Did SEAL Team Six Die in a Helicopter Explosion During ...
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'Extortion 17' helicopter crash in Afghanistan - Stars and ...
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Stars and Stripes
How Do You Teach an Old Gun New Tricks? - Foreign Policy
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Foreign Policy
Extortion 17 Is A Bigger Scandal and Betrayal Than Benghazi
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On August 6, 2011, a military helicopter— Extortion 17— carrying thirty-eight men ... - westernjournalism
Killed in the crash were: 17 members of the elite Navy SEALS, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALS, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and an Army helicopter crew of five; seven Afghan commandos and one Afghan interpreter; and a U.S. military service dog.......... -
TheBlaze
Iwonder if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had condemned the former elite military boys to death for what they considered 'Extortion' for threatening to reveal the truth about the phoney operation that 'kiled Osama bin Laden' in Pakistan ?
Obama's SEAL Team 6 Coverup - Western Journalism
www.westernjournalism.com/obamas-seal-team-6-coverup/
- http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/09/lies-and-deceit-see-what-the-families-of-the-seal-team-6-members-slain-in-chopper-crash-alleged-at-their-press-conference/Biden mentions the SEALs in this video at an event just a couple days after the announcement of bin Laden’s death:The parents of Aaron Vaughn, Billy and Karen, who spoke at the presser Thursday began voicing of their discontent regarding the SEALs being identified last year:Former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb, who runs SOFREP.com (the Special Operations Forces Report, told TheBlaze in an email, though, that he thinks it would have been “virtually impossible” not to disclose the team responsible for killing bin Laden in today’s “age of social media.”“If you remember there was a Pakatani tweeting about helicopters as the raid was happening,” he wrote.But the families detailed other information surrounding the tragedy that they find objectionable. They question the type of helicopter being flown; why so many elite members of the military were in one helicopter at a given time; why command switched out members of the Afghani forces at the last minute; and why other procedures they considered protocol did not seem to have been followed.“A Chinook from 1989? Unacceptable,” Strange said of the Boeing CH-47 Chinook the men were flying in that day. “93 days after killing bin Laden you put 22 [members of] SEAL Team 6 into a Chinook?”“That helicopter is meant to transport troops and people …[it's] not made to conduct special operations,” retired admiral James Lyon said.Billy Vaughn said he believes if his son were flying in more modern aircraft suited for special operations the outcome might have been different. But even if the outcome wasn’t changed, it would at least “be a whole lot easier to live with,” he said.Lyon called the details — and remaining questions — surrounding the event “pure dereliction of duty.”“This is the same dereliction of duty you see reflected in Benghazi today,” he continued. “Not to come to the aid of our diplomats and our personnel when we’re under attack is un-American.”Billy Vaughn also noted that a commander made a call to switch Afghani forces on the mission, which the families believe might have led to a leak of classified information to the Taliban about their plans. Vaughn said he doesn’t know what commander authorized this and said that fact wasn’t included in the military’s report, something he finds questionable.................
- http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/02/22/extortion-17-finally-gets-congressional-hearing-2-12-years-later/
- Before Benghazi, there was Extortion 17, the largest loss of life in the Afghan War Theater, and the greatest single loss in the history of the Navy SEALs. The Taliban shot down a U.S. Boeing CH-47 Chinook military helicopter, code named Extortion 17, carrying special operations officers sent to reinforce Army Rangers under fire, was shot down in theWardak Province, Afghanistan, killing 30 American heroes – 15 of whom were a part of Navy SEAL Team VI; the team who took down Osama Bin Laden. Back in August, Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the House Oversight and GovernmentReform subcommittee on National Security, said “We’re going to dive into this.” Well that day has come and a congressional hearing has now been scheduled for Februrary 27, 2013.
Benghazi took place a year following Extortion 17. Since that time, there have been numerous hearings and a prolonged investigation which has led to absolutely no accountability, while Extortion 17 has received little media attention and not one congressional hearing. The travesty is that so many of our elite special forces were killed aboard Extortion 17. On top of that, Billy Vaughn, father of fallen Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn, recounts in his book Betrayed: The Shocking True Story of Extortion 17 as told by a Navy SEAL’s Father that not only were the families lied to about what happened, but apparently the enemies that shot down Extortion 17 were in a building that may have included “friendlies” and so due to the Obama administration’s rules of engagement, they were not able to fire back at the very people who had just killed their fellow soldiers............
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/27/congress-sheds-new-light-on-horrific-extortion-17-tragedy-that-claimed-lives-of-30-u-s-troops/
Congress Sheds New Light on Horrific ‘Extortion 17’ Tragedy That Claimed Lives of 30 U.S. Troops
When asked about conspiracy theories about the Taliban being tipped off before the “Extortion 17″ mission, Chaffetz said the available evidence doesn’t support the idea.
