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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Former Navy SEAL: "I Killed Bin Laden"

Aired November 14, 2014 - 16:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Back to our "World Lead," inside the secret mission to kill the world's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, from the former Navy SEAL, who says he pulled the trigger himself.

For 16 years, Robert O'Neill was a Navy SEAL, and for eight of them, he was a member of the elite special operations unit known as SEAL Team 6.

In May 2011, on the authorization of President Obama, O'Neill and more than 20 other special operations forces under the cover of darkness conducted a clandestine raid in Pakistan that killed Bin Laden.

Now, despite taking a vow of silence to keep details of the mission secret, O'Neill is speaking out about what happened that night and what it was like to stare in the eyes of the man responsible for the September 11th attacks.

Robert O'Neill, welcome. Thank you for joining me and thank you for your service.

ROBERT O'NEILL, FORMER NAVY SEAL: You're welcome, and thank you for having me, Mr. Tapper. It's good to be here.

TAPPER: Please call me, Jake, come on. Let's start with the moment where you realized that this mission was to get Bin Laden. What was that like?

O'NEILL: It was just odd the way they called us back from training cycles to tell us something. And at first, it was more of a "we found a thing in a country," and we asked what's the thing, what's the country? They wouldn't tell us.

We figured it would have been Moammar Gadhafi in Libya because that was the time of the Arab spring, and we figured they wanted us to go get him, so we started training, well, not training, but getting our gear prepared for that sort of environment.

We were briefed more and more. They told us they would give us the brief in a couple days and we asked who was going to be at the brief or the read-in, as they called it. And just some of the names they mentioned didn't make sense for that part of the world and we sort of figured it out.

TAPPER: There were Bin Laden experts, in other words?

O'NEILL: Yes, from different agencies, different parts of the world, just not that region. And then we did go down to a different training area. They gave us the briefing. They did say this is as close as you've ever been to Osama Bin Laden.

TAPPER: Man.

O'NEILL: And that was quite a feeling. It wasn't -- there's no cheering, there was no high-fives. It was a more of, OK, we're ready now. Should we go, today?

TAPPER: Tell me about being in that Black Hawk headed towards Abudabad, what the mood was in the chopper?

O'NEILL: Well, the mood was interesting because we're used to flying north out of Jalabad and then turn left and go into the valley, stuff like that. This time, we turned right and the pilots told us when we crossed Pakistan. And at that point, we were figuring on a one-way mission. And I've mentioned that before.

TAPPER: You didn't think you were coming back?

O'NEILL: About a 90 percent chance that we weren't going to come back, just because we're flying into a sovereign nation with technology. If they see us, which they might, they could shoot us down and it would be justifiable because we're in their air space without permission. We are invading their country.

But the guys were serious. We were there to do it. We knew the risks and we accepted them. So, it was guys accepting that we're in a dangerous position.

TAPPER: And you've got to figure that even if you make it to the compound --

O'NEILL: Well, that's another --

TAPPER: Who knows what's there?

O'NEILL: Well, that's another part of the reason because if he is there, a tactic al Qaeda used to use is they would rig the house with explosives, a homemade improvised explosive device to blow the house up, and that was designed to kill a mass amount of troops entering the house.

So, we figured if any house would have this, it would be this house. Then when we found him and his courier, his bodyguards, if anybody was wearing suicide vests, it would be them. So, the house getting blown up, possibly getting shot down, suicide bombers,

And then running out of gas was a concern or getting captured by the Pakistani military because we didn't go in there to fight with the Pakmil. We might get into some long negotiation process on the floor, and then we end up in Pakistan prison, maybe, who knows?

But we didn't plan -- the chances of us not coming back were a lot greater than a chance of coming back.

TAPPER: How sure were you that Bin Laden was actually in the compound?

O'NEILL: I feel very confident just based on the CIA, the group of analysts, but one analyst in particular that was certain he was in there and just talking --

TAPPER: The woman, the main character in "Zero Dark Thirty's" based on?

