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White House Counsel to Review Naming of CIA Chief in Kabul

The White House will conduct an internal review of the circumstances leading to Sunday’s disclosure to members of the White House press corps of the identity of a CIA station chief.  

The event transpired Sunday, when as part of President Barack Obama’s surprise trip to visit with troops in Afghanistan, the Kabul “chief of station” was included on a list of participants in a meeting distributed to the traveling press pool and subsequently sent to a broader list of reporters, as explained by The Washington Post .  

“The Chief of Staff has asked the White House Counsel, Neil Eggleston, to look into what happened and report back to him with recommendations on how the Administration can improve processes and make sure something like this does not happen again,” National Security Counsel Spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.  

CQ Roll Call reached out to a number of key Senate offices earlier Tuesday about the incident, but as of the time Hayden’s statement was circulated to the media, no Senate office had provided a substantive response when asked if the matter should be referred to the Department of Justice for investigation.  

Asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer if the individual’s whose identity was compromised had to depart Afghanistan, Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken demurred.  

“You’ll understand that I can’t comment on the details, but you can rest assured that the security of this person is foremost in our minds and will be taken care of,” Blinken told CNN.

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