How Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette won the Bin Laden book competition

We may know a little more about why former Navy SEAL author Matt Bisonnette rushed to publish his memoir No Easy Day before receiving Pentagon approval: to get his book out before Mark Bowden published his own big Osama bin Laden raid book. Bowden's book, The Finish, comes out tomorrow, just over a month after Bissonnette's book rocked the publishing world and dominated bestseller lists. 

Bowden, a national correspondent at The Atlantic, had been trying to get an interview with Bissonnette for months, but had no idea Bissonnette was planning on writing a book of his own. In a move that looks a little sneaky, Bissonnette inquired into the release date of Bowden's book while keeping his publishing plans a secret, according to a Q&A published by The Daily Beast this morning:

Did you know that the book No Easy Day, by former SEAL Team 6 member “Mark Owen,” was being published?

I didn’t, actually ... I was surprised that they put that book out as quickly as they did. Matt called me toward the end of last summer, and he asked me when my book was coming out. And I was still of the mind-set that we were still discussing the possibility of him letting me interview him. So I told him, “Well, as of right now, I think my publisher is trying to get this book out during the election season … 

I thought that was a little cheap. I would have told him if he just asked me [and told me] why he wanted to know.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.