Osama Bin Laden and the Leak That Wasn't

The Washington Post ^ | December 20, 2005 | Glenn Kessler

[ironman]

The author does not appear to be fully aware that a US Senator leaked that the US was monitoring bin Laden's satellite phone.

[MNJohnnie]

Yep. The Failed Media have gone beyond being subjective to out right LYING about things now. Just more "Flush the Koran" style Journalism.

[satchmodog9]

Someone in the government gave Binny that info. Do the math Mr Reporter.

[AgThorn]

Typical media ... unsubstantiated claims and counter-claims. We should have some sort of 'fine' system for this. If they can't 'site their sources' they should have to label their writings as 'opinion only' and anything but news.

[OneRatToGo]

If we deny history long enough then it never happened at all.

[Tarpon]

The MSM is conveniently not aware of a lot of facts. The Internet is their worst enemy.

[c-five]

"The author does not appear to be fully aware that a US Senator leaked that the US was monitoring bin Laden's satellite phone"

Could you please provide the name of the Senator and a reference?

[God luvs America]

do you have a link to your comment?? I'd love to mass e-mail it/fax it to the WaComPost....

[Semi Civil Servant]

The New York Times: Al-Qaeda's most effective spy network.

[advance_copy]

It's WaPo. Did we really expect them to let the facts get in the way of a good Bush-bash story?

[mortal19440]

I heard Orin Hatch say it at a news conference. I'm not sure if he was the first.

[LS]

You're right. This reference was made by several Dems, I think Durbin was the first, but maybe Rockefeller. It is a fact.

[ironman]

"In 1998, according to Fleischer, an "unauthorized disclosure" of information about Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone undermined U.S. intelligence gathering efforts.

"As soon as it was publicly revealed, we never heard from that source again," Fleischer said. "We never again heard from that satellite phone."
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/06/20/911.warning/

The Senator was reported to be Richard Shelby.

[tiki]

It was Senator Orrin Hatch.

[tiki]

I could be wrong but I swear it was Hatch. I may be having a faulty memory and I don't have any proof but there are some here who will know.

[tiki]

I knew I had personally heard him when it happened!

[Pikamax]

http://www.nationalreview.com/geraghty/geraghty200310010843.asp

The day of the 9/11 attacks, Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, told the Associated Press that intelligence agencies "have an intercept of some information that includes people associated with [Osama] bin Laden who acknowledged a couple of targets were hit."

He made similar comments to ABC News and said the information had come from officials at the CIA and FBI. White House officials were more than mildly displeased with the Hatch at the time.

"Well, that helps a lot! [Expletive]!" one administration official told the Chicago Tribune.


>>>that was different

And in what has to rank as one of the most damaging leaks of all time, press leaks tipped off Osama bin Laden to the NSA's interceptions of his satellite phone conversations. He then switched to more sophisticated phone systems, according to intelligence officials.

[God luvs America]

thanks- but you'd still need something prior to that (from '98) to show that authorized information was leaked....as much as I want to discredit this there needs to be something quoting a government official from that time verifying the leak in order to bombard the ComPost...

[stocksthatgoup]

Who was the US Senator that leaked the information

[TheForceOfOne]

As a cost cutting measure, the entire MSM will cut all reporters and support staff and only maintain a skeleton crew to assure the direct feed from Al Jazeera isn't broken.