REUTERS Navy SEAL vet hits Obama on Osama

The leader of a group of politically active special operations veterans who oppose President Barack Obama said Friday that the level of credit the president is claiming for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden is “pretty gross.”

“I absolutely believe that the president, as should any president who presided over this type of operation, should get some credit,” said Scott Taylor, a former Navy SEAL, speaking on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “But to the level of credit they have taken, it’s pretty gross.”


Taylor is the president of a group, called the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, Inc., that is reportedly composed of former Navy SEALS and other special operations veterans. They recently produced a 22-minute video that charges, “Mr. President, you did not kill Osama bin Laden. America did.”

Soledad O’Brien, the host of “Starting Point,” asked why the group, in their video, had edited out a segment of a speech in which Obama praised the men who carried out the bin Laden operation.

“Because of course the personal credit taken certainly overshadows that, doesn’t it?” Taylor said on CNN. “So does the year-anniversary commercials, so does the high-level access to Hollywood producers, giving them [information on a] want-to-know basis rather than need-to-know basis, which is what’s supposed to happen with classified material. Again, this group is very serious, we’re very motivated, we’re the subject matter experts. It affects us the most and we’re worried about future operations being hindered and our brothers and sisters being put in harm’s way unnecessarily because of politicians.”

The group, which says it is nonprofit and nonpartisan, despite a number of its members having close ties to the Republican Party, has especially harsh words for the Obama administration on the subject of national security leaks.

“There are only a certain, finite amount of people who know certain aspects of security, so it had to have been leaked from the highest levels of government,” Taylor said, adding, “the president is the commander in chief and the way the military works you are solely responsible for your house to keep it in order and keeping the leaks responsible. It is up to the commander in chief, just as though if you were commander of any military unit, to be responsible for your men as well.”

Taylor said there have been an “unprecedented amount of high-level leaks over the past couple years.”

To that point, O’Brien conceded, “That is correct. You’re absolutely right on that.”