Mistake illustrates sad state of our intelligence

[TacticalPeek]

Mistake illustrates sad state of our intelligence

Aug 11 2004

The disclosure of the name of an al-Qaida operative who was working for the United States and the resulting furor illustrates the sad state of the American intelligence community. That a high-level Bush administration official could release the name to reporters without having been briefed about the consequences of that action is inexcusable. Clearly, Congress must act quickly on the nomination of CIA director-designate Porter Goss in an attempt to address this deadly serious problem.

Muhammed Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old Pakistani, was nabbed in a July 13 raid. Since then, he had continued to work with al-Qaida while filtering information to U.S. and Pakistani authorities. That information helped lead to the recent decision to raise the nation's terror alert level. It also led to the capture of a string of key al-Qaida operatives. After Khan's name hit the American media on Aug. 2, several more operatives escaped.

What this fiasco starkly illustrates is that almost three years after the Sept. 11 tragedy, the American intelligence community remains in shambles. That was clearly highlighted in the recently released Sept. 11 Commission report, which blamed faulty, downright sloppy, intelligence for the failure to connect the dots and predict the deadliest terrorist act in American history. And it is illustrated in the case of syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who is facing an investigation for blowing the cover of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame last summer.


more
http://miva.jacksonsun.com/miva/cgi-bin/miva?OPINION/opinion_story.mv+link=200408116389770

[LearnedHand]

1. Actually, what this illustrates...

...is that the fuckin' cabal got away with it the first time, so it must be okay to do it WHENEVER THEY GET THEIR PANTIES IN A WAD!

On edit: fumble fingers