(CNN) -- The White House accidentally revealed the name of the CIA's top intelligence official in Afghanistan to some 6,000 journalists. The person was included on a list of people attending a military briefing for President Barack Obama during his surprise visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on Sunday. It's common for such lists to be given to the media, but names of intelligence officials are almost always not provided. In this case, the individual's name was listed next to the title, "Chief of Station." The print pool reporter -- a journalist allowed access to or information about an event who relays it to the rest of the media -- copied and pasted the list that was provided by the White House. Print pool reports are then distributed by the White House press office, which does not edit them, to a large list of media. In this case, the same reporter, who works for the Washington Post, noticed the unusual entry after the list was distributed and then checked it out with officials. The White House followed up and distributed a shorter list from a different reporter that did not include the station chief's name. A station chief heads the CIA's office in a foreign country, establishing a relationship with its host intelligence service and overseeing agency activities. The identity of station chiefs, like most CIA officers, are rarely disclosed to protect them and their ability to operate secretly. Given the potentially dangerous nature of the situation, CNN has not broadcast or published online the name of the official. In the most recent case before this one, the Bush administration infamously leaked the name of former CIA officer Valerie Plame to a journalist in 2003. Plame tweeted on Monday that the White House's mistake this past weekend is "astonishing." Top U.S. spy pulled from Pakistan after terror threats http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/26/politics/cia-white-house/
Another chance for political back and forth, woohoo. One side says oh now we should flip out, because you did previously, other side says hey before you told us not to flip out, so let's not flip out. Sheep, etc. blah blah blah. Politics!
Not meaning to shit on your thread, it's newsworthy, and thus topic worthy, just how I see it basically playing out.
Nah, it's OK when Democrats out CIA operatives. I hope the person's family in the States are taking precautions. This isn't like Dick Armitage outing Valerie Plame, ffs! I expect zero outrage to come from this in the media. Only 6000 journalists got the name, and I'm sure they all will burn it from their memory. It was just a mistake.
Psychology of motivation: Outrage is what PapaG lives for. Many Republican haters have no inner energy other than aggression. Negative emotions fuel any accomplishments they manage, so they must invent outrages to get through the day. Back to the thread: The lousy CNN article above didn't pursue the source. Other articles note that the information came up through a couple of levels of the military, where the name should have been censored, then a couple of levels of diplomacy, which didn't look at the paragraphs emanating from the military.
What does that have to do with Amb. Stevens being 39 years-old and in charge of a staff of two people?
Special prosecutor didn't go after armitage. Precedent. No need for outrage or a prosecutor this time.
So you're saying the Plame thing was 100% political. I agree. Scooter Libby being a convicted felon for not echoing Tim Russert's recollection was the political witch-hunt of the 2000s. Bill Clinton committing perjury was the result of the political witch-hunt of the 1990s.
I'm saying accidentally outing a CIA agent is not a crime. I don't know all that Libby did to piss off Fitzgerald, but he did. And W did not pardon Libby. It sure looks like W's administration was willing to be investigated. The office of atty general (Ashcroft) appointed Fitzgerald to investigate. Libby was convicted of perjury. Whatever he did, a grand jury indicted Libby, and he was convicted by a jury. Some conspiracy!
Isn't this the main point in the administration's argument to convict Snowden? That by releasing the info he may have outed some CIA personnel, possibly endangering their lives? Exactly where do we draw the line between Death by Firing Squad and No Punishment At All for the same "offense"?
Snowden's actions were deliberate. The outing of the two CIA agents was accidental. There's the line that has been drawn. If there was anything in the Plame case that really was egregious, IMO, it was the way Fitzgerald went after members of the press. He required them to testify, provide their written notes, and even jailed Judith Miller for refusing to reveal her sources. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Identities_Protection_Act The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 (Pub.L. 97–200, 50 U.S.C. §§ 421–426) is a United States federal law that makes it a federal crime for those with access to classified information, or those who systematically seek to identify and expose covert agents and have reason to believe that it will harm the foreign intelligence activities of the U.S.,[1] to intentionally reveal the identity of an agent whom one knows to be in or recently in certain covert roles with a U.S. intelligence agency, unless the United States has publicly acknowledged or revealed the relationship.[2]
The WH is investigating itself! I expect huge results. White House launches internal probe into accidental outing of CIA official http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...al-probe-into-accidental-outing-cia-official/
Plame was a desk jockey for the CIA at the time of her "outing." It wasn't a crime because it wasn't a crime. Her husband for some reason was sent on a trip to Nigeria, where he apparently sipped on tea.
Oh really? http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18924679/#.U4Us0xant4E WASHINGTON — An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame's employment history at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates that Plame was "covert" when her name became public in July 2003.
