this is a a hit for the elite s.e.a.l. team 6, how serious a hit is that strategically when it comes to our defense? >> there's an emotional loss there is a strategic loss. it does take a generation to grow these teams to bond these teams to train these teams. so the mission in afghanistan really will be affected. there are very small numbers of these elite forces. they do these raids all of the time. sometimes 12 a day. there were 3,000 to 4,000 special operation raids in afghanistan last year. they play a major role in this war. >> they do and they will be missed. martha raddatz and yunji de nies, leading us off this morning. thanks to both of you. bianna, over to you. >>> let's bring "this week" host christiane amanpour, who covered this region for years and this war since it started. she's joining us from washington. good morning, christiane. i want to ask you, given the magnitude of t ts tragedy, does this change the course of this very unpopular war either politically or mililarily at all? >> i think it does a few things,

a dog, part of the navy s.e.a.l. team, was also killed. some of the americans were from s.e.a.l. team six, the same unit that hunted down and killed osama bin laden. today, nato forces were recovering remnants of the helicopter as american and afghan troops continued to battle insurgents in the area. >> translator: the helicopters are still patrolling over the village, and right now the taliban are fighting with them. >> reporter: this remote mountainous region is filled with a brutal and deadly group committed to killing foreigners and anyone who gets in their way. the violence continued in afghanistan today as nato announced the deaths of four more service members in the south and east of the country. carl? >> attia abawi, thanks. >>> tonight, we're hearing from the families of some of the americans killed in that attack. nbc's thanh trong is joining us now from norfolk, virginia, home to s.e.a.l. team six. >> reporter: here in the greater norfolk area, tens of thousands of families are closely connected to the navy and the navy s.e.a.l.s. as you can imagine, losing 22 of their

there are just 300 men in s.e.a.l. team 6, so in this one incident, more than 7% of the highly trained, highly valuable s.e.a.l. team 6 has perished. >> it's a terrible loss, a terrible human tragedy, but it's also a significant strategic loss for the nation, as well. it takes a generation to grow a special operations warrior. >> reporter: a loss for the nation and a loss for a tiny and close community that one officer said has done more for this nation than we will ever know. >> and i'm joined by martha raddatz in washington. so much loss today, martha. and we know that these s.e.a.l.s operate in such secrecy and understandably so. how does the pentagon go about notifying the families and in doing so protecting the privacy even now? >> reporter: well, i'm sure they had notification teams out all night. i've been thinking a lot about that, david. 22 notification teams in just that small s.e.a.l. community, eight more elsewhere in the nation. that's just so many, and what makes this even more tragic is that it follows on the

elite s.e.a.l. teams public operational indecks fade there was a report in that area that -- ied makers, there may be a connection between the two. but i think all of us understand the tremendous cost that ieds have had both in iraq and afghanistan. and if you've got a major cell of ied makers, that's the type of mission that they might want to send a special operations unit up against. >> since talking to general chem m ch kemmet, u.s. military officials believe the chinook was shot down. >>> people in tacoma, washington are remembering the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. general shalikashvili died july 23 at the age of 75. he'll be buried at arlington national cemetery. >>> the head of s&p's sovereign ratings committee said there's plenty of blame to go around over the u.s.'s first ever credit downgrade. he laid out the main reasons to anderson cooper last night. >> two reasons, the first reason is the one you've outlined being from our view of the political settings in the united states h

the unit, of course, the s.e.a.l. teampeople that captured bin laden, the best of the best, and here we have the guys on a mission, which i don't understand exactly they're fighting a front-line on a government that isn't worth much. an opium operation, and we're doing the fighting, not them. your thoughts, matthew? you're against this war. what's showing in the policy here? the fact we're fight this operation, and we're going the fighting? >> i agree with the president's goals in that region. stabilize afghanistan, have a stable region because of pakistan, india, the nuclear arms between the two of them. al qaeda's concern, however, our policies there have just made the region worse. and al qaeda's not present. so what we've seen is a policy that wasn't working a couple years ago. we've doubled down on it a couple years ago. we knew that the insurgency was growing because of a corrupt predatory illegitimate government, and what did we do two years ago? we doubled down on that. >> let me ask wes moore. why's the united sta

it killed 38. 22 of those killed were navy s.e.a.l.s from the s.e.a.l. teamme unit that killed osama bin laden, though there is no confirmation any of the dead participated in the bin laden raid. pentagon officials say the remains of the americans killed are scheduled to arrive tomorrow at dover air force base in delaware and will be handed over to their families once they are positively identified. president obama had this to say today. >> ultimately, the reason i'm so hopeful about our future, the reason i have faith. in these united states of america is because of the american people. it is because of their perseverance and courage and their willingness to should they are burdens we face together, as one nation. there's no one who embodies the qualities i mention more than the men and women of the united states armed forces. this weekend we lost 30 of them when their helicopter crashed during a mission in afghanistan. their loss is a stark reminder of the risks that our men and women in uniform take every day on behalf of their country. day after day, nigh

