Posted on 11/06/2014 6:21:29 AM PST by GIdget2004
A former Navy SEAL who wrote a book describing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden sued his former lawyers Wednesday for malpractice, saying they gave him bad advice that tarnished his reputation, cost him his security clearance and caused him to surrender much of the book's income to the government.
Using the pseudonym "Mark Owen" that he published the book under, Matt Bissonnette filed the lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan. His 2012 book, "No Easy Day," prompted a Pentagon inquiry that evolved into a criminal probe by the Justice Department.
Bissonnette seeks unspecified compensatory damages, saying his losses will amount to at least $8 million after he agreed to surrender most of the book's proceeds. He said he also will lose consulting jobs, speaking engagements and future employment.
Named as defendants were attorney Kevin Podlaski and the Carson Boxberger LLC firm in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Messages seeking comment were not immediately returned.
Bissonnette said he acted on the advice of his former lawyers when he did not let the Department of Defense and other governmental agencies perform a pre-publication review of his book and when he relied on their advice that they had reviewed the book and removed all classified and sensitive information.
The lawsuit said Bissonnette decided to write the book after realizing that others who did not know the accurate facts were writing about and discussing the daring May 2011 raid by SEAL Team 6 in Pakistan that resulted in the killing of the head of al-Qaida and inspiration behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Lawyers are supposed to do no harm and carry errors and omissions insurance for when they do.
Sue and good luck with that.
I was just a LT when I left ST-4 in the 1980s, and even so, part of my check-out list was signing a multi-page and very scary non-disclosure agreement. It was explicitly stated taht anything I wrote about specops would need to be submitted for review, and the ethos was to never write anything that could in any way compromise specops tactics. The agreement upon leaving ST-6 must be even more comprehensive and threatening. There is NO WAY that “Mark Owen” can put his own personal blunder on bad lawyers.
I agree. Apparently the term “classified” doesn’t mean much to him.
I don’t know if he has any close personal buddies, but in the overall teams, he’s been totally blacklisted. You know that that hurts, and it should.
I signed those agreements, even a ‘scary’ one when I left an organization near DC that you never heard of and never will.
All those agreements stipulate you won’t disclose classified information.
I’ve read No Easy Day and see nothing that would even be remotely considered “classified” or a comprise of security, national or otherwise.
This is the obama adminstration trying to silence those that can set the record straight, to quiet those that can prove obama and his minions are dolts and petty and cowardly.
“It’s Bissonay.”
If he didn’t want to be sanctioned, he shouldn’t have glory-hounded the literary world.
Dumbass.
Correct.
My non-disclosure didn’t only refer to officially classified information. In our case, many SEAL tricks are very easily countered if the enemy knows where to look. After VN, it was 20 years before any detailed personal histories were written, and even then, a lot of folks were upset, because the same tricks were still in use. Not “classified,” just simple tricks.
The big wave rebounding around the ST community today has to do with the SEAL ethos of NEVER COMPROMISING OUR TACTICS, because they are so easy to counter, that their compromise will result in dead SEALs. “Mark Owen” is not going to get a pass on this one, nor should he.
And BTW, I worked for such a soooooper dooooper way above top secret unit, that you don’t even know the name of the city it was near, blah blah blah, (my BS meter is pegged).
I wish we knew who was really killed on that raid.
There was never a plausible explanation of how Bin Laden escaped Tora Bora in Dec. 2001.
Also, the whole burial at sea in accordance with Muslim tradition.
Really?
They live in a friggin’ desert. They don’t have burials at sea.
Barky desperately needed cover for the birth certificate. The raid on Bin Laden, or whoever that was, had been planned for months, but Barky would not give the “go” order.
Only when Panetta said he would personally take responsibility if the raid went wrong, did Barky relent, but then again, he needed to.
Barky never does anything that goes against the Muslims.
Not willingly.
Oh, that would be “EEFI,” and I see nothing like that in the SEAL book. . .but them again, hmmmm. . .seems I recall your books reveal methods. . .hmmm. .
There are two things that cut a frog to the quick. One, is being called a buddy-fu*ker with cause. Disclosing ANY tactics, classified or unclassified, even if they have been tangentially covered elsewhere, qualifies a frog as a buddy fu*ker.
The other is to be accused of “selling your trident.” I see some guys on FOX News literally wearing a mini-trident on their jacket lapel, and they are introduced as “Former Navy SEAL Joe Shmoe.” That is “selling your trident,” and it won’t make you popular at reunions.
(I’ve written 4 action/suspense novels, and there are no SEALs or SEAL stories in them. I decided I wasn’t going to go near that territory from day one.)
When I was on active duty, frogs were called “The Silent Option.” Now, they are, “The option that won’t shut the F up.” Books, movies, mini-series, “Navy SEAL” exercise and fitness programs, TV “experts” as mentioned above... For old guys, it’s sickening and disheartening. It’s totally selling the Trident.
The only guy left on active duty from my class 105 (1979) is now an Admiral, and he was involved in making the movie “Act of Valor,” exactly at a time when SEALs were already way, way, way overexposed. And he’s a great guy. Obviously, the movie had total USN cooperation. Hell, the Navy virtually funded it. Big mistake, in my mind. SEALs need more promotion and publicity? In what galaxy?
So, even before the OBL books and 60 Minutes interview by “Mark Owens,” SEAL overexposure was already a very hot topic in the community. He just grabbed the 3rd rail by not having his first book vetted first, so the lightning is coming down on him hard. He is being made the example, no doubt.
I wish the teams could go back to being “The Silent Option.” Today, almost every day, I am getting emails etc about reestablishing “The SEAL Ethos.” More in the last year in the previous 20 years.
1. Shut the F up! REALLY!
2. Don’t be a buddy F-er by giving away ANY tricks or tactics! Even if they are unclass, just “tricks.”
3. Don’t sell your G.D. Trident!
“...I worked for such a soooooper dooooper way above top secret unit, that you don’t even know the name of the city it was near...” LOL. Yeah, that’s about it. Well, I worked for an organization that EVERYBODY’S heard of, and we had secrets coming out of our asses. And as you pointed out down thread, ANY information is useful in a particular context. Not to mention E-8s don’t get to pick and chose what they think should be classified and what shouldn’t, I don’t care how many sea stories they’ve got to tell...
This guy’s a moron. He’s learning the hard way that the only thing lawyers care about is getting paid.
I'd trust a lawyer to do that--NOT. How do they know what is sensitive or classified?
This corndog should’ve listened more to his SEAL colleagues and less to his lawyers, who only give a crap about being paid. Putting himself out there like this was not smart.
It’s more than classified. It also stipulates what needs to come under review if you attempt to publicize and what countries you’re not supposed to travel to.
or just about anywhere else. There's a reason why Jesse Venture has skipped the country and is only seen on YouTube these days.
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