"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we, ... They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." George W. Bush August 5, 2004.
Members of the Bush administration have done incredible damage to the security of our country through leaks of secret data. The two biggest are exposing the cracked Iranian communication codes and exposing a mole in the al Qaeda organization.
When I first read the story about the mole being exposed by the Bush administration, I felt it was such an incredibly stupid move that something else must be involved, or that perhaps Pakistan leaked the information. Now it is clear that the leak was entirely the doing of the Bush crowd, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice admitted it. It also appears that it was done without consulting British or Pakistani security. It really does not matter whether the leak was caused by politics or incompetence, it should not have happened.
Anyone of average intelligence can figure out that if you have a spy in the enemy camp that you must try not to do anything to expose him. Doing nothing out of the ordinary is imperative. It appears that there was nothing in the intelligence to say that an attack was imminent. With that in mind, the best action might have been to delay any increased security alert until the mole had been used to expose as many al Qaeda operatives as possible.
This did not happen, the Orange Alert which was personally approved Bush was done with maximum fanfare, touting new information from Pakistan. That was absolutely the wrong move. If it was imperative to increase security at those buildings, than a program of misinformation certainly should have been tried. For example, the reason could have been recently translated intercepts of 9/11 communication from 2001 saying that certain types of buildings would be targeted. Then raise security at the targeted buildings as well as a half dozen others. This ruse might not have worked, but it is certainly better then the "Hello everybody, we have your man in Pakistan" approach.
Now that the Pakistanis have fingered Bush for the leak, I am confident that this was just another blunder on Bush's part. It appears that the only secret that the Bush administration can keep is who told Cheney what the energy plan for the country would be.
Leak Allowed al-Qaida Suspects to Escape
But on Tuesday, two senior officials expressed dismay that the arrest of Khan made it into the media too soon — reported first in American newspapers on Aug. 2 after it was disclosed to journalists by U.S. officials in Washington.
"Let me say that this intelligence leak jeopardized our plan and some al-Qaida suspects ran away," one of the Pakistani officials said on condition of anonymity.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice acknowledged Sunday that Khan's name had been disclosed to reporters in Washington "on background," meaning that it could be published, but the information could not be attributed by name to the official who had revealed it.
The Pakistani officials said that after Khan's arrest, other al-Qaida suspects abruptly changed their hide-outs and moved to unknown places. On Monday, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., asked the White House to explain why Khan's name was revealed.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&e=20&u=/ap/pakistan_intelligence_leak
Official: No Evidence Attack Is Imminent
Two weeks ago, when Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned of possible al-Qaida attacks, the "where" was very specific: financial institutions in New York City, Washington and Newark, N.J. The "when," however, was a mystery. And since Ridge's announcement, the Bush administration has discovered no evidence of imminent plans by terrorists to attack U.S. buildings, a White House official acknowledged Thursday.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=693&e=1&u=/ap/20040813/ap_on_go_pr_wh/terror_threats
