7 Navy SEALs disciplined for role with video game

(CBS News) The U.S. Navy SEALs are part of an elite force that operates in the shadows, best known for killing Osama bin Laden. However, CBS News has learned a group of SEALs has been disciplined for revealing secrets.

The seven members of SEAL Team Six are all still on active duty. One of them was on the raid which killed Osama bin Laden and made SEAL Team Six a household name. For two days this spring and summer, they worked as paid consultants on a recently released video game, "Medal of Honor: Warfighter."

Four other members of the team who have since transferred out of the unit but are still on active duty are under investigation.

The game does not recreate the bin Laden raid, but it does portray realistic missions, such as an attack on a pirates' den in Somalia. It was produced by Electronic Arts, which boasts that real commandos, both active duty and retired, help make its games as realistic as possible.

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It is unclear what secrets members of SEAL Team Six gave away, but while serving as consultants for the game, they used classified material which had been given to them by the Navy. They also violated the unwritten code that SEALs are silent warriors who shun the spotlight.

In fact, the SEALs have been buried in an avalanche of publicity, some of it approved by Adm. William McRaven, the commander of the bin Laden raid and now the head of the Special Operations Command, for instance, the movie "Act of Valor."

"Yes, there are SEALs, I think eight of them, active duty Navy SEALs, that are in it," said McRaven. "It started as a recruiting film."

SEAL Team Six will be featured in two upcoming movies: One about the rescue of the captain of a container ship kidnapped by Somali pirates, the other about the bin Laden raid. The SEALs have gone Hollywood, but it could cost those who worked on the video game their careers.

The seven who have been punished so far all received letters of reprimand which would kill their chances for promotion. They also had half their pay taken away for two months.

[linebiz]

no one cares if Obama blabs all over the major media, or Biden for that matter, with both feet in his mouth. I haven't seen anything on cnn, cnbc, cbs, nbc or abc about the Obama administration not responding to cries for help over a 7 hour period from the seals at Bengazi as they were being attacked by terrorists. all available assets were told to stand down while the President sat in the situation room watching live as the attack was in progress, not a very Jefferson moment for Obama while America was being attacked.

[JOEL_BIDEN]

Talk about ******** double standards.
OBUMA leaked it all for hollywood - 2 days prior to election National Geographics put out a segment on it using what Obuma leaked to them. You Obummers elected this POS that did nothing the first term but make this country worse and now it will go to **** 4 more years. it will take a couple of decades to counter 8 years of Obuma. Way to go brain washed Obummers.

[Jack818]

Wow! Just what our country needs, another war game. Aren't we making enough enemies around the world by killing innocent civilians? As a parent, I didn't allow my children to buy war games. If they wanted to do that when they get older and support themselves, that's their business. General Douglas MacArthur and General Patton both said that war should be the last resort and neither saw any good come from it. The millions of dollars spent on war games could provide children around the world an education.

[Jack818]

Wow! Just what our country needs, another war game. Aren't we making enough enemies around the world by killing innocent civilians? As a parent, I didn't allow my children to buy war games. If they wanted to do that when they get older and support themselves, that's their business. General Douglas MacArthur and General Patton both said that war should be the last resort and neither saw any good come from it. The millions of dollars spent on war games could provide children around the world an education.

[IPonUall2]

I play Battlefield 3. I have played it since day one.
I learned on day 2 it was already hacked and now day 375 the hackers rule the game with extreme prejudice.
I did some research and found that it was hacked before public release.
Site sprang up selling their hacks, actually subscriptions for downloads and upgrades.
I have some experience with hackers as I had played a Sony game called Planetside 1 for years. I played that game for 3 years before it was hacked. At first Sony tried to defend themselves, but as time wore on, they stopped protecting themselves and went into denial mode.
We all know that Sony's servers were hacked causing the whole system to collapse. What you don't know is I WARNED them for years before it happened. My role was as a hacker for the Vanu Sovereignty, a member of the Raging Primates clan as Francisco.
I don't know if MoH is hacked yet, but I bet it will be.
My point here is, no matter what the team may have revealed, a piece of code can easily ruin the advice.

[dinocheese]

so what, you let Navy Seals be in Act of Valor, let them be on NGC about taking down Bin Laden and you going to bust their chops for this? and to the guy talking Marine Recon, did you forgot about the movie Heartbreak Ridge which was about Marine Recon and the Marines were behind until Clint Eastwood shot the Cuban soldier in the back with a whole clip? these guys are being made scapegoats for something else not for providing technical knowledge to a game

[Chloe22012]

Let me get this straight...
...it's okay for the Obama administration to give unlimited access to Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty and it's okay for Obama to sit down face to face and give details of the UBL raid to civilian author Mark Bowden for his book, "The Finish." It's okay for Admiral McCraven and other military commanders to write books about tactics of Special Ops and consult in the civilian world for money. It's okay for the history and military channels to air shows on military strategies, weapons, and TTP's...
....But we'll reprimand seven American Heroes who consult on a video game? The HYPOCRISY here is pathetic.

