WASHINGTON (AP) — A
firsthand account of the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden
contradicts previous accounts by administration officials, raising questions
as to whether the terror mastermind presented a clear threat when SEALs first
fired upon him.
Bin Laden
apparently was hit in the head when he looked out of his bedroom door
into the top-floor hallway of his compound as SEALs rushed up a narrow
stairwell in his direction, according to former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette,
writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen in "No Easy Day." The book is to
be published next week by Penguin Group (USA)'s Dutton imprint.
Bissonnette says he was directly behind a
"point man" going up the stairs in the pitch black hallway. "Less than
five steps" from top of the stairs, he heard "suppressed" gunfire: "BOP.
BOP." The point man had seen a "man peeking out of the door" on the
right side of the hallway.
The author writes that bin Laden ducked
back into his bedroom and the SEALs followed, only to find the
terrorist crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood with a hole visible
on the right side of his head and two women wailing over his body.
Bissonnette
says the point man pulled the two women out of the way and shoved them
into a corner and he and the other SEALs trained their guns' laser sites
on bin Laden's still-twitching body, shooting him several times until
he lay motionless. The SEALs later found two weapons stored by the
doorway, untouched, the author said.
In the account related by
administration officials after the raid in Pakistan, the SEALs shot bin
Laden only after he ducked back into the bedroom because they assumed he
might be reaching for a weapon.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor
would not comment on the apparent contradiction late Tuesday. But he
said in an email, "As President Obama said on the night that
justice was brought to Osama bin Laden, 'We give thanks for the men who
carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism,
patriotism and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country.'"
"No Easy Day" was due out Sept. 11,
but Dutton announced the book would be available a week early, Sept. 4,
because of a surge of orders due to advance publicity that drove the
book to the top of the Amazon.com
and Barnes & Noble.com
best-seller lists.
The
Associated Press purchased a copy of the book Tuesday.
The account is sure to again raise
questions as to whether the raid was intended to capture or simply to
kill bin Laden. Bissonette writes that during a pre-raid briefing, a
lawyer from "either" the White House or Defense Department told them
that they were not on an assassination mission. According to
Bissonnette, the lawyer said that if bin Laden was "naked with his hands
up," they should not "engage" him. If bin Laden did not pose a threat,
they should "detain him."
In
another possibly uncomfortable revelation for U.S. officials who say bin
Laden's body was treated with dignity before being given a full Muslim
burial at sea, the author reveals that in the cramped helicopter flight
out of the compound, one of the SEALs called "Walt" — one of the
pseudonyms the author used for his fellow SEALs — was sitting on bin
Laden's chest as the body lay at the author's feet in the middle of the
cabin, for the short flight to a refueling stop inside Pakistan where a
third helicopter was waiting.
This
is common practice, as troops sometimes must sit on their own war dead
in packed helicopters. Space was cramped because one of the helicopters
had crashed in the initial assault, leaving little space for the roughly
two dozen commandos in the two aircraft that remained. When the
commandos reached the third aircraft, bin Laden's body was moved to it.
Bissonnette writes disparagingly
that none of the SEALs were fans of President Barack Obama and knew that
his administration would take credit for ordering the May 2011 raid.
One of the SEALs said after the mission that they had just gotten Obama
re-elected by carrying out the raid.
But he says they respected him as
commander in chief and for giving the operation the go-ahead.
Bissonnette writes less flatteringly
of meeting Vice President Joe Biden along with Obama at the
headquarters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment after the
raid. He says Biden told "lame jokes" no one understood, reminding him
of "someone's drunken uncle at Christmas dinner."
Beyond such embarrassing
observations, U.S. officials fear the book may include classified
information, as it did not undergo the formal review required by the
Pentagon for works published by former or current Defense Department
employees.
Officials from the
Pentagon and the CIA, which commanded the mission, are examining the
manuscript for possible disclosure of classified information and could
take legal action against the author.
In a statement provided to The
Associated Press, the author says he did "not disclose confidential or
sensitive information that would compromise national security in any
way."
Bissonnette's real name
was first revealed by Fox News and confirmed to The Associated Press.
Jihadists on al-Qaida websites have
posted purported photos of the author, calling for his murder.