WASHINGTON:
The Pentagon and a former US Navy SEAL are at odds over a book that offers the first eyewitness account of the May 2011 raid that took out Osama bin Laden, with a potential court battle looming.
Amid a wave of publicity, the Defence Department is warning the ex-commando and his publisher not to release “No Easy Day” next week, saying the author violated non-disclosure agreements he signed while in uniform.
The Pentagon said it has reviewed the text but officials declined to say if the book reveals state secrets, vowing to keep all legal options open.
“I’m not going to characterize one way or the other whether we think there’s classified information in it,” Press Secretary George Little told reporters.
“We are going to preserve our options.”
The Pentagon’s top lawyer earlier threatened possible legal action, saying the author had violated the non-disclosure deals – including a pledge to submit any book for review before publication.
“Those agreements are very clear, that when you write something that may contain classified information, you need to have it go through pre-publication review by this department,” Little said. “That did not occur in this case.”
The former Navy commando wrote “No Easy Day” under a pseudonym, Mark Owen, but has been identified in media reports as Matt Bissonnette.
In the book, published by Penguin’s Dutton imprint and already handed out to some US media, he describes his role in the famed raid on bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout that was hailed afterward as a triumph by the White House.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2012.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
A carefully orchestrated move by CIA to give credence to OBL killing theory.