# SEALs on loan to the CIA > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "SEALs on loan to the CIA," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/seals-on-loan-to-the-cia/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's answer to why the CIA did not use its own paramilitary team against Osama bin Laden: it did. The raid was a CIA operation directed by the Counterterrorism Center, and every Navy SEAL involved was temporarily a CIA contractor, on loan to the agency for the duration.* - **Question asked:** Why not use the CIA's own tactical team? - **Kiriakou's answer:** They did — it was a CIA operation - **Directed by:** The CIA's Counterterrorism Center - **Status of the SEALs:** Temporarily CIA contractors - **Capture possibility:** Kiriakou says capture was possible; the decision was to kill - **Cited authority:** Obama's own memoir A viewer asked why, if the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) has its own tactical capability, the bin Laden operation was given to the Navy SEALs. John Kiriakou called it a good question and then rejected the premise. ## It was a CIA operation "They did," Kiriakou said. "That Navy SEAL team was on loan to the CIA. So it was a CIA operation."[1] He specified the chain of command: the raid "was directed by the CIA's Counterterrorism Center," and "all of the Navy SEALs were temporarily CIA contractors."[2] The arrangement he describes is a legal one as much as an operational one. The military personnel executing the raid did so wearing, in effect, a different institutional hat for its duration, which places the operation under the agency's authorities rather than the Pentagon's. ## Whether capture was possible Asked whether bin Laden could have been taken alive and brought to trial at The Hague or in New York, Kiriakou answered without qualification: "Yeah. Yeah, of course there was."[2] The outcome was a choice, not a constraint. He attributed the choice to [Barack Obama](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/barack-obama) directly, citing the president's own account: "Obama said in his memoir — one of his three memoirs — that he made the decision just to kill him. Just kill him."[2] ## The legal basis Asked whether that was lawful, Kiriakou said it was, and set out the mechanism. Under US law, if "the president or the president's representative — who is usually the national security adviser or the CIA director — determines that a person is a clear and present danger to the United States, any American installation or any US person," meaning a citizen or green card holder, "you can kill that person legally."[3] He added the condition: "But the president has to order it."[3] When [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) restated this as a president holding the power of life and death over every human being on earth, like a feudal lord, Kiriakou agreed — "Correct" — and then volunteered his own view of it: "Isn't that awful?"[4] Told that it should not be so, he answered: "No, no, it shouldn't be."[4] ## What came afterwards Kiriakou noted that the capability has since been broadened. There are now teams belonging to the Counterterrorist Center, teams belonging to the [Special Activities Division](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/special-activities-division), and a further component he names as global resources.[5] Any of those three, or elements of them, can be sent "pretty much anywhere in the world to kill who you want to kill."[5] ## See also - [Special Activities Division](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/special-activities-division) - [The assassination approval process](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/assassination-approval-process) - [How the CIA kills](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/how-the-cia-kills) - [Tuesday morning kill list](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/tuesday-morning-kill-list) - [Barack Obama](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/barack-obama) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 55:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=3306s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 55:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=3337s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 56:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=3368s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 56:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=3399s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 5. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-28), at 57:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XYgK4nal0&t=3430s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-28-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/seals-on-loan-to-the-cia/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt