Washington (AFP) - The former US
Navy Seal who claims to be the soldier who fired the shots that killed
Osama Bin Laden is being investigated for possibly leaking classified
information, the US military confirmed.
"The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is in receipt of an allegation that Mr O'Neill may have revealed classified information to persons not authorized to receive such information," Perry said in an email to AFP.
"In response, NCIS has initiated an investigation to determine the merit of the allegations."
O'Neill,
38, ignited a firestorm of controversy last month after coming forward
to claim that he was the man who shot Bin Laden through the forehead at
his hideout in Abbottabad three years ago.The highly decorated Montana native told The Washington Post that he was near the head of the column of US soldiers that raided Bin Laden's compound, adding that at least two other SEALs fired shots.
However O'Neill's decision to go public dismayed military brass and serving SEALS who maintain a fierce, Omerta-like code of silence.
Another
former Seal, Matt Bissonnette, who published his account of the raid,
"No Easy Day" in 2012, took issue with O'Neill's version of events.
"Two
different people telling two different stories for two different
reasons," Bissonnette said. "Whatever he says, he says. I don't want to
touch that."O'Neill told the Post he had decided to come forward after meeting with relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
"The families told me it helped bring them some closure," O'Neill told the Post.