Navy SEAL Goes Dark

by Eli Lake - The Daily BeastSept 10, 2012 - The Daily Beast

Facing threats from the Pentagon and the prospect of reprisal from al Qaeda, the man who dished on the bin Laden raid cancels media tour for his new book, No Easy Day. Eli Lake reports.

Usually, when an author pens a bestseller and promotes it on 60 Minutes, a major publicity tour ensues and, if he or she is lucky, maybe even a bit of literary fame. But for the former Navy SEAL operator who wrote an unauthorized, first-hand account of the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the publication of the book has brought a bunch of problems.

Christine Ball, a vice president of the Dutton imprint that published No Easy Day, said Monday that the author who is using the pseudonym Mark Owen gave his first and last media interview to CBS in an episode that aired Sunday.

“At this point we are not scheduling any further interviews with Mark or Kevin Maurer, his coauthor, for security reasons,” she said. “As anyone who watched 60 Minutes can tell you, they went to great lengths to disguise Mark. We want to take even more precautions now that his name has been outed.”

Last month, Fox News first reported that Owen’s real name was Matt Bissonnette, a decision that prompted Dutton to cancel a scheduled media tour for security reasons.

“He should go into hiding,” said Don Mann, a former member of SEAL Team Six and the author of the book Inside SEAL Team Six, which explores the world of the elite group behind the bin Laden raid. Mann said Bissonnette will have to “have an identity change, and a name change; he will be a target for the rest of his life. Our enemy will not forget that he was one of the people who put a bullet into Osama’s body.”
Retribution isn’t the only danger the author of No Easy Day faces. The Pentagon has determined that the book discloses classified information and that the author violated the nondisclosure agreement he signed when he became a SEAL.

A Pakistani policeman stands outside the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in an operation by U.S. Navy Seals, on May 4, 2011, in Abottabad, Pakistan. (Warrick Page / Getty Images)

Full story at The Daily Beast

A Pakistani policeman stands outside the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in an operation by U.S. Navy Seals, on May 4, 2011, in Abottabad, Pakistan. (Warrick Page / Getty Images)

Full story at The Daily Beast