they were doing it with people that they love. >> s.e.a.l. team 6 was thrust into the world spotlight in may when a small group of its commandos successfully killed bin ladin. that successful raid displayed how dangerous their work can be. one of the choppers crashed as their mission was beginning. all of the americans managed to escape harm. president obama went to their base to say a private thank you. now he and the nation are honoring their sacrifices again, but under very different circumstances. bri brian mooar, nbc news, washington. >>> in just about a month, the nation will be marking the september 11th terrorist attacks. the memorial at ground zero opens that day as well. due to the high demand, the memorial museum at the world trade center site is now releasing more free passes. the tickets can be reserved online. more than 25,000 passes were reserved the first day the tickets became available last month. the memorial displays the 2,983 names of victims on bronze walls surrounding the place where the twin towers once stood. it is a sombe

they are lethal in what they do. >> according to former s.e.a.l.s there's about 200 members of s.e.a.l. teampter crash in afghanistan took away more than 8% of the unit. i spoke about how the team in afghanistan could be shored up? >> will they have to shuttle guys in from elsewhere? >> first they may have to defwrad the mission in iraq to bring people out of existing mission there and move to afghanistan. the problem is things in iraq have not been as stable as people would like them to be. more likely scenario is they will move one of the stand by units, move them in ahead of schedule. >> but others say that carries significant risks in missions that are just as dangerous as these. missions of mistakes and burn out. >> beyond s.e.a.l. team six the s.e.a.l. unit, all of them, a relative small number of troops involved. >> there are only about 2,500 navy s.e.a.l.s complete. even when they are at full strength this is a finite group of men who are shuttling in and out of stressful situations all the time. the risk of burnout is there. >> as you well know, you were down in virginia beach, virg

there are only 300 s.e.a.l.s on s.e.a.l. team 6. the most elite of the s.e.a.l. team. that is such a small group. when you think about those families and 22 notices going out to those families. i got an e-mail from someone, i said i was so worried about that community. he said, look, this is a community that will smother one another with love. >> what do we know about the attack? any more details coming out? >> there are more detail this morning. what actually happened, this s.e.a.l. team was going in to help another team that was after taliban insurgents, apparently the taliban insurgents had been implanting ieds in the area. this s.e.a.l. team was coming in to help the others who had come under fire. just as they were approaching the area, they got hit by what they believe was a rocket-propelled grenade. >> martha, this comes while the u.s. is pulling back surge troops, and going to be relying much more on these airborne special forces, plus a rash of assassinations in pro-american officials in kandahar. which america thought it secured. what does it say about where

david, he was doing all that training with cracked ribs. >>> aaron vaughn, one of the members of s.e.a.l. teamrday tells me that his son got through s.e.a.l. training with no acl in one of his knees. >> he was done training, until he got way too far, and they discovered that he didn't -- in one day at home, one of the scurries worked its way up into his leg, he took a pocketknife and took the screw out of his leg. this is before he became a s.e.a.l. when he became a s.e.a.l., they discovered, you don't have an acl, but you've gone this far. my son didn't -- didn't lie, but he fibbed about -- he misled the he fibbed about -- he misled the navy a speciasts, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. every day you live with the pain of mode

aaron carson vaughn, of union city, tennessee, was a 30-year-old member of s.e.a.l. team 6.ughn leaves his wife kimberly, his 2-year-old son reagan and his 2-month-old daughter chamberlain. 32-year-old chief petty officer robert james reeves, served on s.e.a.l. team 6 and had earned four bronze stars. robert grew up in shreveport, louisiana with jonas kelsall, lieutenant commander kelsall was a member of s.e.a.l. team 7. craig vickers was on the maui high school football team in hawaii and was a member of the navy bomb disposal team. kraig lived in virginia beach with his wife who is pregnant and their three children. he would have turned 37 later this week. 35-year-old john tumilson always wanted to be a navy s.e.a.l. he was a wrestler in high school and a neighbor told the associated press, he was going to be a navy s.e.a.l. since i can't remember when. brian bill graduated from vermont's norwitch university in 2001 and then joined the s.e.a.l.s. a high school teacher of brian bills at trinity catholic high school in connecticut said brian just wanted to do his best to pro

