Posted on 09/05/2012 1:24:31 PM PDT by gandalftb
The Navy SEAL Team 6 operators hand-picked to raid Osama bin Laden’s compound in 2011 had some unwelcome surprises waiting for them as they hit the ground, according to Matt Bissonnette (pen name Mark Owen) in his controversial book “No Easy Day,” released Tuesday.
Here are the top six revelations from his new memoir.
1. VIPs gathered for a dress rehearsal two weeks before the mission.
At a massive hangar at a base training center, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, and Adm. William McRaven, now commander of Special Operations Command, wanted to evaluate the plan to raid bin Laden’s compound, and decide whether to go ahead with it.
2. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wanted to bomb bin Laden’s compound.
Gates argued that an air strike would be less of an invasion of Pakistan’s sovereignty, according to Bissonnette.
3. Women were pivotal to the bin Laden mission.
The SEAL team was given the green light by a CIA analyst with the pseudonym “Jen” who was “the main force” behind tracking bin Laden to Abbottabad.
4. The SEALs enjoyed practical jokes, even as they were preparing for missions.
5. SEAL equipment ranges from drug-store staples to custom-built hybrid weapons.
6. A near crash-landing almost ended the mission before it began.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
You make good points.
On that line, suppose Bissonnette shows up as the technical advisor on that movie?
Bissonnette retired out on 20 April 2012, certainly the book was finished and at the publisher before then with all kinds of unauthorized workers looking the book over while he was still under contract and subject to the UCMJ.
I read books. It's my primary entertainment source.
I purchase my books, sometimes hardbacks, but mostly I restrain myself and wait for the secondary release of the paperback editions, or buy them at used bookstores.
Electronic books have turned the publishing industry on its head.
Read any of the “current events” type books, and you will notice all the Microsoft Word spellcheck problems.
OTOH, most authors outline to published book timeline, has been shortened to mere days, not the previous many months.
Obviously it takes a lot longer for reliable peer reviewed reference level manuals of serious and weighty topics.
This is just a first person account of a historically notable event. As I understand the outline (I have not yet read the book) it includes some color background to set the stage for readers unfamiliar with a little known lifestyle.
BTW, I am supposedly subject to the UCMJ for 25 years after my death, as far as publishing my own memoirs goes.
Carter wiped that kind of secrecy away, so I don't need Federal oversight before I openly talk about certain mission plans I wrote, but that were never activated.
I don't and wont. But that is not the same thing as this instance.
The Feds already declassified this mission to the public.
I ordered this book from Amazon last week. It was sent yesterday and is at the post office right now for me to pick up. We don’t have mail delivery so we get packages over the counter at the post office. I’ll be picking it up in the morning. I’m looking forward to reading it.
Great thread. It shows why it is important to sneak peek into the truth beyond politics.
Obama has a dismal record when one asks about factual things.
Look i read the book last night on kindle & have no clue of what the big deal about secret revelations are. Any idiot can look on the internet or in some military book & use math to figure out how much fuel & how far our copters can go. The real crime is how O shot off his mouth about the op along w/ the restt of his cronies in DC. Also, some fool revealed the auhor’s real name! This guy should be shot. Look, these cia kguys are not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. We lived in communist bulgaria from 1987-90 & taught at the embassy school in sofia. Once, they wanted to secretly meet w/ some big shot dissident. Problem was that he was deported 2 weeks before the meeting. How did they find out about this? I had article on desk from a US paper my parents sent to us. It talked about how said dissident was now in SF. The cia guy was picking up his kids after school & saw the article. He couldn’t believe it & asked if he could have it. Now, besides missing 911 & the end of communism, there is your typical cia guy...
Thank you for this evaluation. Lots of people claim to know things they don't, or shade the truth just enough to profit handsomely.
Granted, with a major subject like this, the author would probably get “outed” for exaggerated claims not only because of the high-profile nature of the subject but also because lots of people have a strong motive to do so. My guess is efforts will be made to discredit him no matter what the facts may be, and the discrediting attempts will themselves have to be reviewed for factuality and for motive.
Far too often, however, claims don't get challenged and wrong information or self-aggrandizing half-truths become “received truth” with real heroes staying quiet while others get credit they do not deserve.
I'm assuming the author deliberately decided not to get this book cleared in advance because he suspected (or perhaps knew with certainty) that it would never see the light of day if he followed proper procedures to get advance clearance.
I would not want to be in the author's shoes right now, but then again, guys who volunteer for his kind of job aren't adverse to risk-taking. This guy proved he had "balls" long before he wrote this book.
Only pResident Obama can break security protocols, and the law. No one else is allowed. The peons who do the heroic tasks, they are to just shut up or else die from being tortured by these liberal fascists, Obama and his supporters?
Obama is a usurper who should be impeached , tried and imprisoned.
I like that - has the feel of a well oiled machine...
I'm sorry this is happening - our guys need every advantage to do their job ( admittedly dangerous work under the best of conditions...) Allowing the enemy in on tactics undermines safety. I don't need to know specifics - thanks for explaining.
Thanks Doc...
Does anybody know if he purposely put in false-flag details that would make our enemies THINK they know our operations, when they don’t? That’s a rhetorical question because if he did, it would be stupid of somebody to out the false-flag mission. Who knows but what he actually HELPED operational security in a very sneaky way.
Good question, but I don't have the knowledge to give any kind of informed answer. Gandalftb may have a better answer.
Considering where I live and work, I can think of perhaps a half-dozen people I know well who might actually be able to say something intelligent, but they're all intelligent enough to know better than to talk to pesky reporters about such things.
Anyone in the media who covers the military knows that some questions are best left unasked. Osama bin Laden stuff is far above my pay grade, much better people than me are focusing on that, and I stick to things where I can actually make a difference and which others aren't looking into.
Good question.
The book is written in a very chatty style, not what I would expect from a military author. Clearly it seems to be the co-author’s work from conversations with Bissonnette.
Generally, there are no direct admissions of a confidential nature. However, someone in the know could infer operationally sensitive tactics that could help an enemy harden a future target.
Some of the described operational tactics make no sense such as having the QRF on the ground somewhere. That makes no sense, a QRF (Quick Reaction Force)...has to be quick...and that means loitering overhead.
This goes to my complaint about fuel and range-payload extension of force tactics that are classified.
Now that the book is open source, bin Laden’s tactics can be discussed. UBL chose to locate in Abbottabad, thinking that being next to the Paki West Point would prevent a raid by us. Ok, good thought, but a consequence was that UBL and his guards heard so many Paki helos going over that they became desensitized and ignored them.
That writing would help a future enemy hide better, but a thinking enemy should know that already. Where UBL erred was going so far underground that he no longer kept a very professional security force.
I don’t think the co-author was clever enough or in the know to leave false-flags, he wrote what he was told.
Marchinko is a self promoting has-been that has been sitting on the sidelines since 9/11. He writes fiction from the outside looking in and has no credibility with the spec ops community.
Let Marchinko name the last reunion he was ever invited to or even crashed.
Just a quick note to say that I really appreciate your analysis.
There are some things that those of us on the outside cannot and should not know.
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