This article in the SF Chronicle, on the death of ex-CIA Agent Philip Agee, has a major piece of irony. Philip Agee was a former CIA agent who wrote a book called "Inside the Company: CIA Diary", and at the end of the book he names names of CIA agents. From the article:
Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years working mostly in Latin America at a time when leftist movements were gaining prominence and sympathizers. His 1975 book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," cited alleged misdeeds against leftists in the region and included a 22-page list of purported agency operatives.
The list created an uproar around the world and helped prompt Congress to pass a law against naming clandestine U.S. agents abroad. It also led the State Department to strip Agee of his U.S. passport.
But this is the kicker:
In 1989, Vice President George H.W. Bush — a former CIA director — said he had "nothing but disdain" for Agee: "Those who go around publicizing the names of CIA people abroad are despicable."
Agee sued Bush's wife, Barbara, over an allegation in her autobiography that Agee had exposed the CIA's Greece station chief, Richard S. Welch, who was later killed by leftist terrorists.
She settled the issue by dropping the reference to Agee, who had not mentioned Welch in his book. Instead, she blamed a magazine Agee worked for that also named alleged CIA agents. Agee's defenders said that Welch's identity was already known.
Agee, on the Valerie Plame incident:
"This is entirely different than what I was doing in the 1970s," Agee said at the time. "This is purely dirty politics in my opinion."
The entire body is here in this SF Chronicle article