequences they showed us photos of a fellow seal who they say was physically beaten up by several teammates for calling out bad behavior his leadership turned a blind eye to it didn't act on it and essentially gave permission to the seals that he accused to deal with it on their terms street justice is that what you're saying yes for the seals watching this the one thing i would want them to think about is where's the line for you and if we can't all agree that wrong things are wrong then it's just gonna keep going on killing osama bin laden 10 years ago was celebrated in the streets [Applause] the operation by seal team 6 also brought a kind of celebrity that was at odds with the tradition of being a quiet professional we became a brand if we had never known the seals took out osama bin laden you believe the seal community would be in a better place today yes yes one of the first thoughts in my mind was how long are we going to go before somebody exploits this for personal gain and we didn't have to wait long we just crossed the border now entering pakistan hollywood told the story of the raid in the film zero dark 30. and cbs has aired four seasons of its own prime time series seal team online former seals monetize their new found fame take a look at these autographed photos that we bought online why are you shaking your head i don't want to touch it this is not okay no it's not okay what about the quiet professional does that encompass none of it before i came into the navy almost every seal i met when i asked him point blank are you a navy seal and i knew he was a navy seal he denied it and you respect that i respect it just don't talk about it stay under the radar exactly members of seal team six were disciplined for serving as paid consultants to a video game company what's the problem exposing tactics techniques procedures they expose all kinds of things of how we operate another was punished for writing an unauthorized account of the raid it's not everybody doing it most of the guys in the seal teams want the books to stop they want the movies to stop the tv shows to stop why shouldn't they make some money when they're finished because this isn't going to harvard to get a business degree you serve to uphold the constitution of the united states and to protect our country the military and our operations they're not for sale we asked the seals why they're speaking out there is desperation to put it in three words we need help and that's why we're here the top seal commander declined our interview request but provided a statement that mirrored his testimony to congress wednesday i present our update to the american people with humility humility sharpened in combat losses mission failures and imperfection the humility that drives our sense of urgency to learn to evolve and to always come back stronger and even more committed to the missions our nation has of us the pentagon's inspector general has undertaken an evaluation into potential war crimes whether special operations which includes the seals has done enough to prevent war crimes and reported them if they happened on the battlefield the seal teams have gone off the rails they are not operating the way the seal teams that i grew up in what would you say to people who look at the situation and say this is the consequence of two decades of war i can't blame it on the war i i honestly blame it on my leadership and not holding guys accountable and allowing not good you know law and discipline and that's all it takes you tell where the boundaries are you can't do this this this and this and if you do you're done what's it going to take to fix the problem it's going to take good guys in the team staying there fighting the good fight calling them out and then some outside entity coming in and doing a full review of everything it's got to come from outside and it's got to be somebody that's got some integrity deming who filed a complaint over training practices still carries the trident from his days as a seal without change deming shattered his own child's dreams you wouldn't let your own son join the seals i would was it a hard conversation with your son you crush him you see it upper face as our reports have aired across the cbs news platforms members of the seal community have been reaching out to us as we continue to hear new stories our investigative team will pursue and report all angles as for the seals they continue to deploy around the world on dangerous sensitive operations the vast majority of which the rest of us will never hear about catherine herrich cbs news washington

Channel: CBS News

Views: 2,795,052

Keywords: CBS News, CBS News investigation, investigation, osama bin laden, killed osama bin laden, Barack Obama, navy SEALs, SEAL Team 6, covert operation, military, u.s. military

Id: Z8671pfeX8s

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021