most of the men belonged to the navy s.e.a.l. team six, a group most recently credited for hunting down and killing osama bin laden. preliminary reports indicate their ch-47 chinook helicopter was shot down during a night raid in eastern afghanistan, south of the district of wardak province, just southwest of the capital kabul. the american and afghan special forces were working side by side when their mission took a deadly turn as their helicopter became a target for the taliban. it's not clear if the chinook was shot down at the beginning or end of the mission. >> helicopters no matter how they're outfitted or how well they're armored are particularly at risk at the beginning and the end of operations when they're inserting troops into a target or extracting them from a hot target it is very easy to hit them. >> reporter: the 38 people included 22 u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s, five army air crewmen and three air force airmen and seven afghan commandos and interpreter. a dog, part of the s.e.a.l. team was also killed. president obama was brie

joe than kelsall, a member of s.e.a.l. team seven.rs was a member of the navy bomb disposal team. he lived in virginia beach, virginia with his wife, who's now pregnant and their three children. kraig would have turned 37 later this week. 35-year-old jon tumilson was a wrestler in high school and was going to be a navy s.e.a.l. since i can't remember when. brian bill graduated from vermont's norwich university in 2001. a high school teacher of brian bill's said, "brian just wanted to do his best to protect other people, challenge did not deter him. ever." most of the names of the people lost in the helicopter crash are not yet known to us, but we do know none of the families and friends of anyone on that helicopter needed to be reminded that we are a nation at war. [ female announcer ] find yourself sometimes cleaning up after your dishcloth? bounty extra soft can help. it's super durable, and in this lab test bounty extra soft leaves this surface three times cleaner than a dishcloth. even with just one sheet. super clean. super soft.

the highlight of her day, a phone call from her husband, aaron, a member of navy s.e.a.l. teamghanistan. >> his last words were "i love you. i'll talk to you later." >> it was late friday in afghanistan. some 7,000 miles away a team of army rangers in the tangi valley moving in on their target a taliban commander. a firefight erupts. the rangers call for reinforcement. and within minutes aaron vaughn was heading into the fight, on board a chinook helicopter. with him 21 other s.e.a.l.s, including texan stephen mill commissioned a s.e.a.l. on 9/11. high school buddies robert reeves and jonas kelsa from louisiana. around 1:00 a.m., now saturday as the helicopter descends in darkness, the taliban take aim with an rpg. normally easy for a helicopter to evade. >> it is an inaccurate weapon. it's not able to hone in. it's like shooting a bullet. >> but this night was different. the taliban were able to set up an ambush and fire on the helicopter as it came into the landing zone. a single shot and the helicopter burst into flames. >> an rpg is designed to blow up a tank so it is no ma

we went and we got osama bin laden with s.e.a.l. team 6.ntry should quake of this country should quake in their beds afraid of s.e.a.l. team 6 coming to get them. we said this was s.e.a.l. team 6 members that went down. why couldn't we say it was american personnel? why let the enemy know alaw or whomever is on their side and helped them take down this helicopter. whoever leaked this, whether it was done with permission or whatever, that head should roll. this is unforgivable to leak that to the media. >> appreciate your insights. when we come back, we'll stay on this story in a different way. president obama receiving word on this deadly raid hours after being told the united states government was having its credit rating downgraded. all systems prepare to engage. captain, unidentified object -- detergent chamber. that's a cascade complete pac. the best of cascade powder and gel combined in one vessel. brilliant. we're gonna need it! lasagna pan -- lower rack! fire! [ female announcer ] conquer tough foods and greasy messes. [ woman ] wow!

we went and we got osama bin laden with s.e.a.l. team 6. every taliban member.iban member. every enemy of this country should quake in their beds at night afraid of s.e.a.l. team 6. coming to get them. we handed a propaganda victory to the them and said there was s.e.a.l. team members. why couldn't we have said it was american personnel. why let the enemy know and help them take down this helicopter? whoever leaked this, whether it was done with permission or whatever. heads should roll. this is unforgivable to leak that to the media. >> when we come back, we'll stay on this story in a different way. >>> president obama receiving word of the deadly raid just hours after being told the united states government was having its credit rating downgraded. being president can be a lonely job. [ female ] we will always be dependent on foreign oil. [ male ] using clean american fuel is just a pipe dream. ♪ [ female announcer ] we're rolling away misperceptions about energy independence. did you know that today about a quarter of all new transit buses use clean, american

