Little glory at home for US navy Seal who shot Osama bin Laden

For the three-and-a-half years since the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, former Navy Seal Robert O'Neill managed to keep a lid on the last major secret from that historic mission: His own name.

Journalists and producers had chronicled nearly every second of the May 2, 2011 raid in news articles, documentaries and a major Hollywood film.

More details were disclosed in books by the men who oversaw the operation from the Pentagon and the CIA.

Yet it was O'Neill who drew fire last week for adding a single new detail to the story of bin Laden's slaying: His identity as the shooter. Now, after days of frequently harsh criticism, some of his former comrades are pushing back, saying the ex-Seal is being held to a higher standard than the Pentagon and White House officials he worked for.

"We see senior officials speaking publicly and writing books, some of them while still on the job," said a retired special-operations veteran, insisting on anonymity because his former unit discourages speaking to the press. "But if an operator tries to speak out, it's like someone opened the gates of hell."

O'Neill angered many of his former Seal team members by revealing his role in the bin Laden raid, breaking with a tradition of strict secrecy that has long defined the group.