An Associated Press reporter, Seth Hettena, surfed onto an online photo album about a month ago that belongs to the wife of a Navy SEAL. The wife thought the pictures were password-protected, but Mr. Hettena had access to her nearly 1,800 photographs, including family and wedding pictures – but also photos of Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed prisoners.

The AP showed the photos to Navy officials. “These photographs raise a number of important questions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and detainees,” a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif., Commander Jeff Bender, said in a written response at the time. “I can assure you that the matter will be thoroughly investigated.” The photos were turned over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

So the AP put the photos out on its news wire, along with an article, “Navy Probes New Iraq Prisoner Photos.” Since then, the photos have appeared widely in the Arab press, including Al Jazeera.

Tuesday, six Navy SEALs and two of their wives filed a lawsuit against Mr. Hettena and the AP. They aim to prevent the further publication of their photographs and seek damages for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They complain that the AP’s insinuation that the conduct depicted in the photos represents anything other than standard procedures has harmed their reputations and subjected their families to harassment. And they complain that disclosing their identities prevents them from continuing in covert operations and puts their lives at risk.

“We believe AP’s use of the photos and the manner in which they were obtained were entirely lawful and proper,” said a spokesman from the news agency.

Mr. Hettena’s article quotes Mr. Bender as saying, “Some of these photos clearly depict faces and names of Naval Special Warfare personnel, which could put them or their families at risk.” That’s a serious matter.

At the same time, however, if the Navy was alarmed enough by the photos to launch a criminal investigation, we can’t help but conclude that Mr. Hettena was doing his job as a reporter. It would be a dangerous precedent, indeed, if reporters could be sued for inflicting emotional distress when they bring the unsavory conduct of government and military personnel to light.

Indeed, the whole experience appears to be the Navy SEALs’ own negative conduct coming home to roost. The Geneva Convention prohibits souvenir photos of prisoners of war. And Navy regulations don’t permit photographing of prisoners except for intelligence or administrative purposes. So the errors of the SEALs and their wives – taking those photographs in the first place, sending them to their wives, failing to password-protect them online – make any alleged errors by the Associated Press seem minimal by comparison and off the point.

The American military’s special forces, including the Navy’s Sea-Air-Land teams, have made important contributions to the war on extremist Islamic terrorism. But if the Special Forces get in the habit of blaming the press for their own errors and those of their spouses, and of charging into court to complain as if they were some kind of car-accident whiplash victims, their reputation as fearsome warriors is only likely to suffer.