we'll talk to a former member of s.e.a.l. team six on the impact on that unit. >>> famine across the border in somalia. another day at the refugee camp. erica is there, at what's becoming an international crisis. "early" this monday morning, crisis. "early" this monday morning, august 8th, 2011. captioning funded by cbs >>> good morning. welcome to the "early show" here on a monday morning, 7:00 am on the west coast. i'm chris wragge. >> and i'm in for erica hill. she's in somalia and we'll hear from her in a few minutes. >>> standard sbf poors, markets have already lost ground overseas and wall street is taking another dive this morning. joining us now from the new york stock exchange is alexis christoforous. where do we stand right now? >> stocks tanked, the dow was down 240 points in the first minute of trading. we've come back a little bit, the dow down 185 after stocks dumped after this downgrade of u.s. debt. >> the next question on everybody's mind, double dip recession, how likely is it at this point? >> it's a resounding

at various times it has been called s.e.a.l. teamough will it be to fill the void on the team? >> it will be a challenge, no doubt. just to be a u.s. navy s.e.a.l. from the point you want to voluntary until you are in combat for the first time is about 3 1/2 years. >> and another two years of training and deployments to be on s.e.a.l. team 6. and they tracked down war criminals in the 1990s, and they tell us s.e.a.l. 6 team members are taking from the ranks of other existing teams, and half of the men that try out wash out. these are the guys that go on precise capture or kill missions like bin laden. >> how do they think on the battlefield than other s.e.a.l.s? what do they do that is different? >> you have to verify a threat, and then in an instant you have to determine whether or not that individual was a threat or whether he is not and if he is, you have to engage. these individuals can shoot exactly what they aim at. they make the judgment in an instant, and they are there for what they do. >> there are about 200 members of s.e.

and in this one incident, more than 7% of the highly trained, highly valuable s.e.a.l. teamere lost. >>> oregon's longest-serving senator has died. mark hatfield was an outspoken critic of u.s. involvement in vietnam and the persian gulf war. his liberal views often put him at odds with the rest of the republican party. hatfield once said one of his major accomplishments was helping usher through congress a ban on u.s. nuclear weapons testing. mark hatfield died yesterday. he was 89. >>> extra police are patrolling a london neighborhood after a weekend riot sparked by a fatal police shooting. rioters torched a double-decker bus, destroyed patrol cars, and trashed a shopping mall. new violence broke out this morning in an area five miles to the north. the violence has cast a pall over a city preparing to host next year's olympics. >>> verizon land line customers could be affected now that thousands of union employees have gone on strike. a contract for 45,000 employees in the northeast expired at midnight saturday. the company and the workers were unable to come to terms on i

. >> 22 of 30 killed were from s.e.a.l. team six. it's a team of 200 total. what does that kind of loss do to the rest of the team? >> ast a tragic loss not only to the entire team, to the entire force, the family and country as well. these young men are national treasures. they're not found on every street corner. it's a tragic loss. >> the defense secretary is in tampa, florida, today, he's presiding over a change of command for operations command, he said this is a tragic reminder to the nation that we are a nation at war. how instrumental our teams like navy s.e.a.l. team six to the ultimate success of any mission? >> i think that our entire military is enormously important to the success of it. we forget sometimes that the s.e.a.l.s are supported by a whole range of other assets as is delta and the other special forces and the task force 160 and the rangers. it goes on and on and on. i think everybody has their piece of success and failure. it's a brotherhood. when one of your brothers dies, it's tragic. >> is chinook helicopter was on its way to re-enfo

i don't know the exactly number in each s.e.a.l. team but probably not less than -- not more than a couple of hundred at the most. so when you start talking a total s.e.a.l. population of perhaps under 1,000, if, in fact, you've lost two dozen, it's not solely a tragedy for the families, and it's a tremendous tragedy and our hearts go out to those families. but there will be an operational consequence to the s.e.a.l. community of losing that large number. >> thank you so much, general kimmitt. appreciate you coming in. we'll try to stay in touch with you and would like to come back to you down the road as the situation warrants. thanks again. >>> moving on, are we in for higher interest rates? are mortgage rates, car loans and credit card rates. the u.s. has been downgrading. the eagle flies at dawn. the monkey eats custard. price-line ne-go-ti-a-tor. so, you've been double crossed by other travel sites and now you want to try the real deal. yes, is it true that name your own price... ...got even easier? affirmative. we'll show you other

many were members of an elite s.e.a.l. team including one bay area individual. >> more than 200 -- for the more than 200 men selected for his class, benson and 18 others made it through. >> he just screamed when they wanted to put him in water. he did not like water. the other cousins were playing, i got a little disgusted -- i can swim -- and i threw him in and he sputtered around and he just looked at me and didn't say anything. i said you are gonna learn to swim t was joke when he -- swim. it was a joke when he told everybody his grandmother learned how to -- taught him how to swim. >> reporter: was he a tough boy? >> no. >> no. he was a -- he was a -- very soft guy -- >> very soft-spoken. >> yeah, soft-spoken. >> reporter: his grandfather had given him advice. >> keep a little ahead to the guys behind. >> reporter: did he ever take that advice? >> i must have because he was at the -- he must have because he was at the top of his class. >> reporter: the grandmother claudia kept a scroop book -- kept a scrapbook. >> look how

