Special Ops Official Casts More Doubt On Brian Williams’ SEAL Team 6 Tales

NBC anchor Brian Williams slow jams the news on "The Tonight Show."
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A spokesman for the United States Special Operations Command on Thursday cast doubt on Brian Williams’ stories about flying into Iraq with SEAL Team 6, the team that later raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in 2011.

The “NBC Nightly News” anchor admitted last week that a separate story about flying on a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq in 2003 was bogus. That prompted the Huffington Post on Thursday to publish an article that called into question Williams’ other war stories.

During numerous appearances in recent years on CBS’ “The Late Show With David Letterman,” Williams claimed that he had embedded with SEAL Team 6 in 2003 in Iraq. A former SEAL sniper, Brandon Webb, told the Huffington Post the story sounded “preposterous.”

Later on Thursday, Special Operations spokesman Ken McGraw told the website that Williams would not have embedded with that team.

“We do not embed journalists with this or any other unit that conducts counter-terrorism missions,” McGraw said.

Huffington Post noted it was unclear whether Williams’ would have encountered the special forces unit without embedding with them.

The NBC anchor had also claimed that he befriended members on SEAL Team 6, and that someone had sent him “a piece of the fuselage of the blown-up Black Hawk” that crashed during the raid on bin Laden’s compound.

But McGraw said that the helicopter was destroyed after the Special Forces team left the compound in Pakistan. So if Williams received the piece, it would have been after the chopper returned to the U.S.

“We don’t have any idea what someone could have sent Mr. Williams and what kind of claim that person may have made,” he said. “But, while the details of the raid remain classified, I can say the aircraft was not blown up until after US forces had left the compound.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for enon enon says:

    it just boggles the mind how he thought he could get away with these easily verifiable tales… what this does reveal is the impenetrable bubble he lived in where no one dared to question his veracity… and where the news room apparently lived in fear of pissing him off and risk getting transferred out…

    obviously the new orleans lies never mattered; but once your supposed exploits with the military are revealed as lies, you’re finished. despite his thinking that he’s coming back.

  2. It’s a shame that media outlets have been so diligent in following up this story while mostly (McClatchy, TPM = exceptions) taking administration talking points as truth in 2002 and 2003.

    Makes you wonder, don’t it?

  3. Avatar for chammy chammy says:

    It sure makes me wonder and while I think Brian is a “dick” for lying and embellishing on more than one occasion, I wonder when this just becomes a case of piling on!!

  4. There is a bit of the piranhas–injured horse in the Amazon tributary, aspect to this fracas

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

9 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for al_fisher Avatar for mmurdoch Avatar for chammy Avatar for enon Avatar for rudesan Avatar for rodnchance Avatar for ctvoter Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for tomanjeri Avatar for canadian Avatar for jonnygee

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: