The news was buzzing in early September with anticipation of the release of No Easy Day, an anonymous Navy SEAL’s account of the Abottabad raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice. In the media frenzy, it was revealed that the author’s real name was Matt Bissonnette, and the book was released without first submitting it for a review by the Department of Defense, prompting more buzz that Bissonnette would be prosecuted for revealing classified information. Finally, rumors published in rejoinder No Easy Op hinted that Bissonnette may have felt ostracized over his decision to retire from the unit and start a business, prompting him to break the code of silence.
All of this media buzz seemed to overlook the unique insight into a decade of war that No Easy Day provides. Bissonnette’s perspective is not one of an officer or a DC policy-maker weighing tough grand strategy decisions; rather he is, as he describes himself, a “grunt” doing the dirty work of war.
The book begins with an intense, but brief glimpse into just a part of the bin Laden raid: the helicopter crash. Bissonnette was one of the SEALs on that downed helicopter, and the range of emotions he experienced—from anger at his life being threatened in such a way to fear of his legs being trapped by the wreckage—occurred in only a few seconds. The scene cuts without explaining details about the result of the crash, setting the stage for a tale of a Navy SEAL’s life that led to one critical, almost inexorable moment.
From a young age, Bissonnette had been fascinated with the work of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group since as a young boy in Alaska he read Men in Green Faces (now being reissued after a renewed demand), and his competitive spirit and desire to “measure up” drove him to join the Navy and train toward becoming a SEAL. He chronicles the tests and challenges he went through—disciplinary, mental, physical—and the precision to which they had to train, spending days at a time running through drills.
One thing Bissonnette made very clear about the men of SEAL Team 6 was that they are not only extremely driven, but also perfectionists. After running drill after drill, even the tiniest mistake would lead to a good deal of self-censure. SEALs are given some of the most difficult, and most sensitive, missions, and the ability to be called up and ready to go at a moment’s notice was paramount.
That is what made the lead-up into Operation Neptune Spear so unique. The team for the operation was made up of senior leaders from across the SEALs, making it one of the most talented groups of SEALs available, but also one somewhat unaccustomed to working with each other. A full-scale mock-up of the compound was built for the team to train in, and train they did for weeks—highly unusual for a team of such skill. Bissonnette said in a 60 Minutes interview it was rare to have the chance to prepare so thoroughly for a mission.
The description of the raid itself, making up nearly the entire second half of the book, offers some of the most gripping, can’t-put-it-down moments in Bissonnette’s tale. [NOTE: Spoilers ahead!]
From the moment everyone was able to exit the downed helicopter, jumping down from it after the tail was caught on the compound wall, the team went in prepared for a fight after losing the element of surprise. Bin Laden’s courier, al-Kuwaiti, the one who provided the trail back, was the first to die after firing on the U.S. forces. Once inside the main house, the team encountered bin Laden’s son, Khalid, when he poked his head out from around a corner at the top of a stairwell. Since the team had already taken fire, they took Khalid’s furtiveness to mean he also had a gun, and got him to look around the corner for just long enough to take the shot by calling out his name. “Curiosity killed the cat,” Bissonnette told 60 Minutes.
On the third and final floor of the compound, the team found itself in a long, dark corridor, when the point man shot at a head looking around the corner. They rush to clear the room—the point man shielding the others from a potential suicide blast from either of the two women in the room—and because the man they had just shot had received a fatal head wound, but was not yet dead, Bissonnette and a teammate shot the man several more times in the torso. It was not entirely clear until after, when they interviewed the women and children in the room, that the man was Osama bin Laden.
The telling of the bin Laden raid is certainly the centerpiece of Bissonnette’s book; however, other important themes pervade his story. Bissonnette was a combat veteran with 13 deployments, shuttled between Iraq, Afghanistan, and even at one point the Indian Ocean. He experiences first-hand the changes and adjustments to policy and strategy made in a decade of war, commenting at several points on the bureaucratic hoops they had to jump through to protect themselves against allegations of harming civilians. He was particularly acid-toned toward DC policy-makers, all but saying that a visit by the “Good Ideas Fairy” to an officer at the Pentagon could complicate or even endanger missions, not the least of which included the bin Laden raid. His attitude of enlisted men versus officers and politicians that underlies the sections not involving mission action should perhaps be kept in mind when the next round of pointing blame for mistakes begins to swirl through DC halls.
