I’m old enough to remember the hyperventilation that surrounded the Valerie Plame case. For those who have forgotten, Plame was a CIA employee whose name was leaked to reporters. People went to jail. Plame herself wrote a book, and then there was a movie. And always, a sense of outrage that her career had been compromised.

Today, the New York Times ran an entire profile article on an undercover CIA agent (and complaining that the Trump Administration isn’t being as nice to Iran as the Obama Administration was), and the media barely batted an eyelash.

The Times has a story today about the new CIA chief in Iran, and his background. And what they blithely admit early in the article is chilling.

The C.I.A. declined to comment on Mr. D’Andrea’s role, saying it does not discuss the identities or work of clandestine officials. The officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity because Mr. D’Andrea remains undercover, as do many senior officials based at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va. Mr. Eatinger did not use his name. The New York Times is naming Mr. D’Andrea because his identity was previously published in news reports, and he is leading an important new administration initiative against Iran.

Oh, that “previously published” news report? ALSO the New York Times, from 2015!

As Bre Payton points out, this is bad for the new chief’s life and safety.

The Times‘s flimsy rationale doesn’t make sense. Just because the paper said he was in charge of handling drone strikes in a few other countries in a two-year-old article doesn’t justify outing him as the CIA’s top spy in a country that is now considered to be the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

As The Israel Project’s Omri Ceren pointed out on Twitter, the fact that the CIA officials who spoke to the Times did so under the condition of anonymity because D’Andrea is still undercover means that the newspaper article is indeed outing him. And his safety is now likely in jeopardy thanks to the Times.

Where is the outrage from the media? It seems they are too busy asking the 12 year old winner of the Scripps spelling bee how to spell “covfefe.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aulnKBQ5X-s
And the mainstream press wonders why people don’t take them seriously.