Controversy has swarmed ex Navy SEAL Mark Owen's book "No Easy Day" since word first broke of its release, and with good reason: It's the firsthand account of the SEAL Team 6 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon has warned the author and public on numerous occasions of the book's possible intelligence leaks. Today, the Department of Defense is claiming Owen's book does in fact contain classified information, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The Department of Defense is none too happy with "No Easy Day," though they haven't taken action against the author as of yet, other than writing him a letter on Aug. 30 to notify him he was "in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements he'd signed," and that he never submitted the manuscript for a security review. It warned him the government was considering "all [legal] remedies" against him.

The book's publisher, Dutton Books, maintains there's nothing classified in it.

According to the Sept. 20 memo The Washington Post received from Department of Defense security director Timothy Davis, Pentagon spokesman George Little said recently that "No Easy Day," which goes by the acronym NED, "contains classified and sensitive unclassified information."

"In response to requests for guidance" Davis wrote in his memo "For DOD Security Directors," here's some official "guidance concerning NED."

According to the memo obtained by The Washington Post, Department of Defense personnel:

"are free to purchase NED;

"are not required to store NED in [secure] containers . . . unless classified statements in the book have been identified;

"shall not discuss potentially classified and sensitive unclassified information with persons who do not have an official need to know and an appropriate security clearance;

"who possess either firsthand knowledge of, or suspect information within NED to be classified or sensitive, shall not publically speculate or discuss potentially classified or sensitive unclassified information outside official . . .channels. . .

"are prohibited from using unclassified government computer systems to discuss potentially classified or sensitive contents of NED, and [no] online discussions via social networking or media sites" about classified stuff "that may be contained in NED."

Granted, we're not exactly sure just what information in the book would be considered classified. "No Easy Day" has been out for going on three weeks now, you'd think if there was an earth-shaking information between the pages someone would have said something by now. Instead, we get more threats from the Department of Defense against author Owen.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta even suggested that the retired Navy SEAL author be punished for writing the book.

Asked in a Sept. 12 interview on "CBS This Morning" if he thinks the writer should be prosecuted, Panetta said, "I think we have to take steps to make clear to him and to the American people that we're not going to accept this kind of behavior."

Panetta told co-host Norah O'Donnell that if the Defense Department failed to take any action in response to the book, "then everybody else who pledges to ensure that that doesn't happen is gonna get the wrong signal, that somehow they can do it without any penalty to be paid."

Asked if the revelations could put future such operations at risk, Panetta said, "I think when someone who signs an obligation that he will not reveal the secrets of this kind of operation, and then does that and doesn't abide by the rules, that when he reveals that kind of information, it does indeed jeopardize operations and the lives of others that are involved in those operations."

Panetta added that the book raises troubling national security questions.

"Well, I think when somebody talks about the particulars of how those operations are conducted, it tells our enemies, essentially, how we operate and what we do to go after them," he said.

Other than conflicting, grandiosely poeticized accounts of the events surrounding bin Laden's death, we don't seem to have many hard facts on what went down that day, and certainly not from anyone who was there. So, of course, that's drawn fire from the government.

"No Easy Day" has been a runaway bestseller, knocking "Fifty Shades of Grey" off the top slot on Amazon's bestseller list for the first time all summer.