Our View: Navy SEAL has the right to publish his story

On May 2, 2011, the nation held its breath as news swept the country that public enemy number one, Osama bin Laden, had been killed.

Could this have been another death hoax perpetuated by Twitter and other social networks?

The answer was no.

With confirmation from both Al Qaeda websites and President Barack Obama himself, citizens across the U.S. could finally let out that breath.

The mastermind of 9/11 and the face of terrorism had been eliminated.

The media coverage following the historic event was extensive.

Yet, American citizens were exposed to filtered information that was released by the Obama administration and the Pentagon.

This has changed and for the good of the American people.

This month, one of the 24 Navy SEALs who executed the secret operation revealed details of the mission in a tell-all book called No Easy Day. The book was co-authored by journalist Kevin Maurer.

Since killing bin Laden, the members of SEAL Team Six have kept quiet about their mission to bin Laden’s home in Abbottabad, Pakistan, until now.

This Navy SEAL, who uses the pseudonym Mark Owen for his safety, took the photographs of the deceased Al Qaeda leader that have never been released.

According to the account written in the book, the mission was simple: break into bin Laden’s secret compound, and if he was unarmed, capture him.

As written in the book, the SEALs infiltrated his home and found bin Laden unarmed but opened fire regardless.

This would go against the SEAls’ original orders.

Now the Pentagon is threatening to prosecute the authors of the book, saying it falsely tells the story and reveals too many Navy SEAL tactics.

Similar to Watergate, secrecy leads to distrust in the government.

We believe the accounts should not be withheld from the public.

Not only does the American public have the right to know the truth, but the Navy SEAL behind the book has a right to tell his story. Our First Amendment in the Bill of Rights says so.

The authors of this book are supposedly revealing the truth, or at least writing about one man’s experience of the truth, and should not be intimidated by the government for its actions.

The government provides the right to free speech. It can’t take away that right now, especially from someone who fights so the rest of us can keep it.