The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or kill high-level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines. SEAL team personnel are hand-selected, highly trained, and possess a high degree of proficiency in unconventional warfare (UW), direct action (DA), and special reconnaissance (SR), among other tasks like sabotage, demolition, intelligence gathering, and hydrographic reconnaissance, training, and advising friendly militaries or other forces. All active SEALs are members of the U.S. Navy.
The Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) elite tactical unit. The HRT was formed to provide a full-time federal law enforcement tactical capability to respond to major terrorist incidents throughout the United States. Today, the HRT performs a number of tactical law enforcement and national security functions in high-risk environments and conditions and has deployed overseas, including with military Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) units. In an article to mark its 40th anniversary, it was reported that since its formation in 1983 the HRT had deployed more than 900 times.
James Patrick Caviezel Jr. is an American actor. He played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (2004), Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom (2023), and starred as John Reese on the CBS series Person of Interest (2011–2016). He also played Slov in G.I. Jane (1997), Private Witt in The Thin Red Line (1998), Detective John Sullivan in Frequency (2000), Catch in Angel Eyes (2001), and Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).
Richard Marcinko was a U.S. Navy SEAL commander and Vietnam War veteran. He was the first commanding officer of SEAL Team Six. After retiring from the United States Navy, he became an author, radio talk show host, military consultant, and motivational speaker.
QAnon is a far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters is operating a global child sex trafficking ring that conspired against President Donald Trump. QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, an Internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many different conspiracy theories and unifies them into a larger interconnected conspiracy theory. QAnon has been described as a cult.
The Special Actions Detachment or DAE is the tier one special force maritime unit of the Portuguese Navy. It is part of the Portuguese Marine Corps. Raised in 1985, the DAE is one of the smallest special forces units within the Portuguese Armed Forces. It is responsible for conducting air-sea rescue, amphibious reconnaissance, amphibious warfare, black operation, bomb disposal, CBRN defense, coastal raiding, counterterrorism, direct action, executive protection, hostage rescue, irregular warfare, ISTAR, long-range penetration, JTAC, manhunt high-value target, maritime sabotage, mountain rescue, naval boarding, operation behind high risk enemy lines, special operations, special reconnaissance, tracking targets, underwater demolition, unconventional warfare, other missions in support of Portuguese and NATO armed forces. DAE's mission and training are similar to their American counterparts DEVGRU and the British SBS. DAE often trains with them alongside other SMU counter-terror units.
The Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG), abbreviated as DEVGRU and unofficially known as SEAL Team Six, is the United States Navy component of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). The unit is often referred to within JSOC as Task Force Blue. DEVGRU is administratively supported by Naval Special Warfare Command and operationally commanded by JSOC. Most information concerning DEVGRU is designated as classified, and details of its activities are not usually commented on by either the United States Department of Defense or the White House. Despite the official name changes and increase in size, "SEAL Team Six" remains the unit's widely recognized moniker.
The third season of the History Channel television series Top Shot, commenced airing on August 9, 2011. The season contained twelve episodes, and was filmed over a period of 35 days in Santa Clarita, California. The season was won by Dustin Ellermann.
The fourth season of the History channel television series Top Shot premiered on February 14, 2012.
Kaj Larsen is an American journalist, correspondent, and producer who has worked for Vice News, CNN, NowThis News and Current TV. He worked for the Vanguard international news documentary investigative reporting show on Current TV beginning in 2005. He produced the documentary series LOCKUP Maricopa County and LOCKUP RAW for MSNBC from 2010 to 2011. In 2010, he became a producer and correspondent for CNN until he was laid off in 2012 after CNN abolished their investigative news departments. Following CNN he became a correspondent for VICE News and hosted the series VICE on HBO. In 2016, Larsen hosted “The Runner” original series with Executive producers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. He was the senior correspondent for NowThis News.
Damien Mander is an anti-poaching activist and the founder of Akashinga. He is a former Australian Royal Navy Clearance Diver and Special Operations military sniper. He is also a director of the Conservation Guardians. In 2019, he received the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust Gold Medal.
The Pasukan Khas Laut, commonly abbreviated to PASKAL, is the principal special operations force of the Royal Malaysian Navy.
Robert J. O'Neill is a former United States Navy SEAL (1996–2012), TV news contributor, and author. After participating in May 2011's Operation Neptune Spear with SEAL Team Six, O'Neill was the subject of controversy for claiming to be the sole individual to kill Osama bin Laden.
Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) is a nonprofit United States–based anti-sex trafficking organization founded in 2013 by Tim Ballard. The organization has been criticized for its conduct during sting operations and has been accused of exaggerating claims regarding its work. There have been no actual verified rescues performed by the group, and the group's claims of rescues have misled donors and the public about what the group does. The group claims to have conducted multiple sting operations, some outside the United States, and donated technological and monetary resources to law-enforcement agencies that combat sex trafficking.
John Gretton "Jocko" Willink Jr. is an American author, podcaster, and retired United States Navy officer who served in the Navy SEALs and is a former member of SEAL Team 3.
Rorke Thomas Denver is an American actor, author, and former United States Navy SEALs commander. Denver is most known for his role as Lieutenant Rorke in the 2012 film Act of Valor and for his appearance as a team leader in the Fox Television series, American Grit.
Sound of Freedom is a 2023 American Christian thriller film directed and co-written by Alejandro Monteverde, and starring Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, and Bill Camp. Caviezel plays Tim Ballard, a former U.S. government agent who embarks on a mission to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. It is produced by Eduardo Verástegui, who also plays a role in the film. The plot centers around Ballard's Operation Underground Railroad, an anti-sex trafficking organization. While the film is purportedly based on the life of Ballard, multiple investigative journalists have written about the real-life Ballard and O.U.R., pointing out that the events in the film bear little resemblance to reality.
DeliverFund is a non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization focused on targeting human traffickers in the United States using counterterrorism methodology and technology. It was founded in 2014 by Nic McKinley, a former CIA officer and a United States Air Force Pararescueman, and Jeremy Mahugh, a former member of the US Special Operations and a Navy SEAL sniper.
Q: Into the Storm is an American documentary television miniseries directed and produced by Cullen Hoback. It explores the QAnon conspiracy theory and the people involved with it. It consisted of six episodes and premiered on HBO on March 21, 2021. The series received mixed reviews, with some critics praising its insight into the conspiracy theory, and others finding it to be overlong and lacking in analysis of the impacts of QAnon. Some reviewers have criticized the series for not following best practices outlined by extremism researchers for reporting on extremism and conspiracy theories.
