Matthew Cole - Code Over Country: The Tragedy and Corruption of SEAL Team Six

Matthew Cole has produced a searing and unvarnished history of a state-sponsored organized crime syndicate that operates globally with impunity bestowed upon it by the United States government. Since 9/11, Navy SEAL Team 6 has been elevated to legendary status in the media, and its members showered with medals and accolades from presidents, especially in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Through an even-handed accounting of the failures and successes of SEAL Team 6, from its Cold War origins to the present, Cole has masterfully documented the bloody, dark underbelly of these quiet warriors. He exposes the sociopaths and murderers who operate on the tip of the spear of the covert US war machine, along with the military and political leaders who have shielded them from accountability. Code Over Country is a meticulously crafted corrective aimed at dismantling the dishonest mythology that dominates the public understanding of the most elite fighting force in US history.

Jeremy Scahill, New York Times bestselling author of Blackwater: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army and Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield

Matthew Cole is telling us what we, in America, need to know about some of those men celebrated in movies and media as heroes in SEAL Team 6. The real issue, as Cole makes clear, is the leadership and command structure that shields and protects criminal behavior. This is not a book about heroism, although there is much, but tolerated wrongdoing.

Seymour M. Hersh, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib

Matthew Coles Code Over Country is a remarkable achievement. Cole has flanked the hagiography that has for so long protected the image of SEAL Team 6, and has cut deep behind the lines to tell the brutal truth. After reading this book, I realized that there is the Hollywood version of SEAL Team 6, and then there is the truth, laid bare by Matthew Cole.

James Risen , Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the forthcoming The Last Honest Man: How Frank Church Fought the CIA, the Mafia, J. Edgar Hoover, and the National Security State

Copyright 2022 by Matthew Cole

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First Edition: February 2022

Published by Bold Type Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. Bold Type Books is a co-publishing venture of the Type Media Center and Perseus Books.

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Some material appeared originally, in a different form, in The Crimes of SEAL Team 6, published by The Intercept in 2017. It appears here with permission from The Intercept .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cole, Matthew, author.

Title: Code over country : the tragedy and corruption of SEAL Team Six / Matthew Cole.

Other titles: Tragedy and corruption of SEAL Team Six

Description: First edition. | New York : Bold Type Books, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021034459 | ISBN 9781568589053 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781568589046 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: United States. Naval Special Warfare Development GroupHistory. | United States. Navy. SEALsHistory21st century.