Incompetence
President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers): But this is absolute madness, Ambassador! Why should you build such a thing?
Ambassador de Sadesky: There were those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in [listed with increasing disgust] the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. At the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we had been spending on defense in a single year. The deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a doomsday gap.
President Merkin Muffley: This is preposterous. I've never approved of anything like that.
Ambassador de Sadesky: Our source was the New York Times.
The NYT once again committed treason and Kahn's name may have been leaked by someone in Pakistan's ISI, but if there was a sting operation going on in Pakistan then Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge also gave out to much information last Sunday when he heightened security. I specifically remember Ridge mentioning that new information, particularly "out of Pakistan" justified the alert. By being so specific in the alert, Ridge let the terrorists (and the media) know too much.
Terrorists involved in the planning and/or surveillance of the specific targets named by Ridge combined with Ridge pointing to Pakistan, would have had a clear indication that a colleague of theirs with this knowledge in Pakistan had been compromised.
Thanks to the "dots" laid out by our Secretary of "Homeland Security", the terrorists could have reasonably realized that communicating with Kahn would be a risk to their operation.
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
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
Take all with a grain of salt.............
"Last Sunday, U.S. officials told reporters that someone held secretly by Pakistan was the source of the bulk of the information justifying the alert. The New York Times obtained Khan's name independently, and U.S. officials confirmed it when it appeared in the paper the next morning."
No news report yet has identified the "LEAK" coming from any part of the Bush Administration. Words used thus far on the initial "LEAK" have been "U.S. officials" and intelligence officials and this would include any elected Congress critter.
Thus far the first responder to the announcement of raising the alert was Howie Dean, of the JFKerry campaign, and he claimed the "alert" was a political act.
Now seems as though Howei Dean was a decoy to send the "media whores" sniffing out every one they could find with the question whether it was a political move.
All the while the NYTimes is leaking "INTEL" that requires a yes or no response and the Bush Administration cannot allowed themselves to be accused of "LYING" or covering up.
Looks like these dims and the NYTimes are still giving comfort and "INTEL" to the terrorists.
WHomever at the new york slimes made the decision to publically name the "mole" should be taken out and shot. That is an act of treason, imho...
And wasn't that the NYT's plan all along?
I personally look forward to hearing of al Qaeda suspects offering resistance to arrest...
Save us a lot of money in legal fees.
Was this info classified? I guess it doesn't really matter since we don't prosecute people for breaking the espionage laws anymore.
There are some people somewhere who need to learn to keep their dang mouths shut.