Also of interest was the vital role young foreign policy professionals played in the outcome of bin Laden’s era. According the Bissonnette’s intentionally vague description, the CIA Analyst responsible for pulling the threads together on the bin Laden raid was a young woman, “Jen,” in her early thirties. She states in the dialogue that she was “100 percent sure” bin Laden was there, and that she had been working on the case ever since she graduated college and joined the Agency in 2007. Bissonnette leaves her character in the tale wondering what project she will take on next, now that the all-consuming task of finding bin Laden was over. It is likely we have not heard the last of this young woman.
The repercussions of Bissonnette’s book are still to be determined, especially since the Pentagon is still trying to decide if it will prosecute him for breaking his NDAs. By the end of September, the book had reached USA Today’s top seller lists, sparked criticism and praise, and initiated a special Pentagon policy regarding it (Pentagon employees are allowed to purchase it and discuss it, as long as they do not discuss parts that may be classified; and it does not need special storage, unless parts that are classified are indicated as such).
Bissonnette’s tale also illustrates from where troubles in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship may spring, as part of their main concern after the raid was looking out for Pakistani F-16 fighters that had been scrambled to stop the helicopters, and whether backup teams prepared for search and rescue would be able to intercept or distract the Pakistani military long enough for them to get away with bin Laden’s body. Certainly, the United States did not want information coming to light saying they were afraid an ally would react so harshly to a mission they were purportedly informed of (even if it was just moments before it began).
Matt Bissonnette is finding himself a lonely man these days. Al Qaeda followers have labeled him as the man responsible for bin Laden’s demise, and called for his death. SEAL-related organizations are shunning him, some going so far as to reject any of the donations to them which Bissonnette calls for at the end of his book. Several former SEALs criticized the book roundly in their e-book response, No Easy Op, despite sympathizing with him for not wanting to submit to a DoD review process that can be extremely slow and more motivated by a desire to protect political careers than sensitive information.
In all, No Easy Day is a frank retelling of a seminal moment by a man who tells it how he saw it.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's November/December 2012 print edition.
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No Easy Day: A Review
November 19, 2012
The news was buzzing in early September with anticipation of the release of No Easy Day, an anonymous Navy SEAL’s account of the Abottabad raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice. In the media frenzy, it was revealed that the author’s real name was Matt Bissonnette, and the book was released without first submitting it for a review by the Department of Defense, prompting more buzz that Bissonnette would be prosecuted for revealing classified information. Finally, rumors published in rejoinder No Easy Op hinted that Bissonnette may have felt ostracized over his decision to retire from the unit and start a business, prompting him to break the code of silence.
All of this media buzz seemed to overlook the unique insight into a decade of war that No Easy Day provides. Bissonnette’s perspective is not one of an officer or a DC policy-maker weighing tough grand strategy decisions; rather he is, as he describes himself, a “grunt” doing the dirty work of war.
The book begins with an intense, but brief glimpse into just a part of the bin Laden raid: the helicopter crash. Bissonnette was one of the SEALs on that downed helicopter, and the range of emotions he experienced—from anger at his life being threatened in such a way to fear of his legs being trapped by the wreckage—occurred in only a few seconds. The scene cuts without explaining details about the result of the crash, setting the stage for a tale of a Navy SEAL’s life that led to one critical, almost inexorable moment.
From a young age, Bissonnette had been fascinated with the work of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group since as a young boy in Alaska he read Men in Green Faces (now being reissued after a renewed demand), and his competitive spirit and desire to “measure up” drove him to join the Navy and train toward becoming a SEAL. He chronicles the tests and challenges he went through—disciplinary, mental, physical—and the precision to which they had to train, spending days at a time running through drills.
One thing Bissonnette made very clear about the men of SEAL Team 6 was that they are not only extremely driven, but also perfectionists. After running drill after drill, even the tiniest mistake would lead to a good deal of self-censure. SEALs are given some of the most difficult, and most sensitive, missions, and the ability to be called up and ready to go at a moment’s notice was paramount.
