I liked this article and it was nice to think through some of these things in these contexts.
That said, if I was speaking at a big government meeting (where the sign on the door often indicates a classification that is above what you can say on Medium) and found myself quoted in a blog post later I would be pissed.
In future, I would recommend the author take all the names of the organizations out or get permission from the person. The quote would have been just as powerful without the agency name drops in a security context.
In this case I was talking about name dropping agencies and how they operate. Example: "A Senior NSA Official" in what was likely a classified meeting with DHS officials and state department, and calling out how they were speaking with each other.
I'm not saying making it public is bad for the public overall, but I'm not sure that was the intent (based on the focus and purpose of the article) and generally those kinds of discussions are covered by NDAs and aren't for public record.
That said, if I was speaking at a big government meeting (where the sign on the door often indicates a classification that is above what you can say on Medium) and found myself quoted in a blog post later I would be pissed.
In future, I would recommend the author take all the names of the organizations out or get permission from the person. The quote would have been just as powerful without the agency name drops in a security context.