those, that is what brought navy s.e.a.l. team 6 to world acclaim but this is the kind of mission these men do behind the scenes. not noticed by the public every day in afghanistan. these helicopter night raids into targets looking for bad guys, looking for insurgents. there was enemy fire in the area at the time. official say they are conducting a full investigation but right now they think there is a real possibility, i am told by this source, that the helicopter was brought down by enemy fire. >> so it sounds as though there is a lot of information pointing to the fact that it was not an accident. is that right? these are pretty reliable helicopters. >> yeah. by all accounts, at this point, although there will be a full investigation, there are these credible reports of enemy fire in the area and they do believe there is a very significant chance that it was brought down by enemy fire. of course, they have to examine the wreckage. they have to look at all the forensics and conduct a full and formal investigation into what that.

navy's elite s.e.a.l. teams. a retired army general told me why he thinks those troops were operating in such a remote place. >> on the isaf operational update, the public operational update today, there was a report in that same area that coalition forces had been going against some irn ed makers. there may be a connection between two. but i think all of us understand the tremendous cost that ieds have had both in iraq and afghanistan. if they got a major krecell, ths what they might want to send the special operations unit against. >> we'll have more on this live with our pentagon correspondent in just a minute. >>> back in this country, a verdict in the controversial shootings case of the danziger bridge in new orleans. four former officers and another were found guilty of depriving of their rights and civil rights violations. two men were shot in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. four others wounded. the families of the victims welcome the verdict. >>> the fbi is searching for three florida siblings. they'r

most of them, members of the navy s.e.a.l. team. and by the way, speaking of our fallen veterans, if you haven't seen this picture, if you've ever loved a dog, this one puts a lump in your throat. this is a lab named hawkeye, at the funeral of jon tumilson, one of the navy s.e.a.l.s that was killed when the helicopter was shot down. he was walked up to the casket and laid down after heaving a big sigh and that says more than we can. >>> when "nightly news" continues on a tuesday night, important news about the number one cancer killer for women. what could be a breakthrough drug for some of them and for some men, too. >>> and later, the science that now just might justify an american addiction. >>> we're back with news about the biggest cancer killer of all, lung cancer. the news is about a new drug, a kind of treatment called "targeted therapy." not all drugs help all patients, but the ones that do help they help a lot. the fda recently approved such a drug for lung cancer and our chief science correspondent, robert bazell has deta

and what i have to say is that s.e.a.l. team six, i just know those men felt the same way and they see it clearly, they see it black and white. so many of us don't. aaron told me right out of his own mouth that he had a class where he said, dad, there's three kinds -- the man told us there are three kinds of people in the world, sheep dogs, sheep, and wolves. i can honestly say that s.e.a.l. team six are the desheep dogs. sheep dogs always see the warning, black and white, clearly. most of us are sheep. we don't usually see it. >> karen -- >> and there are some wolves out there -- >> go ahead, sir. i'm sorry. >> there are wolves out there, and aaron explained it to me. and, you know, it's really strange, matt, that -- that 90 some odd days ago s.e.a.l. team six had a big victory and possibly sheep in higher places said thinkgs what made many of s very uncomfortable. and now some 90 some odd days later s.e.a.l. team six has suffered a terrible tragedy. i just pray that during these last days, these next days, they will allow s.e.

the dead include 22 navy s.e.a.l.s, some of them members of the legendary s.e.a.l. team 6, the unit credited with the killing of osama bin laden in pakistan earlier this year. the horrible news comes at the end of a week in which those back home were focused on knt's debt, falling stock prices and partisan squabbling. >> now this brute's reminder, we are still a knt at war with 98,000 american troops putting their lives on the line i afghanistan every day. we begin our coverage from our kabul base and atia abawi. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. the taliban quickly claimed responsibility for today's attack stating that its fighters shot down the helicopter with a rocket. the american and afghan special forces were working side-by-side when their operation took a deadly turn. a senior american official says the team was on its way to a mission not far from kabul in wardak province. a site known for strong taliban presence. their target, a target housing insurgent fighters. the ch-37 chinook helicopter came und are fire and crashed killing everyone onboard.

