Bin Laden raid book catches U.S. officials off guard
August 23, 2012 by Kristen
Filed under Music/Book/Film/Art
WASHINGTON – The U.S. government was surprised by the news that a Navy SEAL who participated in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan has written a book about the operation in which the al Qaida leader was killed, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
“No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden” was written by a Navy SEAL under the pseudonym Mark Owen with co-author Kevin Maurer and is to be released next month on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
It was not vetted by government agencies to ensure that no secrets were revealed.
“The book was vetted by a former special operations attorney. He vetted it for tactical, technical, and procedural information as well as information that could be considered classified by compilation and found it to be without risk to national security,” Christine Ball, a spokeswoman for the publisher, Dutton, told Reuters.
The book will be published at a time when Washington has been roiled by controversy over national security leaks ahead of the Nov. 6 presidential election.
