German TV news host confuses Star Trek logo for Navy SEAL emblem

The ins and outs of other cultures can seem fairly mysterious to outsiders, admittedly. But we can't really get over the image of a German TV newscaster solemnly presenting a logo fashioned by Star Trek enthusiasts while explaining the Navy SEALs to his fellow countrymen.

The German site Bildblog appears to have been the first to capture the error with this screenshot, at right. Channel N24's host Mick Locher explained during the segment that the Navy SEAL Six team raided Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and killed him—as the emblem made by Star Trek fans flashed on the screen behind him.

"And they also have the 'Team Six' that carried out the mission. They don't have the skull in their emblem for nothing," Locher said, according to a translation from the fan site TrekMovie.

Locher's team must have searched for "Navy SEAL Six" on the Internet and stumbled upon the symbol made by a Star Trek fan group called "Maquis Forces International." The Maquis, a rebel group, fought against Cardassia--the bad guys--in Federation colonies in some Star Trek storylines. The skull in the badge represents a Klingon, and it also includes three Klingon bat'leth swords. The group makes lots of imagined Navy SEAL logos for the "24th century," TrekMovie says.

The actual emblem for Navy SEAL Team Six is below. The military has never publicly admitted that the elite group even exists. The portion of the 2,500 Navy SEALs who are chosen to be in the elite force are not allowed to talk about their position, according to the Washington Post.

(Screenshot: N24 via Bildblog.)