Quote :

"Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets Firm Says Administration's Handling of Video Ruined Its Spying Efforts 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 [b]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.[b] "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."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801817.html

Basically, the short version is this: This private intel firm, SITE, which has spent years developing links to Al Qaeda, got ahold of the latest Bin Laden tape before it was released. They gave it to the White House as a courtesy to prepare them for its eventual release. This was given to them with the express understanding that it was to remain absolutely secret. Within 3 hours, dozens of people had downloaded it. Shortly thereafter, somebody leaked it to Fox News. Because of the timing, Al Qaeda was able to figure out how it got out, and SITE is claiming that they have since basically lost any ability to gather intel from inside Al Qaeda because of this.

10/10/2007 1:59:13 PM

Quote :

"Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site."

Why in the world would you make this something accessable from a website?

10/10/2007 2:15:40 PM

god damn it

i hate the administration

10/10/2007 2:29:56 PM

^^ It's probably a secure website that you have to have some type of pin or password to get into. The WH was probably given access to it, and then the WH passed it around to give others access to it as well...

10/10/2007 2:45:20 PM

Honestly, how fucking stupid is our country? Nothing surprises me at this point, but this just seems insane.

10/10/2007 2:55:22 PM

They should just come out and say who the "senior officials" were.

10/10/2007 3:08:47 PM

surprised there isnt more outrage about a privately owned surveillance company

10/10/2007 3:09:50 PM

^ why would someone be outraged? Privately owned security companies often have more better skilled people than government agencies because they have more money. I'm assuming that you're bringing that up because of Blackwater. There's a difference between a private intelligence firm and private security firm.....

10/10/2007 3:13:57 PM

not just because of blackwater...seems a lot of TSB doesnt like any private companies doing anything when the govt could be doing it...let alone a lot of TSB is all gung ho on some "omg the govt is illegally and unconstitutionally spying on us" but they dont feel that same outrage when a non-govt group is spying?

btw this fucking sucks...and i blame the whitehouse...somebody in the whitehouse leaked it

that being said, something like this wouldnt...Couldnt have happened say 40 years ago...the media is scum...again I blame the leak in the whitehouse, but the media doesnt need to publish everything either

[Edited on October 10, 2007 at 3:36 PM. Reason : .]

10/10/2007 3:28:50 PM

^ It seems obvious that we would care who they kill or spy on. Blackater may have killed a lot of people who were not enemy combatants, and the government has given themselves permission to spy on US citizens with little or no evidence. I don't think anyone here, except maybe some extremist I haven't met yet, have said they disapprove of spying on al Quida.

[Edited on October 10, 2007 at 3:40 PM. Reason : a]

10/10/2007 3:38:57 PM

tree if you think something like this couldnt have happened 40 years ago.... wow. leaking secrets is far from new.

10/10/2007 3:54:34 PM

no no no i'm not saying leaking secrets is something new...i'm saying 40 years ago the media climate was completely different...no internet...no 24 hour news channels...etc...now granted video tapes werent as common either...but my point is just that the media coverage is so much more widespread and accessible nowadays, and the media outlets are so rich and powerful, i'd guess they paid somebody in the whitehouse for it...just speculating

but again i'm not saying shit like this hasnt happened throughout time...just not in the modern media climate in which millions and millions of people can quickly and easily get access to something like this

10/10/2007 3:56:42 PM

Quote :

"^^ It's probably a secure website that you have to have some type of pin or password to get into. "

There are a few networks dedicated to handling classified material which function in the same manner as the general internet, they just require more security (as far as physical access, not just elecronic security). If it was distributed on one of those, anyone with access to that network could have picked up that information pretty quickly.

Interestingly enough, one of the important principals of intelligence gathering is rapid dissemination to the necessary recipients. I'm not saying this event was excuseable, but its more than just Dick Cheney saying, "here guys, get a load of this."

10/10/2007 3:57:40 PM

Actually, I'm pretty sure GW put it up on his myspace page.

