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    AFookinRocketScientistMax Rivlin-Nadler
    12/22/13 2:03pm

    I still don't get why this is a problem? Why does the public need to know About a CIA op being kidnapped? This man's life is at stake. Who knows what they'd (his kidnappers) do if they found out he was a spy. I get the need for some transparency, but everything doesn't need to be known by the public.

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      J.K. TrotterAFookinRocketScientist
      12/22/13 6:52pm

      Why does the public need to know About a CIA op being kidnapped?

      Because he was an off-the-books agent, working on an off-the-books mission, for a clandestine agency whose operational expenses are paid for with taxpayer dollars. It is self-evidently significant, and newsworthy, when CIA officials deliberately skirt agency protocol in order to avoid being held accountable, and by doing so endanger an American citizen.

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    pickwickianfireMax Rivlin-Nadler
    12/22/13 11:51am

    I'm confused. The NYT and CBS said they knew he was a CIA agent. How did they know years ago? Did the CIA confirm that fact? Did the family tell the media that story? Why would the CIA confirm something that they did not want the media to know? How did the NYT first hear that this guy was a CIA agent? Who told the media not to tell? Which part of the government?

    Sorry, Max. I'm not saying all this to be a jerk on a Sunday/vacation/bad weather day. I'm just not following exactly where the seed of this story originated.

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      congenitiepickwickianfire
      12/22/13 1:23pm

      I believe that the newspapers were told that he was working for the CIA by multiple independent sources from within the CIA, but not officially from the CIA's press office. It's very, very common for journalists to get information from unofficial channels. Likely the reporters got multiple confirmations from within the CIA that Levinson was an agent, then took this new found information to the CIA's official press office which tacitly confirmed what the journalists already knew, but instructed them not to release this information for national security reasons.

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    secretagentmanMax Rivlin-Nadler
    12/22/13 11:53am

    So would this be a 'known unknown' or an 'unknown known'?

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      congenitiesecretagentman
      12/22/13 12:26pm

      No, I think it would be an 'unknown known,' at least according to Zizek's extrapolation from Rumsfeld's paradigm. An unknown known is something that we do know, but refuse to admit to ourselves that we know.

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      Snapchatmethatpussysecretagentman
      12/22/13 1:04pm

      I'll just leave this here.

      GIF
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    HypnoToadMax Rivlin-Nadler
    12/22/13 12:18pm

    There is a very big question here; how much secrecy should the government be allowed? I mean, there are definitely some things I would think we would want to keep from full public consumption, but where does one draw the line? And more importantly, who gets to decide? I eagerly await more of these NSA-related cases wending their way through the court system. So far, the judiciary has been remarkably compliant with the intelligence community; I wonder for how long.

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      GoalieLaxMax Rivlin-Nadler
      12/22/13 12:14pm

      it must be some gymnastics to stay on your high horse while at the same time publishing dick pics and trying to get croudsourced funds to do your one shot at real journalism in 2013

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        UngratefulDeadGoalieLax
        12/22/13 12:48pm

        Actually, I heard in the New York Times that Weiner's dick was just there on a business trip.

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      littlefallsmetsMax Rivlin-Nadler
      12/22/13 11:45am

      It causes one to reflect on the wonderful/terrible irony of how similarly "embedded" and "in bed with" roll off the tongue.

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        Pullthestringlittlefallsmets
        12/22/13 12:14pm

        Exactly, and that's how it happens.

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        madamecouscousplus1littlefallsmets
        12/22/13 12:19pm

        A large majority of these reporters run in the exact same elitist circles as those in government and business they are reporting about. Sad to see to see NYT's as just a mouthpiece for government or corportations

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      ShroudofBoehnerMax Rivlin-Nadler
      12/22/13 11:33am

      "Regrettable." That's like when the military says "Mistakes were made."

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        SnapchatmethatpussyMax Rivlin-Nadler
        12/22/13 1:34pm

        When called out for protecting a Member of the Tribe; NYT's Meier says, "Fuck you", Abramson, "Whatevs." I ain't mad at 'em.

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