White House leak to FOX News compromises year long secret surveillance of al Queda

[Kyi Yo]

Okay, now if this isn't the height of stupidity. The White House leaka classified info to FOX News, tips off al Qaeda to secret surveillance, destroying a year-long spy effort!

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801817.html?hpid=topnews)

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.

Great, what kind of idiot in the WH calls up FOX!

Exactly what happened next is unclear. But within minutes of Katz's e-mail to the White House, government-registered computers began downloading the video from SITE's server, according to a log of file transfers. The records show dozens of downloads over the next three hours from computers with addresses registered to defense and intelligence agencies.

By midafternoon, several television news networks reported obtaining copies of the transcript. A copy posted around 3 p.m. on Fox News's Web site referred to SITE and included page markers identical to those used by the group. "This confirms that the U.S. government was responsible for the leak of this document," Katz wrote in an e-mail to Leiter at 5 p.m.

Al-Qaeda supporters, now alerted to the intrusion into their secret network, put up new obstacles that prevented SITE from gaining the kind of access it had obtained in the past, according to Katz.

[lily]

Great, what kind of idiot in the WH calls up FOX!

The same idiot who called the Times on other things?

When I read this article, I wondered what happened to the leaker this administration had........seems he's back.

[BoogyMan]

Whomever is leaking should be severely punished.

I do have to ask, however, why are you assuming it was leaked directly to Fox? The text of the article speaks of the text on a Fox website in the same breath as it talks about other news agencies having the story.

I also have to wonder about this SITE group. Is that a group that is operating at the behest of our government? If not, what is the real difference between this and the other outsourced functions that seem to be so detested these days? Did the government know the scope of the SITE groups infiltration of Al Queada? Hmmm.

[ViolaLee]

The Bush admin is as leaky as a rusty faucet when it comes to National Security secrets and covert CIA agents who work in Iraq tracking WMD.

It's pitiful.

[Drocket]

Great, what kind of idiot in the WH calls up FOX!

You're making a serious mistake in assuming that the Bush White House/Republican party and Fox News are separate entities.

[jafar00]

The Bush admin is as leaky as a rusty faucet when it comes to National Security secrets and covert CIA agents who work in Iraq tracking WMD.


Surely having CIA agents in Iraq search for WMD is a complete waste of time and money? How many years has it been without finding anything?

[preservanation]

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. Furthermore, many agencies have leaked info damaging to the Bush Administration and to our war on terror for years.

These leakers are not necessarily part of the administration but are individuals (lifers) put in place by prior administration who may not like Bush or oppose some of the changes installed after 911. It threatened their jobs or they simply have an axe to grind.

Bush never cleared house like prior administrations did when he took office and he has payed a high price for that and so has our effort on the war on terror.
IMO Bush also has not tried hard enough to stem the tide of these leaks or to find out who they are.
All the left wing media, the NYT in particular, who were the recipient of a butt-load of them, (remember?) refused to divulge their sources (which is their right, but not their obligation) They keep them secret because they don't want those damaging leaks to the Bush administration or to our war effort to dry up.

[potter]

My own take on this; leaks like this that undermine efforts to defeat the enemy also tend to ensure that the "forever war" reamains "forever".

Lots' of poeple making huge bucks off this "forever war" and who wants to turn off the cash spigots?

Capitalism is king.

[Truth_and_Power]

Comparing this to political leaks that expose wrongdoing by the bush admin is inaccurate. This actually has a negative tangible effect on our efforts to fight terrorism, whereas the other kind can only be classified as negative in the fact that they could decrease support for the war or the bush admin here in america. Using this 'morale' argument would classify all anti-establishment political speech as treason, which is the kind of tyranny many neocons espouse but which runs counter to core american values.

This case is a clear concrete example of leaks hurting intelligence efforts.

Of course the neocon slurpers here don't really care about tyranny or freedom of speech, so I expect them to disagree and slander 'libs' in posts following this one.

[ViolaLee]

The Bush admin is as leaky as a rusty faucet when it comes to National Security secrets and covert CIA agents who work in Iraq tracking WMD.


Surely having CIA agents in Iraq search for WMD is a complete waste of time and money? How many years has it been without finding anything?
Valerie Plame worked as a NOC, Non-Official Cover, the kind where if she's in trouble in her spying, the US won't save her and take her out of the scene. She worked in Iraq, tracking WMD before Bush invaded the country.

[Lazarus]

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. Furthermore, many agencies have leaked info damaging to the Bush Administration and to our war on terror for years.
That is a common misconception - damaging the BA and damaging the WOT are not mutually inclusive. In fact, they are often at odds.

These leakers are not necessarily part of the administration but are individuals (lifers) put in place by prior administration who may not like Bush or oppose some of the changes installed after 911. It threatened their jobs or they simply have an axe to grind.
Another common refrain - refusing to believe that these whistleblowers are anything else but saboteurs. Bush labeled them as traitors.

