In this case, the 2000 year old classic, Sun Tzu’s “The Art Of War”. In Chapter 13 Sun Tzu discusses spies:
There are five kinds of spies used: Local spies, internal spies, double spies, dead spies, and living spies.
When all five are used, and no one knows their Way, it is called the divine organization, and is the ruler’s treasure.
This Administration, however, seeems to have created a 6th kind of spy – the spy that you burn to try to gain internal political benefit.
U.S. officials providing justification for anti-terrorism alerts revealed details about a Pakistani secret agent, and confirmed his name while he was working under cover in a sting operation, Pakistani sources say.
A Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters on Friday that Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was arrested in Lahore secretly last month, had been actively cooperating with intelligence agents to help catch al Qaeda operatives when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers.
And this isn’t the first time – need I mention Valerie Plame?
Another lesson this administration should have learned about spies before invading Iraq but did not can also be found in Sun Tzu (emplhasis added) –
Only the wisest ruler can use spies; only the most benevolent and upright general can use spies, and only the most alert and observant person can get the truth using spies.
It is subtle, subtle!