Pentagon: SEAL's Book Contains Top Secret Info

Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette may have damaged national security by publishing a firsthand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden without running it by government censors first, the Pentagon warns. No Easy Day leaks "sensitive and classified information," and its author violated non-disclosure agreements, says a military spokesman. "When you have special operations units that perform these missions, there are tactics, techniques, and procedures—not to mention human life—that are in play," he told reporters, adding that it was a "no-brainer" that a book about a classified operation should have been submitted for review.

The Pentagon spokesman called it "the height of irresponsibility not to have this kind of material checked for the possible disclosure of classified information," but said the military would not try to block sales of the book, reports NPR. Officials were taken completely by surprise when details from the book began to appear in the press, the Daily Beast reports. "At this point the onus is on the SEAL and his publisher to put the genie back in the bottle," a senior Pentagon official says, though that would be an impossible task: No Easy Day went on sale yesterday and shot to the top of Amazon's best-seller chart. The Pentagon has warned Bissonnette that he may face legal action. (More No Easy Day stories.)