The outing of John the Osama hunter

John" is about as anonymous as one can get in the United States, the Western world and, indeed, pretty much on this planet. Derived from the Latin Iohannes and the Hebrew Yohanan, it is the name given to the prophet John the Baptist. It takes different forms in various countries and cultures, from the Italian Giovanni to the Spanish Juan to the Slavic Ivan or Jan to the Turkish/Islamic Yahya to the Welsh and Irish Eoin (as in Morgan). Let's just say it is one of the most common names in the world. The US has some 12 million Johns.

So when the CIA and the Obama administration, in a moment of justifiable triumph and pride, merely allowed the identification of the man who hunted down Osama bin Laden by his middle name John, it didn't amount to much.