Posted on 10/10/2007 3:59:17 AM PDT by america4vr
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.
Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.
The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.
"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.
The precise source of the leak remains unknown. Government officials declined to be interviewed about the circumstances on the record, but they did not challenge Katz's version of events. They also said the incident had no effect on U.S. intelligence-gathering efforts and did not diminish the government's ability to anticipate attacks.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ah, I love the smell of WP selective indignance in the morning...
Where were they when the NYT leaked information about the “domestic spy program” or other revelations that have harmed our ability to collect intelligence and fight the W.O.T.?
Oh — this makes the administration look bad? Now I understand ...
I hope you are joking.
Whoever wrote this story explaining his error is worse than the original error. This is sort of like telling the enemy where you are vulnerable.
“Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company’s Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.”
“leaked from within the Bush administration “ IMO is a bit of a stretch. Leaked from within the government, sounds more accurate. So, what else is new?
- Then again, spying and deception being what it is, it’s possible that the claim to have a pipeline into the terrorists internet web sites might itself be a false claim designed to panic the terrorists into dismantling their entire network, disrupt their communications, sow the seeds of paranoia and force them to start all over again.
I thought leaking sensitive government secrets was the number one item taught in journalism schools these days? I thought the deadstream media knew better than the government what would and would not damage American security. Why this squeeling? I guess they hate the competition.
Statement corrected.
The CIA is riddled with RATS.
Nuthin'. It's likely just more treasonous behavior out of the leftover Clintonian CIA moles....
“.... leaked , and again ignored, condoned, and thus encouraged, from within the Bush administration “
There, fixed it.
Something smells here. If this was a secret web site that was passing secret messages, how come everyone was able to access the site, and download the messages? If the only thing “secret” was the URL, it wasn’t secret. Anyone can find, and pass along a URL if it is not encoding its data. This appears to me to be another (successful) ComPost smear of the Bush administration, based on incomplete and biased reporting.
THe left is using this as an attack on conservatives, saying Republicans can’t be trusted on national security. We need to get to the bottom of this.
I read somewhere in another thread that some blogger had access to the network, and released the video early, not realising what she was doing. If so, the leak might not have even BEEN a leak, it may have come from an entirely different source.
It may have had password protection, but still, it’s not very secure if everybody can log into it over the internet.
Of course, the terrorist network wasn’t “secure” either in that sense, and this company wasn’t the only one who had access to it.
And just to raise the question, SITE has some reason to be pissed right now, because they made a lot of money selling this information to our government and other groups. They just lost a big money-maker. That may make their statements suspect, as they are mad.
It could be this will cause a new network to be set up, and that new network will have to be put in place and we might monitor that, and then the government may have direct access to this information, and not have to buy it from a 3rd-party.
We just don’t know.
Fog of war....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.