Dave Cooper is a former member of the Navy SEALs squad, known informally as SEAL Team Six, who supervised and helped train the soldiers who killed bin Laden in 2011.
The now-retired military man was hired by opponents of Keystone XL to conduct a threat assessment against the possible pipeline.
The group that commissioned his report is headed by anti-pipeline billionaire Tom Steyer.
Cooper says he wasn’t paid much for the project, joking that it wasn’t until they agreed on his fee that he learned Steyer was a billionaire.
Cooper’s 13-page report, released today, says given the project’s size and visibility, Keystone XL would be a prime terrorist target and difficult to protect.
A former head of the Navy SEAL foundation, Cooper also discussed some of the problems faced by his former colleagues.
He says team members haven’t suffered the same rates of post-traumatic stress as other soldiers, but many have concussion problems from being exposed to crashes and explosions.