from at least two different units some reportedly from s.e.a.l. team 6, the unit involved with hunting down and killing sbal osama bin laden in pakistan in may but none of those killed is believed to be part of the bin laden operation. >> these men are national treasures, irreplaceable. >> barack obama said their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of the military and their families. as the news spread across the country, sorrow. >> took me a while for it to sink in. >> we lost some great brave americans in the last day or so. it is a real tragedy. our hearts and minds are with those families. >> we ask you all to rise and join us in a moment of silence. >> reporter: and solemn nous for the heros. >> there is plenty of speculation this weekend about the future of interest rates and the stock market after standard & poors downgraded the nation's credit for the first time in its history. s&p, though, is one of three credit agencies and the others did not follow suit. many say because of that the impact of the s

you know, when you look at s.e.a.l. teamthey are nameless soldiers until tragedy happens. we have approximately 300 s.e.a.l. team 6 members. to lose 20 in one day, it's 70%. it's going to have significant implications. are they mostly developed in afghanistan? >> we have about 10,000 special operation forces, about 10,000 of them are stationed in afghanistan. >> wes, do you agree with what senator mccain implied that in effect our policy put these people in harm's way? >> the point that he makes about fighting is true. afghanistan is broken up into fighting seasons because generally during the winter months, there's no fighting. they go to pakistan, regroup, retrain. that is a legitimate argument. the question needs to be, what are we doing during the fighting seasons and what is the strategy? how does it move the ball up field? that's why there's confusion. we could put 500,000 troops on the ground. what are we hoping to accomplish? >> good question. are we asking that, still? >> in the end, when we leave that land as op-ed

with 7% of s.e.a.l. team six gone, special operations forces will be stretched even further when trying to carry out those secret and vital raids on the enemy. the u.s. is beginning a drawdown of forces as well. 10,000 by the end of this year. the rest of the 33,000 surge troops by september of next year. david? >> you talk about this drawdown. we both know how important the s.e.a.l.s are, the elite teams to the mission moving forward. are they at all part of this drawdown? is there a schedule for them to come home? >> none of the s.e.a.l.s will be coming home. in fact no special operators will be coming home at all. they are so valuable over there. they have to stay. one widow today told me that her husband had deployed 250 days of every year. >> incredible. martha raddatz. >>> we turn to the economy. after that unprecedented downgrade of america's aaa credit rating from standard and poors, this has been an extraordinary sunday. world leaders holding emergency phone calls. even the american investor warren b

s.e.a.l. teams. and half washout. they go on kill missions for high-value targets like osama bin laden. >> what do they do on the battlefield that's different. >> you have to identify a threat and often times, it's at a moment's notice, in an instant. you have to determine whether or not that individual is a threat or whether he's not. and if he is, you have to engage. these individuals can shoot exact aim. they make that judgment in an instant. >> according to former s.e.a.l.s, there are about 200 members of s.e.a.l. 6. that means the crash took away about 10% of the unit. i spoke with anthony sheaffer about how the team in afghanistan could be shored up. are they going to have to shuttle guys in from other s.e.a.l. units? >> first off, they may have to degrade the mission in iraq and move more to afghanistan. the problem is things in iraq have not been as stable as people would like them to be. therefore, you're degrading that mission. the more likely scenario is they'll move one of the stand-by units and move them

brian todd is at the home of the s.e.a.l. team in virginia beach.r live at the pentagon. what more do we know about how this chopper was brought down, barbara? >> carol, by all accounts, it was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, several military officials telling us that is the working assumption, shot down by the taliban. 22 navy s.e.a.l.s, a total of 25 special operations forces, a couple from other services. they were going in to reinforce an army ranger unit that was already on the ground in a firefight. rangers had called for reinforcements and the s.e.a.l.s went. it is the type of thing that they often do in these very dangerous missions in eastern afghanistan. thousands of these types of raids, assaults done every year now, day in, day out in afghanistan. this is a very remote area. an insurgent stronghold by many accounts. and no one can say at this point, really, how it is that they got shot down. did the insurgents get -- how did the insurgents get off that shot that brought the helicopter down? that certainly will be the focus of

for roadside bomb. 22 of those service members were navy s.e.a.l.s, and most of them were from s.e.a.l. teamam that took out osama bin laden. officials say none of the s.e.a.l.s killed over the weekend were part of the a bin laden mission. they knew the dangers faced them day been on countless missions and still they served. in this time of grief for their families, let's all remember that their loss is our loss as a nation. just as president obama flew to dover air force base to give them a hero's salute and honor their sacrifice, take a moment to honor their memory and the memories of the 1,585 men and women who have given their lives in afghanistan. because so few of us are touched by the war on our behalf, giving thanks for their service is the least we can do. thanks for watching. i'll be back here tomorrow. dylan ratigan picks things up from here. dylan, i think we know what's on the agenda this afternoon. >> well, we certainly have no choice as to the agenda. as our politicians continue to refuse to acknowledge the root of what ails the entire western hemisphere. had will they wake up

