The latest in the legal fight between No Easy Day author and former Navy SEAL Matthew Bissonette and the Pentagon, a Defense Department spokesman shared with Reuters the nondisclosure agreement that they say they make SEALs sign. The document found here, is fascinating for the majority of us that are never going to be Navy SEALs and will never ever come close to signing anything marked "Sensitive Compartmented Information" (SCI). But the NDA, says the Pentagon, is something that proves Bissonette (who goes by the pen name Mark Owen) broke the law when writing his tell-all book, No Easy Day, about the events surrounding the killing of Osama bin Laden. The spokesman tells Reuters it's this part in particular ("disclosing the contents of such ...") that Bissonette allegedly violated by sharing his manuscript with his publisher and attorney:

The kicker here is that the Pentagon still hasn't released Bissonette's signed copy, though they told Reuters that the copy they've provided is "identical" to the one he signed. Bisonette's lawyer hasn't responded to the Defense Department's latest statement, but on August 31 we reported that Bissonette's legal team insisted the nondisclosure agreement did not apply do the May 1, 2011 raid. Legal experts told us at the time that the case against Bissonette was basically bulletproof, and this NDA release from the Pentagon might be one more step in that direction. Regardless of his defense team's silence, it appears that Bissonnette will be able to fire the next volley on 60 Minutes this Sunday, as the CBS program is scheduled to dedicate its entire show to him. 

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Alexander Abad-Santos