akaoni 0 Posted October 9, 2007 From the Washington Post: 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. 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. Nice Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NorthernVike 2,083 Posted October 9, 2007 Like FOX was the only station that ran with the story. Typical WP reporting They all ran the story. They used the fox link to trace it back to the gov't. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wiffleball 4,790 Posted October 9, 2007 I don't think it's so much about Faux, but it's pretty damning. Regardless, it's a pretty serious F up. I don't really buy-off on the premise that it had to be the White House though. The article itself said several agencies downloaded the video. I don't understand how they went from saying that to 'the white house leaked'. It could have been any number of individuals at any number of intelligence & defence agencies. Anybody have a different POV?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
akaoni 0 Posted October 9, 2007 Like FOX was the only station that ran with the story. Typical WP reporting They all ran the story. They used the fox link to trace it back to the gov't. If you go back and read the story a bit more carefully, you'll see that it was SITE Intelligence Group founder: Rita Katz who pointed this out. But the problem here is not the compulsive leaking of sensitive intellgence but the reporting of it, is that right? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
akaoni 0 Posted October 9, 2007 But it is correct that Fox alone is not responisible for running the story other news outlets are equally to blame. Still, I think the leaker(s) is(are) the real culprit(s) here... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Recliner Pilot 61 Posted October 9, 2007 But it is correct that Fox alone is not responisible for running the story other news outlets are equally to blame. Still, I think the leaker(s) is(are) the real culprit(s) here... Rove indictmentst will be coming soon...................................................again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
