Exclusive Interview With Extortion 17 SEAL’s Father - The Scandal That Led To The "Worst Loss Of Life In The Afghan War"
Before there was Benghazi, there was
Extortion 17,
which was the Chinook helicopter that was shot down by the Taliban.
All 38 people aboard, including 17 Navy SEALs and seven Afghan National
Army commandos, were killed. Among the dead was Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn.
Tomorrow, August 6 will mark the two year anniversary of Extortion 17
being shot down. In an exclusive interview with Freedom Outpost,
Aaron's father, Billy Vaughn told us what he knows and about his new
book due out this month,
Betrayed: Exposing the High Cost of the War on Terror, and the corruption and incompetence behind what took place that led to his son's and others deaths.
Mr. Vaughn told me that he and his wife have dropped out of the lawsuit that we
reported
on back in May when the story about the Muslim cleric in Afghanistan
prayed and condemned six Navy SEAL team members to Hell, saying that the
lawsuit was "too broad" and was not in their best interests.
However, Vaughn did say that they were very much involved in the
investigation that has been announced by Congressman Jason Chaffetz
(R-UT) recently, following a visit that he and his wife took to
Washington, D.C to meet with Chaffetz and Congressman Darrell Issa
(R-CA) a little over a month and a half ago.
When asked about the objective of their involvement with Congress,
Vaughn said that "it's going to be a pretty high goal, but Vice
President Joe Biden committed a breach of national security when he
outed the SEALS. We want to see him held accountable and if need be, we
want to see him punished."
30 brave Americans killed on August 6, 2011 aboard Extortion 17
Vaughn also said that in addition to Biden being held accountable, he
wants to see former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta held accountable for
his national security breach, when he outed the Navy SEALS
back on June 24, 2011.
"And then," he continued, "we have a lot of questions that need
answers." Among those questions they want answers to is the identity of
the seven Afghans who were onboard. Vaughn said that the names on the
manifest were not the names of those who were actually aboard.
Mr. Vaughn said that it would be necessary information to know why
these Afghans were swapped. In his conversations with others in the
military and on the investigative team, they had not been made aware of
the changes.
Petty Officer 1st Class SEAL Aaron Vaughn was killed August 6, 2011 on board Extortion 17
The Vaughns also want to know why the
rules of engagement continue to keep America's troops from engaging like they did the night his son's helicopter was shot down.
"When the chopper went in…. a declared 'hot area'…three and a half
hour firefight had already been going on" Vaughn said. "No pre-assault
fire was laid down by the air weapons team in the air because of the
rules of engagement. Their quote, their testimony was 'It's almost
impossible to get cleared for pre-assault fire.'"
"So this chopper went into that 'hot zone' just like it was landing at a Wal-Mart parking lot," Vaughn added.
Mr. Vaughn then told me the chilling words that we don't even want to
think about when he said, "We suspect that the mission was
compromised."
What evidence is to that effect? According to Vaughn, there is
written testimony that says that the "Afghans were moving toward the
landing area, the insertion area, for the SEALs, before the SEALs ever
got there." This indicates they were aware of what was going on and
also indicates that Extortion 17 did not have a secretive approach.
Vaughn said that his son's team as well as others have to work with a
group called the OCG (Operational Coordination Group), which is made up
of Afghanis, who are involved in all the intelligence that the Special
Ops do and are involved in the planning and even carrying out of
missions. The frightening thing about working with the OCG is that
Vaughn says "they are not properly vetted."
The military has confirmed that Pakistanis have infiltrated the OCG,
which obviously result in compromised and deadly situation for America's
soldiers to be operating under. I'll add that it also reflects on the
commander-in-chief to be using foreigners in assisting our Special Ops
forces, which gives them information on how we operate and also makes
them vulnerable to lethal attacks.
"This OCG group actually has the authority to squash a mission that
our military needs to have performed, if they want to," Vaughn said.
"So in theory, we've placed our men under the authority of the
government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It's treacherous and
it's treasonous for our government and this administration to allow
this to go on."
Vaughn went on to elaborate on the particular mission the night that
Extortion 17 was shot down. "The night that Aaron was killed, those men
were flying with general purposes aviation. Both, general purposes and
special operations, I believe, are equally important to our national
security, but they have different duties and at that time
they were being placed together, to fight together, for the first time in the Afghan theater."
There was no training outside the theater before they got there and
all at once they were brought into the battle together and it ends with
both groups, general purpose group and special operations, getting
killed.
Plaque remembering the fallen of Extortion 17
Mr.
Vaughn went on to say that the general purpose operations don't even
use the same equipment as Special Forces. The do not use
"assault-style" equipment and Vaughn said that the helicopter they were
using was just one example of that.
Vaughn communicated some personal thoughts about others he would like
to see held accountable, but I agreed not to print those in the
article, due to the steps that need to be taken to achieve the goals
already set forward.
He did point out just how our military is being demoralized in
Afghanistan. Citing Special Operations numbers in Afghanistan, Vaughn
told Freedom Outpost that in 2009 we were conducting 56 special
operations missions per month. By 2010, the number of special
operations being conducted jumped to more than triple to 186 mission per
month. From August 2010 until July 2011, a month before Extortion 17
was shot down, the average of Special Forces missions being conducted in
Afghanistan skyrocketed to an average of 335 mission!
"While the number of Special Operations strike forces were increased
to accommodate those missions," Vaughn said, indicating that his
information was obtained from the military, "the number of Special
Operations aviation was not and is not being increased because it is not
available."
As a result, Vaughn says "We have forced our special operators and
our general purpose aviation into very compromising situations by
placing them together and having to do these missions together. It
limits the special operators in what they are able to do and what they
have been trained to do and endangers their live. Obviously, it
endangers the lives of the general purpose forces, who were never
trained to fly special operations missions."
The Vaughns long-range goal is not only to find out exactly what
occurred around their son's death, but also to get what Vaughn calls
"ridiculous, if not criminal" rules of engagement changed to be more in
favor of our warriors and less in favor of the enemy that they are
trying to neutralize.
Billy Vaughn and his wife Karen began finding out disturbing
information about the crash and what was going on by October 2011. By
the end of that month they were already reaching out to Congressmen to
help get to the bottom of what happened with Extortion 17. At that
time, most of the Congressmen didn't respond to him. However, he did
tell me that he received a response from former congressmen Allen West,
Tom Rooney (R-FL) and Stephen Fincher (R-TN). Since that time, they
have had communications with various congressmen.
Vaughn eventually spoke with retired Army Major General Paul Vallely
about what he was uncovering and they teamed together to produce a book
that will be out this month titled
Betrayed: Exposing the High Cost of the War on Terror with a foreword written by Lt. General Jerry Boykin. If you would like to order the book, go to
SpecialOpsBetrayed.com.
Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook, Google Plus, Tea Party Community & Twitter.
You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device
here.