Bush Team on Defensive Over al-Qaeda Leak. One of the greatest coups in Washington’s nearly three-year war against al-Qaeda has suddenly turned sour with reports the White House prematurely exposed the identity of a key source whose contacts and communication with the terrorist group’s operational masterminds had yet to be fully exploited.
The source, 25-year-old computer wizard Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, had been cooperating with Pakistani police and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since he was quietly detained in Lahore on July 12, until the New York Times published his name last Monday after receiving a “background” briefing by the White House.
The Bush administration, which had elevated the terror-warning level in three U.S. states on the basis of information acquired from Khan, set up the briefing to dispel public skepticism about the terrorism threat, particularly after it was disclosed that much of the information on which it was based was several years old.
British and Pakistani intelligence agencies were reportedly furious with the leak, which forced UK police to hurriedly round up 13 al-Qaeda suspects who are alleged to have been in email communication with Khan. Five others who were sought by MI5 reportedly escaped capture, and there is some question that the British had gathered enough evidence to persuade a judge to keep the 13 detainees in custody, according to published reports.
“The outing of Khan, probably the most important asset the U.S. has ever had inside al-Qaeda, is a huge disaster and a setback to attempts to finish off the top leadership of al-Qaeda,” according to Juan Cole, a Middle East specialist at the University of Michigan, whose Web log (or “blog”) “Informed Comment” is widely read in Washington. (link)
Since Cole has indeed made the story his own, you can read more here and here. This particular article provides a good summary of the story so far. [Al-Muhajabah’s Islamic Blogs]