Has anyone asked what "US official" outed the double-agent Khan?

[DeepModem Mom]

Was this an intelligence official, speaking on background? Or was it Rove speaking to reporters, justifying the latest suspiciously-timed terror alert? Is this another "outing" for political reasons, another Plame?

From the London Times today:

Terror suspects face extra questions
By Daniel McGrory and Zahid Hussain in Islamabad

....Counter-terror sources in Britain and Pakistan told The Times that a security leak in the US caused a serious setback in efforts to round up the al-Qaeda cell that allegedly planned a wave of attacks. It was said that undercover operations were underway when A US OFFICIAL revealed how a computer expert in Pakistan, Mohammed Naaem Noor Khan, was found with details on his laptop of targets in Washington, New York and Newark, New Jersey....

***

Security chiefs in Islamabad were secretly using Mr Khan in a “sting” operation to send e-mail messages to al-Qaeda agents to tempt them to break cover. Scotland Yard had a number of young militants under surveillance but Washington’s decision to publicise the security scare allowed a number of suspects to flee.

One security source told The Times: “This could have been so much more successful had we kept Mr Khan’s arrest, and the capture of others, a secret for a little time longer. We had good leads on how al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan were linked to militants in the UK and US.”

Mr Khan recently stayed with relatives in Reading, Berkshire, and is said to have been co-operating with police by revealing names of those who allegedly worked on reconnaissance missions with him, including a British-born taxi driver, Abu Issa al-Hindi.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1211143,00.html

[randome]

1. Sorry.

No law was broken, except the law of unintended stupidity.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. May be true -- I'd still like to know the stupid a**, who endangered...

us all, and fouled up the hard work of countless others dedicated to protecting us.

[joanski01]

4. Condi Rice said that they

release the name "on background". Whatever that means. When I was looking through last Sunday's "Parade" Magazine, there was a short article about Cheney in the "Intelligence" column. Cheney said the man's name right there in the column. Probably Cheney did it himself.

[gratuitous]

3. Check Atrios or Talking Points Memo

One of them has a quote from Miss Rice, the National Security Adviser, to the effect that the identity of the double-agent was revealed "on background," which Miss Rice would like to believe means that it was off the record.

My guess is that it was Miss Rice herself who Cheneyed up and spilled the name, and she now rather wishes she hadn't. This is exactly like the situation after September 11 when Orrin Hatch couldn't get in front of cameras fast enough to reveal that the government knew Al Qaeda was behind the attacks because the intelligence community had been monitoring their cell phone conversations. Naturally, as soon as this tidbit hit the airwaves, Al Qaeda junked their cell phones, and the intelligence dried up.

In this case, about two dozen Al Qaeda operatives or associates had been identified, ready for capture. Once Khan's name became public, those folks skedaddled. Oopsie, huh Miss Rice?

[DeepModem Mom]

5. WP asking about the same thing, and giving some background --

Dan Froomkin, "White House Briefing":

The Al Qaeda Leak

I'm still not clear about how or why administration officials leaked the name of an al Qaeda computer expert who was cooperating with investigators.

The name first appeared in an August 2 article by Douglas Jehl and David Rohde in the New York Times. They wrote: "The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the Central Intelligence Agency to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior American officials.

"The figure, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was described by a Pakistani intelligence official as a 25-year-old computer engineer, arrested July 13, who had used and helped to operate a secret Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages."

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice left the issue a bit of a muddle with Wolf Blitzer on CNN on Sunday:

"BLITZER: Let's talk about some of the people who have been picked up, mostly in Pakistan, over the last few weeks. In mid-July, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. There is some suggestion that by releasing his identity here in the United States, you compromised a Pakistani intelligence sting operation, because he was effectively being used by the Pakistanis to try to find other al Qaeda operatives. Is that true?

"RICE: Well, I don't know what might have been going on in Pakistan. I will say this, that we did not, of course, publicly disclose his name. One of them . . .

"BLITZER: He was disclosed in Washington on background....

***

But an "on background" disclosure is still a disclosure -- that only means reporters can't fully identify the source....

***

Tom Ridge met with USA Today's editorial board yesterday, and was asked about the Khan leak. "I don't know how it was leaked or where it was leaked. There's a suggestion it was leaked in this country," he said. "I do know that leaks like that are not healthy. Who's responsible, I can't tell you."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56724-2004Aug11.html

[DeepModem Mom]

6. And Sen. Schumer has asked who leaked, in identical letters to Condi...

and the WH Security Adviser addressed below:

Ms. Frances Fragos Townsend
Domestic Security Adviser to the President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Ms. Townsend,

Last Sunday, one or more senior American officials leaked details of the capture of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, the 25-year-old Al Qaeda computer engineer, to the news media. Mr. Khan had been providing invaluable information to our allies, because he continued to maintain contact with Al Qaeda operatives even after his capture by our allies.

According to several media reports, British and Pakistani intelligence officials are furious that the Administration unmasked Mr. Khan and named other captured terrorist suspects. Yesterday’s editions of the Daily News in New York reported Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat is dismayed that the trap they hoped would lead to the capture of other top Al Qaeda leaders, possibly even Osama Bin Laden, was sprung too soon. "The network is still not finished," Hayyat said. The Daily News also quoted a British security source saying this development "makes our job harder," and Reuters quoted British Home Secretary David Blunkett saying that there is ''a difference between alerting the public to a specific threat and alarming people unnecessarily by passing on information indiscriminately.''

