British say US gave terror suspects a heads up

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0819/p07s01-woeu.html

Eight alleged terrorists were charged in Britain this week. One was caught with detailed plans of several US buildings.

By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

LONDON – A counterterror operation that started in Pakistan last month and rippled through the United States culminated in Britain Wednesday when eight suspects appeared in court charged with involvement in an alleged terrorist plot.

But intelligence experts say that privately there is great concern that the operation was jeopardized by US public pronouncements that were made before the British suspects were even apprehended.

"For reasons not so far satisfactorily explained, the US authorities decided to broadcast specific intelligence material upon which they must have known a vitally important future UK arrest operation would be based," says Charles Shoebridge, a former British counterterrorism intelligence officer now based in London.

"The broadcast would have inevitably compromised that operation and by implication the actual security of the United States itself."

The broadcast was made on August 1 by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, two days before the Britons were arrested. Mr. Ridge said the intelligence from Pakistan indicated that Al Qaeda was targeting several buildings including the IMF and World Bank, Prudential Financial in New Jersey, and Citigroup and the NYSE in New York.

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[RebelYell]

1. Makes you wonder who's side Homeland Security is on n/t

[ixion]

2. As Chomsky says: 'The US is the single largest sponsor of terror

in the world.'

So it would follow that they would give their partner's in crime a heads up. Isn't what they always do? Haven't they telegraphed every facet in this so-called 'War on Terror'?

Time and time and time again, the actions of this administration seem to indicate that they favor terrorism. That seems painfully obvious to me.

And as the Mad Chimp himself said:

"We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great nation."

  -- G.W. Bush

[MichiganVote]

3. Is it possible for us to hire Pakistan to do our intelligence work?

They seem a hell of a lot more effective than our own people.

[LSatyl]

4. You are heading in that direction:

Remember Pakistan is run by a dictator who came to power in a military coup. Intelligence in Iraq worked perfectly too, but at what cost?

[EST]

5. This story repeat

comes at exactly the right time!!

[htuttle]

6. If I were the head of MI-6

I would cut off sharing any information with American intelligence agencies. At the very least, I'd cut off any classified information going to them while Bush is in office.

This administration obviously can't be trusted with classified information anymore.