Bush never cleared house like prior administrations did when he took office and he has payed a high price for that and so has our effort on the war on terror.
Oh yeah, getting rid of all that experience would surely have prevented 9/11. I know Junior likes to be viewed as the smartest individual in the room, but rocks and plants don't talk - at least not to anyone but Bush, perhaps. There might be a kinship in the mix.
IMO Bush also has not tried hard enough to stem the tide of these leaks or to find out who they are.
All the left wing media, the NYT in particular, who were the recipient of a butt-load of them, (remember?) refused to divulge their sources (which is their right, but not their obligation) They keep them secret because they don't want those damaging leaks to the Bush administration or to our war effort to dry up.

He hasn't done anything because none of these whistleblowers have broken the law. Sure, he has used his DoJ to harrass select individuals to send a message, but that has not and will not prevent his creative/baseless interpretations of law from being exposed.

That is what the media was envisioned to accomplish; and I am enjoying the show. But the intermissions are too long.

[preservanation]

Laz,
I have not much to add.
I think we are somehow in agreement.
(I hope this admission doesn't damage you in any way)

[ViolaLee]

preserva.....good show, ole chap!

[ECW]

Whomever is leaking should be severely punished.

I do have to ask, however, why are you assuming it was leaked directly to Fox? The text of the article speaks of the text on a Fox website in the same breath as it talks about other news agencies having the story.

I also have to wonder about this SITE group. Is that a group that is operating at the behest of our government? If not, what is the real difference between this and the other outsourced functions that seem to be so detested these days? Did the government know the scope of the SITE groups infiltration of Al Queada? Hmmm.


Notice that other news sources, if they had the story, did NOT run with it the way the low-lifes at FOX did. Nothing says working hand-in-glove the way that FOX and the Bushbots do. They are the official network of the WH and rightwing spin and now of helping destroy a window to the workings of AQ for the sake of being "first" with a story. Don't ever talk again of how this president is hard at work protecting us from terrorists when their flunkies in the WH just screwed one of the best inside sources we had on the workings of OBL. If you can't make the effort to catch that murdering SOB, at least don't piss in the pool that everyone else is swimming in that is trying to catch him. What a bunch of dumbasses.

You can wonder about SITE all you want but they are a group of hard-working researchers who are trying to do what American spies and their covert agents cannot seem to do and that is keep tabs on the bad guys. It's one thing to go and shoot them up but it's a whole 'nother ball of wax to figure out WHO to shoot. SITE does that as do a number of other covert groups all paid by the government to do this job. The only outsources functions that are detested are the ones that cost more than the original government program did or the ones that seriously f*ck things up so they are almost unfixable. That list, under this WH and their lack of accountability, is very long and growing by the day.

Valerie Plame worked as a NOC, Non-Official Cover, the kind where if she's in trouble in her spying, the US won't save her and take her out of the scene. She worked in Iraq, tracking WMD before Bush invaded the country.

Here's the rest of the story on Ms Plame:

The unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson by White House officials in 2003 caused significant damage to U.S. national security and its ability to counter nuclear proliferation abroad, RAW STORY has learned.

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.

While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran.link (http://www.rawstory.com/news/2005/Outed_CIA_officer_was_working_on_0213.html)

Once the Bushbots targeted her for exposure in retribution for her husband's editorial that criticized the lies told by the WH, they not only shot us in the foot but they hit an artery. We are bleeding and no one is trying to stop the flow. Now that Plame is gone, no one has stepped up to fill that post and we are running blind on Iran as the most recent hysteria about their weapons program and nuclear ambitions will testify to. All for a political payback.

It is pretty clear that George Bush and the people that work for him consider political correctness and blind loyalty to be superior to the well-being of our nation and they will stop at nothing to hammer anyone that gets in their way regardless of the cost to our nation. It is, sadly, the price of doing business. Political business.

[Kyi Yo]

SITE -- an acronym for the Search for International Terrorist Entities -- was established in 2002 with the stated goal of tracking and exposing terrorist groups, according to the company's Web site. Katz, an Iraqi-born Israeli citizen whose father was executed by Saddam Hussein in the 1960s, has made the investigation of terrorist groups a passionate quest.

"We were able to establish sources that provided us with unique and important information into al-Qaeda's hidden world," Katz said. Her company's income is drawn from subscriber fees and contracts.


Katz said she decided to offer an advance copy of the bin Laden video to the White House without charge so officials there could prepare for its eventual release.

She spoke first with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding, whom she had previously met, and then with Joel Bagnal, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security. Both expressed interest in obtaining a copy, and Bagnal suggested that she send a copy to Michael Leiter, who holds the No. 2 job at the National Counterterrorism Center.

Administration and intelligence officials would not comment on whether they had obtained the video separately. Katz said Fielding and Bagnal made it clear to her that the White House did not possess a copy at the time she offered hers.