10/10/2007 3:59:07 PM

like he even knows how to turn on the computer

10/10/2007 4:02:13 PM

LOL

10/10/2007 4:14:10 PM

Quote :

"There are a few networks dedicated to handling classified material which function in the same manner as the general internet, they just require more security (as far as physical access, not just elecronic security). If it was distributed on one of those, anyone with access to that network could have picked up that information pretty quickly. "

Understood.. I was just trying to say that it's not like the put it on You Tube or something....

10/10/2007 4:37:47 PM

okay, its clear the White House is generally inept and incompetent, thats nothing new

but this is ultimately the fault of the private firm, SITE Intel Group. assuming the story is correct, they were the ones who put this extremely sensitive video on a website that could be accessed by other agencies.

THAT is pretty fucking incompetent. they should have hosted it on a VPN that could only be accessed by the intended recipients. if it got passed along, you'd know it was a copy and you'd know where it came from.

as it stands now, you cant really say that the White House leaked this info to other agencies. maybe some SITE Group employee leaked it. whos to say?

and anyhow, it doesnt matter, because it's SITE's fault for leaving it open and accessible to multiple parties in the first place.

10/11/2007 2:39:55 AM

Although the story doesn't say either way my assumption after reading it was that the White House put it on Syprnet to give it to several other agencies.

10/11/2007 11:02:29 AM

Quote :

"Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site."

Would seem to imply that the source for the copies was the company. Not that reporters always get these sort of details right but the point remains.

Besides, if you're a big private inteligence firm with large government contracts that fucked up, wouldn't you try to blame the fuckup on government incompetence?

10/11/2007 11:27:08 AM

someone fucked up hard

10/12/2007 1:33:31 PM

from a more recent article :

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN09428167

Quote :

"The White House denied it had leaked the video but said the issue was a cause for concern and an investigation would be needed to determine what happened. The office of the Director of National Intelligence said U.S. intelligence agencies were not involved."

i love the denial of wrongdoing and then saying that an investigation was needed (presumably to find out if that denial is true)

Quote :

"An Islamist Web site had announced the video on Sept. 7, and a few hours later U.S. government officials said they had obtained a copy of the video and were analyzing it. SITE said in the Post article that it had obtained the video ahead of its planned al Qaeda release and given two senior Bush administration officials access to it on condition they not reveal they had it until the official release. But government computers were quickly used to download the video from SITE computers, and a video and transcript of the video were leaked to news outlets by people within the government, SITE told the Post. The article cited Katz as saying al Qaeda supporters, alerted by the leak, then put up new obstacles that blocked SITE from accessing their secret network. White House Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend told reporters the U.S. government needs help from private firms and individuals to fight terrorism. "So any time an individual or a commercial entity cooperates with us, and asks to be protected and doesn't get the protection that they either sought or deserved, that's a cause for concern," she said."

this is kinda interesting too:

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/inside-al-qaeda.html

[Edited on October 12, 2007 at 1:48 PM. Reason : .]

10/12/2007 1:45:44 PM

all the 'denial' means is that who ever fucked up was not a employee of the NSA, CIA, or FBI (i think that covers it)

10/12/2007 1:51:18 PM

i was referring to the white house denial, not the intelligence agencies' denial

10/12/2007 2:14:28 PM

Isn't it obvious? They (the government, that is) fucked up the intelligence on purpose. They don't WANT a good intel network. If we have good intel on where the enemy is and what he's doing, then all that's left to do is to go kill him or bring him to "justice." Then that means the end of the War on Terror, which means that the party's over. But if there's no intel, then they still have a bogieman that they can use against the American people. They can keep saying "HE'S STILL OUT THERE AND WE CAN'T FIND HIM! LIVE IN FEAR AND GIVE US MORE OF YOUR CIVIL LIBERTIES!" The military/industrial/political complex have already prospered very nicely and don't want the good times to end any time soon, so it's not as if they're going to actually do their job. Doing their job would wind up putting them out of business! So somebody deliberately leaked this information in order that the gub'ment can keep on marching all over the rest of us.

[/conspiratorial rant]

10/12/2007 10:30:22 PM

the only conspiracy going o is that the white house is stacked with cronies and flunkies, and appointments are based upon loyalty -- being a "good Bushie".... whereas competence and integrity are not required.

The White House continually trying to hide or defend their core incompetence is the only conspiracy that I'm aware of.

10/13/2007 3:27:07 AM