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“No Easy Day” released, amid reports of author’s troubled exit from SEAL Team Six

Posted at 8:35 PM, Sep 04, 2012
and last updated 2012-09-04 20:35:19-04

Flipping through the pages of “No Easy Day,” it becomes obvious that former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette feels there was nothing "new" left for his book to release about the classified mission to kill Osama bin Laden.

"We'd kept this whole thing under wraps for weeks. Now, Washington was leaking everything. The only thing that remained secret was our names," writes Bissonette, describing the days after the raid where media outlets were reporting on every single detail.

The book gives a blow-by-blow account of what happened that May evening in Abottabod, like how it felt to be on the Blackhawk helicopter that crashed into the compound, not knowing if he would even complete the mission he came to carry out.

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"I could feel fear grip my chest as the ground rushed toward me. I had no control, and I think that scared me most of all. I always figured I would probably die in a gunfight, not in a helicopter crash."

But it’s the gory details of the killing of their main target, Geronimo, that most readers want to know about.

His account of how Osama Bin Laden was taken down is one of the few things that differs from the Obama administration's official story.

According to Bissonette, the most wanted terrorist in history actually peeked his head out of his bedroom door to find the SEALs were slowly creeping up his staircase.

Bissonette was right behind the point man at the head of the line, he was the only one to spot bin Laden, and immediately fired.

"The point man's shots had entered the right side of his head. Blood and brains spilled out of the side of his skull. In his death throes, he was still twitching and convulsing. Another assaulter and I trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds. The bullets tore into him, slamming his body into the floor until he was motionless."

One of those tasked with taking pictures and DNA samples from the dead body, Bissonette describes what it was like to look at the notorious terrorist finally defeated.

"He hadn't even prepared a defense. He had no intention of fighting. He asked his followers for decades to wear suicide vests or fly planes into buildings, but didn't even pick up his weapon."

It’s those details that could now get the SEAL in trouble--the Pentagon says they plan on pursuing legal action against Bissonette for breaching his non-disclosure agreements.

It's a decision the SEAL defends in the last chapter of his book.

"Since May 1st, 2011, everyone from President Obama to Admiral McRaven has given interviews about the operation. If my commander in chief is willing to talk, then I feel comfortable doing the same. My goal from the start was to tell the true story of the raid and show the sacrifices made by SEALs at the command."

Many have wondered why Bissonette would risk everything to publish his account, and a new e-book released on Monday tries to answer that.

“No Special Op,” written by former special operations commandos themselves, claim that Bissonette was pushed out of Seal Team Six’s Red Squadron after expressing interest in leaving the Navy and starting a business.

Upset at how he was treated, and he suddenly left without a paycheck, the e-book's authors assume the bad blood made it easier for Bissonette to break the SEAL code of silence.

In the book, Bissonette says he left on his own and that his commanders even asked him to stay, but he declined the offer.

No matter what actually happened, he always speaks highly of his fellow team members throughout the book.

“The men I looked up to, the men I worked with, those men are the best in the world and have done more for this country than people will ever comprehend.”