[D9u]

Obviously, the leaks are intended to justify the current trend of global surveillance.

You should have heard the backlash against Biden for dropping the "ST6 killed bin Ladin" bomb in the press. People were saying that naming (a defunct since 1987) SEAL team as being responsible for killing bin Ladin equated to placing those SEALs at risk... (as if being a SEAL wasn't already placing yourself at risk?)

[malandrew]

What is it about naming a SEAL team, which is only identified by the addition of a single digit, that puts them at risk or creates issues for them? Assuming they are consecutively numbered, I would assume there is a ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5 and possibly many ST(n+1). What makes ST6 special?

[at-fates-hands]

Maybe this will help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Special_War...

"Marcinko was the first commanding officer of this new unit, which was first called MOB 6 (Mobility 6) and Sixth Platoon. Eventually the unit was dubbed SEAL Team Six. At the time there were only two SEAL teams. Marcinko named the unit SEAL Team Six in order to confuse Soviet intelligence as to the number of actual SEAL teams in existence."

And what makes them so special:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Special_War...

"Candidates are put through a variety of advanced training courses led by civilian or military instructors. These can include free-climbing, advanced unarmed combat techniques, defensive and offensive driving, advanced diving, and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training. All candidates must perform at the top level during selection, and the unit instructors evaluate the candidate during the training process"

In in short - they're the best of the best. Also, they haven't been defunct since 1987. They were renamed the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group. The Army equivalent is Delta Force.