Six Navy SEALs are suing the Associated Press for publishing personal photographs (presumably without releases) that revealed the SEALs’ identities, as part of another trumped-up “prisoner abuse” story. (Hat tip: leftcoaster.)

NEW YORK — Six Navy SEALs and two of their wives filed a lawsuit against The Associated Press and one of its reporters today for allegedly revealing their identities in photos published in early December, according to a press release from the plaintiffs.

The complaint, filed in California Superior Court, alleges that AP reporter Seth Hettena obtained a photograph in a personal Web site maintained by one of the wives of the Navy SEALs, which contains personal photographs.

None of the plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by E&P. They are represented by attorney James W. Huston of San Diego.

Hettena allegedly removed photos from that site and published them on December 4, 2004, in a story stating that the pictures “could be” the earliest evidence of possible prisoner abuse in Iraq, the plaintiffs contend. The SEALs argue that the pictures “actually depict special warfare operators’ standard procedures during covert operations. The Iraqis shown being captured in the photographs were leaders of anti-coalition attacks and Saddam loyalists.”

AP Director of Corporate Communications Ellen Hale declined to comment immediately to E&P, but said she would look into the matter.

“There was no need for the AP to publish the faces of the SEALs,” Huston, the Morrison & Foerster partner who is heading the plaintiffs’ legal team, said in a statement. “They added nothing to the value of the story. In fact, the SEALs showed more respect for the insurgents and terrorists that they were apprehending by obscuring their faces than the AP did for the Navy SEALs who were in Iraq risking their lives,” he added.

Since the photos were released, they have been published widely in the Arab Press, including on Al Jazeera, the plaintiffs claim.