Navy SEALs in trouble for breaching secrets to Electronic Arts for "Medal of Honor Warfighter" game

Seven members of the US Navy's highly secretive SEAL Team 6, one of whom was part of the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, have been punished for disclosing classified information to game maker Electronic Arts. Four other SEALs are under investigation for similar alleged violations. They said to have given classified information to EA, for the game "Medal of Honor: Warfighter."

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Antinous / Moderator

Each of the seven received a punitive letter of reprimand and a partial forfeiture of pay for two months. Those actions generally hinder a military member’s career.

Let’s hope that everyone involved with WikiLeaks receives equally draconian punishment.
- Finnagain
  
  You fiend!
BarBarSeven

This all started with the de-classification of “Pac-Man” patterns in the 1980s & has gotten worse as time goes one.
http://twitter.com/laughingcurve the Laughing Curve

This? For one of the worst games by a top publisher? Bad choice. Should’ve waited for BF4.
chris young

does EA bear any responsibility for enticing these men to give them sensitive information?
margaretpoa

That’s pretty weak even for NJP, (non judicial punishment). I had a friend when I was in the Navy lose a pay grade and half a month’s pay for three months for taking a photo of an airplane without permission. Like nobody had ever seen an A-10 before…
- cdh1971
  
  The Brass pick their battles.
  
  Public & Political Reaction, Cost versus Benefit doncha know?
  
  That and the sweet, warm feeling of upper-class unity, if just for a moment.
  
  Natch, it’s a trickle-down attitude. The Seal’s superiors don’t want the media attention of applying the usual punishment.
  
  Well, I’m being verbose – again. Suffice to say, shit flows downhill – but the smart Über knows that shit also flows uphill.
http://storyspieler.net Roy Trumbull

Military secrecy has always been on shaky ground. When the B1B bomber was being developed there was speculation as to how many cruise missiles it would carry. A trip to the model section of the nearest hobby store soon answered that question.
I recall getting a project briefing that didn’t come through channels. It came from the latest edition of Aviation Week.
- margaretpoa
  
  When I was an airframe mechanic, working on the F-14A, we called Aviation Week, “Aviation Leak” and were constantly astounded by the irony of higher ups threatening us with prison for talking about things that had appeared in AW months or years ago.
http://twitter.com/cocktail_shaker The Mixologist

Sad thing is, the information they gave probably disclosed how we do things, rather than airing our dirty laundry, and so caused serious damage to our future capacity. Bush and his staff made politically expedient disclosures that got got sources killed, and burned our people, and that was OK. Bradley Manning aired our dirty laundry, but didn’t burn any of our agents, so he gets held for years without trial. parts of that time under torture. I know what it must have felt to be an ethical German when Hitler came to power.
oldtaku

This is like getting busted for pot when it’s actually parsley.

Such a pathetic game.
- IamInnocent
  
  Or… it’s like getting busted for pot.
  
  Really, what could they have revealed that anyone in the business of special ops doesn’t already know or can already imagine ?
http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

I’d no idea that having to break the seal to use the software was meant to be taken literally.

>CoughFeedback<