O'NEILL: Yes. So, just talking to her -- she spent her life doing that. She was a professional. That's what she did and just the way she explained everything, I was certain.

TAPPER: We all know about the mishap with the other helicopter, but let's just focus on once you get there, what is your job, once you land?

O'NEILL: My job -- I actually was on part of the rooftop team. We were going to -- my helicopter was going to let out a few security guys and a dog, and then we were going to --

TAPPER: Kiril.

O'NEILL: Kiril, that's correct and then we were going to go to the rooftop with the remainder of the helicopter and then we are going to try to jump down into his balcony and then start on the third floor while the other team started from the first floor.

TAPPER: But it didn't work out that way?

O'NEILL: No, because the helicopter crash landed in the front yard, an excellent move by the pilot. His quick thinking and just him being a genius, he saved everyone's life. If he would have panicked and rolled it, he probably -- well, it would have killed everybody.

Instead, he saved everyone's lives, and our pilot saw that, so we let our guys out, we sort of lifted up and then we went back down, and he was just telling us that it was time to start from there, we were getting out there. We were prepared for that, too.

TAPPER: So, you start on the first floor, make your way up to the third?

O'NEILL: We started on the first floor. They cleared that. There was at the end of a long hallway on the first floor was a barricaded door, which is another sign that someone important is inside. The guys ahead of me, they used their methods of entry, a couple different attempts and they opened it.

And then we started going up the stairs from the first floor to the second floor. On the way up, the analyst that told us we would run into Khaleed Bin Laden, Osama Bin Laden's son, and she said if we see him, he's the last line of defense.

TAPPER: Take him out?

O'NEILL: Well, if he's armed, and he was armed, so he was eliminated, the threat there. Continued up to the second floor -- I was about eight guys -- the eighth guy back, maybe? Once we got to the second floor, the guys in front of me, all except for the one man, started to clear the threats on the second floor.

We're going to secure that floor until we move up. So, I move my way up to the second position behind the first man, and he was pointing up the stairs to the third floor, and there was a curtain on the top of the floor and there was some movement behind it with unknown silhouettes.

He was getting concerned that they would have explosives or putting on vests or they're rigging something and he was letting me know -- well, letting the guy behind him know that -- it just turned out to be me -- that there's a threat at the top of the stairs and we need to go now.

I wanted more people, but he was spot on, so I gave him a squeeze. We went up through the curtain and the unknowns turned out to be some females. He sort of grabbed on to them and pushed them a little bit down the hallway, falling on them to absorb the blast he knew was going to happen.

So he gave his life so the guy behind him could get a shot. From there, when he pushed the women, I turned to the right into a doorway, and the doorway led to a bedroom. And in the bedroom was Osama Bin Laden, a matter of feet in front of me.

And he had his hands on his wife's shoulders. He was not surrendering. He was sort of moving and just based on the level of threat of him not surrendering and the likelihood of him having a vest, I shot him twice in the head. He fell on the floor. I shot him one more time and I killed him.

O'NEILL: In that brief moment you had with him, did you get a sense of him at all? Was it like, this is the world's most evil man or was it, this is a coward, this is just another guy, what did it feel like?

O'NEILL: The sense was recognition of, first of all, an I.D. of him and he is a threat. And then I had to shoot him. And it wasn't the first time I had done that on a target before. This wasn't the first target I had been on. At that point, he was a target. I recognized the threat, I recognized the individual we were after, which was Osama Bin Laden, and I engaged.

TAPPER: A sniper friend of mine wants to ask you, what did it feel like?

O'NEILL: At that minute, it was just, it felt like that was the first -- the initial threat that I had to take care of, and then there were more threats. Threats are just potential unknowns. There were two more -- well, there was a woman and then was a child.

I wanted to put them in a place where they were not in danger, so they went on the bed and then other spots had to be cleared. It wasn't until more SEALs were in the room and the room was cleared that I had a moment of pause.