“It’s horrific, it was awful, these people go into the most dangerous places in the world, but I don’t see any evidence that somehow the Taliban was tipped off and they were prepared and that’s what took out this helicopter,” he said.........
Charles Strange whose son, Sgt. Michael Strange, 25, of Philadelphia, was among those killed, thanked the committee for the hearing, but said he’s not satisfied that the military has released all the information on the crash.
“I want an investigation. That was no investigation,” Strange said. “We want to talk to Mr. (Barack) Obama, the president, the chief. Thirty men died. Give us 20 minutes.”
Killed in the crash were: 17 members of the elite Navy SEALS, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALS, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and an Army helicopter crew of five; seven Afghan commandos and one Afghan interpreter; and a U.S. military service dog..........
WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — Relatives of some of the 30 U.S. troops killed when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan said congressional testimony from U.S. military officials on Thursday answered some, but not all, of their lingering questions about the single deadliest incident of the war, also known as the “Extortion 17″ tragedy.
Garry Reid, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the Chinook CH-47, a lumbering transport helicopter, was the proper aircraft for the high-risk mission targeting a senior Taliban commander in the early morning hours of Aug. 6, 2011, in eastern Afghanistan.
Reid worked to dispel allegations that insurgents might have been tipped off about the flight by members of the Afghan security forces. He said the eight Afghans aboard the Chinook, who also died, had been properly vetted. There has been a rash of insider attacks in recent years where Taliban insurgents have infiltrated U.S. or NATO units and killed international troops.
Reid’s answer did not satisfy Doug Hamburger, whose son, Sgt. Patrick Hamburger, 30, of Lincoln, Neb., was killed in the crash.
“We’re still very positive that they could have been set up – that this was an inside thing, that they knew they were coming,” Hamburger said after the hearing.
The relatives have sought answers about information that the team of eight Afghans aboard had been switched before the Chinook took off on the mission in the Tangi Valley of Wardak province, about 60 miles southwest of Kabul. Reid said that there were two groups of Afghans assigned to the task force conducting the mission and that all had been hand-picked from the Afghan forces and had undergone seven months of training.
He said one group was with Army Rangers fighting insurgents in the area, and the second group was aboard the helicopter.
“There was a mistake made after the crash in retrieving the list of Afghans that were aboard,” Reid said. “The list that was provided was for the other squad that was with the Rangers. This created this confusion and led to some speculation that there was a switching out of the actual forces. That was not the case.”
He also dismissed concerns about a missing black box recorder, saying that there was no black box that was standard equipment aboard the aircraft.
Reid, however, was not able to answer relatives’ questions about why investigators interviewed no Afghans. And the relatives still are not satisfied by answers that Reid and members of the military’s mortuary affairs operations gave about claims that an Afghan degraded the deceased servicemen during a memorial held in Afghanistan before the service members’ remains were flown to the United States.
“A Muslim clerk damned the bodies, the memories of our clients’ sons to hell as infidels,” Larry Klayman, a lawyer representing several of the victims’ families, told reporters after the hearing. “There were eight different translations. There’s no dispute about what was said.”
Reid had a different interpretation.
“We have had people in our government listen to what he was saying,” Reid said. “I’m told that there are verses that he is citing. He is commemorating the fallen – all of the fallen. There are some interpretations that I have seen on the Internet that he was condemning the Americans, the infidels. It’s not my expertise, but what we have been told on good authority is that he is commemorating all of our fallen and condemning the enemy.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah., who chaired the hearing, said he hoped the Pentagon would, in the future, insist on separate ceremonies when Americans and those from another country are killed in the same operation.
“Of course we’re going to honor (all) those who lost their lives, but let’s do it separately,” Chaffetz said, his voice cracking from tears. “I don’t want some Afghan saying something about my son.”
“Amen,” one relative in the audience said as others applauded.
Charles Strange whose son, Sgt. Michael Strange, 25, of Philadelphia, was among those killed, thanked the committee for the hearing, but said he’s not satisfied that the military has released all the information on the crash.
“I want an investigation. That was no investigation,” Strange said. “We want to talk to Mr. (Barack) Obama, the president, the chief. Thirty men died. Give us 20 minutes.”
Killed in the crash were: 17 members of the elite Navy SEALS, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALS, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and an Army helicopter crew of five; seven Afghan commandos and one Afghan interpreter; and a U.S. military service dog.
Appearing on “The Kelly File” Thursday, Chaffetz said he hoped the hearing helped clarify some of the circumstances surrounding the tragedy for the families who are still grieving.
When asked about conspiracy theories about the Taliban being tipped off before the “Extortion 17″ mission, Chaffetz said the available evidence doesn’t support the idea.
“It’s horrific, it was awful, these people go into the most dangerous places in the world, but I don’t see any evidence that somehow the Taliban was tipped off and they were prepared and that’s what took out this helicopter,” he said.
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