The Pentagon said Tuesday a former Navy SEAL’s first-person account of the raid that killed Usama bin Laden contains classified information.
The book went on sale Tuesday, after being sent to the publisher without the Pentagon vetting it for classified information.
"Sensitive and classified information is contained in the book,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters in Washington. “It is the height of irresponsibility not to have this material checked.”
In addition, Rear Adm. Sean Pybus, who heads the Naval Special Warfare Command, said details in the book may provide enemies with dangerous insight into their secretive operations. He also told his force Tuesday that "hawking details about a mission" and selling other details of SEAL training and operations puts the force and their families at risk.
"For an elite force that should be humble and disciplined for life, we are certainly not appearing to be so," Pybus wrote in a letter to the roughly 8,000 troops under his command. "We owe our chain of command much better than this."
The book, titled “No Easy Day,” is now the top seller on Amazon.com.
Little said the author, Matt Bissonnette, violated at least one non-disclosure agreement that he signed. Little declined to talk about the Pentagon’s legal options but repeated that the Defense and Justice departments are working together to weigh options.
Bid Laden was killed in a May 2011 Navy SEALs raid on his hideout in Pakistan.
Little also said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has been briefed on the book and is "deeply disappointed" about its release without Pentagon review.
A lawyer for Bissonnette has disputed the claim that his client was legally obliged to have the book screened before publication.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
