This stuff about the Khan outing is really serious.

[lottie244]

Juan Cole looks at growing anger over U.S. handing of the identity of double agent Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, whose "outing" may have "prevented the capture of bin Laden" and was "a monumental foreign relations blunder," a security analyst tells Reuters. A New York Daily News story says the motive was "apparently to justify the orange alert." Newsweek reports that "Senior Pakistani officials expect that Al Qaeda will replace Khan easily enough." www.cursor.org

[merh]

1. No joke! this is some serious stuff!

"It now turns out, according to Neville, that "Reports last week also claimed that five al Qaida militants were on the run in the UK after escaping capture in last Tuesday’s raids." If this is true, it is likely that the 5 went underground on hearing that Khan was in custody. That is, the loose lips of the Bush administration enabled them to flee arrest.

Of the 13 taken into custody on Aug. 3, two were released for lack of evidence and two others were "no longer being questioned on suspicion of terrorism offences."

http://www.juancole.com/2004_08_01_juancole_archive.html#109198359051366237

[warrior1]

2. I was wondering

if now the Pak. government is going to say screw you gw you ain't getting Osama in October.

[bain_sidhe]

3. Fuel for the LIHOP/MIHOP fire

I count myself in the LIHOP camp, and am willing to entertain the possibility of MIHOP, but have never been a 100% in that camp. But boy, some of the things this mal-administration does sure make me wonder. I have to ask myself why so many things they do make it LESS likely that they'll catch bin Laden, rather than more likely...

Again, I'm not 100% on board with MIHOP, but still... WHY? :tinfoilhat:

**edit: subject-verb agreement!**

[merh]

4. Because they are power hungry, greedy maniacs that want to

control the world because it is their right in life!

the sick f**ks!

[chookie]

5. Another monumental blunder

Two reasons the Bush administration might have wanted this guy outed:
Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan is a very close friend/gay lover/bloodbrother of Ambassador Joe Wilson :-) ha ha just JOKING!!
OR
They were so incensed by the success of the Democratic Convention that they wanted so badly to upstage it that some one who wanted to look like he was really big and bad when the media were surrounding him with all the fear in their eyes about how NYC was to be attacked any second now, stupidly blurted this out. Ooops.

When historians write the history of the next attack on the US, they will include the episode of the Outed Mole.

The "Grown Ups" love to tell us how it is IMPOSSIBLE ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to infiltrate Al Qaeda -- and yet a skinny schmuck from Orange Co CA managed it with extreme ease. Gee -- and when they DO manage to infiltrate -- OOOPS! They blow their agent's cover.

The Bush Administration TCB makes a Keystone Kops comedy look like "The World at War."

[scottxyz]

6. This could be MIHOP in the making

They've been sending up trial balloons about postponing elections, they've got Condi on CNN saying that the terrorists are planning on disrupting our elections...

And now they've outed their 2nd intelligence asset specializing in counter-terrorism (after Valerie Plame).

They've kicked us in the teeth a few times over the last few years, and we haven't reacted yet, so they're getting bolder.

The Republicans stole an election, they sat on their hands while our main finance and defense buildings were suicide-bombed, they sent nearly a thousand of our soldiers needlessly into harm's way, they violated the Geneva Convention captured live on digital cameras... AND WE STILL HAVEN'T HELD A SINGLE ONE ACCOUNTABLE.

NOBODY has lost their jobs because of 9/11 or Iraq yet. Nobody (except for Richard Clarke) has even had the decency to say "I'm sorry." Nobody (except for Lynndie England and a few of her comrades) has been hauled before a Court Martial.

So what do you think they're planning on doing if George Bush's numbers are low in October AND he has a War Crimes Tribunal nipping at his heels?

Put 2 + 2 together.

[peacetalksforall]

8. And being the fools we are...we allow criminals to investigate

themselves. And we all know what their findings will be - no guilt here - starting with the put options and ending here with Khan - so far today.

[Karenina]

13. BINGO!

Want some fried brains with that? :scared:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2188490

[DemoTex]

7. It's bullshit. OBL is on ice.

That proves Khan was expendable. Future attack plans aren't important. Long as OBL is on ice and Khan can't rat that fact.

(BTW: On this topic I trust about 50.5% of what I'm saying one day, and about 49.5% the next).

[Cat Atomic]

9. Ok- what exactly happened? Did Homeland Security out this guy?

Is this the Al Qaeda guy they held up the day of Kerry's speech at the Dem convention? I'm still unclear as to the particulars, I must admit.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Up to 3 al Qaeda people were revealed within 5 days

Monday, Aug 2nd:
"The information that led authorities to issue an unprecedented warning of potential terrorist attacks on financial centers in New York, Washington and New Jersey came from at least three al-Qaida members who were deemed highly reliable, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Monday.

Two were pivotal al-Qaida figures arrested last month in Pakistan in separate raids where documentary evidence also was captured, the officials said. The more important of the two was an al-Qaida computer engineer who relayed communications to the network's members, they said.

The third is a member of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network who's in British custody and is cooperating, one official said."
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/local/9304358.htm

Also Monday, Aug 2nd (as dated by Google News; article says Tuesday 3rd August, so probably this was in the early editions of the Tuesday newspaper - still before the arrest of 13 people (at least 4 since released) in Britain:
"The American move follows the arrest in Pakistan of Tanzanian-born Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is wanted in connection with al-Qaida attacks on US embassies in East Africa in 1998, and the capture of a Pakistani computer expert, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a few days earlier.
...
A former senior CIA official said corroborating evidence of a planned attack in the US came from British intelligence, based on the interrogation of a third al-Qaida suspect in its custody. The identity of the suspect could not be confirmed."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1274929,00.html

So, first to be revealed was Ghailani, on Thursday 29th July, apparently to push the Kerry speech out of the headlines (see the earlier New Republic article) - he was arrested on the previous Sunday.

Then the arrest of Ghailani was said to have uncovered details leading to the New York alert (which might make al Qaeda members worried he'd talked and/or his computer had been deciphered), and Khan's name was given out on Monday 2nd July. We now know that Khan had cooperated by sending emails to people in Britain after his arrest, so that really would alert them that they were close to being arrested.

Also, we have 2 newspapers talking about an al Qaeda suspect in Britain cooperating in interrogation. I don't know whether this person has been under arrest for long; but the news that they're cooperating is also going to alert anyone they work with to get out quick.

[sadiesworld]

10. Honestly, this is just insane.

What about the DOJ blocking the Illinois (?) prosecutors' access to evidence and letting the no. 27 AQ target go free?!

Screw the tinfoil.

[wurzel]

12. Another blunder reported everywhere else in the world but here.

It also caused the British to round up suspects prematurely. Absolutely nothing from our press.