Former SEAL Robert O'Neill is now a motivational speaker, wowing audiences with his tales of life-and-death missions. Last night, in his first on-the-record interview broadcast by Fox News, he revealed new details of the mission he had yet to speak about in public -- the mission to find and kill Osama bin Laden.
O'Neill said top military commanders activated a handful of senior SEAL Team members for a raid, but divulged few details. At first, O'Neill thought they were going after Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. But not long after, the SEALs on their own deduced the target was really bin Laden.
The former SEAL told Fox News he and others accepted that the mission would be so dangerous that they'd probably die. Even so, O'Neill said he switched assignments to put himself in the best position to take the fatal shot. He was first assigned to a group of SEALs that would be dropped outside the compound to protect the SEALs inside, but O'Neill ended up with a group that descended on ropes to the house roof. A CIA analyst told him bin Laden would be on the third floor.
O'Neill told Fox he called the rooftop group the "Martyrs' Brigade," meaning it was a team that would die for an honorable cause. In the end, O'Neill said he came face to face with the terrorist leader and fired a bullet into bin Laden's forehead and, in his words, ended the war.
All of the SEALs escaped, bringing bin Laden's body with them.
Just after the Fox News segment ended, O'Neill on Twitter asked what his followers thought of the interview, and reminded them part two will air tonight. He also used the occasion to launch a new web site in his name.
Former SEAL who claims to have shot bin Laden speaks at Regent
Shooter: ‘It doesn’t matter anymore if I killed bin Laden’
SEAL who shot bin Laden to speak at Regent