That is what made the lead-up into Operation Neptune Spear so unique. The team for the operation was made up of senior leaders from across the SEALs, making it one of the most talented groups of SEALs available, but also one somewhat unaccustomed to working with each other. A full-scale mock-up of the compound was built for the team to train in, and train they did for weeks—highly unusual for a team of such skill. Bissonnette said in a 60 Minutes interview it was rare to have the chance to prepare so thoroughly for a mission.
The description of the raid itself, making up nearly the entire second half of the book, offers some of the most gripping, can’t-put-it-down moments in Bissonnette’s tale. [NOTE: Spoilers ahead!]
From the moment everyone was able to exit the downed helicopter, jumping down from it after the tail was caught on the compound wall, the team went in prepared for a fight after losing the element of surprise. Bin Laden’s courier, al-Kuwaiti, the one who provided the trail back, was the first to die after firing on the U.S. forces. Once inside the main house, the team encountered bin Laden’s son, Khalid, when he poked his head out from around a corner at the top of a stairwell. Since the team had already taken fire, they took Khalid’s furtiveness to mean he also had a gun, and got him to look around the corner for just long enough to take the shot by calling out his name. “Curiosity killed the cat,” Bissonnette told 60 Minutes.
On the third and final floor of the compound, the team found itself in a long, dark corridor, when the point man shot at a head looking around the corner. They rush to clear the room—the point man shielding the others from a potential suicide blast from either of the two women in the room—and because the man they had just shot had received a fatal head wound, but was not yet dead, Bissonnette and a teammate shot the man several more times in the torso. It was not entirely clear until after, when they interviewed the women and children in the room, that the man was Osama bin Laden.
The telling of the bin Laden raid is certainly the centerpiece of Bissonnette’s book; however, other important themes pervade his story. Bissonnette was a combat veteran with 13 deployments, shuttled between Iraq, Afghanistan, and even at one point the Indian Ocean. He experiences first-hand the changes and adjustments to policy and strategy made in a decade of war, commenting at several points on the bureaucratic hoops they had to jump through to protect themselves against allegations of harming civilians. He was particularly acid-toned toward DC policy-makers, all but saying that a visit by the “Good Ideas Fairy” to an officer at the Pentagon could complicate or even endanger missions, not the least of which included the bin Laden raid. His attitude of enlisted men versus officers and politicians that underlies the sections not involving mission action should perhaps be kept in mind when the next round of pointing blame for mistakes begins to swirl through DC halls.
Also of interest was the vital role young foreign policy professionals played in the outcome of bin Laden’s era. According the Bissonnette’s intentionally vague description, the CIA Analyst responsible for pulling the threads together on the bin Laden raid was a young woman, “Jen,” in her early thirties. She states in the dialogue that she was “100 percent sure” bin Laden was there, and that she had been working on the case ever since she graduated college and joined the Agency in 2007. Bissonnette leaves her character in the tale wondering what project she will take on next, now that the all-consuming task of finding bin Laden was over. It is likely we have not heard the last of this young woman.
The repercussions of Bissonnette’s book are still to be determined, especially since the Pentagon is still trying to decide if it will prosecute him for breaking his NDAs. By the end of September, the book had reached USA Today’s top seller lists, sparked criticism and praise, and initiated a special Pentagon policy regarding it (Pentagon employees are allowed to purchase it and discuss it, as long as they do not discuss parts that may be classified; and it does not need special storage, unless parts that are classified are indicated as such).
Bissonnette’s tale also illustrates from where troubles in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship may spring, as part of their main concern after the raid was looking out for Pakistani F-16 fighters that had been scrambled to stop the helicopters, and whether backup teams prepared for search and rescue would be able to intercept or distract the Pakistani military long enough for them to get away with bin Laden’s body. Certainly, the United States did not want information coming to light saying they were afraid an ally would react so harshly to a mission they were purportedly informed of (even if it was just moments before it began).
Matt Bissonnette is finding himself a lonely man these days. Al Qaeda followers have labeled him as the man responsible for bin Laden’s demise, and called for his death. SEAL-related organizations are shunning him, some going so far as to reject any of the donations to them which Bissonnette calls for at the end of his book. Several former SEALs criticized the book roundly in their e-book response, No Easy Op, despite sympathizing with him for not wanting to submit to a DoD review process that can be extremely slow and more motivated by a desire to protect political careers than sensitive information.
In all, No Easy Day is a frank retelling of a seminal moment by a man who tells it how he saw it.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's November/December 2012 print edition.
