U.S. Military Says Bin Laden Slay Book Tells Lies

A book telling how U.S. Navy Seals killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May contains "lies," according to an official of the U.S. military's Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

Col. Tim Nye, spokesman of the SOCOM, the command and control center of the U.S. armed forces, accused "SEAL Target Geronimo" author and former Seal team commander Chuck Pfarrer of fabricating the story that contradicts the White House version of how the elite commandos found and killed bin Laden at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 1.

"It's just not true. It's not how it happened," Nye said, according to the Associated Press.

Nye said Pfarrer had no access to the Seal Team 6 members who carried out the raid in Abbottabad. Pfarrer had claimed that the book was based on interviews with the said team members.

Nye also contradicted Pfarrer's claim in the book that he was involved in the training of men for the mission to arrest bin Laden codenamed Neptune Spear. "He (Pfarrer) was not involved in mission planning, execution or close mission analysis," AP quoted him as saying.

Pfarrer, however, insists that he spoke to the Seal Team 6 members on the ground of bin Laden's hideout and even to members of a second team on standby to rescue the first team if necessary.

The denial of Pfarrer's accounts comes as "SEAL Target Geronimo" barged into the top 20 bestsellers on Amazon.com.
The book tells that Neptune Spear was never a mission to kill bin Laden, took only 90 seconds instead of 120 seconds to complete, and no one uttered "For God and country" inside bin Laden's bedroom, where he was shot in the head and chest.