Decorated Air Force Officer Reveals Treacherous Cover-up of Deadly Attack on Navy SEAL Team Six

Retired Captain Joni Marquez still relives the horror of that evening and has been treated for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). That night, she was working on an AC-130 gunship providing close-in support to assist the Army’s 75^th Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan’s dangerous Tangi Valley.

The Rangers had called for assault helicopters to engage the enemy hiding in the rocky valley. The choppers fired on the Taliban fighters, but not all of the insurgents were killed as originally thought.

As fire control officer aboard the gunship, Marquez made sure the sensors and weapons were aligned. But, she was denied permission by the ground force commander to fire on two Taliban seen alive.

All she was left to do was to track the two enemy fighters with surveillance equipment as they made their way to a nearby village to enlist more Taliban fighters.

At that point, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, with the call sign Extortion 17, was called into the fight. A rocket-launched grenade from a Taliban fighter hit the chopper and sent it into a downward spiral. All 38 aboard, including 30 Americans and 8 Afghans were killed. Among the Americans were 17 Navy SEALs, including some members of SEAL Team Six.

Marquez is convinced that if her team had been allowed to fire at the two fleeing Taliban, the Extortion 17 deaths would have been prevented. She also said her crew provided warnings to the Chinook to cancel their mission because the two Taliban recruited 10 more fighters from the village.

Whenever we reached out to the Joint Operations Center, they would essentially just push back with, ‘Find a, a good infill location. Find a good helicopter landing zone,’” said Marquez, adding that by the time Extortion 17 was coming in, everything was mired in confusion.”

Marquez’s account of the evening’s circumstances has been corroborated by a formerly top-secret report by the Department of Defense Inspector General. It’s quite clear that the tight rules of engagement enforced in Afghanistan led to the needless deaths.

The battlefield rules of engagement were tightened by Gen. Stanley McChrystal under President Obama in 2009, citing an ‘overreliance on firepower and force protection.’  The idea was that this would reduce civilian casualties and win the cooperation of locals.”

The changed rules of engagement created confusion among the U.S. forces and put the soldiers in a more precarious situation. Marquez has become particularly outspoken on the absurdity of the rules now in effect.

Ridiculous rules of engagement that basically state that you can’t shoot until being shot upon.  A weapon has to be pointed, and essentially fired at you, in order for you to shoot and you have the proper clearance so that you don’t, you know, go to jail, that you’re charged with a war crime.”

U.S. Central Command has not responded to requests for comment on Marquez’s allegations. However, Jeffery Addicott, who served for 20 years as a senior legal advocate for U.S. Special Forces and is considered an expert on rules of engagement, believe Marquez’s account and asserts our military personnel are increasingly endangered.

In Afghanistan, we had rules of engagement that became more restrictive the longer we stayed. Right now, the rules of engagement are absolutely bizarre.”

Marquez keeps trying to get Congress to investigate the incident and give the families of those needlessly slain some sense that justice will be done by holding those responsible accountable. More importantly, she hopes the rules of engagement can be changed to save American lives.

Popular radio talk show host Michael Savage has been especially outspoken on the strange deaths of Navy SEALs in Afghanistan, even to the extent of claiming they have been assassinated.

Source: Circa