John Cook of Gawker attempted this week to out the CIA staffer who spearheaded the effort to kill Osama bin Laden.
In a post titled “Is This the Guy Who Killed Bin Laden?” Cook attempts to isolate the staffer, referred to in the AP’s coverage as an anonymous “John”, within press photography of then CIA-now SecDef Leon Panetta testifying about the successful raid, and from the same individual’s presence in the background of White House photos. The AP was probably told too much in that piece to give people like Cook something to dig into, but that’s another story.
Cook does not know the man’s title, the man’s name, nor does he give any indication in his piece of having made a call to the relevant offices to determine his identity (he bases his post entirely on the accusations of another blogger). He could be a scheduler or a personal staffer. Or he could be the key figure Cook speculates he is.
But whether Cook is correct or not, this once anonymous staffer at the CIA is now a target.
Did Gawker even think this one through? This isn’t analysis of Brett Favre wang pictures. This even goes beyond Richard Armitage’s outing of Valerie Plame — which Cook, of course, condemned at the time (and called for the heads of Scooter Libby and Karl Rove, but that’s beside the point). If Cook is correct or not, this individual is now a high value target for a group of terrorists who enjoy killing people and their families who have done them wrong. It’s pretty much all they do, in case Cook hadn’t noticed amidst ranting at his family members about how much he hates Israel. And if you don’t think that the man in these pictures is now figuring out the security detail situation for his family or personnel to watch his kids at school now, you haven’t had a family member who worked in the intelligence business.
Even the normally eager Gawker commenters let Cook have it. “Myrna Minkoff” writes:
If this is the guy who tracked down Bin Laden, I can think of no better way to thank him for his outstanding civil service than by outing him on a highly trafficked web site and putting his career, his life, the lives of his loved ones in danger.
Hooray!
Maybe Cook’s career track is to blame. He was a television writer back in the day, then went to Radar Online, and had a brief sojourn at Yahoo News before returning to Gawker. According to his former Yahoo News bosses, Cook returned to Gawker “he prefers the license Gawker gave him to add his opinions into his reporting to the scale and credibility Yahoo! News could offer.” At the time, I thought they were referring to pieces like this. But maybe the folks at Yahoo were just a little less likely to favor unsourced gossipy claims which put the lives of civil servants who go to work every day in defense of America at risk.
Everyone knows that Gawker and their whole network have suffered from loss of traffic and attention after an ill-thought redesign over the past few months. This desperation might push a website into the territory of publicizing irresponsible accusations, but it’s rare that irresponsibility is paired with a willingness to increase the danger of the lives of American civilians, or dramatically change the careers of public servant who’ve done nothing wrong. So maybe next week Gawker can follow this up by giving us the home addresses and Facebook pages of members of Seal Team Six. That’d be awesome.
Hooray for you indeed, John Cook and Gawker. Thanks for doing your best to make an American hero pay for what he did.
Update: The New York Observer details the damage to the CIA man’s career:
By singling him out as the most important figure behind “the greatest counterterrorism success in the history of the C.I.A.,” the article made him and his family terror targets in a way they had never been before.
“I understand the enemy,” the source close to John elaborated darkly. “This article focused attention on one specific individual that they didn’t know about. That sort of thing has great symbolic meaning to them, and for that reason I’m legitimately concerned.”
The Observer wondered whether the story had inspired any resentment from John’s colleagues. Quite the opposite, the source said. “Unanimously, people were coming up and expressing their condolences. This is not what anybody who works at the C.I.A. wants—this kind of attention brought to themselves or their families. The folks who work with him the closest understand the increased risk.”
If only the media did as well. Or cared.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah this is a good thing for recruiting new employees for the CIA. Do a good job, get the guy we sent you to get and we will let the press put you and your whole family in some idiots cross hairs. We will gladly put you in jeopardy above and beyond the call of duty. What a moron this guy is.
It’s high time Treason starts to be enforced again. We are in serious danger in this country. I would bet he is getting his information from the White House and State Department. This can’t continue to go unpunished. Please read this, we are in serious danger. Obama needs to be caught before it’s too late.
This is his latest diabolical scheme.
No Transparency in the Obama Administration!
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski is refusing to explain why he granted a rare waiver to Philip Falcone for his company LightSquared, while he’s under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for possible market manipulation and violations of the “short sale rule.”
