The identities of the CIA's top agents in various countries are usually a closely guarded secret, a policy designed to protect their safety. But on Sunday, in a bizarre and unusual slip-up, the White House outed Afghanistan's top CIA officer in a list distributed via email to reporters.

As part of President Barack Obama's surprise visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, he participated in a military briefing with a number of U.S. officials. The White House distributed the full list of participants in the briefing — including the name and title of the CIA's chief of station in Kabul — to reporters traveling with the president, as first reported by The Washington Post.

The Post's own pool reporter, Scott Wilson, distributed the list to other reporters via email (as is standard practice on such occasions), and his email was later forwarded to thousands of subscribers on a White House mailing list. Wilson later sent an updated list excluding two people who appeared in the first email, including the chief of station. "Please use this list," Wilson wrote.

At that point, however, the damage was done. The mailing list has more than 6,000 recipients, including other American and foreign media outlets, according to the Post.

Mashable, who received the email as well, is choosing not to name the official due to safety concerns.

The incident is rare, but other CIA station chiefs have had their covers blown in recent years. In 2010, Jonathan Banks, then CIA station chief in Pakistan, was recalled home after a local journalist publicly accused him of being responsible for the death of his brother and son in a CIA drone strike in the country. Two of his successors also had their covers blown in separate incidents in 2011 and 2013.

This most recent accidental outing was met by surprise and outrage among observers and experts.

If the outing of this CIA station chief was accidental, someone should be fired. If it was intentional, someone should be prosecuted. — Gartenstein-Ross (@DaveedGR) May 26, 2014

Eagerly awaiting the indictment of the White House official who outed the CIA Station Chief in Afghanistan — jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) May 26, 2014

At this point, it's unclear whether the White House plans on recalling the Afghanistan CIA station chief after the incident.