The White House is scrambling to contain the damage from inadvertently outing the top CIA official in Afghanistan, a rare blunder that potentially puts that individual at risk.
The official’s name, identified as “chief of station,” was included in the White House press office’s basic list of senior officials President Obama met with during his surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday. The list of 15 names apparently came first from the military, and was circulated by the White House press office.
The list then went to a much wider audience when it was included as part of what’s known as a “pool report,” which in this case was filed by The Washington Post’s Scott Wilson.
It was only after Wilson raised the issue with the White House, according to the Post, that officials sought to circulate a new list without the officer’s name. But by that point, the mistake already had been noted on Twitter.
“There’s simply no excuse for it,” John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News on Tuesday, saying the blunder left him “speechless.”
“In a White House that is filled with press flacks … was there no one who understood the significance of what they were doing?” he said. “Somebody’s head should roll for this. … This is utter incompetence.”
FoxNews.com is not publishing the name of the chief of station.
The fact that it was circulated at all, though, raises security concerns — and distracts from Obama’s visit to Bagram air base meant to honor troops in advance of Memorial Day.
Several CIA station chiefs in Pakistan have been exposed during the course of the war in Afghanistan. One of them had to be removed from the country in 2010.
It’s unclear whether the administration will be forced to take that step here. Bolton noted that the official’s identity would have been known to some in the Afghan government anyway — though the exposure could also damage intelligence operations.
The most recent high-profile incident of a U.S. official exposing a CIA agent was the outing of operative Valerie Plame’s identity in 2003.
In this case, the original list circulated by the White House included several names of well-known public officials, including National Security Adviser Susan Rice and U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham, as well as that of the chief of station.
According to the Post, Wilson noticed the reference to the station chief after he had already sent out the pool report.
When he raised the issue, the press office did not raise any objection, according to the Post. But the office later reportedly scrambled to send around a new list, without the officer’s name — apparently realizing the error.
“Soon after, I think that they talked to their bosses, and realized that it was not OK,” Wilson told The Guardian. “And they tried to figure out what to do about this, if there was a way to kind of un-ring the bell.”
Wilson said it appeared “very junior people” were just trying to follow an order without realizing the “ramifications.”
Wilson also said he wishes he had caught the mistake before sending out the list in the pool report.
“I wish I had, I regret it,” he reportedly said.
A new and important study of religion in America has, among other things, a good deal to say about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Recently published under the title American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, the sociological study was conducted by scholars Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell and yields valuable insight to the nature and social effects of American religion. Drawing from in-depth new surveys, the study’s authors affirm that in many respects, religion in America exerts a healthy influence upon American society — one that typically promotes generosity, trust, neighborliness, and civic engagement. And while Mormons are a relatively small component of American society, the study data reveals that they play a conspicuous part in American religious life.
Mormons are relatively friendly to other religious groups.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday reluctantly picked her team for a GOP-led Benghazi investigative committee, saying that Democrats’ participation was the only way to assure Americans of a “fair process.”
Some Democrats have called the new inquiry a political sham to energize core GOP voters for the midterm elections, embarrass the Obama administration and rough up former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential candidate.
The White House is refusing to confirm whether President Barack Obama followed up on his pledge to take a 5 percent pay cut due to sequestration last year.
The mother of a U.S. Marine being held in a Mexican jail after he crossed the border with guns in his pickup truck said her son’s current ordeal is more traumatic than the two tours of duty he served in Afghanistan.
International outrage is mounting over the death sentence a Sudanese judge ordered for the pregnant wife of an American citizen — all because she refuses to renounce her Christian faith.
The Obama administration, battling to tamp down yet another scandal, announced the resignation Friday afternoon of a top Veterans Affairs official amid mounting questions over patient deaths possibly tied to delayed care.
The pattern is fueling frustration that, on several fronts, the administration has been able to deflect accusations of wrongdoing, often turning the outrage back on lawmakers and accusing them of playing political games.
When it comes to Washington controversies, most American voters think Benghazi, the IRS and the government’s electronic surveillance program are serious matters. A Fox News poll also finds that less than four in 10 voters trust the federal government.
In a ruling with stunning implications on political speech in Wisconsin and beyond, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declared portions of state campaign finance laws restricting issue ads unconstitutional.
And how well do these dire climate projections do in reality? In fact, the climate models the administration relied on for its proposals projected the earth would warm 0.3 degree Celsius over the past 17 years—which did not happen, Loris reports. During that time, carbon dioxide emissions did increase—yet the projected warming did not happen.
Jay Leno sees a small silver lining in the recent collapse of U.S.-backed Mideast peace talks: It should make his job just a little easier when he performs in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this month.
First we have Hillary (OK, only a New Yorker in a carpetbagging sort of way, but still . . .) wanting to “rein in” our notions that we have real Second Amendment rights. But that’s the Second Amendment. That’s not as important as the First, right? So for that one, we need Chuck Schumer, Hillary’s senior as a senator before and after her tenure, to launch the attack.
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives voted to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress Wednesday for refusing to testify about her role in the targeting of Tea Party groups.
Christians are under siege in the Middle East, and the Obama administration is not doing enough to stop religious persecution by its allies, according to a new report from a bipartisan federal commission.
Outside of the Middle East, the commission cited secretive communist dictatorship North Korea as a major violator of religious freedom.
Sudan, where most of the population is Muslim, was designated because of its ruthless crackdown on converts.
The Obama administration fueled its push for energy regulations with a massive new report Tuesday linking climate change to extreme weather across the country and warning of more “climate disruption” if the nation doesn’t change its ways.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the centuries-old tradition of offering prayers at government meetings.
Don’t believe the hype: marijuana legalization poses too many risks to public health and public safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations, my new book “Reefer Sanity” discusses some widely held myths about marijuana:
A top Republican on the House intelligence committee slammed his Democratic colleague Sunday for suggesting fellow Democrats boycott the newly announced committee tasked with probing the Benghazi attacks.
The congressman said Democrats should not give the select committee more “credibility” by joining, dismissing new evidence that Republicans have called a “smoking gun” showing the White House politicized the tragedy.
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