The sat image is classified because, it often requires an agent on the ground, to locate sites for sat inspection. Releasing this image puts the life of that agent, agents or other asset in serious danger. Worse yet, anyone around the world, who becomes aware of this haphazard handling of secrets, must now feel at serious risk for their efforts.
Imagine yourself as a CIA agent somewhere around the world, imagine that you are asking some foreigner to cooperate with you. What do you think the chances are of them helping you, if they are aware of this? The highest level potential cooperators are already lost because of this, if not because of the Valerie Plame debacle. So, what's left of the CIA's ability to penetrate anywhere?
In short, we are going "blind" around the world, the State Dept. is crippled and the CIA depends on it. CIA is increasingly being viewed as untrustworthy because they cannot secure their work product from being disclosed for political reasons, despite who, or how such disclosures put lives at risk. We won't see the results of this crap for a while, but it will cripple any efforts we mount for years to come.
Imagine yourself as a CIA agent somewhere around the world, imagine that you are asking some foreigner to cooperate with you. What do you think the chances are of them helping you, if they are aware of this? The highest level potential cooperators are already lost because of this, if not because of the Valerie Plame debacle. So, what's left of the CIA's ability to penetrate anywhere?
In short, we are going "blind" around the world, the State Dept. is crippled and the CIA depends on it. CIA is increasingly being viewed as untrustworthy because they cannot secure their work product from being disclosed for political reasons, despite who, or how such disclosures put lives at risk. We won't see the results of this crap for a while, but it will cripple any efforts we mount for years to come.
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