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. 
 
 Film on bin Laden raid to air just before election 
 
 SEAL describes Bin Laden's final moments 
 
 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. ||||| Seven members of the secretive Navy SEAL Team 6, including one involved in the mission to get Osama bin Laden, have been punished for disclosing classified information, senior Navy officials said Thursday. 
 
 This product image released by Electronic Arts shows action from the video game "Medal of Honor: Warfighter." Seven members of the secretive Navy SEAL Team 6, including one involved in the mission to... (Associated Press) 
 
 Four other SEALs are under investigation for similar alleged violations, one official said. 
 
 The SEALs are alleged to have divulged classified information to the maker of a video game called "Medal of Honor: Warfighter." 
 
 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. 
 
 The deputy commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, Rear Adm. Garry Bonelli, issued a statement acknowledging that nonjudicial punishments had been handed out for misconduct, but he did not offer any details. 
 
 "We do not tolerate deviations from the policies that govern who we are and what we do as sailors in the United States Navy," Bonelli said. He alluded to the importance of honoring nondisclosure agreements that SEALs sign. 
 
 He said the punishments this week "send a clear message throughout our force that we are and will be held to a high standard of accountability." 
 
 The two main complaints against the SEALs were that they did not seek the permission of their command to take part in the video project and that they showed the video designers some of their specially designed combat equipment unique to their unit, said a senior military official. The official was briefed about the case but was not authorized to speak publicly about it. 
 
 SEALs, including some of those involved in the bin Laden raid of May 2011, have been uncharacteristically prominent in the news this year. 
 
 Matt Bissonnette, who participated in the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, but later retired from the SEALs, wrote a firsthand account under the pseudonym Mark Owen, but he landed in hot water with the Pentagon even before it was published in September. The Pentagon accused him of disclosing classified information in violation of the nondisclosure agreements he had signed as a SEAL. He disputes the charge. 
 
 The SEAL mission to capture or kill Laden, while stunningly successful, encountered a number of unexpected obstacles, including the loss of a stealthy helicopter that was partially blown up by the SEALs after making a hard landing inside bin Laden's compound. 
 
 The head of Naval Special Warfare Command, Rear Adm. Sean Pybus, responded to the Bissonnette book by telling his force that "hawking details about a mission" and selling other information about SEAL training and operations puts the force and their families at risk. 
 
 SEALs, both active duty and retired, possess highly sensitive information about tactics and techniques that are central to the success of their secret and often dangerous missions overseas. That is why they are obliged to sign nondisclosure agreements when they enter service and when they leave, and it is why the Pentagon seeks to enforce such written agreements. 
 
 The punishments were first reported by CBS News. 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.
– Seven members of SEAL Team Six—one of whom took part in the Osama bin Laden raid—are in trouble because of a video game. The elite troops were paid consultants on Electronic Arts' "Medal of Honor: Warfighter," whose missions include a raid on Somali pirates; the game touts its realism by citing the fact that commandos worked on the project, CBS News reports. The SEALs—who are supposed to avoid publicity—reportedly revealed classified material in the process, and the AP reports that they apparently gave video designers a look at some of the combat equipment specifically designed for their unit. The seven SEALs in question have been sent "letters of reprimand" that kill their chance of promotion, and half of their pay has been cut for two months. (Another four who are no longer on SEAL Team Six are under investigation.) But they're not the only ones in the public eye these days: The commander of the bin Laden raid, Adm. William McRaven, has approved some publicity for the team, including Act of Valor, a film starring actual SEALs.