CIA Afghanistan chief’s cover blown by White House goof-up

The US administration was on Monday rushing to control the damage after the White House accidentally blew the cover of the CIA chief in Afghanistan by including his name in a list provided to journalists of US officials participating in President Obama Barack Obama's surprise visit to the country.

The mistake leaves the agent, understood to have been operating undercover as a US diplomat, at risk of targeting by al-Qaeda or the Taliban in one of the most dangerous postings for a an American spy.

The agent was among around a dozen American officials who briefed President Barack Obama during his surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday. The White House inadvertently included his name in a notice to the press about the briefing, identifying him as the 'chief of station', the Central Intelligence Agency's [as well as the UK's] unofficial title for the senior agent in a foreign country.

Obama's aides hastily released a new list around an hour later with the agent's name deleted.

The disclosure, which was made on Saturday, marked a rare instance in which a CIA officer working overseas had his cover blown by his own government.

The only other recent case came under significantly different circumstances, when former CIA operative Valerie Plame was exposed in 2003 as officials of the George W Bush administration sought to discredit her husband, a former ambassador and fierce critic of the decision to invade Iraq.

The US press, as well as the Western media in general, have avoided giving out the name of the CIA officer at the request of Obama administration officials, who warned that the officer and his family could be at risk if the name were published.
 
The CIA officer was one of 15 senior US officials identified as taking part in a military briefing for Obama at Bagram air base, a sprawling military compound north of Kabul.

The list was circulated by e-mail to reporters who travelled to Afghanistan with Obama, and disseminated further when it was included in a "pool report," or summary of the event meant to be shared with other news organisations, including foreign media, not taking part in the trip.

Initially, the press office raised no objection, apparently because military officials had provided the list to distribute to news organisations.   But senior White House officials realised the mistake and scrambled to issue an updated list without the CIA officer's name. The mistake, however, already was being noted on Twitter, although without the station chief's name.

The identities of at least three CIA station chiefs in Pakistan have been exposed in recent years.

The identities of CIA operatives are among America's most closely-held secrets and the US has complained bitterly that leaks by Edward Snowden revealing a global US cyber-spying network put its agents at risk.

The CIA was also forced to pull its station chief out of Islamabad in 2010 after he was publicly named in a lawsuit brought by families of civilians killed in the US drone campaign in Pakistan. 

The Afghanistan station chief's name was released in a "pool report", a brief sketch of the President's movements written by a journalist travelling with him, which is then released by the White House to a list of around 6,000 people.

The Washington Post first noted that the CIA chief's name had been released. The White House and the CIA are declining to comment on the matter.