A former U.S. Navy commando who authored a soon-to-be-published book about the raid in which he and fellow Navy SEAL team 6 killed Osama bin Laden could face investigation because he failed to clear the book with the Department of Defense before publication.
Fox News made public on Thursday what it said was the real name of the former SEAL who, with a journalist co-author, wrote “No Easy Day” under the pseudonym Mark Owen. The book is due to be released next month.
The book’s publisher, Dutton, said Owen was “one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the terrorist leader’s hideout and was present at his death.”
Colonel Tim Nye, spokesman for the U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, which directs operations by Navy SEALs and other special operations forces, said on Thursday that SOCOM did not review the book before publication, nor had the SEALs.
Nye said that because the book had not been subjected to appropriate pre-publication review, it could become a target of “potential investigation” by government authorities. He added that any such inquiry was unlikely to be launched until after the book’s publication, scheduled for the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States.