Around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, Katz sent both Leiter and Fielding an e-mail with a link to a private SITE Web page containing the video and an English transcript. "Please understand the necessity for secrecy," Katz wrote in her e-mail. "We ask you not to distribute . . . [as] it could harm our investigations."

Fielding replied with an e-mail expressing gratitude to Katz. "It is you who deserves the thanks," he wrote, according to a copy of the message. There was no record of a response from Leiter or the national intelligence director's office.

Exactly what happened next is unclear. But within minutes of Katz's e-mail to the White House, government-registered computers began downloading the video from SITE's server, according to a log of file transfers. The records show dozens of downloads over the next three hours from computers with addresses registered to defense and intelligence agencies.

By midafternoon, several television news networks reported obtaining copies of the transcript. A copy posted around 3 p.m. on Fox News's Web site referred to SITE and included page markers identical to those used by the group. "This confirms that the U.S. government was responsible for the leak of this document," Katz wrote in an e-mail to Leiter at 5 p.m.

Fred F. Fielding: Fred Fielding to Replace Harriet Meyers (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1575066,00.html)
Fielding was Counsel to President Reagan from 1981 to 1986, deputy White House counsel from 1972 to 1974 and associate White House counsel from 1970 to 1972. He was Clearance Counsel for the Bush-Cheney Presidential Transition in 2000 and 2001, and has degrees from Gettysburg College and University of Virginia School of Law.

Joel Bagnal: President's Team (http://www.whitehouse.gov/results/leadership/bio_1140.html)
Joel Bagnal -- White House
Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security

The President has named Joel Bagnal to be Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. Mr. Bagnal previously served as Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. Prior to his service at the White House, Mr. Bagnal held various command and staff positions as a commissioned officer in the United States Army. Mr. Bagnal received his bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy.


The first news outlet to get the leaked video, FOX news. The video had digital markings that proved it was from the original SITE website and the authentic al Queda video of Bin Laden.

The two senior white house officials are hardly "leftover flunkies" from a previous administration. They were specifically chosen by Bush for those positions.

Spin away! Some of you are as bad as Limbaugh.

[Deadshot]

I truly do not see it as much of a leap of logic to see the link between FAUX news and the White House.

This is just another example of the FUBAR White House.:madlaugh:

[ECW]

and of political gamesmanship at the expense of national security. Of course, there will be stonewalling in the effort to discover who did leak the video but it would be too little, too late. The cow has left the barn and we are all standing in deep cowshit. Thanks, George.

[ViolaLee]

Here's the rest of the story on Ms Plame:

The unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson by White House officials in 2003 caused significant damage to U.S. national security and its ability to counter nuclear proliferation abroad, RAW STORY has learned.

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.

While many have speculated that Plame was involved in monitoring the nuclear proliferation black market, specifically the proliferation activities of Pakistan's nuclear "father," A.Q. Khan, intelligence sources say that her team provided only minimal support in that area, focusing almost entirely on Iran.link (http://www.rawstory.com/news/2005/Outed_CIA_officer_was_working_on_0213.html)

Once the Bushbots targeted her for exposure in retribution for her husband's editorial that criticized the lies told by the WH, they not only shot us in the foot but they hit an artery. We are bleeding and no one is trying to stop the flow. Now that Plame is gone, no one has stepped up to fill that post and we are running blind on Iran as the most recent hysteria about their weapons program and nuclear ambitions will testify to. All for a political payback.

It is pretty clear that George Bush and the people that work for him consider political correctness and blind loyalty to be superior to the well-being of our nation and they will stop at nothing to hammer anyone that gets in their way regardless of the cost to our nation. It is, sadly, the price of doing business. Political business.


Bush and Cheney should be impeached, convicted, thrown out and put in jail for this alone. Nevermind the warrantless wiretapping, habeas corpus violations, torturing people, lying to take us to war.....just the treason of outing Valerie Plame and the horrible mess it's become is enough. They are CRIMINALS.

[preservanation]

And not one impeachment hearing by Pelosi and Co.
They either are complicit in his crimes or are dupes.
I wonder which one it is?

[BoogyMan]

By midafternoon, several television news networks reported obtaining copies of the transcript. A copy posted around 3 p.m. on Fox News's Web site referred to SITE and included page markers identical to those used by the group. "This confirms that the U.S. government was responsible for the leak of this document," Katz wrote in an e-mail to Leiter at 5 p.m.

I have no choice but to assume you intentionally overlooked the highlighted text above Kyi Yo, oh well.

[Truth_and_Power]

The Bush admin is as leaky as a rusty faucet when it comes to National Security secrets and covert CIA agents who work in Iraq tracking WMD.


Surely having CIA agents in Iraq search for WMD is a complete waste of time and money? How many years has it been without finding anything?


they have found a bunch of gas canisters, but it was stuff we made for them a long time ago and hence a long way from anything damning to saddaam. but they HAVE found stuff, the above is the reason why it has not been held forth as proof of truth in the neocons war hype.