Fox News on Thursday identified the author of the book, which is titled "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden," as a 36-year-old former SEAL from Wrangell, Alaska. The Associated Press later said it had confirmed the author’s identity. (NBC News is not identifying the former SEAL.)
Penguin Group (USA)'s Dutton imprint, the publisher, asked news organizations Thursday to withhold his identity.
"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," Dutton spokeswoman Christine Ball said in a statement to the AP. "That personal security is the sole reason the book is being published under a pseudonym."
The book is a first-hand account of the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. You might guess that the reaction from al Qaeda has been -- well, not positive.
Users on several militant Islamic websites affiliated with al-Qaida have posted the name and photo of a former Navy SEAL identified as the author of an upcoming book on the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The posts called for his "destruction" in revenge for the al-Qaida founder’s killing.
"We pray to Allah for his destruction sooner rather than later," said one of the posts.
"Oh Allah, make an example of him for the whole world and give him dark days ahead," read another.
Among the website publishing the death threats was the "Al-Fidaa" web forum, which al-Qaida uses to distribute its media and public communications, said Evan Kohlmann, an NBC News consultant and a terrorism analyst at Flashpoint Partners, a global security firm.
This is the journalistic ethics of Rupert Murdoch and his whole organization. And there's no real purpose behind it -- there's nothing to be gained by revealing the man's name, although Chris in Paris at AmericaBlog has an interesting surmise (although it may be from John Aravosis -- the post isn't clear):
This time, Romney and the GOP are mocking the killing of Osama bin Laden and how President Obama handled it (apparently, killing OBL, a few years into office, when GWB couldn't pull it off (and basically gave up shortly after 9/11 - Bush actually called off the hunt for bin Laden only six months after September 11) is a "bad" thing).
Keep in mind that Mitt Romney, following in George Bush's footsteps, said he would have never ordered the successful raid against bin Laden in Pakistan.
The only problem? This Navy SEAL, who led the raid on bin Laden, was writing a book about the raid that most likely would have shown the world exactly how President Obama handled the raid (excellently, per the admiral who oversaw the operation). So the Navy SEAL, this American hero, had to be stopped at all costs, lest he undercut Mitt Romney's apparently embarrassment over the US - over President Obama - having killed bin Laden when Romney said he would have let bin Laden go.
So what happens next? Fox "magically" gets the name of the SEAL and leaks it, knowing full well that Al Qaeda would threaten to kill this man and his family. And voila, only 24 hours later, Al Qaeda has now threatened him.
Do I think that's a credible supposition? Not really: the book is going to come out, unless the Pentagon holds it up for some reason, and there's nothing to be gained by revealing the real name of the author. (Unless Fox is counting on the DoD quashing the book, although they could have done that without knowing the author's real name if there are security breaches in the text.)
I think it's just Fox, the propaganda arm of the Republican Party, doing what Fox does best -- being disgusting.
The guy should sue, for billions.
(There's an assumption in the comments at the AmericaBlog post that the author wrote the book to be critical of Obama. I don't know one way or the other on that score. And one commenter reminded us that the right has a history of outing covert operatives for political gain -- remember Valerie Plame?)
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