military operation. they re justifyabley proud of it. you start with people lower down who are more likely to talk to you. once you persuade them that you re serious and want to tell the whole story, you build up, almost like an organized crime investigation, you start with the small fry and try to get to the central figures. howie: the book is a page-turner, as was your last book on the atomic bomb. is it hard when so much is written about this and everybody knows how the story ends? yes, but i tried to write it as a thriller. my feeling this will sound presumptuous i think history is written wrong. we know what happened, now let s talk about why or how it happened. in the moment it was happening they didn t know what was going to happen so when pinetta gets the lead about bin laden might be in the compound, he doesn t