And I talked it a friend of mine in the room, and he came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder, and I said, "What do we do now?" and he smiled and said "Now we go find the computers." And I said, OK, I'm back, I'm back. That was quite a thing that just happened.

TAPPER: Wow, incredible story. We have a lot more coming up with Rob O'Neill, the Navy SEAL, who says he shot Bin laden. We'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm once again joined by Robert O'Neill, the former Navy SEAL, who says he fired the shot that killed one of the most hunted men in the world, Osama Bin Laden.

Rob, before we had to take that commercial break, you were telling us you had just killed Bin Laden, and you said to your friend, what do we do now? He said we get the computers.

Once you got the computers and Bin Laden's body on to the helicopter and you took off, what happened then?

O'NEILL: I got on to a separate -- a different helicopter than I flew in on. I was on a helicopter with some of the test results from the DNA that we took. And we were flying back with other SEALs that came in to -- they were on the other helicopter to assist, if needed, and we needed it.

So, we're flying back and we started the watches. Like, we knew it was a 90-minute flight to get there. So it's a 90-minute flight to get out.

TAPPER: And you were worried about the Pakistani military.

O'NEILL: Well, now something was going on, the chances of them being more alert were there and we still had to fly across the country. And as time went on, you know, you're 15 minutes away, and then you know, you're gone 25 minutes and then 30. Then all of a sudden, it's like -- you start to get a little antsy. You're like, boy, we might pull this off.

And we're doing that the entire way. And the way I describe it is like the hockey game, you know, the 1980 Olympics, USA versus Russia, when people were watching the clock and sort of counting. That's what it's like.

At 85 minutes, we were 5 minutes early, one of my bosses came over the radio and said, Gentlemen, for the first time, you're going to be happy to hear this. Welcome to Afghanistan. And then everyone's like, my God, you know. We just did it.

TAPPER: You landed in Jalalabad. Some of you measured your bodies against his --

O'NEILL: Yes, we had one of our guys lay down next to his body. He was about the same height because we didn't bring a tape measure.

TAPPER: A tape measure.

O'NEILL: Right. We thought we thought of everything, but apparently, we didn't think of that.

TAPPER: But you saw his face. It was definitely him.

O'NEILL: It was definitely him, yes. We knew it was definitely him. We got the pictures of him. I knew it was him when I saw him standing up in his bedroom. Then we took him up to Bagram, and they were just going to do more tests on him to confirm.

The president wanted to know, you know, everything that had gone on, the numbers -- they wanted to have the numbers right before it was reported and be 100 percent certain. And then once it was, we were standing there watching a flat-screen TV, watching the president address the nation and the world.

TAPPER: So, you were next to Bin Laden's body watching Obama talk about it?

O'NEILL: A number of feet away from him, yes. Well, I heard him say -- I had a breakfast sandwich in my hand and I heard him say, tonight, I can report to the United States and to the world that the United States conducted a mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden. I heard him say "Osama Bin Laden," and I looked at Osama Bin Laden and I thought, how in the world did I get here from Butte, Montana?

TAPPER: That's so crazy.

O'NEILL: Yes.

TAPPER: You've been criticized for coming forward and telling your story. I want to play some sound from the former secretary of defense, Leon Panetta, talking about, specifically about a colleague of yours, Mark Owen, who wrote the book "No Easy Day," but it could be applied to you as well. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEON PANETTA, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: People who are part of that operation, who commit themselves to the promise that they will not reveal the sensitive operations and not publish anything without bringing it through the Pentagon so that we can ensure that it doesn't reveal sensitive information.

When they fail to do that, we have got to make sure that they stand by the promise they made to this country. I cannot as secretary send a signal to SEALs, who conduct those operations -- you can conduct these operations and then go out and write a book about it or sell your story to "The New York Times."

How the hell can we run sensitive operations here that go after enemies if people are allowed to do that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: You haven't written a book about it.

O'NEILL: No.

TAPPER: You haven't sold your story to anyone, but you are telling your story. What is your response to Secretary Panetta's concerns?