government and members of the s.e.a.l. team six, they got osama bin laden in may. that gave the president the freedom to say, look, we have inhibited al qaeda as much as we've hurt them enough that we don't need to stay at this force level. so i would expect the 30,000 surge troops to come out as the president keeps on his path. >> okay. i'm going to ask you to put on your excellent economic perspective hat because we know the asian markets open later this evening is there an expectation of how rocky it will get? >> reporter: well, the question is how much. the administration is hoping that the political controversy around the s&p decision, the fact that they made a math error before they came up with it, will help blur the impact of this and certainly politically that's in the discussion. listen to this between john mccain and john kerry on meet the tres today. >> i believe this is, without question, the tea party downgrade. this is the tea party downgrade because of minute northey were o a bigger deal. >> the members of the house of representatives had a mandate,

that could potentially create nuclear weapons, so this little tiny agency that's like a peaceful s.e.a.l. team into south africa, brings out the highly enriched uranium, makes the world safer, its budget is going to be on the table because nuclear bomb prevention is not nearly as attractive as nuclear bomb production, and believe it or not, there are $700 billion worth of new nuclear weapons programs on the planning boards for the next ten years in the federal budget right now. >> on the broad issue of what can get through the house right now about john boehner's gateway role and what can pass the congress, the president is making small job creation proposals, says he's going to make large scale proposals next month, do you believe that the political environment is changing so that republicans might say yes to anything or we in no, no, no mode for a long time yet? >> i think when the president says that he wants job creations programs that the republicans are going to say no, you know, that's going to help you get reelected, mr. president, that might actually put people back to work, but when

do you see this and what happened there affecting s.e.a.l.s and s.e.a.l. teams the next time they go out on a mission? >> i think if anything comes out of it, it will be slight variances and changes in operating procedures. they'll probably be new directives that come from the top that are injected into future operations plannings and scenarios and the way things are carried out. these guys do not quit. quitting is not in a s.e.a.l.'s dna. if he wasn't, he wouldn't make it through the training. it is designed to weed out the weak. they are never going to quit unless they are government tells them to cease and desift. >> i have to ask you on the morning shows this been questions as to whether this many s.e.a.l.s in a chinook helicopter in a good idea. is this a diversion for normal practice for s.e.a.l.s? do they travel together in large groups like that or smaller groups? >> it depends on what's going on. it depends on the mission. it also depends on the mission that they are supporting. as it stands, these guys were part of what's called an irf, not a qrf there

and i gave president obama credit for having sent the s.e.a.l. team in to capture and kill bin laden. >> were you bitter at all? was it bittersweet? or were you disappointed it hadn't happened on your watch? >> well, we would've liked to have succeeded. but i think we laid the groundwork for what ultimately happened. >> jamie, i was struck, though. it seems in some of the excerpts and i haven't read the full book and even in this interview, he's more critical, it seems of the bush administration in many ways and doesn't go after the obama administration the way he did, for instance, the first year of the obama administration. >> this is his memoir, though. and i think we'll hear more. i think he will continue to be in the spotlight and speak out about politics today and the obama administration. and there is some criticism in the book. but this is his memoir. this is looking back. >> all right. jamie gangel. you can catch more of jamie's exclusive interview with vice president cheney tonight on a special edition of "dateline" 10:00 p.m. eastern on you

what we see the regiment force, s.e.a.l. team six there's been a war for a decade. lot of them are on the sixth, seventh, eighth, combat tour. if one's in trouble, they'll go to their rescue. that's the reality that we're talking about. later on i'm sure the military is going to have to do an after action review to try to sort outing look, what can we learn from this incident? this is similar to 2005 when four navy s.e.a.l.s got overrun. one surviving and the rescue force again was shot down in a ch-47 with a huge loss of life. they have to study it. the central reality is this is a rescue mission. >> and it's your sense that this was an rpg because given the altitude that the chinook was likely at, it's just hard to imagine that this lucky shot could have brought down this helicopter? >> i wouldn't call it a huky shot. they've been barrage firing rpgs at soviet helicopters and ours for years. they did the same thing in iraq. that helicopter model is a terrific aircraft. modified for operations, very sophisticated. but when they're in a target with direct gunfire, d

