Part of the issue now a’days is some of this leaking comes from senior military retirees who keep contacts that have knowledge of these operations, who themselves are only too happy to share classified information to curry favor for future post-retirement jobs.

Many of these retirees are the so called military analysts the media outlets keeps on staff, when these same retirees aren't lobbying on behalf of clients for military contracts or cheer leading for the Pentagon.

They really should make an example of a couple of these active duty and retired officers, it wouldn't be too hard to connect the dots back to the sources, but since many leaks also comes from the present administration itself, that’s hardly going to happen.

Everybody in DC needs to inflate their self-importance. Obama, Panetta, Gates, and Clinton determined to cut people out of the picture before and during the operation. The wisdom of this policy was demonstrated by the fools who rushed out with misinformation immediately after the raid. Even the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee had to rush out and tell us how UBL was first spotted in the hallway. It is a miracle that some of these asses, including members of the NSC, didn't leak before the mission in the manner which they blabbed after the operation. Usually, dissenting advisors leak to sabotage an operation. The idea of seeking the assent of elected officials is anathema to me - they are proven unqualified and untrustworthy.

Therefore, the successful maintenance of secrecy means that President Obama commanded loyalty over self-interest.

I would remind my fellow correspondents that one reason for the debacle at Desert One was that Operation Eagle Claw was not coordinated and rehearsed before hand. Why? Because the Joint Chiefs were afraid that their own officers would leak the operation. Some of the planners met for the first time when they attended the National War College where they sat across from one another at a seminar table with astonishment on their faces. A small contributor to failure was Carter's micro-management and his selection of cheap helicopters.

Please note that the Son Tay raid, perfectly rehearsed and executed, MAY have been leaked - probably not. We do know that Neptune Spear was rehearsed and participation kept to a minimum. Yet, hundreds had to know in order to provide satellite, drone, and air cover for example. In that case, you limit what participants know to the bare minimum they need to do their jobs. So pilots might be aware that they were going to flying CAP for a cross-border raid against Pakistani air and ADA. They would learn that in a pre-flight brief. The ECM crews would require greater advance notice to bone-up on Pakistani air defenses.

The biggest lesson learned is the unstated one - how was everybody motivated to keep "the trip to Atlantic City" secret?

I would not call it'inverse compartmentalization' in intelligence", but rather in planning. The UBL mission was more than just intel, there was an operations part too, all done in planning. Compartmentalization in planning always has risks, to include spillage, but I think overall it is a good tool to use, for every leak there are many more that are not.

What never ceases to amaze me is how high level officials are allowed to "leak" sensitive date, while mid and lower level analysts go to jail for releasing data. Just for example, reading Woodward's "Obama's War" this week the episode of how some higher official made a photocopy of McChrystal's initial, classified assessment of Afghanistan and gave it to Woodward who then published excerpts of it. Had some mid level military officer done this their clearance would be stripped in two seconds, no questions asked, and then they'd be facing several months of investigation and likely an Article 15 or Court Martial. Just who is more trustworthy?