O'NEILL: My response to that is this mission in particular, there was never going to be a right now I'm going to do this, and I had never met any of the families of 9/11. I went up to donate a shirt anonymously at the 9/11 Museum and Memorial, and while I was there -- it was going to be a simple donation.

I thought we'd be in there, get a quick tour and then be out, but I walked into a room and there were about 20 9/11 families waiting there for me. I gave an impromptu speech where I actually talked about it pretty much for the first time.

And to see the responses of these people, women with their heads in their hands and everyone in the room, including men bigger than me were, you know, crying and just saying that it was closure for them, that this helped the healing process, if it wasn't closure.

And I realized that this is a pretty unique situation, and I think it would be irresponsible of me not -- if I can help this many people, I can help more. And if I figured out a way to tell the story with respect for the tactics, for the safety of our troops and for the Department of Defense, if I told in a way just my portion of a story that's kind of already out there.

If it can help people, they can look somebody in the eye that knows the guy that was responsible for 9/11 is dead. I think it's worth it. And I think I've taken those steps.

TAPPER: As you know, there are members in the military who don't think you should be talking. I want to share with you some criticism from a soldier friend of mine. Again, this is from him, not from me --

O'NEILL: OK.

TAPPER: But I solicited questions from troop friends. And he says, why can't he shut the hell up and be a quiet professional like SEALs are supposed to be? What's your response?

O'NEILL: My response to that is, again, there are some things I'm not talking about. This one I think is so important for the families. It's so important historically. It's so important that -- I mean, more versions of -- not -- more -- different parts of the story that were seen that I didn't see, I think it's important historically for this to get out there. You know, this is a mission that's very important.

TAPPER: Mark Owen, his pseudonym. He wrote "No Easy Day." He's now facing a criminal investigation for the book he wrote. O'NEILL: Yes.

TAPPER: You have not written a book.

O'NEILL: No.

TAPPER: But the Pentagon is, I'm sure, watching every word that you are making publicly. Are you concerned about a prosecution, about them taking issue with you for violating, in their view, the nondisclosure agreement?

O'NEILL: That does concern me, and if it comes up, I will address it. Right now, like I said, I think I did this in a way that doesn't violate any tactics or rules. And with Mark Owen being criminally investigated, it actually kind of bothers me that he's being treated like a criminal. I think that he's a hero.

TAPPER: Do you think you're a hero?

O'NEILL: I think I was part of a team full of heroes.

TAPPER: What's so odd is that with all the details that have come out, the one thing that has not come out is a picture of Bin Laden. I don't know one soldier who in this day in age doesn't bring a camera with them on a mission. There must be photographs that members of SEAL Team 6 have of Bin Laden's body.

O'NEILL: See, I don't think there are. I think there are the official pictures that we took and we brought and we turned in. We knew this was a special mission, and everything that we brought in as far as I know was checked and turned in. And I'm assuming it was sealed, but I don't imagine anyone got their own personal camera in there.

TAPPER: Some of your defenders, some of the defenders of Mark Owen say, look, President Obama, the White House, the administration, they talk a lot about the operation, they took political credit for the operation, they cooperated with the makers of "Zero Dark Thirty" --

O'NEILL: Yes.

TAPPER: About the film. Secretary Panetta wrote a book. What do you think about that defense of you?

O'NEILL: See, I don't want to use someone else's behavior to justify my behavior. I think the way that I -- the plan that I came up with I think it was the right way to do it with respect to everything else.

And with the administration admitting stuff that happened and that the team did it, I don't have a problem with that either, because sometimes an administration does need to let the world.

And our enemies know that, yes, we can do this and we will come get you anywhere we have to and we have the capabilities to do so and the soldiers to do it. TAPPER: We're going to be right back with Rob O'Neill. We're going to ask him whether or not he fears for his safety or the safety of his family. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We're continuing our conversation with Rob O'Neill, the former Navy SEAL, who says he shot and killed Osama Bin Laden.

