The Pentagon is concerned about a Fox News documentary said to reveal the identity of the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden.
“I think we have a concern generally when any of our members in uniform reveal classified information in the public, in whatever way that is, a book, a memoir or a movie, an op-ed piece,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said during a press briefing on Friday. “That’s always a concern for us.”
{mosads}He added that department leaders “take operational security very, very seriously, and we’re very concerned any time any member of the Department of Defense takes it upon him or herself to … violate operational security.”
Kirby also said Navy SEALS have a “very high code of silence because of what they do.”
“There’s a code of ethics inside the SEALs about not talking about what they do and not seeking recognition for what they do,” he said.
“It’s a very honorable code. And my friends who are SEALS, I know live by it and are very proud of it,” Kirby added. “And I think it’s something that all individuals who are participating or have knowledge of sensitive operations should follow.”
Separately, Business Insider reported that anyone who participated in the 2011 operation to kill bin Laden was bound by a nondisclosure agreement to not discuss classified material.
Fox is planning a two-part broadcast titled “The Man Who Killed Usama bin Laden.”
It says the documentary will feature the SEAL, known as “The Shooter,” talking about his role in confronting the terrorist leader.
Separately, former SEAL Team Six member Matt Bissonnette, who wrote a firsthand account of the deadly raid titled “No Easy Day” in 2012, is reportedly under criminal investigation.
An internal military review found Bissonnette’s book contained classified information.
Kirby declined to comment the case, citing the ongoing investigation.
“There’s an active investigation. And we don’t investigate, we or any other agency, investigate things lightly,” he said.
Kirby did take issue with a claim Bissonnette’s lawyer made to The New York Times that the producers of the film “Zero Dark Thirty,” which showed a fictionalized chronicle of U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism operations leading up to the raid, benefited from assistance from the Pentagon and the CIA.
He read the last paragraph of a 2013 DOD Inspector General report that stated: “Within the Department of Defense, we did not identify instances whereby any Special Operations tactics, techniques and procedures-related information was provided to filmmakers.
“So, no. There was no active participation by the Department of Defense in that movie to reveal any tactic, technique or procedures or classified information to the movie’s filmmakers,” Kirby told reporters.