The 38-year old Navy SEAL from Butte, Montana, who shot and killed former al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden during a raid in his Abbottobad home, in Pakistan, on May 2, 2011,has finally decided to reveal his identity as Rob O’Neill after three years.
O’Neill confirmed this information to The Washington Post.
Earlier officials at the Pentagon who issued a statement in reaction to a Fox Network advertised documentary on the killing of Osama Bin Laden, warning any SEAL who participated in the operation was “still bound” by military non-disclosure agreements and could face criminal prosecution, Business Insider reports. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday after O’Neill revealed himself to the Washington Post.
This makes O’Neill the second SEAL out of the 23 involved in the raid to make his identity public after Matthew Bisonnette, who wrote an inside account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden and released his controversial book No Easy Day in 2012 – under the pen-name Mark Owen and immediately faced the ire of the Pentagon and fellow SEALs.
O’Neil had reportedly successfully embarked on over 400 combat missions, killed more than 30 targets and is “one of the most-decorated SEALs ever”
Speaking exclusively with Mail Online in an interview Rob O’Neil’s 65-year old father, Tom O’Neill, said ‘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.’
Rob O’Neill is an ex-member of SEAL Team Six whose achievement had been acted in three movies including, Zero Dark Thirty, Captain Phillips and Lone Survivor.
According to the Mail Online, Rob O’Neill is one of the most distinguished members ever of the elite force – but now faces being frozen out of its circles for revealing its most closely-held secrets.
O’Neill was personally congratulated by President Barack Obama for killing bin Laden at close range with three shots to his forehead although some people contrarily maintained that O’Neill shot him once, leaving him mortally-wounded before two other SEALs later killed him with further shots to the chest.
This gives a tip of an iceberg on the whole questions on how the terrorist was killed, .
O’Neil said to be a highly-decorated veteran, was forced to speak out of frustration and depression after losing military assistance when he retired from the military after 16 years of service, instead of completing the full 20 years of service.
An interview had been scheduled by Fox News with SEAL Rob O’Neill next week where he is expected to narrate how he was able to kill Bin Laden and why he had decided to own up just recently.