Rob, you were telling me before the break, and it was so good, I want to make sure that people at home hear it, too. Before you walked into that room on the third floor where you thought Bin Laden was, what went through your head?

O'NEILL: Well, there were two of us left on the stairs going up. We knew we had to go up there because they were doing something, we assumed rigging explosives, vests to blow themselves up. So, when we went up, my thought wasn't of, we're about to shoot this guy and be heroes.

My thought was, we're going to blow up, let's get it over with. And we went up there to do that, but with the thought that, you know, we will die if he blows up, but he will die, too, and that is worth it.

TAPPER: Incredible. Before you left on the mission, you reached out to your family.

O'NEILL: Yes.

TAPPER: What did you tell them?

O'NEILL: Well, I called them and just sort of said good-bye and thanks for everything sort of, in not so many words to each one of them. I called my father last. And they could tell something was weird, but I didn't tell them I was going overseas.

They thought I was training in the states, but I called them at some point and they didn't -- I knew they would find out in a matter of hours, because what we were about to do is going to end a number of ways, but they would know what it was.

TAPPER: And you had messages for your kids?

O'NEILL: Yes, I was writing letters, and we're talking like, you know, this is, we know we're going to be dead soon and tears hitting the pages and you're not writing to your 5-year-old kid, you're writing to your 28-year-old kid, saying, sorry, I can't be there for your wedding and I wish I was.

It was a noble cause. Just stuff that I couldn't give the letters to one of my brothers because they were going to be dead with me, I had to find someone on the base and give them specific instructions on this manila envelope, what goes where.

Also, if I come back, you give them back to me, they're going right in the shredder, and that's what happened. I don't really remember what I said and I didn't want to read them again.

TAPPER: Are you worried at all about them coming forward? You're exposing yourself, but you're also exposing people who know you, people who love you.

O'NEILL: I'm concerned about their safety, and we have taken the proper measures. I don't really get into the measures, but we've done what I think is proper. And I think they're in a good place. I think I'm in a good place.

TAPPER: You first came forward anonymously with an "Esquire" magazine story.

O'NEILL: I did.

TAPPER: Where you were talking about issues of how you were treated as somebody who left the military, and yet, you didn't feel like the Navy, the Pentagon were there with support for you, health care, and the rest. Are things better now?

O'NEILL: I think things are getting better. I have some of my friends that have left the military. They're getting different treatment than I did. The military's really trying to improve the VA and the out-processing from the military.

TAPPER: For you, though.

O'NEILL: For me, yes, they're definitely better, but it was a hard time. And actually one of the things that I'm doing now is there are guys in similar situations that didn't do 20 years. I've helped found a foundation called yourgratefulnation.org.

And what we do is take -- right now it's for special operators, but we want to get bigger and have it for hopefully everybody. We get them grants. We get them help with post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury.

We're working to get them employment, meeting with companies, trying to get them employment so they can help people with -- I had a difficult process when that article was written.

TAPPER: How do you want history to remember Rob O'Neill?

O'NEILL: That I was fortunate to be part of the greatest team ever assembled and fortunate enough that that team was picked by the president to take on the nation's most daring mission, you know, that trust that we were the end of a long, long time of grieving.

We were able -- you know, when President Bush even said freedom itself will be defended, we were finally, we were everybody on that mission, you know. We were the Port Authority, the police department, the NYPD, the FDNY, the American people, the 9/11 families.

And we were able to go there and just that I was able to be a part of that is the greatest honor that's ever been asked of me. TAPPER: Well, it's an honor to meet you, Rob O'Neill. And on behalf of my viewers, thank you for your service, thank you for your strength. Hope you're not a stranger, come back and talk to us more.

O'NEILL: Absolutely.

TAPPER: About the mission and other things going on.

O'NEILL: Thanks so much for having me.

TAPPER: Really, really appreciate it. Make sure to follow me on Twitter @jaketapper and also @theleadcnn and check out our show page at cnn.com/thelead for video blogs and extras.

That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn over to Jim Sciutto, who is filling in for Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM." Have a great weekend.