being a navy s.e.a.l. ability to try out is about 10,000 over the last 10 years. so to even get to the point where able to go to basic underwater demolition school, basic training for seals is a demanding -- to you to be a to join the navy to go through navy basic training, now you can join the navy and get navy s.e.a.l. training directly. even after you get through buzz, another demanding training program, it takes about a year and a half to two years of grueling selection process to get through that program. and very few do. less than 20% in bot most classs make it through the program. these are highly selective, highly fit young people who demonstrated capability. some of them are an apple is grabbed, former marines, olympic athletes, all these people fail. >> how long does one stay in the

seals? >> that's a great question. you would think it's a young man's game but i've met a great number who are still in active duty or in the mid-to-late '30s. off and on the wanted to about 20 years to get their pension to one of the things i discovered in writing "eyes on the target" a record number of early retirement, people leaving after 16 years, after 12 years. it's because they sense they are becoming more politically correct. there are al-qaeda prisoners who pressed charges who turn out to be false when you're later exxon we at trial. but the trial has been going on for your nap before the exonoree. once they found not guilty, the case of the seal team 10 captured the al-qaeda leader at fallujah who's responsible for hanging the four american bodies off a bridge in fallujah, that infamous atrocity that was seen around the world, the cameras -- five years later they capture the guy behind it. it was a flawless operation to deter demand without firing a

shot. it reads like a thriller, the chapter on how they caught him. but the guy behind it says you're in big trouble the they said why? the prisoner has a bloody wrists. that was a year and half of legal starting. the seals or exonoree. many then decided after the been subjected to this degree of legal scrutiny, they didn't want to sign up for another tour. that taxpayers lost millions of dollars of training investment in each of these men. this is something we need to think about. is yes, we need to protect the rights of human rights of prisoners, we all slept realize that al-qaeda in manuals with captured in afghanistan and the place is train people to make false reports in order to tie up our military and red tape to keep our warfighters off the field. but be aware sometimes the enemy will make false reports on purpose. not in good faith. we have to protect the seals

and other operators from that or they will spend all the time in court and not enough time protecting our fellow americans. spend what kind of access were you granted a visually to write "eyes on the target"? >> very good amount to current and retired seals. some of them are not named in the book. i think both my co-author, scott mcewen, who cowrote an american sniper about chris couch, a dentist seal sniper, we both had a fair amount of access to people. spiff why do we hear so much about teal same-sex? >> should we be hearing so much about seal team six? one of things to complain about is their becoming famous. they thought it was mistake of vice president biden to name him as the executioners of osama bin laden. they thought it would be better to be like a bolt from the blue them to name the unit. when it was an attack on seal team six about 90 days after

shooting down helicopter, led to the single greatest loss of life or navy seals in their history since the day. they thought that was retaliation from al-qaeda for them killing osama bin laden. but naming them they think put their lives at risk and the lives of the families at risk. we know from intelligence documents in the book that al-qaeda has an online unit that looked through social media, especially facebook, to find the identity of seals and their families. >> seal is an acronym for -- >> sea and land basically. it was a term developed in the kennedy years. before that they were frogmen, underwater demolition team. they step into any harbors and put bombs on the bottom of boats and cleared obstacles for submarines during world war ii.

seals came about in the early 1960s from kennedy. jfk had been a skipper of the pt-109 indiana's to the building of a small boat, small crew of navy personnel come with a big difference they make in combat, especially -- so we pushed for a naval commando force that could go in the sea, the air in the land, all terrains can all of our lives. not just offering from ships but very far from land. and now, so in vietnam they went out of the blue waters of the navy into the brown waters of the counterinsurgency deep into the jungles, cambodia and vietnam. and then in the current war in iraq, afghanistan, the war on terror, the seals are offering thousands of miles from the sea. some of them say the only water we have is in our canteens. >> you finish up "eyes on the target" -- spent that's right.

we thought benghazi gets ignored an important part of the store because two of the four victims in the benghazi attack our former navy seals. this is something in the course of our interview we kept hearing about the seals, what about them they would say. benghazi is a fastening store and it's been hard to overlook by the media. we found a couple things that are new. we found an intelligence report that were so doing inside the cia and defense department and most important inside the state department in the months before the deadly attack in benghazi warning about an al-qaeda builder. one of the report showed photographs of al-qaeda rally in martyrs square in downtown benghazi about two months before the attack in june in 2012. there were some 300 al-qaeda activists waving their guns in the air and publicly calling for the death of the u.s. ambassador. at the very same time the state

department is denying security. they also knew that the private life of ambassador stevens was known and used as a targeting device by al-qaeda and to some of his friends and associates were in benghazi. is jogging schedule is posted on al-qaeda's facebook page. all this in the months before the attack. utterly ignored. we have a minute by minute account of the attack and the value that they had in saving lives of more than 40 google maps and diplomatic security personnel. i don't think they had to die. ambassador smith died in the first half hour the attack. they were separated in a small building, they were suffocated to death. the in the attack is exactly where the diesel fuel his head on the us embassy grounds are the diplomatic outpost ground.

they were able to step the build on firewood ambassador died of smoke inhalation but that the other two died eight hours later. this was a rolling attack. so there was ample time to save ample time to save him and the other americans but also we want to highlight their role, there've seal training. they both volunteered. one came from tripoli, the other from a town near benghazi. how their sacrifice saved a lot of lives. >> this photograph on the front, is this post or is this -- >> no, that's a shot taken in afghanistan. i believe in 2003, although don't hold me to that. >> those are navy seals and? >> yes. >> richard miniter, newest book, "eyes on the target: inside stories from the brotherhood of the u.s. navy seals." thank you for your time. >> thank you.

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