Former SEAL Reacts To New Bin Laden Book

A book detailing the death of Osama bin Laden will likely become an instant best-seller when it's released next week.  The book's author is a retired Navy SEAL who took part in the raid on bin Laden's compound last year.  A former SEAL from South Dakota has misgivings about its publication.

The book is titled "No Easy Day," and its author contradicts some of the official government accounts of how Osama bin Laden died.  A Canton man, who served in the SEALs during the 1990s, questions the timing of the book's release.

As a former Navy SEAL, Karl Hernes is conflicted about the release of "No Easy Day."  On the one hand, he wants to find out what's inside the cover.

"I can't help but at some point will have to read it," Hernes said.

But on the other, he thinks the book is coming out too soon.

"It's not to say that people shouldn't know about what they do, in a general sense.  But as far as the nitty-gritty details, I don't know if that necessarily brings any more value to what Special Forces does," Hernes said.

Hernes thinks revealing too many details on the inner-workers of the SEALs puts military lives in danger.

"The security of everybody should be at the utmost forefront of any type of publication," Hernes said.

Plus, Hernes is concerned the book violates an unwritten code of silence about sensitive military missions.

"It has always been with Special Forces operators that what you do, you keep it quiet," Hernes said.

Hernes says the truth needs to come out eventually about the raid that brought down Osama bin Laden.  But he thinks the full story can wait, perhaps years from now, if not decades.

"I'm always reminded of trying to visit with World War II veterans and how they don't talk about it, even 40 years afterwards.  And I don't think there's anything wrong with that," Hernes said.

Hernes says he can't blame the author for writing the book, especially when a publisher dangles a large paycheck.
    
60 Minutes interviewed the author.  You can see the story Sunday night, September 9, on KELOLAND TV.