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Pentagon Threatens Legal Action Over Bin Laden Book

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The Prof

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(Reuters) - The Pentagon warned on Thursday that it was considering legal action against a former U.S. Navy SEAL for material breach of non-disclosure agreements with his first-hand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.


In a letter obtained by Reuters, and subsequently released by the Pentagon, the Pentagon's top attorney said the Department of Defense was also considering legal action against anyone "acting in concert" with the author. It hinted that the book's royalties might be subject to government claims.


The letter, addressed to "Mark Owen," the pseudonym under which the book was written, identified two separate non-disclosure agreements he signed with the Navy that legally committed him to never divulge classified information, which is a crime.


"You are in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements you signed," said the letter by Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon's General Counsel.


"The Department of Defense is considering pursuing against you, and all those acting in concert with you, all remedies legally available to us in light of this situation."
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Pentagon threatens legal action over bin Laden book | Reuters

if the writer is guilty of leaking what's it say about the publication of classified matter---concerning stuxnet, afridi, the kill list, and the bigelow-boal project---which no less than difi, senate intel chair, stated unequivocally was coming from the white house

obama's then defense secty, robt gates, according to david moraniss, got in nsa tom donilon's face the morning after the ubl get, admonshing, "stfu"

obama goes to afghanistan on the anniversary of the assassination, a shameless spike---how do you and your spouse celebrate ubl assassination day?

and his white house orchestrates with hollywood and the nyt the sneaking out of self promotional intel

what's good for the ganders is good for the seals, or not

embarrassed yet?

where do you go to get back your self respect?
 
This is a pretty stupid move. First of all, the proceeds from this book are going to a charity that supports the kids of fallen SEALs. Second, its pretty damn hypocritical to go after this guy when the WH dumbed a ton of information on the raid to Hollywood so they can make a movie about the raid.

My guess, this turns into a campaign liability for Obama right quick.
 
Fishstyx said:
This is a pretty stupid move. First of all, the proceeds from this book are going to a charity that supports the kids of fallen SEALs. Second, its pretty damn hypocritical to go after this guy when the WH dumbed a ton of information on the raid to Hollywood so they can make a movie about the raid.

My guess, this turns into a campaign liability for Obama right quick.
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So you're just ok with people circumventing measures designed to protect sensitive information?

People with this level of clearance sign an agreement that says they'll let the Pentagon review books before publishing to make sure it's not revealing anything that shouldn't be revealed. Do you want to put more SEALS in danger?
 
Deuce said:
So you're just ok with people circumventing measures designed to protect sensitive information?

People with this level of clearance sign an agreement that says they'll let the Pentagon review books before publishing to make sure it's not revealing anything that shouldn't be revealed. Do you want to put more SEALS in danger?
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No, they sign an agreement to not release classified information. Pentagon book review is done to ensure that it doesn't release classified info. It would also appear that this isn't really the issue as the WH has declassified the raid in order to let Hollywood do their movie about it. I'd wager this is the case since the Pentagon isn't going after him for releasing classified info. Which means the former spec ops guy that vetted the book likely did a good job.

They going after him for a violation of a non-disclosure agreement as well as the proceeds from his book although destined for a worthy charity. This is a lose/lose for the Administration. They have no ground to argue about the release of his account when they're doing the same thing via a Hollywood rendition.

Personally, the whole thing pisses me off. The WH or this guy shouldn't be releasing anything about this for a long while! Although it appears the author's is more of rebuttal to the official account of the raid. In fact, they should have waited a month before even letting the public know we got him.
 
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