The US commando who wrote a first-hand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden said his book has no political motive and is meant to pay tribute to the years of work that led up to the operation, according to excerpts of a television interview released Wednesday.
No Easy Day was due to be released on Sept. 11, to coincide with the anniversary of the 2001 attacks orchestrated by bin Laden, but has been moved up to next week amid a surge in orders for the book, which is being published by Penguin Group’s Dutton.
The author, who writes under the pseudonym Mark Owen, told CBS television’s 60 Minutes program that he had wanted the book released on Sept. 11 to avoid any political connotations during an election year.
“My worry from the beginning is, you know, it’s a political season. This book is not political whatsoever. It doesn’t bad mouth either party, and we specifically chose September 11th to keep it out of the politics,” he told CBS, according to excerpts of the interview.
“You know, if these — crazies on either side of the aisle want to make it political, shame on them. This is a book about September 11th, and it needs to rest on September 11th, not be brought into the political arena, because this — this has nothing to do with politics,” he said.
The former Navy SEAL describes a dress rehearsal for the raid carried out at a mock-up of the al-Qaeda chief’s Pakistani compound, which he said was witnessed by top military brass, including the then-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and the former head of Special Operations Command, Admiral Eric Olsen.
The rehearsal went “fine,” he said.
“This is nothing new to us. The part that was new was all the VIPs sitting there watching,” he said.
“One of the things that I like after the fact was — I remember Admiral Mullen coming by and talking to each one of us and then Admiral Olsen as well. And I thought that was cool that, you know, they walked by, shook each of our hands, and said, ‘Hey, are you guys ready? Can you guys pull this off?’” he said. “And I’m pretty sure ... we all said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’”
About a week later, the US Navy’s SEAL team six got the green light to go ahead with the raid.
The team had a week off in Virginia Beach, where the unit is based, and one more rehearsal at the life-size model of the Abbottabad compound, he said.
“And then we got the word that we were going,” he said
Top White House officials have granted interviews about the May 2011 raid and touted the operation as proof of US President Barack Obama’s leadership skills. However, Republican activists and lawmakers have accused the administration of leaking sensitive information to secure Obama’s re-election.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion