[Hawkeye]

For the second time the Bush administration has exposed a secret agent's undercover activity. This time however the secret agent was also acting as a major Al Quaeda operative with ready access to top Al Quaeda information and also "running" an international Al Quaeda network. The agent, Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, a Pakistani, was revealed as the source of the information that led to the high terror alert announced last week by Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security. The exposure of Kahn, a rare and highly placed source inside Al Quaeda, followed a series of blunders by American intelligence and security officials. Ridge's initial announcement of the threat to various financial sites in New York City and Washington, D. C. did not state that the data was three to four years old. Doubts by various media and political sources of the veracity the Ridge data created severe pressure on the Bush camp to authenticate the reality of the threat. Bush and his advisors apparently met this crisis by revealing the source of the data as Mohammad Naeem Noor Kahn, a former Al Quaeda operative turned double agent for the Pakistanis and the CIA. This exposure forced the British to hastily arrest Kahn's contacts in Great Britain thus prematurely terminating an ongoing investigation of many suspected Al Quaeda agents. This incredible blunder on the part of the Bush administration aroused the ire of both Pakistani and British intelligence and security agencies and their government ministers.

Ready access to internal Al Quaeda activities by agents willing to share the data with western intelligence agencies is rare indeed. Condileeza Rice, the Bush Natinal Security Advisor claimed to be ignorant of Kahn's double agent status when queried by Wolf Blitzer. Another sad, dangerous, and stupid Bush blunder.

[Sarah2]

let's start with a source. I understood that the NEW YORK TIMES outted someone

[Hope]

I'd also like to know where you got this info...

[Mixxster]

LONDON (Reuters) - The revelation that a mole within al Qaeda was exposed after Washington launched its "orange alert" this month has shocked security experts, who say the outing of the source may have set back the war on terror.

"The whole thing smacks of either incompetence or worse," said Tim Ripley, a security expert who writes for Jane's Defense publications. "You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place?

"It goes against all the rules of counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, running agents and so forth. It's not exactly cloak and dagger undercover work if it's on the front pages every time there's a development, is it?"

http://www.reuters.c...storyID=5902856

This post has been edited by Mixxster: 09 August 2004 - 03:10 PM

[Mixxster]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The effort by U.S. officials to justify raising the terror alert level last week may have shut down an important source of information that has already led to a series of al Qaeda arrests, Pakistani intelligence sources have said.

Until U.S. officials leaked the arrest of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan to reporters, Pakistan had been using him in a sting operation to track down al Qaeda operatives around the world, the sources said.

Law enforcement sources said some of the intelligence gleaned from the arrests of Khan and others gave phone numbers and e-mail addresses that the FBI and other agencies were using to try to track down any al Qaeda operatives in the United States.

Then on Friday, after Khan's name was revealed, government sources told CNN that counterterrorism officials had seen a drop in intercepted communications among suspected terrorists.

http://www.cnn.com/2...wrap/index.html

[RU4real?]

Sarah2 and Hope, this is the man and the administration you two so admire. They lied about Saddam having WMDs to gain support for the invasion. They completely miscalculated the reaction of the Iraqi people when they started shoving Halliburton down their throats. They condoned the torture and abuse of innocent Iraqis. Now this.
So go ahead post your little smears of a true hero like John Kerry, we are all laughing.

[Wonder]

"Then on Friday, after Khan's name was revealed, government sources told CNN that counterterrorism officials had seen a drop in intercepted communications among suspected terrorists."

HELLO!!! The signs seemed to point to his discovery or lack of placement in a viable position... and he had to be pulled out! Part of the whole big picture is to not have the "spy" found out.

[Hawkeye]

Today's Washington Post carries a copy the the letter Senator Charles E. Schumer, DNY, wrote to Condileeza Rice requesting details of the exposure of the Al Quaeda double agent by officials of the Homeland Security Department. Schumer sent a similar letter to Francis Fragos Townsend, Bush's Domestic Security Advisor. Ever since the agent, Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, was exposed, the Bush White House has trumpeted the event as a major victory in the "war" against terrorism. If fact, the event represents a major defeat in the worldwide effort by two of America's staunchest friends, Great Britain and Pakistan, to uncover evil Al Quaeda activities. The US press, including the Lancaster Newspapers, harking back to the good ole days of the Iraqi WMD hoax, has so far, with a very few exceptions, bought the Bush charade that the exposure of the double agent was a masterstroke of world class dimension. The British and Pakistani governments, whose real anti-terror agencies were badly "burned" in this affair, have bitterly complained of the Bush fiasco.

Rice has admitted that the "outing" of the Al Quaeda double agent was done by officials of the US government in an abortive effort to overcome Tom Ridge's faillure to reveal that the latest terror alert was a based on four-year old information. Townsend and Rice have once again demonstrated their dangerous lack of judgement and common sense in dealing with high level national security affairs.