BIG Question about 3 Year old Terra Info. WHO Leaked it was SO OLD?

[leftchick]

By now all of the US that pays attention knows that bushco* used at the very least 3 Year Old Information to make the current terror level change to Orange Alert. I am wondering who leaked the fact the information was so dated to the press? Someone unhappy in the CIA or even in Homeland Security Dept? Or am I all wrong and Tommy Ridge was very forth coming on his own with the origin and date of the information? Please help me understand....

[childslibrarian]

1. I saw it first on Drudge

But Keith Olberman mentioned last night someone from one of the companies targeted had contacted him about how they felt the alert was overblown.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. The NYT dumped the story this AM.

Drudge saw it there & made a phony "scoop" so it would look like he sometimes puts out things detrimental to the RW. If he ever does, it's always just an early dump of something coming out elsewhere. An old Lee Atwater trick: If ya can't stop it, get credit for it.

[leftchick]

4. That is curious....

I think Keith would not go with the story unless someone TOLD him it was overblown.

[Malva Zebrina]

2. for sure it was no one in the Bush cabal

who are all in "yes sir" lock step=like Powell,m who knows he can have a real neat retirement if he just sticks it out and becomes the rag rug for Bush.

Or was it someone in the inner circle? I suspect that it is someone who has been frustrated with the lies against it or it's organisation.

[Hamlette]

5. Larry Johnson on NPR Monday

I got a passed around email from a friend. It says in part:

"On Monday morning, NPR' Steve Inskeep interviewed terrorism expert Larry Johnson to get some perspective on Ridge's Sunday afternoon announcement. Johnson called the new alert "irresponsible" and an "over-reaction."

<snip>

In the NPR interview, Johnson explained that the evidence Ridge cites as grounds for his new alert is both old and largely irrelevant.

According to Johnson, the information is from computer documents that were recently recovered during a counter-terrorism raid and arrest in Pakistan. The information is quite old and indicates nothing more than that, at some time in the past, al-Qaeda had been thinking about targeting the four financial institutions Ridge listed yesterday as likely targets (the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey, the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup buildings in New York City, and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington). The documents contained nothing to! suggest that al-Qaeda had even investigated the sites, much less moved forward toward making a plan to attack them.

What Ridge did, in other words, is a bit like shouting "Fire!" in a crowded movie house on the grounds that he had just come across an old magazine article about the dangers of theater fires."

I didn't hear the interview and have no link to the above info. Seems credible though since Larry has been on their case from the get go.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. BBC knew it Monday 5pm EST; PBS NewsHour had it from the administration

DUer aquart spotted the fact on a BBC report - see this DU thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2140253

which would, I think, have been a report for the 10 o'clock (UK time = 5pm EST) news (perhaps even in the previous news 4 hours earlier). But the BBC didn't make anything of it - they just said some of the information was pre 9/11.

Frances Townsend, "assistant to the president and homeland security adviser", said, on the Monday PBS NewsHour:
"Well, no, it's not clear. This information was gathered in 2000 and 2001. It appears that some of it may have been updated as recently as January of this year but it's not clear... you can't tell from the intelligence itself whether or not those individuals are still here."
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/terrorism/july-dec04/townsend_8-02.html

which, as far as I can tell, goes out between 7 and 8 EST.

So there was time from the Townsend broadcast for the press to pick it up, get some confirmation from someone else that the figures were correct, and then go with it that night. Possibly the Bush admin willingly talked about it without realising how bad it would make the alert look.

[John_H]

7. Whoever it is this is the second time. My guess is Rove knew it would leak

and figured that the news hit was worth the "bad" press afterwards. He knew full well that rather than be irate they were used as propaganda tools as real journalists might, that the whores would be thankful for the ratings boost and eagerly await the next alert like the little lap puppies they are.

[southernleftylady]

8. didnt they JUST found it .. and its 3 years old.. its not like they have

been sitting on it for three years...

[efhmc]

9. NPR Monday. I think it was not leaked but known.

[leftchick]

10. That makes no sense to me....

If they were relying on dated material and knew it would come out, why not say it at Ridges first announcement/RNC campaign speech for the alert? He had to come back out on tv and defend the use of old intelligence today!

[Rose Siding]

11. USA Today has a couple of unnamed officials for similar remarks

But it isn't clear if these were sanctioned statements or not.-

WASHINGTON — The major U.S. financial institutions identified in a recently disclosed al-Qaeda surveillance operation are not believed to be at imminent risk of attack, two federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation said Tuesday.

Although U.S. authorities continue to analyze a raft of detailed information outlining terrorist reconnaissance work at five financial centers in New York, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C., the material does not point to an existing plan of attack, said the law enforcement officials, who asked not to be identified because the matter remains under investigation.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-08-03-ridge-usat_x.htm

[kentuck]

12. Here is a link from YaHoo from early yesterday morning...

Check out the byline: Was this reported actually before the NYTimes reported it?????
===============================
NEW YORK (AFP) - The capture of an Al-Qaeda computer engineer in Pakistan in mid-July led to the most recent terror alert in the United States, the New York Times reported, quoting senior US officials.

(AFP)?? What is that?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2136239

[Gin]

14. Bloomberg said it was old news at his press conference....same day

g

[ItsMyParty]

13. You'll never guess where it first started to come out...........

Watching CNBC (financial news) and their anchorwoman was interviewing Sec. Snow and confronted him with: (paraphrasing) "insiders in these financial institutions tell me that this information was 2-3 years old" and Snow went skipping off into never never land getting away from the subject. SOOO, insiders in these big companies are pissed and talking. It's hurting business and they don't like it. Also one note: Time magazine did a piece a few weeks back the outright said that CIA and the brass inside the Pentagon are out after Bush and want him removed. So putting a lot of things together, I have a feeling Ridge had to go to NYC and meet with those exectuives because they were filled in by CIA and want to know just what the hell is going on here.

[leftchick]

15. I did read that Time piece....

That is why I assumed it had to be CIA or some other disgruntled Federal employee. Yow! So chimpy*s own supporters in business are turning TOO!?! The rats are jumping ship faster than we can count. Thanks for the information ItsMyParty! and...

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