If I were planning the Q Operation, whenever it was planned, I would not have included Flynn. Nothing against him, he seems a true patriot. However, any personity that is front and center in the media is an enormous risk to the operation. The wrong offhand comment, heard by the wrong peoplr, could compromise.the entire operation. Because of this (limiting unnecessary risk as much as possible without compromising operational effectiveness) my tendency would be to select thoe out of direct media attention whenever possible- undersecretaries of cabinet depts, aides, etc. This is just a shot in the dark guess based on what I feel are reasonable assumptions, but I am sure whoever planned this did do a very in depth risk analysis.