Pelley: You stepped into the room and saw the man lying on the floor? What did you do?
Navy Seals: A battle for the conscience
Bissonnette: Myself and the next assaulter in, we both engaged him several more times and then rolled off and then continued clearing the room.
Pelley: When you say you engaged him, what do you mean?
Bissonnette: Fired.
Pelley: You shot him?
Bissonnette: Yeah.
Pelley: He's still moving?
Bissonnette: A little bit. But you couldn't see his arms. Couldn't see his hands. So, he could've had something. Could've had a hand grenade or something underneath his chest.
Pelley: So, after Osama bin Laden is wounded, he's still moving. You shot him twice?
Bissonnette: A handful of times.
Pelley: A handful of times, and the SEAL in the stack behind you also shot Osama bin Laden. And at that point, his body was still?
Bissonnette:: Yes.
Pelley: Did you recognize him?
Bissonnette: Nope. You know, everybody thinks it was, like, you know it's him. No. To us, at that time, it could have been anybody. Maybe this was another brother. Maybe this is a bodyguard. Maybe, it doesn't matter. The point is to just continue clearing.
On how they initially confirmed they had just killed bin Laden:
Bissonnette: So he moved out to where the women and kids were, grabs one of the younger kids. Says, "Hey, who is that inside?" She says, "Osama." "Osama who?" "Osama bin Laden."
Pelley: The child?
Bissonnette: The child.
Pelley: Identified him?
Bissonnette: Yep. Grabbed one of the females, again asked her, "Hey, who is that?" She said, "Osama bin Laden."
Pelley: Does a cheer go up among the SEALs? You start shaking hands? Patting each other on the back?
Bissonnette: Not – nothing. It's all business. We're on the clock here. So, we call up the commanding officer. He comes upstairs. Looks at the body. We give him what we have so far of – hey, here's what he looks like, take a look. He's tall. Woman and kid confirm it. He took one look. He said, "OK, I think that's him."
On what Bissonnette made of bin Laden not making a final stand:
Bissonnette: And some people would argue that, you know, why did that point man take those shots? Well, immediately, the first door we went to, my team was engaged by enemy fire through the door. So automatically, we know we're going into an enemy compound, shots being fired back at us immediately. AK found next to Khalid on the stairs. All those boxes have been checked that if a guy sticks his head around the corner, he very easily could have a gun. You don't wait to get that AK or the grenade thrown down the hall or the suicide vest. So in the split second, that's when he engaged.
Pelley: He did have a gun. But he didn't use it. And I wonder what you make of that?
Bissonnette: I think in the end, he taught a lot of people to do – you know, martyr themselves and he masterminded the 9/11 attacks Umm no he didn't, they proved he had nothing to do with it. But in the end, he wasn't even willing to roger up himself with a gun and put up a fight. So I think that speaks for itself.
