 AP Photo |
Posted on 08/10/2004 8:41:16 AM PDT by Kaslin
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The disclosure to reporters of the arrest of an al-Qaida computer expert allowed several wanted suspects from Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s terror network to escape, government and security officials said Tuesday.
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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-Qaida 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-Qaida suspects to get away.
"Let me say that this intelligence leak jeopardized our plan and some al-Qaida suspects ran away," one of the officials said on condition of anonymity.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) 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-Qaida 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 official refused to comment whether any U.S. official was responsible for the leak.
On Monday, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., asked the White House to explain why the name of Khan was revealed.
The disclosure on Aug. 1 came as the Bush administration was defending its decision to warn about possible attacks against U.S. financial buildings in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan cautioned Monday that information may be more limited about future raids against al-Qaida suspects.
Khan led authorities to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani — a Tanzanian with a $25 million American bounty on his head for his suspected involvement in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa — and the capture of about 20 other al-Qaida suspects. The arrests also prompted a series of raids in Britain and uncovered past al-Qaida surveillance in the United States.
Pakistani officials over the weekend have said they are searching for two North Africans: Abu Farj, a Libyan, and Hamza, an Egyptian, who are believed to have spent some time in Pakistan with Ghailani.
A Pakistani security official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that despite failing to capture some al-Qaida suspects after Khan's arrest, the country's security agencies were chasing them and would eventually get them.
The official would not reveal the names or nationalities of the fugitives who evaded arrest.
Ghailani and Khan are still in the custody of Pakistan — a key ally of the United States in its war on terrorism.
Officials say Ghailani and Khan's computer contained photographs of potential targets in the United States and Britain, including London's Heathrow Airport and underpasses beneath London buildings.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said in a newspaper interview that his country had been "90 percent" successful in nabbing suspects in a number of high-profile attacks.
"We have achieved an unprecedented 90 percent success to unearth elements involved in terrorist attacks against myself, prime minister-in-waiting Shaukat Aziz and in other high-profile cases," Musharraf was quoted as saying by The News, a Pakistani English-language daily, Musharraf.
Pakistan has seen a string of bombings and suicide attacks over the past year, including two suicide bombings by Islamic militants that the president narrowly escaped in December, and another last month targeting Aziz, the current finance minister and prime minister designate. Aziz was unhurt but seven others were killed in that attack.
Cheering at the NYT?
I am not sure if this belongs in Breaking. Please feel free to remove it from there
The reporter is
The "leak" came from a government source. The NYT published it.
The article also fails to mention that the NYT article specificly attributes the leak to Pakistani officials, and that the US officials simply confirmed the information.
NYT - Spinning victories into defeats
With coutrymen like these, one might wonder if our bayonets are pointed at the right enemy...
That's not what I heard. The NYT got the name of the guy and by then the government source had to confirm it.
Does that mean the Administration itself wanted the info revealed? Or does it just mean that the person who revealed it didnt want their identity known?
According to what I've read so far, Washington only confirmed the name after the story broke.
The information appears to have come to the New York Times from another source.
I'm in favor of hitting the New York Times with a huge fine for interfering in anti-terrorist operations. Just on principle.
That paper will get us killed. In the meantime it "just" makes us sick....
Chuckie, you just wouldn't understand. Why not just get back to accomplishing nothing for NY.
The forgot one paragraph:
The disclosure came only after poisonously partisan Democratics and this paper charged the administration with false alarms and election year "fear-mongering", thereby blunting the effect of the White House's initial warnings. Only after this disclosure did these nattering nabobs concede that additional security "might be a good idea".
Bingo. It appears the scorching of the Administration by the leftists over heightened terror alerts led someone to back up the warnings with specifics.
Not that this excuses leaks, but it explains them.
LEAKED Right after KERRY GOT His Intelligence Briefing, HMMMM, and to The OLDE Gray Lady, his Campaign Paper of record, Hmmmmmm.
Here is the original article, as you can see, the reporters clearly stated that the Pakistanis were the source of the leak, not US officials. This is just another Democrat smear campaign.
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Unmasking of Qaeda Mole a U.S. Security Blunder-Experts ^
Posted by Eva to be-baw
On News/Activism ^ 08/07/2004 8:33:03 PM PDT · 53 of 84 ^
Geez, we went through this last night. It was the Pakistanis who revealed the name.
I picked this up from some London paper, not the NYT, but I think it says that the Pakistanis were the source.
Captured Qaeda engineer spurred attack warnings
By Douglas Jehl and David Rohde (The New York Times)
Monday, August 2, 2004
WASHINGTON: The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the CIA to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior U.S. 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 in which information was transferred via coded messages
A senior U.S. official would not confirm or deny that 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. official, an intelligence expert, at a briefing for reporters on Sunday afternoon.
The documentary evidence, whose contents were reported urgently to Washington on Friday afternoon, immediately elevated the significance of other intelligence information gathered in recent weeks that had already been regarded as highly troubling, senior U.S. intelligence officials said. Much of that information had come from Qaeda detainees in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, as well as Pakistan, and some had also pointed to a possible attack on financial institutions, senior U.S. intelligence officials said.
The U.S. officials said the new evidence had been obtained only after the capture of the Qaeda figure. Among other things, they said, it demonstrated that Qaeda plotters had begun casing buildings in New York, Washington, and Newark, New Jersey, even before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Among the questions the plotters sought to answer, senior U.S. intelligence officials said, were how best to gain access to the targeted buildings; how many people might be at the sites at different hours and on different days of the week; whether a hijacked oil tanker truck could serve as an effective weapon; and how large an explosive device might be required to bring the buildings down.
The U.S. officials would say only that the Qaeda figure whose capture had led to the discovery of the documentary evidence had been captured with the help of the CIA.
But an account provided by a Pakistani intelligence official made clear that the crucial capture in recent weeks had been that of Khan, who is also known as Abu Talha. The intelligence official provided information describing Khan as having assisted in evaluating potential U.S. and Western targets for terrorist attacks, and as being representative of a "new Al Qaeda."
9 posted on 08/06/2004 11:49:54 PM PDT by Eva
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I read this posted article. I also read the article a couple of days ago, which Kaslin and others are referring to which said that the Slimes leaked the story and the government subsequently confirmed it.
I'd like to see the context of Dr. Rice's comments. Much could be edited out or skewed.
Prairie
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