Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill has revealed his identity as the man who shot and killed Osama bin Laden in the terrorist’s hideout in 2011.
O’Neill told The Washington Post he made the decision to reveal his role in the raid because he knew it was going to be leaked. Although such things are typically kept secret, O’Neill said Congressional members and news organizations knew who he was.
The SEAL also said his decision was made after meeting with victims of 9/11, who told him they were comforted hearing about how bin Laden died, the Post said.
But his decision has been unpopular in military ranks, even though other SEALs, like Mark Bissonnette who wrote “No Easy Day” about the raid, have also told their stories.
“We do not abide willful or selfish disregard for our core values in return for public notoriety or financial gain,” B.L. Losey, commanding officer, and M.L. Magaraci, the force master chief, said in an letter about the issue. They said they believed it was a “critical” tenet of what they do to “not advertise the nature of my work nor seek recognition for my action.”
O’Neill has given other interviews about what happened, but in speaking he had kept his identity secret. He told Esquire magazine in 2013 about how the raid and bin Laden’s death went down, but even that accounting was questioned in the media by other SEALs.
O’Neill told the Post that, although he participated in other dangerous raids, the bin Laden event was the first in which he thought he might die.
“I didn’t think I would survive,” he told the Post.
O’Neill now works as a motivational speaker.