CIA chief in Afghanistan outed in error by White House

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

On Saturday, the White House accidentally named the CIA chief in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reports. The individual was listed as "Chief of Station" in Kabul, a designation used by the CIA for the highest ranking spy in a country, in a briefing emailed to reporters.

The list of senior U.S. officials was distributed to reporters covering the surprise trip to the country by President Obama, then included in the White House pool report more widely disseminated to news organizations. Once senior White House officials discovered the name had inadvertently been announced, they quickly sent out a revised list. The Washington Post decided not to publish the individual's name at the request of administration officials, who said the officer and his family would be at risk.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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