Retired SEAL Team commander Chuck Pfarrer, author of SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden, told Guns & Patriots that the Obama White House manufactured their own narrative of the SEAL raid that killed bin Laden for the purpose of a quid pro quo with Hollywood.
The 2012 action thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" allegedly tells the story about the May 1, 2011 SEAL raid code-named ???Neptune???s Spear??? on bin Laden who was hiding in Abottabad, Pakistan, is fictitious, said the former SEAL commander, who spoke to members of the SEAL Team Six, and other principals involved while gathering information on his book. ???Look at the movie ??? it???s preposterous.???
The movie mimics Obama???s then counterterrorism advisor, John O. Brennan???s version of events, when he describes a bottom-up SEAL operation and a 45-minute, three-flight firefight that never took place, he said.
???Pakistani investigators found seven hand grenades on the third floor after the raid,??? he said. ???If the assaulters came from the ground floor, bin Laden would have certainly used them.???
As detailed in Pfarrer???s book, there was no evidence of a three-flight firefight, no spent cartridges and no bloody boot-prints. According to eye witnesses Neptune???s Spear was a top-down operation, not a bottom-up one, he said.
The helicopter landed on the roof of the compound, as planned, and the SEALs jumped down into the third floor, shot and killed bin Laden and one of his sons, said Pfarrer. ???It was over in about 90 seconds.???
Eye witnesses said about 10 to 15 minutes into the operation, the helicopter came off the roof, unmanned, crashed nearby and was later deliberately blown up by the departing SEAL Team, he said.
???The American media stuck to the crashed-on approach story even though Pakistani news sources quoted bin Laden???s neighbors who saw the helicopters land on the roof,??? he said.
Pakistan???s own investigation, the Abottabad Commission Report, quoted Pfarrer???s book and cited it as the most accurate description of the actions in the compound, he said. ???The WhiteHouse did not get the story right, twice, so they clamped down on the last narrative???and stuck to it.???
A month before the raid, Sony pictures hosted President Obama for an in-studio fundraiser that took in a million dollars, said Pfarrer. Days after operation Neptune???s Spear, the White House gave Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal access to the situation room, classified documents, and interviews with officials who rolled-out the same false narrative, he said.
The press was complacent, he said. ???Nobody asked about this symbiosis in the White House briefing room.???
Judicial Watch, a D.C. government watch group, met with closed doors in its attempt to receive information from the Obama administration. In July, they filed joint federal lawsuits against the Department of Defense for failing to produce answers to its FOIA request.
In a July press release, Judicial Watch said:
???We have assiduously pursued the Obama administration for the bin Laden death photos for more than three years, and we are not about to stop now,??? said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. ???President Obama???s decision not to release the bin Laden photos is at odds with his promises to make his administration the most transparent in history. And we just want the truth so we can complete the public record on one of the most significant military operations, and successes, in United States history. We are concerned that the Pentagon, as this administration has repeatedly done, has destroyed documents or played other games in order to deceive the public and the courts. The fact that we have to file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit about our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit shows just how insane this administration is when it comes to secrecy.???
Pfarrer said he was similarly stonewalled by the DOD and the Central Intelligence Agency while preparing his book. ???I met with the CIA and got the run-around.??? They refused him access to the situation room, composite pictures and live video that is in their possession, he said.
???My manuscript was vetted by the DOD who made changes to it,??? he said. ???At the highest levels of government my story has been confirmed.??? Yet, when his book was released, the White House issued a character assassination of him, he said. ???History deserves better. I stand by my story.???
The SEALs are the best in the world and the operation was a brilliant military success, he said.
???Nobody has to tell me about duty,??? said Pfarrer. ???Someone needs to tell the truth.???
