No Easy Day Author and Navy SEAL Mark Bissonnette Helped Develop Warfighter Video Game

Mark Bissonnette, the former Virginia Beach-based Navy SEAL who, under the name of Mark Owen, wrote No Easy Day, an unauthorized account of the Osama bin Laden raid, also participated in the development of an upcoming video game that features real-world U.S. anti-terrorist tactics, according to Pilot Online.

Bissonnette is among two dozen active and retired special forces members who consulted with Electronic Arts Inc. to help develop Medal of Honor Warfighter as authentically as possible, even though military personnel are required to receive authorization to work on these kind of projects (to prevent classified information from being made public).

According to Defense Department spokesman, Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, and Navy SEALs Special Operations Command spokesman, Tim Nye, no such requests were made for the Warfighter game. 

"In general terms, if any of these... service members signed a nondisclosure agreement, then that agreement would most likely be as binding for an electronic game as it is for a book or movie," Nye said. "Having never played the game, I have no idea if it discloses any classified information or sensitive... tactics, techniques or procedures."

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rebuked Bissonnette this month for writing his detailed account of the May 2011 raid in which he and fellow members of Virginia Beach-based SEAL Team 6 invaded bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

Jeff Brown, a spokesman for the Redwood City, Calif., game publisher, confirmed that retired and active-duty special operations members, including several SEALs, had worked on the game that is set for release Oct. 23.