'We will pursue every option available to hold members accountable, including criminal prosecution where appropriate,' Admiral Bill McRaven wrote in an open, unclassified letter emailed to the active-duty special operations community.
'As current or former members of our special operations community, authors have a moral obligation, and a legal duty, to submit their works for pre-publication security review,' the admiral wrote.
Not long after the announcement of the book, Foxnews.com identified the soldier - Matt Bissonnette, 36, who retired from service shortly after the bin Laden raid.
By Friday, the man's name, photograph and age had been posted on the 'the Al-Fidaa Islamic Network' online forum, one of two websites officially endorsed by al-Qaeda, according to Evan Kohlmann, founder of the New York-based security firm Flashpoint Global Partners.
It was followed by comments that called for the man's death, including one response that said, 'O' Allah, kill every one of them,' and another that said, 'O' Allah, make an example of him for the whole world and give him dark days ahead.'
Publisher Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group, asked news organizations on Thursday to withhold his name.
But that didn't stop the Associated Press, which later confirmed the the FoxNews.com report through their own sources, and circulated the information through its subscribers.
The revelation had alarm bells ringing in military circles.
Pentagon spokesman Lt Col James Gregory told MailOnline that the release of a former special ops soldier's identity can be worrisome.
He said: ‘We protect the names of our special ops personnel for security reasons. Any time names are revealed, it's a concern.'
Lt Col Gregory also joined a chorus of U.S. agencies who claim they had no knowledge of the book before Wednesday, a possible violation of regulations that bar current and former troops from spilling military matters and national security issues.
Lt Col Gregory said that since the soldier - who retired shortly after the bin Laden raid - is now a private citizen, the military could refer the investigation to the Department of Justice.
McRaven's open letter to the active-duty special operations community said books and films about special operations teams could be useful educational tools, and the military would work with potential authors, but current and former service members would be held accountable if they endangered the safety of U.S. forces.
