This is really disturbing on a number of levels.
When the Tribune searched a commercial online data service, the result was a virtual directory of more than 2,600 CIA employees, 50 internal agency telephone numbers and the locations of some two dozen secret CIA facilities around the United States.
Only recently has the CIA recognized that in the Internet age its traditional system of providing cover for clandestine employees working overseas is fraught with holes, a discovery that is said to have “horrified” CIA Director Porter Goss.
“Cover is a complex issue that is more complex in the Internet age,” said the CIA’s chief spokeswoman, Jennifer Dyck. “There are things that worked previously that no longer work. Director Goss is committed to modernizing the way the agency does cover in order to protect our officers who are doing dangerous work.”
Dyck declined to detail the remedies “since we don’t want the bad guys to know what we’re fixing.”
I think we all understand that undercover CIA work is not typically what you see in Alias and James Bond movies, but do we really need to make it easy for the bad guys? If a newspaper can do this, so can terrorists or foreign intelligence services.
I wonder if we’ll see the same level of outrage over this disclosure as we saw with Valerie Plame?