As you know, I believe that openness in government is generally the best policy, but the important exception should be anything that compromises national security. The statements of the British and Pakistani officials indicate that such a compromise may have occurred. In light of this possibility, I respectfully request an explanation to me and any other Member of Congress who might wish one of who leaked this Mr. Khan’s name, for what reason it was leaked, and whether the British and Pakistani reports that this leak compromised future intelligence activity are accurate.

Sincerely,


Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2004/PR02808.alqaeda080904.html


Have not seen any news of the Senator's receiving an answer --

[ursacorwin]

7. tin foil time!

the BFEE has been working with Al-Q for decades, i really believe this. not all of Al-Q, but enough to have deep connections and people in positions of power within the organization.

the BFEE has a plan, and is following it. part of that plan is an attack timed just so, to ensure that the election goes their way or so they can lock down the country and enforce more nazi like restrictions on our freedoms. or both.

the brits were getting too close to whomever it is that's working with the BFEE to realize the plan. so condi/cheney outed Khan, and gave their Al-Q people time to run for cover.

bush may be stupid, but he's got plenty of people working for him who aren't, much to my chagrin. this was done on purpose.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. antiwar.com REALLY wants to know who outed Khan --

Never mind who outed Valerie Plame – what I want to know is who outed Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan? Because in terms of damage done to U.S. national security, the exposure of the latter is by far the most serious breach. We may, indeed, one day look back on this betrayal as the reason why we didn't prevent another 9/11....

***

Khan, dubbed a "computer geek" on account of his technical prowess, functioned as a one-man information hub for Al Qaeda, coordinating and forwarding messages between the top leadership and Bin Laden's foot-soldiers worldwide. Once captured, Khan "flipped" and agreed to cooperate. CIA interrogators had him sending emails to his former confederates all day Sunday and Monday of last week, and getting back encrypted replies. On Monday morning, however, the Times came out with its story, naming Khan and reporting his disclosures as the real basis of the code orange security alerts issued by Homeland Security czar Tom Ridge. The Times cited both Pakistani and U.S. government officials.

It is hard to know what to make of this. Either these unidentified officials had certain knowledge that Bin Laden's New York Times subscription had run out, or else someone deliberately sabotaged a top secret anti-terrorist operation while it was in progress.

As is so often the case with this administration, one is faced with the question: is it incompetence, or is it treason?...

***

....as Juan Cole relates:

" Blitzer then revealed that he had discussed the Khan case with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on background. He reported that she had admitted that the Bush administration had in fact revealed Khan's name to the press. She said she did not know if Khan was a double agent working for the Pakistani government."

What a profoundly weird remark....What I'd like to know, however, is who is working as a double agent inside our own government? Because someone has sure sabotaged the hunt for Bin Laden and his cohorts just as effectively as if they'd been working for the Islamists....

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=3271


So the New York Times was perhaps the major conduit for the leak. The Times has had a daily string of intel/terror stories on page one (today is the first day without one) since breaking the story that the intel on which the most recent terror alert was based was old. All of these stories have been sourced by unnamed "officials." One of these "officials" presumably leaked Khan's name to the New York Times.

ON EDIT: Maybe this is the reason the NYT has had very little to say about Mr. Khan's subsequent identification as a double agent.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. From the 8/2 NYT article referenced by antiwar.com --

August 2, 2004, Monday
NATIONAL DESK

THREATS AND RESPONSES: INTELLIGENCE; Captured Qaeda Figure Led Way To Information Behind Warning

By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID ROHDE; Douglas Jehl reported from Washington for this article, and David Rohde from Karachi, Pakistan. (NYT)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 -- The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the Central Intelligence Agency to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior American officials.
The figure, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was described by a Pakistani intelligence official as a 25-year-old computer engineer, arrested July 13, who had used and helped to operate a secret Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages.

A senior United States official would not confirm or deny that Mr. Khan had been the Qaeda figure whose capture led to the information. But the official said ''documentary evidence'' found after the capture had demonstrated in extraordinary detail that Qaeda members had for years conducted sophisticated and extensive reconnaissance of the financial institutions cited in the warnings on Sunday.

One senior American intelligence official said the information was more detailed and precise than any he had seen during his 24-year career in intelligence work. A second senior American official said it had provided a new window into the methods, content and distribution of Qaeda communications.

''This, for us, is a potential treasure trove,'' said a third senior American official, an intelligence expert, at a briefing for reporters on Sunday afternoon....

[cheezus]

9. why isn't this the lead news story?

I mean, seriously... the only reason I know about this is DU, and I'm waaaaay more involved/informed than your average joe.

isn't this a big deal? Where's the media??? Surely this is more important than kobe/laci/martha/shove it!

[Kagemusha]

11. They think treason's better to let pass than burn a source.

Journalistic ethics you know.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. democracynow.org asking questions, quoting Jane's Defense --

A security expert at Jane's Defense told Reuters "The whole thing smacks of either incompetence or worse. You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place?" The expert went on to say "Running agents within a terrorist organization is the Holy Grail of intelligence agencies. And to have it blown is a major setback which negates months and years of work, which may be difficult to recover."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/09/1339206