First Valerie Plame, and now this:
Not only is the supposed CIA asset not a CIA asset at all, but the entire operation was exposed prematurely and the double-agent’s life was immediately threatened by an intelligence leak that very well may have come out of the White House for political gain.
As the story broke, the establishment media was more than happy to attribute the intelligence coup to the CIA and the Obama administration, describing the mole as a “CIA informant.”
It turns out that wasn’t true. The double-agent hadn’t been recruited and placed by the CIA, but by British intelligence, who also managed the operation. In fact, the Americans had only recently been made aware of the joint British-Saudi effort.
The leaks about the operation from the American side have infuriated British intelligence officials, who had hoped to continue the operation. The leaks not only scuttled the mission but put the life of the asset in jeopardy. Even CIA officials, joining their MI5 and MI6 counterparts, were describing the leaks as “despicable,” attributing them to the Obama administration.
Of course, this one was much worse than the Plame slip. I’ll bet there are a lot of people in the British government who can’t wait for November, either.
After they tolerated the Cambridge Four for all those years (and the CIA actually cut off information-sharing with MI5 because they were tired of it being a direct pipeline to the Soviets), this is kind of ironic.
Well, if the guy wasn’t in the CIA what is the problem with outting him? Obama is awesome.
Indeed, a gutsy call.