Navy SEAL Foundation won’t accept money from No Easy Day author

The Navy SEAL Foundation, a charitable group that provides "immediate and ongoing support" to Navy SEALs and their families, will not accept donations from the proceeds of No Easy Day, the newly released account of the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden written by a former SEAL who participated in that mission. Here’s ...

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624595_sealsboat_0.jpg

The Navy SEAL Foundation, a charitable group that provides "immediate and ongoing support" to Navy SEALs and their families, will not accept donations from the proceeds of No Easy Day, the newly released account of the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden written by a former SEAL who participated in that mission.

Here’s the statement that the foundation sent to Killer Apps in response to questions about the matter.

The Navy SEAL Foundation has received numerous inquiries regarding receiving potential proceeds from the sale of the book No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden. The Navy SEAL Foundation is committed to providing immediate and ongoing support and assistance to the Naval Special Warfare community and their families. With this principled mission in mind, the Foundation will not be accepting any donations that are generated from the book or any related activities. The Department of Defense (DOD) is considering pursuing legal remedies against the author. As a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the Foundation is not involved with any of the actions taken by the DOD. The Navy SEAL Foundation honors our warriors and protects their families.

The book’s author has been under fire for not submitting the book to Defense Department officials to ensure that it did not disclose classified information before publication. Pentagon officials say they believe the book contains classified material, despite the author’s claims to the contrary.

John Reed is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy. He comes to FP after editing Military.com’s publication Defense Tech and working as the associate editor of DoDBuzz. Between 2007 and 2010, he covered major trends in military aviation and the defense industry around the world for Defense News and Inside the Air Force. Before moving to Washington in August 2007, Reed worked in corporate sales and business development for a Swedish IT firm, The Meltwater Group in Mountain View CA, and Philadelphia, PA. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter at the Tracy Press and the Scotts Valley Press-Banner newspapers in California. His first story as a professional reporter involved chasing escaped emus around California’s central valley with Mexican cowboys armed with lassos and local police armed with shotguns. Luckily for the giant birds, the cowboys caught them first and the emus were ok. A New England native, Reed graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a dual degree in international affairs and history.

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