The White House appeared to be unprepared to the growing nightmare that is the Benghazi scandal. The Associated Press said that the Obama administration had revealed the name of the top Central Intelligence Agency official based in Afghanistan, which should have been confidential, to the press.
In an email sent to thousands of journalists during President Barack Obama's surprise trip to Bagram Air Field this weekend, the name of the "chief of station" in Kabul was inadvertently included by US embassy staff on a list of senior American officials who have met with Obama in his visit on Saturday in Afghanistan. The list, which contains the names of 14 other senior officials, was sent to a reporter for the Washington Post, who was representing the media. The reporter then sent it out to the "press pool" list of the White House, of which AP noted that could contain as many as 6,000 addressees.
At the request of the Obama administration, the AP has withheld the name of the officer for obvious security reasons. However, the news wire observed that the name of the officer's wife and other personal details could be obtained with the right keywords on Google.
The White House was alerted of the gaffe when the Post reporter notified them of it, and the latter resent a new list without the officer's name. Several major news organizations also agreed to withheld the name of the officer as well, AP said.
It is to note that the intentional disclosure of the name of a "covered" operative is a criminal offense under the US Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou received a 30-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to sharing the name of an undercover agency officer to a reporter.
Jesselyn Radack, who represented Kiriakou, is doubtful about the Obama administration's actions against the people responsible for the leak. She told AP, "I doubt anyone from the White House is going to be prosecuted over this. It shows the continuing double standard over leaks."
