[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dDtRnstrefE]
OK…so it’s juvenile. But it includes a nice shot of our X’ed-out Osama bin Laden Time cover, so it can’t be all bad.
Navy
Piracy Pays…
We tend to think of the pirate tales out in the Indian Ocean as a throwback to earlier times of clipper ships and gold doubloons. But in 2010, it was a big — make that huge — business. According to a piece in Business Daily Africa on Monday, Indian Ocean pirates cost the world economy as much as $12 billion in 2010 in ransoms, …
Inside Navy SEAL Team 6
The first rule of Navy SEAL Team 6 is you don’t talk about SEAL Team 6. In fact, the U.S. military has never publicly acknowledged its existence. But over the past week, tales of the Navy’s most elite squadron have blazed like wildfire, as the SEALs’ takedown of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, has generated white-hot …
The Navy Says “I Do” To Same-Sex Marriages
Last Monday, the Navy was the hero across America, for the exploits of its SEALs in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. This Monday, the sea service was zero in certain quarters for saying it will permit same-sex marriages within its hallowed chapels. It marks the first of what is likely to be many thunderclaps associated with the …
Even More SEALs: Navy to Name Warship After SEAL Hero Saturday
SEALs go through their infamous Hell Week during their training, when physical stress amid mental duress and sleep deprivation breaks nearly all strong, smart men. This past week, it seems, we have all been through SEAL Week.
And it’s not over yet: Saturday morning the Navy will christen USS Michael Murphy, a guided-missile …
President Thanks SEAL-Drivers of Task Force 160 Today
President Obama is going to thank some of those involved in Monday’s mission against Osama bin Laden during his visit to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on Friday. Whether or not the SEALs will be there isn’t known: they’re based 500 miles away, at Fort Bragg, N.C. But some key enablers live at the Kentucky base: the Night Stalkers of Task …
A provocative vision of a post-supercarrier US Navy
The notion of doing away with traditional big-deck carriers gets a high-profile boost this month in the latest (May) issue of Proceedings, the U.S. Naval Institute’s official rabble-rouser. It’s written by a friend and colleague, Capt. Henry (Jerry) Hendrix, along with a retired Marine Lt. Col., Noel Williams. Hendrix, a truly …
The Man Who Got bin Laden: The Most Deadly Would-be Journalist in the World
The man who commanded the SEAL team that hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden studied to be a reporter. If the Pulitzer Prize board establishes a new category — for killing the world’s most wanted terrorist — it’s a safe bet Bill McRaven will win it next spring.
Vice Adm. William McRaven, himself a SEAL, was on the ground in …
The Pall of Confusion Surrounding bin Laden’s Death
Even when the U.S. government feels like bragging about a military success, it takes several days for the most elementary outline to surface. Now, imagine it’s a secret raid involving sensitive sources and methods that the U.S. doesn’t want to divulge. Pile on top of that a senior White House official a little too eager to spin a …
The Final Room-by-Room Hunt For Osama Bin Laden
A senior U.S. intelligence official described Osama bin Laden’s compound with two words that are rarely spoken together: “opaque windows.” Once the U.S. became aware of the compound, a closer look made them even more curious. “The walls around the compound were up to 18 feet high,” a senior U.S. intelligence operative said Monday. …
Bin Laden: Betrayed By His Face, His DNA…And His Wife
Senior U.S. officials say the U.S. government used several sophisticated methods to confirm that the tall man Navy SEALs killed early Monday in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was, indeed, Osama bin Laden:
1. CIA experts compared known photos of bin Laden with photographs of the corpse, and concluded they were 95% sure the dead man was bin
…
Bin Laden’s Final Resting Place
Osama bin Laden left this world from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea about mid-day Monday. In a strange twist on an ancient military tradition, he was buried at sea. The ceremony was in accord with Muslim law, which requires burial within 24 hours of death, Pentagon officials said.
Bin …
Bin Laden: A Tale Of Two Mornings, Three Decades Apart
Just over 31 years ago, a much bleaker dawn greeted Americans awakening and getting ready to go to work than was the case Monday morning. Back in 1980, the U.S. military had just been humiliated at Desert One, deep inside Iran, trying to rescue the 52 hostages that had been held by Iran for six months. The U.S. military was forced to …