The accidental disclosure of the identity of the top CIA agent
in Afghanistan by the Obama administration could affect operations in
that country — even target the entire unit for assassination by the
Taliban, political operatives said Monday.
"It looks like a rookie mistake, but it's in year six of the
administration," retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who directed
both the CIA and the National Security Agency, told Newsmax. "It's a bit
stunning. You would never expect to see that in material that's been
made public."
Former House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra told Newsmax that the
CIA agent "is now compromised. I just classify this as a major blunder
by the Obama White House national security staff."
"I do not know how long this person has been in Kabul, but they're not
going to be there for long," Hoekstra added. "They'll probably be moved
within a couple of days."
Bob Baer, a retired CIA agent, told CNN that administration officials
are "going to have to pull him out now that he's been identified
publicly."
"The Taliban probably didn't know his name before, but they will now,"
he said. "They will focus on attempting to assassinate him — and I think
it is just a matter of fact that they will pull him out of
Afghanistan."
In an
embarrassing flub
for the White House, the CIA official's name was included in an email
sent to thousands of journalists during President Barack Obama's
surprise Memorial Day trip to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.
The officer's name — identified as "chief of station" in Kabul — was
included by U.S. embassy staff on a list of 15 senior U.S. officials who
met with Obama during the Saturday visit.
The list was sent to a reporter for
The Washington Post
who was representing the news media, who then sent it out to the White
House "press pool" list, which contains as many as 6,000 recipients.
The officer's name was being withheld by many news organizations at the
request of the Obama administration, who said its publication could put
his life and those of his family members in danger.
A Google search, however, appeared to reveal the name of the officer's wife and other personal details.
White House officials realized the error when Washington Post White
House bureau chief Scott Wilson notified them, and sent out a new list
without the station chief's name.
The reporter who distributes the pool report generally sends it to the
White House to be checked for factual accuracy and then forwards it to
the thousands of journalists on the email distribution list.
In this case, the White House failed on at least two occasions to
recognize that the CIA official's name was being revealed and circulated
so broadly.
The disclosure smacked of the 2003 disclosure that Valerie Plame was a
CIA operative by officials of the George W. Bush administration, Hayden
and Hoekstra told Newsmax on Monday. It was done to discredit Plame's
husband, a former ambassador who had criticized the decision to invade
Iraq.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a lawyer who was chief of staff to Vice President
Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the
case, and sentenced to 30 months in prison, though Bush later commuted
the prison sentence.
For her part, Plame said on Monday on Twitter:
"The issue is the same," Hayden told Newsmax. "The issue is revealing
the name of someone whose relationship to the CIA is a classified
matter. It's exactly the same thing."
While neither Hoekstra nor Hayden suspects the disclosure was
intentional, what is most troubling about it, they said, is that Obama's
national security staff should know how to handle such matters by now —
after almost six years in the White House.
"This is not the president's first trip overseas," Hoekstra said. "He's
now nearly six years into his presidency, and for an 'experienced' staff
to be making these kinds of mistakes is pretty inexcusable."
Members of the CIA's operations arm, called the National Clandestine
Service, are typically given cover identities to protect them, their
families, and the sources they have recruited abroad.
The station chief, who manages all CIA operations in the country, is
often a senior officer whose true name is known to the host nation and
other intelligence agencies.
The term "station chief" is sensitive enough, however, that former
officers usually are not allowed to use it in their resumes in
connection with specific countries, even after their covers have been
lifted.
Because Afghanistan's station chief is known to Afghan officials and
lives in a heavily guarded compound, he may be able to continue in his
job, both Hayden and Hoekstra told Newsmax.
"Most likely, the CIA chief in Kabul was cooperating with key people in
the Afghan military," Hoekstra said. "We know that there's probably
leaks in the Afghan hierarchy, but that's no excuse for us being sloppy.
That's absolutely no excuse."
Baer, who worked primarily in the Middle East for the CIA from 1976 to 1997, echoed similar concerns to CNN.
"They're going to be able to look at him, his cover," he said, referring
to the Taliban. "The people around him are going to look like CIA, too,
and they may have to take a whole unit out.
"It depends on the situation out there," Baer added. "But this is a
serious breach of security. The problem is White House staffers, and
some of the military, don't understand the significance of cover and
what it means for the CIA."
The intentional disclosure of the name of a "covered" operative is a
crime under the U.S. Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
In January, a former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, was sentenced to 30
months in prison after pleading guilty to disclosing to a reporter the
name of an undercover agency officer.
"I doubt anyone from the White House is going to be prosecuted over
this," said Jesselyn Radack, who represented Kiriakou. "It shows the
continuing double standard over leaks."
Referencing the Plame case, Hoekstra also cited a double standard — but
this one is with the mainstream media and its continued weak coverage of
the Obama administration.
"What you're going to see again is a double standard," he told Newsmax.
"Obviously, in terms of scale, this is a much more significant blunder
than the mistake that was made by Scooter Libby.
"You're going to see the media just skate on this one and say: 'That's
too bad. That's really too bad that someone made a mistake like this.'
"But the person in Kabul is absolutely furious that his or her cover has
been blown," Hoekstra said. "When you compare that to where Valerie
Plame was to the station chief in Kabul, there is no comparison — in
terms of scale and in terms of importance."
Patent reform and intellectual copyright reform more generally have
been gaining steam on Capitol Hill and in the conservative movement
recently. Reform advocates thought they had a slam-dunk with a
bipartisan bill that would have attempted to curb the practice of
"patent trolls" - frivolous lawsuits based on claims of patent
infringement - until Sen. Pat Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, put the brakes on the proposal.
