Robert O'Neill's claim to be Bin Laden killer challenges Seals" code of silence Silence had long been a matter of pride for the US special forces. Dirty, dangerous work done without any public acclaim. Knowledge of their deeds restricted to a tiny band of brothers. Not for nothing were the navy's elite Seal (Sea, air and land) teams dubbed "the quiet professionals." But there is little quiet about them these days. Never before in the history of the special forces has so much been known about so few. Since the Seal raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan in 2011, almost every detail of their operation has been divulged. There has been a book by one of the team, No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden. A Disney movie, Zero Dark Thirty. A lengthy interview in Esquire. On top of all that, in a breach of the special forces" supposed code of omerta, two of the 23-member team that raided the compound have gone public. The latest revelation came this week, when Robert O'Neill was unmasked as the one who allegedly fired the shots that killed Bin Laden. In the Esquire article, published last year, his identity had been kept secret. He was referred to throughout only as "the Shooter." O'Neill, who is 38, from Butte, Montana, is a highly decorated veteran who retired after 17 years in the forces. He had been due to give a widely touted interview with Fox News next week in which his identity as the Shooter would be revealed. But Fox was beaten to it by the website for special forces, sofrep.com, the special operations forces situation report. In a recent interview, O'Neill told the Washington Post he was prepared to out himself because he believed his identity was about to be leaked. All this publicity has outraged the Pentagon and the Seal chiefs. In a letter to serving and former Seals dated 31 October, Rear Admiral Brian Losey and Force Master Chief Michael Magaraci issued a reminder about the vow of silence and lambasted their two former comrades, though without naming either O'Neill or Matt Bissonnette, author of No Easy Day. Thousands of current and former members of naval special warfare continued to live as "quiet professionals," the chiefs said. At naval special warfare's core is the Seal ethos. A critical tenant [sic] of our ethos is: "I do not advertise the nature of my work, or seek recognition for my actions." Our ethos is a lifelong commitment and obligation, both in and out of the service. Those who break the code face ostracisation, they say. Not holding back, they go on: "We do not abide wilful or selfish disregard for our core values in return for public notoriety and financial gain, which only diminishes otherwise honourable service, courage and sacrifice." The final paragraph contains a warning of legal action. We will actively seek judicial consequence for members who wilfully violate the law and place our teammates, our families and potential future operations at risk. O'Neill, since leaving the forces, has become a motivational speaker for the Leading Authorities company based in Washington DC. It advertises itself as the place to go to book speakers and entertainment. On the Leading Authorities website, O'Neill introduces himself as a navy Seal who can convey lessons learned from being in the special forces. Ironically, he says he is restricted in what he can say. "A lot of the stuff out there is still classified and I want to retain the integrity of my former unit," he says, adding: "I am not telling any secrets and I am not breaking any rules. But we are going to have a lot of fun. Identifying O'Neill as the Shooter would not have been hard: some of the incidents he mentions in the Esquire article, such as falling out with a girlfriend and his interview at the recruiting station, are repeated in his motivational speaker promotion. Describing the confrontation with Bin Laden, he says in Esquire: "In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. Bap! He complains in the article that he was shortchanged by the military over benefits because he left after 17 years, three years short of retirement age. After the article appeared, questions were raised on sofrep about whether, amid the confusion in the darkened compound, the Shooter had been responsible for the lethal shots. The alternative version is that shots fired earlier at Bin Laden and thought to have missed were in fact fatal. O'Neill told the Washington Post that he had fired the fatal shot, but acknowledged that at least two other Seal team members, including Bissonnette, had also fired. All the publicity is in danger of diminishing what is seen as a great military coup on the part of the Obama administration. And the failure to retain silence is marking a low point in the history of the Seals . The Seals originated in the second world war and were officially formed in 1962, going on to fight in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and a series of smaller encounters such as the killing of Somali pirates holding an American captain in 2009, an operation in which both O'Neill and Bissonnette were involved. Bissonnette, who wrote No Easy Day under the pseudonym Mark Owen, remains under investigation either for the 2012 book or for speeches related to it. He gave an interview recently to CBS's 60 Minutes - although he had long ago been identified, CBS partially disguised his face and voice - and is about to publish a second book about operations other than the Bin Laden one. Unlike No Easy Day, which he failed to run passed the Pentagon first, his second book has been seen in advance by the Pentagon. Foreign Policy magazine disclosed in the summer that the Obama administration was seeking to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in income from No Easy Day. The title is taken from the Seal motto: "The easy day was yesterday." For Bissonnette, O'Neill and their former comrades, the days ahead do not look to be any easier, with plenty of acrimony to come. And further damage to the reputation of the navy Seals.