Trib outs CIA
It's hard keeping secrets -- even on the Internet. In a Sunday story that somewhat rattled the CIA, the Chicago Tribune reported that using the Net and a variety of easy to use online databases it had found the names of thousands of CIA employees, some covert, and the locations of a number of U.S.-based "secret" facilities.
At the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Trib and senior correspondent John Crewdson agreed not to publish the names of any persons and or the majority of any of the secret locales with the exception of the somewhat well-known "Camp Peary" in York County, Va., nearby to Williamsburg.
In a scintillating lead, almost out of a spy novel, Crewdson wrote -- "She is 52 years old, married, grew up in the Kansas City suburbs and now lives in Virginia, in a new three-bedroom house," adding, "Anyone who can qualify for a subscription to one of the online services that compile public information also can learn that she is a CIA employee who, over the past decade, has been assigned to several American embassies in Europe."
The article was headlined: "Internet blows CIA cover."
He added that the Internet and various online databases proved to be a "virtual directory" that yielded the names 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."
The Trib correspondent said in the article, however, that he would not reveal the exact search methods or databases used to find his results. Many of the CIA employees found in the Tribune search were not undercover, but some were clandestine or undercover operatives.
A CIA spokesman said in a statement Monday, "Cover is a complex issue that has become even more complex in the Internet age. CIA understands that, and looks constantly at cover and ways to modernize and improve it. Because cover is a designed to protect agency officers as they work to protect our country, there are real dangers in public discussion of the methods we might use to achieve that goal."
The agency declined to answer any specific questions regarding the article, citing security concerns.
While the article did not name exact locales it reported that CIA facilities had been found in Chicago, northern Virginia (near to the the CIA, Langley, Va., headquarters) Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington.
"Some are heavily guarded. Others appear to be unguarded private residences that bear no outward indication of any affiliation with the CIA," the paper reported.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
