A retired Navy SEAL commander and other former special ops personnel are launching a new super PAC to raise money against President Barack Obama in swing states,
USA Today reported.
The group, Special Operations for America, is headed by retired Navy SEAL Commander Ryan Zinke and filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission this week. Zinke and other special operations personnel told USA Today that they are outraged that SEAL Team 6 which killed Osama bin Laden was publicly identified as the unit that carried out the raid. They said it puts the team members and their families at risk, USA Today reported.
"Who was it at risk?" Zinke, a Republican state senator from Montana, told the paper. "Was it the president? Or was it the young SEAL with the wife and kid at home? That's the arrogance."
Benjamin Smith, 36, of Wilmington, S.C., who spent six years as a SEAL, told USA Today that the level of detail leaked about the bin Laden operation made him sick to his stomach.
The group also objects to deep military cuts and increases in health care costs to veterans, according to USA Today. The money the group raises will be used for ads against Obama in swing states, its spokesman, Scott Hommel told USA Today.
"It's a good group of guys, and they're going to come out swinging," Joel Arends, an Iraq Army veteran and chairman of Veterans for a Strong America, told the paper.
The group’s board includes former Republican Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana and former Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, the paper reported.
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