During the wee hours of the morning on May 2, 2011, the rotor noise of two incoming UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters cut through the silence in the sleepy suburban city of Abbottabad, Pakistan. Nearly one million Pakistanis reside there, but the men inside the two Black Hawks weren’t worried about any of them. The pilots, hand-selected from the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the 24 men from SEAL Team Six they were carrying, were looking for one Afghani national who has managed to elude the grasp of the United States military for nearly ten years. The decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden was about to come to a bloody end.
In his book No Easy Day, ex-SEAL Team Six operative Mark Owen (a pseudonym) recounts Operation Neptune Spear, the codename of the raid that killed Bin Laden. In addition, he tells about the training and preparation involved in carrying out this dangerous mission. Published by Dutton-Penguin Publishing, the book was released by Owen on Sept. 4, 2012 and was not submitted to the Department of Defense for editing. This generated a lot of controversy, and many military representatives spoke out against Owen’s decision to write No Easy Day.
During a Sept. 9, 2012 interview with Scott Pelley from CBS’s 60 Minutes, Owen gave viewers a firsthand account of the operation, as well as his reasons behind writing No Easy Day. Owen claims he wrote the book as a tribute to the men and women who took part in the intelligence gathering, planning and execution of the May raid, as well as for all of the Navy SEAL’s past, present and future.
Owen told Pelley that in a meeting with President Obama, he and the other team members refused to name the man who pulled the trigger that ultimately killed Bin Laden. “Pulling a trigger’s easy. You know, a couple pounds of pressure on your trigger finger, and I’ve done it millions of times, and it’s not that hard,” Owen said to Pelley during their sit-down. “You know, so it’s not about who that one person was. It’s about the team, or the helicopter pilots, or the intel folks that teed this whole thing up. Who cares who the one person is? Doesn’t matter.”
Over the course of the interview with Pelley, Owen stated a number of times that the raid wasn’t about one individual, it was about the team of men and women who put together all of the intelligence and coordinated the entire operation. He made it clear that the book was not about him, and that much of the profit he makes from sales will be donated to charities that help families of fallen soldiers. His selfless comments and endless kudos to the supporting members of his team have fallen on deaf ears of top military officials.
SEALs Commander Rear Admiral Sean Pybus wrote an open letter to his men shortly after news of No Easy Day was reported. An excerpt of the letter was published in an article by Fox News, clearly showing Admiral Pybus’ displeasure with the book:
“As the Commander of NSW (Naval Special Warfare), I am disappointed, embarrassed and concerned. Most of us have always thought that the privilege of working with some of our nation’s toughest warriors on challenging missions would be enough to be proud of, with no further compensation or celebrity required.”
“Today, we find former SEALs headlining positions in a presidential campaign; hawking details about a mission against Enemy Number 1; and generally selling other aspects of NSW training and operations,” the letter continued. “For an Elite Force that should be humble and disciplined for life, we are certainly not appearing to be so. We owe our Chain of Command much better than this.”
In addition to the SEALs commander’s reproach of Owen, the Pentagon has commented on the legality of the book’s content. In a CNN.com article by Barbara Starr, excerpts from a letter from the Pentagon’s General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson to Owen states that he is in violation of federal law.
“In the judgment of the Department of Defense, you are in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements you signed. Further public dissemination of your book will aggravate your breach and violation of your agreements.”
Other military officials have come out against the release of the book, most notably the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Despite the severe backlash from the military and intelligence community, the book was released on Sept. 4, 2012, and has since skyrocketed to the top of the New York Times Bestsellers List.
I have not yet finished reading No Easy Day so I cannot comment on the book itself. However, I do feel that Owen should have considered his contractual obligation to the military before publishing. I have mixed feelings about the release. Part of me feels that the details of Operation Neptune Spear should be made public, even if only to assuage the pain felt by the victims of 9/11’s surviving families. Also, the death of bin Laden was a major historical event for the United States that will live in history. Such a powerful story deserves to be told and retold.
However, part of me also can agree with the DOD and Pentagon being upset at the release of No Easy Day. By signing a military contract you agree to all of the terms and conditions, and I believe that the DOD and military are justified in their anger towards Owen. Whether or not vital classified information on training and tactics are in the book, DOD reserves the right to edit material before it becomes public knowledge. The reason our special operations are able to function smoothly is because a lot of what they do is kept hidden from view of the public. In the interest of national security and the safety of the United States, keeping certain cards close to one’s chest is often necessary.
Author George Orwell once said, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” This statement has an incredible amount of truth in it, and out of respect for those rough men we need to keep how they go about their business a secret. I have no doubt that every military in the world wishes they had our technology and tactics, and books like No Easy Day could potentially reveal some of the “how we do it” to them. The last thing we need is Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda and other terror organizations practicing room clearing and other military tactics.
As my final verdict, I have to take sides with the government on this one. Owen should have at least consulted them before going ahead with the publishing of No Easy Day. I think in the end it would have saved him a lot of backlash, and we never would have heard of any controversy over the release. Although military officials have a right to be miffed at Owen, the book still promises to be a fast-paced and exciting read.
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I have read the book and I disagree with your assessment.
The fact is that the Obama administration had previously released more information than “Mark Owen” did during his recount of this historical mission. He mentions the pains he took to protect classified information. He states, “If you are looking for secrets, this is not your book.” There was already a documentary, numerous leaks from the white house and an upcoming movie (Zero Dark Thirty) This operator clarified the Obama administrations lies and gave the credit to the effort of all of the brave Americans involved. Do you think the administration would let the true story out unchanged which differs from their version of events? Of course not! He wanted to tell the true story from his own perspective without interference.
It was a great viewpoint and I’m glad he released the book.
I doubt if release of this book caught the military by surprise “pardon the pun”.
If they were concerned about the Bin Laden operation details becoming public knowledge post completion, this book would never have seen the light of day.