NYT Site Exposes CIA Agents Political Speech6/26/2000; 7:48:04 AM "A freedom of information activist plans to publish online a classified CIA document that was pulled from The New York Times' site after newspaper officials learned it exposed the identities of Iranians involved in the 1953 U.S. and British-backed coup that overthrew Iran's elected officials. "The Times used the graphic to accompany an article detailing the coup. In a technical glitch, those who visited the Times website on June 16 were able to read the names of the agents when they downloaded the graphic. ...I've read this story since last weekend. What made me finally post it here was the quote on the end of this Wired article: (This was in three lines, I've put it all in one)'Young said Friday that he'll post a text version of the complete document this weekend. He said he is not putting the lives of agents in danger, but is trying to help them. "It is more dangerous to withhold the document," Young said Friday. "It's important that those who were threatened by the leak know it is out there."'What an arrogant jackass! If he's so interested in making sure the people mentioned know that their name may have been leaked, why doesn't he seek them out and contact them directly? We're not dealing with script kiddies getting a hold of some secret information and hacking a few computers before the exploit is blocked, we're possible talking assasains killing or torturing these people or their family and friends long before ever finding out they've been compromised.That said, the cat's out of the bag (others have seen the names, not just Young) and I hope whoever is responsible for these people (State Department? CIA?) has gone out of their way to notify them of the danger. Still, simple cost/benefit analysis says to keep the names secret... the American public isn't really interested in the names anyhow, just the rest of the document (inasmuch as we're even interested in that).