sheerest genius

[sisyphusshrugged]

According to our great and good friends in Pakistan, when the White House outed that guy we caught, a whole bunch of folks were warned and got away

The disclosure to reporters of the arrest of an al-Qaeda computer expert allowed several wanted suspects from Osama bin Laden's terror network to escape, government and security officials said Tuesday.

Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old Pakistani computer engineer, was nabbed in a July 13 raid in the eastern city of Lahore. He then led Pakistani authorities to a key al-Qaeda figure and cooperated secretly by sending e-mails to terrorists so investigators could trace their locations.

His arrest was first reported in American newspapers on Aug. 2 after it was disclosed to reporters by U.S. officials in Washington. Later, the Pakistan government also confirmed his capture but gave no other details.

Two senior Pakistani officials said the reports in "Western media" enabled other al-Qaeda suspects to get away.

"Let me say that this intelligence leak jeopardized our plan and some al-Qaeda suspects ran away," one of the officials said on condition of anonymity.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice acknowledged Sunday that Khan's name had been disclosed to reporters in Washington "on background," meaning that it could be published, but the information could not be attributed by name to the official who had revealed it.

The Pakistani officials said that after Khan's arrest, other al-Qaeda suspects abruptly changed their hide-outs and moved to unknown places.

The first official described the publication of the news of Khan's arrest as "very disturbing."

"We have checked. No Pakistani official made this intelligence leak," he said.

Without naming any country, he said it was the responsibility of "coalition partners" to examine how a foreign journalist was able to have an access to the "classified information" about Khan's arrest.

The USA Today reporter seems to have looked up what "on background" means.

Comments

[hephaestos.livejournal.com]

Good luck getting another mole in there after screwing this one.

[snuh.livejournal.com]

Here's the White House's spin:

White House Has Some Terror Experts Worried
Officials here and overseas say U.S. alerts and release of information could hinder broader investigations.

By Jeffrey Fleishman, LA Times Staff Writer

(...)
Officials in Pakistan reportedly said Tuesday that Washington's recent disclosure of the arrest of a suspected Al Qaeda operative, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, allowed other extremists under surveillance to disappear.

"It causes a problem. There's no doubt about that," said Charles Heyman, editor of Jane's World Armies. "The moment you make any announcement, you tell the other side what you know. As a rule of thumb, you should keep quiet about what you know."

British security officials are angry over recent U.S. revelations of terrorist threats and arrests, said Paul Beaver, an international defense analyst based in London. He said the attitude among some British intelligence officials was that the "Americans have a very strange way of thanking their friends, by revealing names of agents, details of plots and operations."

Along with such criticism, the administration faces questions at home about how it handles terrorism investigations and alerts. It insists it hasn't used the alerts to further Bush's political campaign, but some Democrats disagree.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked the White House, in a letter to national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, to explain how Khan's name was made public and whether the disclosure had jeopardized any investigations.

Rice said over the weekend that she did not know whether Khan was cooperating with Pakistani authorities, and she said his name had not been disclosed publicly by the administration. The administration has tried to find a middle ground between informing the public and keeping investigations secret, she said.

"We've tried to strike a balance," Rice said. "We think for the most part we've struck a balance, but it's indeed a very difficult balance to strike."

Several senior U.S. counterterrorism officials have expressed concern in the last week about the amount of information leaking out, saying it has begun to have a direct and negative effect on efforts to round up suspects and gain insight into any conspirators.

"It is really hurting our efforts in a very demonstrable way," said one official, who declined to elaborate.

Larry Johnson, a former senior counterterrorism official at the State Department and CIA, said Tuesday that the leaks were part of a pattern in which the administration had undercut its own efforts to fight terrorism by divulging details when doing so was deemed politically advantageous.

The administration "has a dismal track record in protecting these secrets," said Johnson, deputy director of the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism from 1989 to 1993.

"We have now learned, thanks to White House leaks, that the Al Qaeda operative was being used to help authorities around the world locate and apprehend other Al Qaeda terrorists," Johnson said, citing reports that the disclosures "enabled other Al Qaeda operatives to escape."

"Protecting secrets and sources is serious business," he added. "Regrettably, the Bush administration appears to be putting more emphasis on politicizing intelligence and the war on terror. That approach threatens our national security, in my judgment."