What is the Pentagon’s policy on artistic aid? It depends …

In the months leading up to the Nov. 6 elections, the Obama administration went to extraordinary lengths to leak facts about the SEALs’ successful raid that killed bin Laden.

A long article in The New Yorker magazine, for example, quoted White House officials anonymously and by name.

The CIA opened its doors to a director and scriptwriter for their upcoming movie on bin Laden’s death, “Zero Dark Thirty.” The movie’s release date initially was scheduled before the election but was moved later to Jan. 11.

In August, the watchdog group Judicial Watch released a series of internal administration emails detailing the White House’s cooperation on “Zero Dark Thirty.” The group obtained the emails via the Freedom of Information Act.

The CIA provided the moviemakers with briefings about the raid, a replica of the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and access to a CIA official on the raid.

“Told them we’re here to help with whatever they need,” a CIA public relations official said in an email after a meeting that included the movie director, the screenwriter and a senior spy.

Attitudes changed when Matt Bissonnette, a former SEAL and a leader of the bin Laden assault, released his unauthorized book, “No Easy Day,” in September. He used the pen name “Mark Owens.”

Though Obama administration officials had leaked many of the book’s details, the Pentagon threatened Mr. Bissonnette with criminal prosecution.

At the time, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Mr. Bissonnette had “a clear and unambiguous obligation to consult with us prior to publishing, and he did not.”

“He also had a clear and unambiguous obligation not to disclose classified information, and he did,” Mr. Whitman added.

Mr. Bissonnette’s attorney denied that his client revealed classified information.

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