Defense Department spokesman George Little told reporters today at the Pentagon that the Navy SEAL who authored the book documenting the raid that killed Osama bin Laden contains classified information.

The book, titled “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden,” has received criticism from government officials and current and former servicemembers because the author, writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen, did not submit the manuscript for pre-clearance.

At the beginning of the press conference, Little would only say that the Pentagon believes the book contains “sensitive and classified” information. “At this stage, let me put it this way. We do think that sensitive and classified information is probably contained in the book,” he said. But when reporters pressed Little to clarify DOD’s views of what’s inside Owen’s book, Little offered a more definitive answer:

LITTLE: Let’s cut through it. Sensitive and classified information is contained in the book. Now, look.

QUESTION: It is?

LITTLE: Is. Is. Is contained. … I’ll — let me put a definitive mark on it, OK, so that I can be as clear as possible. And this is — when you have special operations units that perform these missions, there are tactics, techniques, and procedures, not to mention human life, that are in play. And it is the height of irresponsibility not to have this kind of material checked for the possible disclosure of classified information. And we have very serious concerns after having reviewed the book.

The Defense Department also said that Owen is in violation of disclosure agreements he signed in 2007, a charge Owen’s lawyer disputed, saying the former Navy SEAL has “earned the right to tell his story“:

Robert D. Luskin of the law firm Patton Boggs wrote to Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer, on Friday informing him that his firm is representing Owen and asserting that he is not in breach of his nondisclosure agreements.

Luskin, who represented White House aide Karl Rove in the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity in the Bush administration, said the author had “sought legal advice about his responsibilities before agreeing to publish his book and scrupulously reviewed the work to ensure that it did not disclose any material that would breach his agreements or put his former comrades at risk. He remains confident that he has faithfully fulfilled his duty.”

No Easy Day went on sale today and is expected to knock the Twilight-inspired “Fifty Shades of Grey” off the top spot on many best-seller lists.

Former Bush administration National Security Agency head and CIA director Michael Hayden told the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz that Israel may not have the military capacity to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities and reiterated his belief that any attack would only delay the Iranian program and perhaps push it toward obtaining nuclear weapons:

“I do not underestimate the Israeli talent, but geometry and physics tell us that Iran’s nuclear program would pose a difficult challenge to any military, as it is not a raid, and Israel’s resources are more limited than those of the U.S.,” Hayden told Haaretz.

“There is no absolute certainty that all targets are known,” he added. “They will have to be revisited – which only the U.S. Air Force would be able to do – and the operation will only set the Iranians back some time and actually push them to do that which it is supposed to prevent, getting nuclear weapons.”

Hayden also said there is “still some time” before a decision needs to be made about whether to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, adding that “real decisions are to be made in 2013 or 2014.”

Hayden’s view is widely shared among current and former U.S. and Israel officials. “At best this would buy you a few years,” an anonymous Obama administration official told the New York Times recently.

But at the same time, the Israelis, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, are openly debating an attack on Iran. Netanyahu recently criticized the international community for not being tougher on the Islamic Republic. “The international community is not drawing a clear red line for Iran,” he said. “Iran doesn’t see determination from the international community to stop its nuclear program.”

Haaretz also reported last week that according to a top Israeli official, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Netanyahu recently to give a “clear message as to her opposition” to an military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Obama administration is aware, not only of the threat an Iranian nuclear weapon poses, but also the potential negative consequences of a military attack on Iran. And that, coupled with U.N., U.S. and Israeli assessments that Iran has not yet decided on whether to build a nuclear weapon, leads the administration to pursue a diplomatic solution with Iran, a track the it deems the “best and most permanent way” to solve the nuclear crisis.