http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5626850/msnbc staff
msn.com
August 7, 2004
Excerpt:
"The al-Qaida suspect named by U.S. officials as the source of information that led to this week’s terrorist alerts was working undercover, Pakistani intelligence sources said Friday, putting an end to the sting operation and forcing Pakistan to hide the man in a secret location.
Under pressure to justify the alerts in three Northeastern cities, U.S. officials confirmed a report by The New York Times that the man, Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, was the source of the intelligence that led to the decision."
Blogger Juan Cole provides the analysis here:
http://www.juancole.com/2004_08_01_juancole_archive.html#109185597245383648"Simon Cameron-Moore and Peter Graff of Reuters reveal the explosive information that the Bush administration blew the cover Monday of double agent Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. On Sunday August 1, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced a new alert against an al-Qaeda plot concerning fincial institutions in New York and Washington, DC.
Pressed for details by the New York Times, some Bush administration official revealed that the information came from a recently arrested man in Pakistan named "Khan." The New York Times published his name on Monday.
(snip)
In other words, the Bush administration just blew the cover of one of the most important assets inside al-Qaeda that the US has ever had."
Juan Cole
juancole.com
August 7, 2004
This is so much worse than the Valerie Plame outing. Essentially, "4 more years" has a higher priority with this administration than winning the war on terror. Teresa Heinz Kerry was right: "4 more years of hell."