On Sunday, CNN’s Reliable Sources hosted former SEAL Team Six member Don Mann to discuss NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams’ questionable claim that he was embedded with them at the start of the Iraq war.
Speaking to host Brian Stelter, Mann resoundingly refuted Williams’ story and said that "for a reporter to be embedded with SEAL Team Six or any tier one unit, that just doesn't happen…The last thing in the world we would want is have a reporter sitting in a helicopter embedded with one of these units. It would hurt the United States in many ways.”
The former Navy SEAL went on to discredit Williams story by noting that the very nature of their job would prevent any journalist from ever being embedded with them:
The objectives of SEAL Team or SEAL Team Six or any tier one unit is to conceal our faces. The team one faces, the tier one faces, their identities, the tactics, the techniques, the procedures, the equipment they used.
Mann then addressed Williams’ claim that he had actually received a piece of the destroyed helicopter used during the Bin Laden raid to which he said “Brian Williams can actually show that piece of the fuselage, he can show that piece of the tail of that stealth helicopter, he could bring it on the air and that would clear it up.”
The Navy SEAL went on to further detail how Williams’ story didn’t add up and noted that if any SEAL had actually removed a piece of the helicopter it would have been a serious crime:
The SEALs went into Abbottabad, they attacked the compound, they got bin Laden, they got his bodyguards, they got his son. They collected all this intelligence, hard drive computer information, a lot of documents. They ran out. The helicopter that was in the courtyard, they put a thermite grenade in it to destroy it, so people can't get ahold of that technology, that stealth technology. And then, in the midst of all that, a SEAL would have to grab a piece of that tail, bring it back with him and give it as a gift. There's no way in the world that would happen. It would be criminal.
The segment concluded with Mann arguing that while other SEAL Teams might give gifts to presidents or CIA directors, a reporter would never receive such a gift:
Now, there are accounts of SEALs in other units like SEAL Teams giving gifts, war mementos to presidents, or CIA directors, but never to a reporter. A reporter's objective is in contrast to the military. The military has to conceal all of this. A reporter wants to expose everything that we're trying to conceal. The story doesn't match up at all.
See relevant transcript below.
CNN’s Reliable Sources
February 15, 2014
BRIAN STELTER: You've spoken with some other SEALS as well, what do they say, what do they tell you about the possibility that what Brian Williams' been saying is true?
DON MANN: Well, by all accounts, from any SEAL, any SEAL Team Six member, anybody in the tier one spec ops community, it's unheard of. What Brian Williams is saying, none of it can be true. For a reporter to be embedded with SEAL Team Six or any tier one unit, that just doesn't happen. The objectives of SEAL Team or SEAL Team Six or any tier one unit is to conceal our faces. The team one faces, the tier one faces, their identities, the tactics, the techniques, the procedures, the equipment they used. The last thing in the world we would want is have a reporter sitting in a helicopter embedded with one of these units. It would hurt the United States in many ways.
STELTER: I wonder, did you ever notice him saying this stuff at the time, because it's sort of hidden in plain sight these allegations. Did you notice him at the time saying this stuff?
MANN: No, I have never heard of any reports at all or any accounts of Brian Williams or any reporter being with SEAL Team Six.STELTER: And now that we have seen all these sound bites and now that we've seen they can't be backed up, what would you like to hear from NBC? Because they are not letting Brian Williams really comment on these issues?
MANN: Well, you know, Brian Williams can actually show that piece of the fuselage, he can show that piece of the tail of that stealth helicopter, he could bring it on the air and that would clear it up.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: Since you mentioned that, do you mind if I play a little bit of sound from him? Let me play a little bit of sound from because this is about souvenirs issue. Actually, I guess we don't have it. But, you know, what you're describing is this other allegation from him that he was given as a souvenir part of the fuselage of the helicopter that crashed on the night that bin Laden was assassinated. Tell me about what -- how could that be true? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt here. How could that be true?
MANN: OK. The SEALs went into Abbottabad, they attacked the compound, they got bin Laden, they got his bodyguards, they got his son. They collected all this intelligence, hard drive computer information, a lot of documents. They ran out. The helicopter that was in the courtyard, they put a thermite grenade in it to destroy it, so people can't get ahold of that technology, that stealth technology. And then, in the midst of all that, a SEAL would have to grab a piece of that tail, bring it back with him and give it as a gift. There's no way in the world that would happen. It would be criminal.
STELTER: Wow, that -- it's so striking to hear you say that, because here he was making these claims repeatedly and no one really pointed it out at the time.
MANN: Now, there are accounts of SEALs in other units like SEAL Teams giving gifts, war mementos to presidents, or CIA directors, but never to a reporter. A reporter's objective is in contrast to the military. The military has to conceal all of this. A reporter wants to expose everything that we're trying to conceal. The story doesn't match up at all.
