Pentagon, ex-SEAL at odds over book on bin Laden raid

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 over the book, the Defense 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 Friday 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. The Pentagon's top lawyer issued a warning late Thursday to the author, saying he had violated 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. And we take these agreements and our obligation to protect classified information very seriously." 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 news outlets, the special operator describes his role in a brief raid on bin Laden's Pakistani hideout that was hailed afterward as a triumph by American commanders, intelligence chiefs and the White House. Bissonnette's lawyer on Friday offered a rebuttal to the Pentagon, insisting that the author had not broken faith with his legal commitments. The commando had sought legal advice before going ahead with the book and was not required to submit the manuscript in advance to defense officials as the Pentagon claims, said his attorney, Robert Luskin. The former commando "is proud of his service and respectful of his obligations," Luskin wrote in reply to the Pentagon. "But he has earned the right to tell his story; his abiding interest is to ensure that he is permitted to tell it while recognizing the letter and spirit of the law and his contractual undertakings." The book does not offer a dramatically different version of events already presented by President Barack Obama's aides but does provide some new details about the May 2011 operation at bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad. Bissonnette recounts how bin Laden was first shot in the head as he peered out of a door and then pumped with bullets as he convulsed on the floor. Previous official accounts said bin Laden had appeared in a doorway and ducked back into his bedroom, leading the US commandos to suspect he might be retrieving a gun. In other cases involving tell-all books, the US government has successfully sued intelligence officers for failing to comply with their non-disclosure agreements. Judges have ruled that current or retired employees have to secure approval of their books before publication -- regardless of whether classified information is disclosed. The government then has the right to demand access to any profits from the unauthorized books, said Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, who writes a blog on government secrecy. The non-disclosure agreements "have been consistently construed by courts as a binding contract," Aftergood told AFP. Failing to submit a manuscript qualifies as a civil case, but if the Pentagon concludes secrets were spilled in the book, the former commando could be subject to criminal prosecution, he said. "If there were classified information (revealed) and the author knowingly and willingly disclosed classified information ... then there might be a criminal dimension to it," he said. Last year, a federal judge ruled in favor of the CIA in a case involving a former officer with the spy agency, saying the agent had failed to obtain approval for his book, "The Human Factor," before publication. The author had submitted a manuscript but argued the CIA had intentionally stalled its review of the book, which was critical of the intelligence agency. But with "No Easy Day," experts say the author and publisher may be gambling that they have steered clear of exposing sensitive secrets and can argue their case on the non-disclosure deals, all the while benefiting from the avalanche of publicity generated by the dispute.