The former Navy SEAL team member who wrote an eyewitness account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden under a pseudonym for his own safety has been the subject of online death threats after his identity released by both Fox News and the Associated Press. According to NBC News websites connected to al Qaeda are calling for the “destruction” of the man calling himself “Mark Owen,” author of the upcoming book No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden, covering his experiences as part of the SEAL team that killed the terrorist group’s leader in May 2011.
“Oh Allah, make an example of him for the whole world and give him dark days ahead,” one post read.
Fox News reported the man’s real name on Thursday and posted pictures of him in combat gear on its website. The Associated Press later confirmed the information,* despite his publisher’s request to keep his identity a secret.
“”Mark Owen, like every SEAL he has served with, has put his life on the line time and again for his country for more than a decade,” the publisher, the Penguin Group, said in a statement. “Sharing the true story of his personal experience in “No Easy Day” is a courageous act in the face of obvious risks to his personal security. That personal security is the sole reason the book is being published under a pseudonym.”
Owen could face other problems: CNN reported that Owen, who reportedly spent more than 10 years in the military before retiring this past April, did not submit the manuscript to the Department of Defense for them to verify that he would not reveal sensitive information about the mission.
“He has no right to make public the details of that raid, and the operational information that is necessary in order to do that without getting approval,” said CNN national security analyst Fran Townsend.
The book is scheduled to be released on Sept. 11.