[IPonUall2]

They all agreed and signed non disclosure contracts with the military.
Any books, appearances, professional advice has to be approved prior to conducting these things.

[hypnotoad72]

If you hate the Obama admin so much, go and do something about it - or are you lazy or something?

Of course, it depends on what you define "do something" as being. But that's not my problem.

[Robert_MacLean]

Slaps on the wrists here for disclosing CLASSIFIED information for PERSONAL GAIN, but other federal government employees who expose CLASSIFIED or EVEN UNclassified disclosures or high-level wrongdoing -- referred to as "whistleblowers" -- get immediately fired or face decades in prison like Thomas Drake (National Security Agency), who went to the the inspectors generals first.

Hypocrisy at its finest...

[Mathion]

They have been "fired", you idiot. What part of "never get promotion" do you NOT get? In the military, it's up OR out.

Obviously, you've never served your country. You don't know a damn thing about patriotism, either.

[Haty_Hattington]

@Mathion While it is true that loosing the ability to be promoted does indeed mean that you will leave the service, it is a VERY light punishment for giving away classified material. This stuff is taken very seriously in the military and for most people who have access to it, even a small laps in proper storage procedures and handling protocols can mean serious repercussions. It is probably BECAUSE these SEALs were/are national heroes that they are getting off as lightly as they are.

[bmounts]

Is the information the Navy Seals gave more harmful (or even less harmful) than what Mr Obama gave when his publicized the details of the raid. Most apolitical analysts will say the president and the White House's release have cost the US much more dearly.

[AugusteArcher]

@Mathion: No, the most certainly haven't been fired. As a military member, if they've only received non-judicial action in the form of an Article 15 (Under the UCMJ) or a simple letter of reprimand they are most certainly still eligible for promotion. The only way they can lose all promotion eligibility is if the Navy chooses to prosecute them under U.S. law or seek a court martial. It's as simple as that. And I would also argue that you, "Mathion", don't seem to know very much about serving your country or patriotism either.

[hypnotoad72]

Insider trading.

What's the big deal? We're a capitalist nation.

[pooplips]

royalties

[madtanker12]

So you are going to destroy their careers.. BUT yet the WHITEHOUSE can GIVE A FILM MAKER EVERY DETAIL TO MAKE A FILM TO HELP THE PRESIDENT NS NO ONE GETS PUNISHED.. MAYBE CBS should get off its ass and investigate that.. and BENGAHZI... Ohh wait they cant they are responsible..

[Mathion]

"BENGAHZI" "BENGAHZI" "BENGAHZI"

The things that really annoy me about rightist zombies - you know, the kind who won't listen, don't give a sh*t what the facts actually are and even if they find out, won't believe them unless it fits their preconceptions so they can feel justified for acting like complete assh*ts - is that they're so damn impatient.

Since it's obviously escaped your limited attention span, Libya isn't a functional country. The country's government is provisional at BEST. It's still fighting factions that want power. There is almost no intelligence infrastructure at all over there.

And yet, you, and mindless jerks like you, want all the information five days ago. Well guess what, Sparky. It ain't gonna happen overnight. It may take months. It's not like we can just go in there and get that information, either. We've done the on-site stuff, but the rest is up to them.

And it isn't a priority when people are shooting at YOU to find out what happened to a bunch of foreigners.

So take a Valium, sit down and shut up until after the investigation is released. You can't scream "cover-up" until it's been an unreasonable length of time - which it has NOT.

Of course, even if they come out tomorrow with full disclosure, it won't matter to you dimwits. You're going to scream for an impeachment despite the fact Bush STARTED a war on less provocation than that. Four Americans died on foreign soil. That's what happens sometimes. It happened 4488 times in Iraq due to enemy fire ALONE - most of them by IED's and terrorist hit and run attacks.

I don't hear you screaming about THAT.

Americans kill, on average, 80 Americans PER DAY with firearms ALONE.

I don't hear you screaming about THAT, either.

In the grand scheme of things, we're NOT in another war now. American's aren't dying on the shores of Tripoli again. We're not embroiled in another pointless conflict with no exit strategy. Maybe you LIKE watching our servicemen and servicewomen leaking their lifeblood into the soil of foreign lands for no damn reason.

Maybe you should join them and learn what patriotism, and reasoned responses to attacks, is all about.

[bmounts]

Mathion

It blatantly obious how your post would read if the president were of the other party.

[hypnotoad72]

If you hate capitalism, do something about it.

[hypnotoad72]

bmounts - just because Romney's party is so vile they refer to Democrats as "the other party" with contempt, doesn't mean the Democrats need to. As if it matters, it's all a dog and pony show anyway (until proven otherwise).