Posted on 10/09/2007 1:11:17 PM PDT by Brilliant
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Tuesday denied being the source of a leak involving an Osama bin Laden video that a private intelligence firm said had sabotaged its secret ability to intercept Al-Qaeda messages.
Asked if the White House was the source of the leak, spokeswoman Dana Perino said: "No, we were not ... We were very concerned to learn about it."
The SITE Intelligence Group said it lost access that it had covertly acquired to Al-Qaeda's communications network when the administration of President George W. Bush let out that the company had obtained a bin Laden video early last month ahead of its official release, the Washington Post said.
"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," SITE founder Rita Katz told the newspaper.
SITE monitors websites and public communications linked to radical Islamist groups and organizations deemed terrorist by US authorities and provides the information to clients, including news media companies.
It got hold of the bin Laden video before its release and provided it for free to the White House on the morning of September 7 but insisted that the video's existence remain secret until it spotted the official release, in order to protect its own work.
"Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's website," the Post said.
By that afternoon the video and a transcript from it had been leaked to a cable television news network and broadcast worldwide, the Post reported.
According to Katz, this tipped off Al-Qaeda that its communications security had been breached by SITE.
White House officials said the matter would be referred to the Director of National Intelligence, and that the White House was not planning any internal investigation.
"When the White House receives information from an individual or a company, we refer that appropriately to the intelligence community. That's what happened here," Perino said.
"And I'll have to refer you to the Director on National Intelligence for any process problem they had in that regard."
Homeland security adviser Fran Townsend echoed Perino's "concern" and referred the matter to the nation's spy chief.
"This is going to be an issue for the DNI to look at so that we can understand what, if anything, happened, and how to deal with it to ensure that we fully protect those who cooperate with us," Townsend said.
"I haven't looked at the internal White House emails, so what I can tell you is the DNI and the Intelligence Committee will need to look at who had access to it.
She added: "We are only going to be successful in the war on terror with the help of the American people."
The video appeared to be timed to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, and was bin Laden's first video appearance since October 2004.
In it, the elusive Al-Qaeda chief mocked the United States as "weak" and vowed to escalate fighting in Iraq.
Another US-based organization that monitors Islamic militant websites, IntelCenter, said its "sources, methods and techniques ... to collect terrorist video material remain intact," according to CEO Ben Venzke, who added that the focus on rushing videos to the public could have dangerous consequences.
"Simply getting the video first but not having the professional knowledge and responsibilities to know what to do with it can not only result in the loss of valuable intelligence but it can actually harm ongoing activities within the official counterterrorism community," he said.
This "has happened time and time again when private citizens and organizations outside of the IC (intelligence community) play in fields where they lack the depth and experience."
This was SITEs screwup in having the video on a server available for “a range of intelligence agencies” to download.
The CIA has leaked to the press before to make the administration look bad, and it could well have done so again.
SITE never should have had that information available for indiscriminate downloading in the first place.
Maybe so, but I want to know who the traitor is who actually leaked it to the media. Seems like our government is full of traitors. Why Bush puts up with them, I can’t imagine. Go after them. Make an example.
Of course, it seems a bit late for that.
‘The government leaked it’ is a pretty wide swath of potentially culpable individuals. I have my doubts about this being directed from the White House.
Agreed. But I am sure that ABC knows who they got it from. When is this spineless Administration going to do something about it?
Almost certainly the usual suspects in the CIA were responsible for the leak to their friends in the press, not the White House.
So I doubt that Bush is implicated.
BUT. He has a responsibility for his failure to deal with the traitors in the FBI, the Justice Department, and the CIA going on almost SEVEN YEARS now. He has made only feeble efforts to deal with the problem, even though it has hurt him personally as well as damaging our country.
that last sentence is a very important one.
They need to be more on the offense concerning national security traitors without a doubt. What the internal enemies get away with, with virtual impunity, is ridiculous and dangerous.
Now that the Dems control the House and Senate, I am sure they will investigate to get to the bottom of this.
They probably got paid by the media to leak it. I think the money ought to go to the government, while the perp goes to jail. And I think ABC ought also be penalized. Make them pay for the development of the technology, as well as the lost intelligence. We’re talking bribery here. Someone ought to be in jail.
Yup. If you continue to tolerate an offense, it will continue to bite you in the a$$.
Remember what Colleen Rowley said about the national FBI folks: it was almost as if they were enemy agents. And remember what Sibel Edmonds said: same thing.
The government is riddled with traitors, and the fact that nothing is done about it speaks volumes.
I’m sure the availability was part of their contract.
I seem to remember that SITE contacted “two senior officials” in the White House, and released the information to them on the condition that they not release it more generally until the video was released to the general public. I’m sure they sent it to the CIA for authentication, and I can see a bunch of analysts going “oh cool, take a look at this”. It’s just like a popular video showing up on YouTube, with no thought given to OpSec.
Keep letting leftist traitors get away with this, Mr. President, and act surprised every time it happens again. One might begin to suspect that you enjoy the results you get.
I can see that, too, but I can’t see the next step of getting a transcript leaked to the press without someone doing it on purpose.
It could be as innocent as a “Valerie Plame” type talking to a reporter friend to build up their own sense of importance. “Guess what? I’ve seen the latest bin Laden video that will be released on 9/11.”
Isn’t it about as bad to say “We don’t know who leaked it” as if the White House DID leak it?
Well, someone leaked it—and the WH has done little to nothing to stop these leaks. So as far as I’m concerned, they were responsible for this leak. They keep letting it happen, and doing nothing even when the perp is caught.
You could make them sweat though. Tell ABC that you hold them responsible for millions of dollars in damages, perhaps billions. Do that to ABC, and you can bet that will be the last time they bribe a government official to leak top secret info.
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