very talented, capable, dedicated people and i gave president obama credit for having sent the s.e.a.l. teamure and kill bin laden. >> was it bittersweet or were you disappointed it hadn't happened on your watch? >> well, we would have liked to have succeeded but i think we laid the ground work for what ultimately happened. >> the white house correspondent for "newsweek" magazine joins us live. dan, thanks for joining us. >> reporter: sure. >> so they have been hyping this impact that the memoirs are going to have. he has been saying that heads are going to explode. do you think that this book will have that type of impact? >> reporter: we have seen a lot of hurricane damage around washington but certainly no heads exploding around town. that claim, that specific one you played of the bush administration and specifically him deserving some credit for the capture and killing of osama bin laden is what has gotten most of the attention. this is something you tried for many years and couldn't seal the deal. now, they see it as a vindication effort to save face and rationize a lot of the efforts

soldiers, some from the special forces s.e.a.l. team 6 that killed osama bin laden three months ago. also among the dead, eight afghan commandos. this was the single deadliest day of the war. the rising u.s. death toll comes as the administration announces a withdrawal timetable and will raise fresh questions about america's strategy to end the longest running war in our country's history. joining us now, john kerry. senator kerry, good to have you. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you, david. glad to be with you. >> i have to ask you, when you see news like this, when you hear of the loss of life among our soldiers, is your reaction what are we still doing there? or is it are we doing everything we need to do to beat the enemy? which is not al qaeda, it is the taliban, the insurgency? >> my first reaction, david, and i'm sure john mccain's also, is an extraordinary sense of loss and a sense of gratitude for the quality of their sacrifice and service. our hearts go out to their families. i think john and i join every single am

all but two of whom were members of s.e.a.l. team 6.crash is the single deadliest incident for americans in afghanistan since the war began nearly ten years ago. we do not know all the names of those killed and this is complicated by the secrecy of the membership of some elite special forces teams but we are learning more about those killed thanks in large part due to the coverage of their hometown newspapers swrechl links from green forest, arkansas and rockford, iowa, shreveport, louisiana, jacksonville, north carolina, nashville, tennessee, cape cod, massachusetts. we have linked to some of these at our blog today. maddowblog.com. in addition to learning more about the casualties we are learning more about the circumstances of the incident as in the a entire decade of this war. the taliban, of course, took credit within hours of the attack, but that doesn't always mean much. according to u.s. officials, it was a rocket propelled grenade but more details are unknown. this is a twin rotor helicopter. it was on its way to provide suppor

. >> do you believe that the government in the case of the bin laden raid, it was s.e.a.l. teamt the time, obviously this horrible tragedy in afghanistan, is the government by reflex too transparent, too open, too willing to disclose names, information, even acknowledging that these were navy s.e.a.l.s, for example? afghanistan? >> in missions like this we don't like to acknowledge this unit or units like that. i think that we do know too much. i think they should know that we took care of a problem and that the united states will not stand for terrorism. >> and when -- take us inside the culture a bit. this is a culture within a culture. some people may think they under the military culture but they might not understand the top secret, covert units who are asked to do the most secretive, the most sensitive, the most difficult missions. what were your communications back and forth with your own close friends and family members when you were serving for ten years about what you were doing? >> one of the things we are special operations forces, we can blend in in society, and when

. >> a typical operation for a s.e.a.l. teamr example, or a ranger platoon would be a raid in which a target is specifically identified. there are people there we want. there is information there we want, or there's a specific location we want to get into from which we can get further information. a raid will be conducted. usually it's by helicopter instead of by infiltration. sometimes the helicopter brings them right on the objective. extremely dangerous, but very effective if it works. >> if that were the case here, the taliban claiming to have used a rocket propelled grenade launcher to do all of this. >> yeah. could happen. when you are coming in by helicopter, you are coming in low and slow at some juncture. you're going to be -- your troops are going to be repelling out to the objective or your action is going to land, and the helicopter has zero velocity. it's very easy to shoot it down. likely this is what happened, and although it seems unlikely that you could knock out a helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade, whi

memorials here, military bases dotting the landscape, including one down the road that is the home of s.e.a.l. team six. the realities of war are engrained in the culture here but the enormity of this attack is just sinking in. a while ago, we spoke to kimberly vaughn. she learned that her husband, aaron vaughn was among the s.e.a.l.s killed. >> i woke up, i saw the reports on the tv. i thought i was okay. nobody had come. as i come up the stairs, i heard the door bell ring. i said hopefully it's just a neighbor. as i rounded the stairs, i saw the men in uniform. i just fell to my knees. there's no preparing for it. you know, it's something you see in the movies. it's not something you're supposed to live through. but it -- it was men from the command. and, you know, it was as nice as it could be, i guess. >> she is now left to care for a 2-month-old daughter and a son who will turn two years old just next month. the focus now turns to helping the families like kimberly, current and former navy s.e.a.l.s and their commanders are trying to raise money for the navy s.e.a.l. foundation, a group dedica