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White House Mistakenly Discloses Afghanistan CIA Chief – Reports

RIA Novosti

12:58 26/05/2014

MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) – The White House accidentally disclosed the name of the CIA's resident chief in Afghanistan by including him on a list given to journalists of officials attending a briefing with US president Barack Obama, the Washington Post wrote Monday.

The US president congratulated military personnel on Memorial Day during a surprise visit to a US Air Force base in Bagram, Afghanistan, where he held the briefing.

The CIA chief in Afghanistan was among 15 high-ranking US military officials on a list of the briefing participants. The White House press office provided the list to journalists traveling to Afghanistan with Obama. The data containing in the document was later passed to thousands of other journalists not on the trip, after the Washington Post's White House bureau chief Scott Wilson copied the list in an email to more than 6,000 recipients.

After sending the pool report, Wilson noticed an unusual person on the list, who was titled as the "Chief of Station" – a term used to refer to CIA station chiefs in a given country. Wilson asked the White House press service management if they really wanted to add him to the list. Initially, he was told that there was no mistake. Later, however, the White House released an updated list that did not include the individual.

The Washington Post has not named the CIA agent at the request of White House officials, who believe that safety of the undercover officer and his family could be at risk once his name is published. It is not clear whether the agent has been withdrawn from Afghanistan after the incident, the newspaper noted.

The CIA and White House abstained from commenting on the issue.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time such occurrence in recent years, the newspaper reported. At least three CIA chiefs in Pakistan have been disclosed, with one asking to be rushed out of the country after receiving death threats connected with the disclosure.