Mike Scheur, the former head of the CIA‘s Bin Laden unit, said the leaking about the nuts and bolts of British involvement was despicable and would make a repeat of the operation difficult. „MI6 should be as angry as hell. This is something that the prime minister should raise with the president, if he has the balls. This is really tragic,“ Scheur said.

He added: „Any information disclosed is too much information. This does seem to be a tawdry political thing.“

He noted that the leak came on the heels of a series of disclosures over the last 10 days, beginning with a report that the CIA wanted to expand its drone attacks in Yemen, Barack Obama making a surprise trip to Afghanistan around the time of the Bin Laden anniversary and „then this inexplicable leak“.