The Pentagon claims that No Easy Day, Matt Bissonnette’s account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, contains classified information, but so far it’s only informed the former Navy SEAL that he violated the non-disclosure agreements he signed. So where does that leave Defense Department employees who’d like to check out the bestselling book without putting their jobs on the line? According to a memo obtained by the Washington Post, the Pentagon has some guidelines. Employees “are free to purchase NED” and “are not required to store NED in [secure] containers … unless classified statements in the book have been identified,” but they can’t “discuss potentially classified sensitive unclassified information” with anyone who doesn’t have the proper security clearance. Employees should probably keep a Sharpie on hand just in case the Pentagon identifies these “potentially classified” passages, and the book club is definitely out.
