The raid commander “Jay” called his boss, Adm. William McRaven, on satellite radio, saying, “For God and country. I pass Geronimo. . . . Geronimo EKIA.”
IT’S THE ONLY book to have the power to dethrone Fifty Shades of Grey.
The interview last night about the SEAL Team Six raid on “60 Minutes,” with one of the Navy’s elite counterterrorism members, Mark Owen, was spellbinding. The humility driving the narrative is just as remarkable as the story itself.
The credit Owen gives to the female CIA agent, called “Jen” in the book, that “teed up” Neptune Spear, rang bells for me.
“I can’t give her enough credit. I mean, she, in my opinion, she kind of teed up this whole thing. And is just, you know, wicked smart, kind of feisty.” – Mark Owen (aka Matt Bissonnette, SEAL Team 6)
As a die hard fan of Showtime’s “Homeland,” I remembered the claim of Claire Danes alleging her character is “loosely modeled” on a female CIA agent that sounds like “Jen’s” twin sister. New York magazine picked up on this, too.
CBS’s Scott Peley conducted the interview.
His voice and face disguised and using the pseudonym Mark Owen, one of the Navy SEALs who participated in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden gives an exclusive interview to Scott Pelley. Owen, now retired, says the SEALs trained for the mission using a full-size replica of the bin Laden compound, and that a dress rehearsal was held for military top brass. And Owen refutes charges that he’s trying to make a political statement with his book, “No Easy Day.” – “60 Minutes”
“No Easy Day” goes on sale tomorrow, 9/11, with Peter Bergen’s review of it just confirming what the interview last night revealed.
The date was purposefully chosen, so as to launch on a day that shouldn’t be filled with politics. Mark Owen had words in his interview that anyone trying to use his book for political gain, shame on them.
As has been known since the reporting on the raid broke, it was a very risky mission, with President Obama’s decision something he’d pledged to do during the primaries in 2008.
“I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges,” Obama will say, according to speech excerpts provided to ABC News by his campaign, “but let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.” – candidate Barack Obama
The Pakistanis not only didn’t act, but considering the location of bin Laden’s hideout, few believe there wasn’t involvement, particularly from the ISI, in providing a safe haven for the notorious mass murderer.
Matt Bissonnette, aka Mark Bowen, is donating the proceeds to his book to charities who aid the families of fallen Navy SEALS.
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