To those so vigorously defending Assange naming "Victim Country X"...

[JohnnyRingo]

I'm not one of those who despise Greenwald, and I laud his weighty decision to cover the identity of Afghanistan as "Country X", but I'm not happy that Julian Assange went over his head to disclose this most recent fact.

I want to point out that this isn't the first time a CIA operation has been exposed with potentially violent results. I believe the most famous case was in 2003 when then Vice President Dick Cheney outed CIA operative Valerie Plame and cited her covert mission in Iraq and Niger. As in this case, all her sources in Iraq were immediately compromised as well as associates who worked at her front company in Greece.

Ms. Plame was safe, but her career ended on this revelation. Her associates had nowhere to hide however. The results were certain death to many foreign nationals who were known to work for her. This Afghanistan revelation, that benefits the US public in no way, is not at all unlike that selfish move by Cheney. It was done for egotistical personal reasons.

If people here are ready to defend Julian Assange and Dick Cheney as two of history's great whistle blowers for uncovering CIA operations, I'll find another place to hang out.