http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/valerie-plame-intelligence-officials-slam-white-house-cia-leak-article-1.1806717Valerie Plame, ex-intelligence officials slam White House for 'astonishing' CIA leak
Valerie Plame, the ex-CIA operative who was outed in 2003, was among the former officials who commented on the Obama administration’s inadvertently revealing the name of the agency’s chief of station in Kabul.
BY Leslie Larson
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 11:01 AM
Former intelligence officials are speaking out about the disastrous mistake by the White House Press Office to publish the name of a CIA operative in Afghanistan.
"It looks like a rookie mistake, but it's in year six of the administration," retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden and former CIA director told Newsmax, after Obama’s press team inadvertently listed the spy on Obama’s itinerary for his four hour trip to Afghanistan on Sunday.
"This is not the president's first trip overseas," former House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) added.
"He's now nearly six years into his presidency, and for an 'experienced' staff to be making these kinds of mistakes is pretty inexcusable."
Valerie Plame, the ex-CIA operative outed by the W. Bush administration, also chimed in.
“Astonishing: White House mistakenly identifies CIA chief in Afghanistan,” she tweeted in a sardonic message on Monday.
The name of the CIA’s chief of station in Kabul, the agency’s top spy in Afghanistan, was listed among the 15 officials briefing Obama upon his arrival at Bagram Air Base.
The White House only caught the error when Washington Post reporter Scott Wilson alerted the press office, after Obama’s schedule was included in an email that was circulated to as many as 6,000 members of the media.
With little recourse after the sensitive information was already out in the open, the press office issued a revised schedule without the officer’s name.
The White House has not yet commented on the mistake but requested that news agencies not publish the individual’s name.
