Butte native says he is bin Laden shooter

WASHINGTON — The retired Navy SEAL who says he shot al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the forehead publicly identified himself Thursday amid a debate among special operations brethren about whether they should break silence about their secret missions.

Robert O’Neill, 38, told The Washington Post in an interview that he fired the two shots that killed bin Laden. He first recounted the story in February 2013 to Esquire magazine, which identified him only as “the shooter.”

O’Neill was born and raised in Butte.

His identity was first published by British tabloids on Wednesday.

O’Neill’s father, Tom, detailed his son’s role in the mission to the London-based tabloid The Standard in a story posted Wednesday on the newspaper’s website.  

“People are asking if we are worried that ISIS will come and get us because Rob is going public. I say I’ll paint a big target on my front door and say, ‘Come and get us,’” Tom O’Neill told the tabloid.

A 16-year veteran of military service, Rob O’Neill is now a motivational speaker.  

O’Neill joined the Navy at the recruiting center in Butte on Harrison Avenue in 1995, a year after graduating from Butte Central High School.

His heroics have inspired at least three feature films: “Zero Dark Thirty,” the thriller about the SEAL Team Six raid that killed bin Laden, “Captain Phillips,” a movie starring Tom Hanks about the SEAL raid to save a cargo ship captain abducted by Somali pirates, and “Lone Survivor,” a film starring Mark Walhlberg based on a failed mission to capture a Taliban leader.

O’Neill previously acknowledged his part in the latter two missions. But he has not publicly confirmed his role in the mission that killed bin Laden.

One current and one former SEAL confirmed to The Associated Press that O’Neill was long known to have fired the shots that killed the leader of the international terror group responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Defense Department officials confirmed Thursday that O’Neill was a member of SEAL Team Six and was part of the bin Laden raid. But they said they could not confirm who fired the fatal shot, noting that other SEALs on the mission also fired at bin Laden.

O’Neill told the Post that shots also were fired by two other SEAL team members, including Matt Bissonnette, who described the raid somewhat differently in his book, “No Easy Day.” His lawyer said Bissonnette is under federal criminal investigation over whether he disclosed classified information in the book, which he did not vet with the military. In the Esquire piece, O’Neill makes no mention of Bissonnette shooting bin Laden.

In the Esquire piece, O’Neill said he was one of two SEALs who went up to the third floor of the building where bin Laden was hiding. The first man fired two shots at bin Laden as he peeked out of the bedroom, but O’Neill says those shots missed. The man then tackled two women in the hallway outside of bin Laden’s bedroom.

O’Neill went into the bedroom, he recounts. “There was bin Laden standing there. He had his hands on a woman’s shoulders, pushing her ahead, not exactly toward me but by me, in the direction of the hallway commotion. It was his youngest wife, Amal.”

O’Neill added: “In that second, I shot him two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he’s going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again. Bap! Same place. ... He was dead.”

O’Neill is scheduled to be featured in lengthy segments next week on Fox News.  He told the Post he decided to go public because he feared his identity was going to be leaked by others. Indeed, his name was published Monday by SOFREP, a website operated by former special operations troopers.

The actions of both O’Neill and Bissonnette have drawn scorn from some of their colleagues. In an Oct. 31 open letter, Rear Adm. Brian Losey, who commands the Naval Special Warfare Group, and Force Master Chief Michael Magaraci, the top noncommissioned officer of the group, urged SEALs to lower their public profile. Their comments were widely perceived as being aimed at O’Neill and Bissonnette.

“At Naval Special Warfare’s core is the SEAL ethos,” the letter says. “A critical tenet of our ethos is ‘I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions.”’

The letter added, “We do not abide willful or selfish disregard for our core values in return for public notoriety or financial gain.”

Rick Woolard, a former SEAL team commander who previously urged his comrades to avoid discussing recent operations, said active-duty SEALs are “pretty much very disappointed and I’d have to say angry with guys who have used their deeds and those of their companions for personal gain.”