NAVY SEAL
A Navy SEAL is pictured in this photo. Robert O'Neill might be the SEAL who claims to have shot Osama bin Laden. Reuters

Former Red Squadron Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill has been identified as the man who shot Osama bin Laden, according to SOFREP, a website dedicated to military and special-ops news. O’Neill is reportedly the person referred to as “The Shooter” in a March 2014 Esquire article about the May 2, 2011, raid. He will expected to reveal himself during a two-part Fox News special next week.

Navy SEALs are not supposed to speak publicly about missions, and if it turns out O’Neill is the man doing the interview, he will join the likes of Matt Bissonnette, who is under investigation after writing a book about the Bin Laden raid. With the credo, “I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions,” the Pentagon is apparently not pleased about the SEAL pledge being broken, Defense Department spokeswoman Amy Derrick-Frost said in an email to Business Insider. "Former or retired service members are free to ... exercise their First Amendment rights," she wrote, but are not allowed to blab sensitive information.

Non-disclosure agreements "are voluntarily executed by service members. After a thorough briefing on the NDA and what each paragraph contains, the service member is aware that his/her signature signifies their understanding and intent to comply with the lifelong obligation for protecting national defense information,” Derrick-Frost said.

SEAL teams consist of "quiet professionals" who are given "little individual credit” because of the "nature of our profession," and one person shouldn't get all the credit for an operation that took years to plan and execute, a letter posted by Naval Special Warfare Command on SOFREP read.

However, Jonathan Gilliam, a former Navy SEAL and Fox News commentator, wrote an open letter that called out the private organization for sending a letter about being quiet. "Please explain to our community how sending an open letter to your 'Teammates' through the press, preaching about the quiet professional, was somehow the proper example to your fellow SEALs,” he wrote on his Tumblr account Saturday.

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella

RELATED STORIES