White House staff tried to 'un-ring the

bell' after revealing CIA chief's identity

• White House press office unaware it had circulated name
• Washington Post journalist sounded alert after filing report

President Barack Obama greets US troops during a his visit to Afghanistan, which led to the CIA's station
chief's identification. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The White House blew the cover of the top CIA agent in Afghanistan on Sunday, when the person’s name
was included on a list given to reporters during a visit to the country by President Barack Obama.

The name was then emailed by the White House press office to a distribution list of more than 6,000
recipients, mostly members of the US media.

The agent in question, listed as chief of station, would be a top manager of CIA activity in Afghanistan,
including intelligence collection and a drone-warfare programme under which unmanned aerial vehicles
mount cross-border attacks into Pakistan.

The name appeared on a list of attendees requested by White House officials for the president’s visit to
Bagram air base to mark Memorial Day, the national day of tribute to fallen service members. The list of 15
people was drawn up by the military, written into a routine press report and sent to Washington. The
Obama press office then sent the list, unredacted, to the larger group.

The mistake did not come to light until the reporter who had filed from Afghanistan, the veteran
Washington Post correspondent Scott Wilson, looked more closely at what he had sent and noticed the
name and title.
“I drew it to their attention before they had noticed what had happened,” Wilson said on Monday, hours
after returning from the 33-hour trip overseas.

“I asked the press official that was with us on the trip if they knew that the station chief had been identified
in the list. That person said that they did not know that, but that because the list was provided by military,
they assumed it was OK. By this time the list was out.

“Soon after, I think that they talked to their bosses, and realised that it was not OK. And they tried to figure
out what to do about this, if there was a way to kind of un-ring the bell.”

The name was left off of a subsequent report filed from Bagram.

The White House declined to comment on Monday on the disclosure. It was unclear whether or how the
disclosure would affect US intelligence operations in Afghanistan. An internet search for the name turned
up no results.

It is extremely rare for a US intelligence operative to be outed by the US government. In 2003, someone
inside the George W Bush administration exposed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, a month
after her husband, the diplomat Joe Wilson, had publicly questioned the administration’s case for the Iraq
war. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to then-vice-president Dick Cheney, was convicted of
obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with the case.

Members of the CIA's operations arm, called the National Clandestine Service, are typically given cover
identities to protect both them and sources they have recruited abroad. A station chief, who manages all
CIA operations in a 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 resumés in connection with specific countries, even after their covers have
been lifted.

Because the Afghanistan station chief is known to Afghan officials and lives in a heavily guarded
compound, he may be able to continue in his job. In 2010 the CIA station chief in Pakistan, Jonathan Bank,
was evacuated after local newspapers published his name in connection with a lawsuit, and he was
threatened.

Wilson said time pressure, a high level of activity tied to the president’s visit and the relative inexperience
of the military officers involved could have contributed to the mistake.

“My impression is these were very junior people trying to follow an order, that they don't fully understand
or get the ramifications of,” he said.

“There were a number of misunderstandings and mistakes, including my own failure to review the list
before including it in my email, in my pool report.

“I wish I had, I regret it.”

 
Top CIA officer in Afghanistan
mistakenly named by White House:
report
WASHINGTON

(Reuters) - The White House inadvertently included the name of the top CIA official in Afghanistan on a
list of participants in a military briefing with President Barack Obama that was distributed to reporters on
Sunday, the Washington Post reported.

The newspaper said the official, identified as "Chief of Station" in Kabul, was named as being among those
at a briefing with Obama during the president's trip to Bagram Air Base near the Afghan capital.

The list of names was sent by email to reporters traveling with Obama on his surprise Afghanistan visit and
included in a "pool report" shared with correspondents and others not on the trip.

The Post said the White House issued a revised list deleting the CIA official's name after it recognized the
mistake.

The newspaper said its White House bureau chief, Scott Wilson, who was on the trip, copied the original
list from the email provided by White House press officials and included it in a report sent to a distribution
list with over 6,000 recipients.

After he spotted the reference to the station chief, Wilson asked White House press officials in Afghanistan
if they had intended to include that name, the Post said.

"Initially, the press office raised no objection, apparently because military officials had provided the list to
distribute to news organizations," the Post added. "But senior White House officials realized the mistake
and scrambled to issue an updated list without the CIA officer's name."

The newspaper said it withheld the individual's name at the request of the Obama administration, which
warned he and his family could be at risk if his name were circulated.

A review of the pool reports from the trip shows that the name was taken out of an updated list sent to
reporters. Reuters is also withholding the name from this article.

The Post said it was not clear if the CIA would now be forced to remove the officer from Afghanistan.

The White House declined to comment.

EU se equivoca y revela nombre de agente

de la CIA
El nombre del agente fue enviado a una lista de casi 6,000 periodistas mediante un correo electrónico

Por Ken Dilanian / The Associated Press

El correo electrónico fue enviado a los periodistas durante la visita sorpresiva del presidente, Barack
Obama, a la Base Aérea Bagram en Afganistán. (AFP / Saul Loeb)

WASHINGTON. — En un desliz bochornoso, el gobierno del presidente Barack Obama reveló

accidentalmente el nombre del principal agente clandestino de la CIA en Afganistán, en un correo
electrónico a miles de periodistas durante la visita sorpresiva del presidente a la Base Aérea Bagram el fin
de semana alargado por el Día de los Caídos en Guerra.

El nombre del funcionario —identificado como "jefe de oficina" en Kabul— fue incluido por personal de la
embajada en la lista de 15 altos funcionarios estadounidenses que se reunieron con Obama durante la visita
del sábado. La lista fue enviada a un reportero del diario The Washington Post que representaba a los
medios de prensa, quien a continuación la envió a los periodistas acreditados por la Casa Blanca, una lista
de casi 6,000 personas.

The Associated Press se abstiene de publicar el nombre del agente por pedido del gobierno, que dijo que su
publicación pondría en peligro su vida y las de sus familiares. Una búsqueda en Google parece revelar el
nombre del agente y otros detalles personales.

Funcionarios de la Casa Blanca cayeron en la cuenta del desliz cuando los advirtió el reportero del Post y
enviaron una nueva lista sin el nombre del agente. Otros medios de prensa, incluido el Post, acordaron no
difundir el nombre.

El reportero que distribuye el informe a la prensa lo envía a la Casa Blanca para verificación de la
información y luego a los miles de periodistas en la lista de correos electrónico, de manera que en este caso
la Casa Blanca no supo reconocer en al menos dos ocasiones que el nombre del agente de la CIA estaba
siendo revelado y ampliamente difundido.
La revelación intencional del nombre de un agente "encubierto" es un delito bajo la Ley de Protección de
Identidades de Inteligencia. Un exagente de la CIA, John Kiriakou, fue condenado a 30 meses de prisión en
enero tras declararse culpable de revelar el nombre de un agente clandestino. En 2003, el nombre de la
agente Valerie Plame fue revelado por funcionarios del gobierno de George W. Bush para desacreditar a su
esposo, un exembajador que había criticado la decisión de invadir Irak. Un asesor del vicepresidente Dick
Cheney, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, fue condenado a 30 meses de prisión por perjurio y obstrucción de
justicia, pero Bush conmutó la sentencia.