What happened to the Obama administration’s promise of transparency?
Falcone says that his firm, LightSquared, could provide faster and better wireless Internet access than well-established cell phone companies. “There’s just one hitch,” The Washington Times reports, “LightSquared’s technology can cause devices that use the global-positioning system (GPS) to go haywire.”
“Expanding wireless broadband options is important, but not so important as to risk cutting off satellite navigation. … Agricultural, construction and mining firms rely upon high-precision versions of GPS to perform at maximum efficiency. Various trade associations representing boaters, airlines, railroads and firefighters also have joined together in raising objections. The deputy secretaries at the Departments of Defense and Transportation fired off a joint letter complaining that they were excluded from the approval process despite the importance of GPS to national security and transportation safety.”
According to The New York Times, Falcone rose to prominence in 2007 when his hedge fund placed a major bet against the subprime mortgage market that made him an instant billionaire.” And that Falcone caught the ire of regulators after he borrowed $113 million from one of his funds to pay a tax bill.
CLICK HERE to SEND FAXES to every member of Congress to DEMAND that they investigate FCC Chairman Genachowski’s unusual waiver granted to LightSquared when its owners are under investigation by the SEC!
“Falcone [also] caught the attention of Washington lawmakers, who raised questions about why LightSquared was given a rare waiver by the FCC on the company’s operations. Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa), sent a letter to the FCC requesting copies of all communications between the agency and Falcone and his companies.”
Sen. Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is taking the FCC to task for ignoring his questions on the agency’s decision to grant LightSquared a conditional waiver to deploy land-based LTE service in a spectrum formerly reserved for satellite communications. Especially since the SEC is investigating the finances of LightSquared’s owners, which includes Falcone.
Sen. Grassley said in a letter sent to FCC Chairman Genachowski that the agency had “intentionally ignored” his request for documents about the waiver and LightSquared’s controversial plan to build a nationwide wireless network.
Genachowski, an Obama appointee and long-time friend of Obama from Harvard, has also been pushing the five-member board of the FCC to enforce net neutrality that would give the government the power to control and regulate the Internet.
CLICK HERE to SEND FAXES to every member of Congress to DEMAND that they hold the Obama administration to account on their promise of transparency! Members of Congress MUST also investigate the FCC’s waiver that was granted to LightSquared, as its owners are under investigation by the SEC!
You can also CLICK HERE to send a FREE message directly to YOUR U.S. Representative and Senators!
The National Journal reports that in his letter to Genachowski, Sen. Grassley said: “… you responded with a letter that did not respond to any of my questions and offered a general defense of the FCC’s expedited procedure regarding LightSquared. When my staff followed up with your legislative affairs office to seek an explanation for your failure to be responsive, my staff was told that the FCC chose to intentionally ignore the document requests in my letter.”
The FCC responded to Sen. Grassley saying that if a FOIA request was made for the same information, the process could be drawn out over a couple of years and the eventual documents would be “heavily redacted.”
According to Business Insider, Grassley asked the FCC “… how it can approve a venture that’s being spearheaded by someone who has been targeted by multiple investigations. … is the FCC concerned regarding these multiple investigations of Mr. Falcone? And Does the FCC have any safeguards to ensure that valuable spectrum [airwave] allocations are not made to serial violators of our nation’s securities laws?”
“The FCC is supposed to serve as a traffic cop to ensure that the needs of various spectrum users don’t conflict. In this case, Genachowski appears to be ramming a dangerous scheme through administrative channels at lightning speed,” The Washington Times reports.
FAX Congress to DEMAND that they investigate FCC Chairman Genachowski’s unusual waiver that was granted to LightSquared when its owners are under investigation by the SEC!
CONGRESS MUST INVESTIGATE…. NOW!
Messing with US Military guys, trying to get them and their families killed? This guy’s in for a big surprise at some point.
garbage effort to traffic on the coattails of others – - -
I hope the person in question sues Cook and Gawker for all they’re worth (now and in the future) for reckless endangerment.
Ben, we’ve had disagreements in the past, but I’d like to whole-heartedly agree with you on this one. And based upon the arguments of liberals like Gary Hart and (ironically) John Cook, there is a great case to be made for prosecuting Cook (and Gawker itself, for that matter) to the fullest extent of the law. http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/318650.php
edit
Is he the biggest douche-bag on the planet?
You must log in to post a comment.