re: #248 Decatur Deb

Not that dramatic. The Chief of Station is the highest ranking CIA embassy staff official. He is a ‘declared’ official, and not secret. I bought my Israel beater car from the Deputy Chief as he was rotating back. (Good indication of how relatively safe Israel was in 1998.)

It was probably an open secret but it’s still not best to advertise it. Previous station chiefs have had to leave their post after being outed.

In this case, the pool report was filed by Washington Post White House bureau chief Scott Wilson. Wilson said he had copied the list from the e-mail provided by White House press officials and included it in a report that was sent to a distribution list with more than 6,000 recipients.

Wilson said that after the report was distributed, he noticed the unusual reference to the station chief and asked White House press officials in Afghanistan whether they had intended to include that name.

Initially, the press office raised no objection, apparently because military officials had provided the list to distribute to news organizations. But senior White House officials realized 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.

Somebody fucked up.