The book details the rain on Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound. (Sajjad Ali Qureshi/Flickr)

Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette was outed as the author of “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden,” which was written under the pseudonym Mark Owen. In the book, Owen/Bissonette claims to have been in the room when the chief sponsor of the 9/11 attacks was killed at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Aside from the security risk made possible by his identity being made public, Bissonette could face legal trouble based on his potentially revealing classified information. The Pentagon normally reviews books written by active-duty or retired military officers before publication to redact information it does not want to be made public, but it has not pre-screened Bissonette's book.

Fox News defended its publication of the SEAL's real name. As the Wall Street Journal reports:

"In a statement emailed to Speakeasy, John Moody, executive vice president & executive editor of Fox News, said 'Once you write a book, anonymously or not, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy.'"

Before being outed, Bissonette had already recorded interviews with his identity hidden to promote the book. One such interview will air Sept. 9 on "60 Minutes."

Reach Executive Producer Matt Pressberg here.