Well the internet (read: Google) has managed to offer up the identities of 2,653 CIA employees. This is little suprise. This article was originally posted by the Chicago Tribune (CT). But, since they are a registration basis I decided to link to the BBC. The CT was able to harvest the identities of these agents by simply using search engines and, armed with a credit card, a few paid searches. At the request of the CIA the names were not published. This I completely agree with. Why jeopardize the lives of these people? The real scary part…a good number of these people are/were covert agents. And this quote that may very well speak volumes to the quality of work done by the CIA…
Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, a senior US intelligence official told the Tribune “I don’t have a great explanation, quite frankly”.
It seems to be little wonder that they cannot find a 6’5″ arab man on a kidney dialysis machine in the mountains of Afghanistan/Pakistan. This isn’t the first time this type of thing has happend mind you. MI6 agent names were published at Cyptome in 2005.