osama bin killed

Navy SEAL Author of Bin Laden Book Maintains Anonymity for All of One Day

Yesterday, it was announced that “Mark Owen,” the pseudonym of a retired Navy SEAL, would be releasing a book featuring his first-hand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Plans were even in the works for “Owen” to do interviews in disguise when the book is released in September. That anonymity lasted all the way until this morning, when Fox News, of all places, identified the author as 36-year-old Matt Bissonnette. (We can only imagine Fox News’s outraged wall-to-wall coverage had the Times or MSNBC “endangered the life of a brave American soldier” by doing the same thing.) Even more ironic: As Mother Jones points out, Justin Fishel, the reporter who outed Bissonnette wrote a story in May 2011 entitled “Navy SEALs Want to Protect Their Identity Following UBL Kill.”

Of course, if this particular Navy SEAL was super concerned about maintaining his privacy, he probably wouldn’t have written a blockbuster book about the most famous special forces operation in American history.

Bin Laden Book Author No Longer Anonymous