US Gov Blows Indepent Intel Operation Aimed at Al Qaeda

Via FoxNews -

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday denied it was the source of a leak to the press last month of an Al Qaeda video that had been acquired by a private intelligence organization and forwarded to Bush administration officials.

In press reports, SITE Institute Director Rita Katz said she had personally alerted two high-ranking officials in the Bush administration to a new online video of Usama bin Laden that her group had discovered. She also forwarded information to a senior official at the National Counterterrorism Center.

Katz had requested secrecy, but within 20 minutes, several government agencies had begun downloading the video from SITE computer servers.

Katz said the activity tipped off Al Qaeda to its security hole, and in turn destroyed a SITE surveillance operation that somehow had figured out how to intercept secret messages, videos and advance warnings of homicide bombings, the Post reported.

"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," Katz told the Post.

Asked by reporters if the White House was the source of the leak, spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "We were not."

"The White House is very concerned to learn about it," Perino said, adding that any time a "citizen comes forward to provide information, we want to encourage that type of communication, know their sources will be protected.

"When we receive information from an individual or a company we refer it to the intelligence community and that's what happened here."

She referred further questions to the Director of National Intelligence.

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This is just scary.

How can we expect to get an intelligence upper-hand on Al-Qaeda, if the government itself screws up any advantage that we might gain?

See the "hot off the presses" National Strategy for Homeland Security Report (Oct 07)

Despite concerted worldwide efforts in the aftermath of September 11 that have disrupted terrorist plots and constrained al-Qaida's ability to strike the Homeland, the United States faces a persistent and evolving terrorist threat, primarily from violent Islamic terrorist groups and cells.

Currently, the most serious and dangerous manifestation of this threat remains al-Qaida, which is driven by an undiminished strategic intent to attack our Homeland. Although earlier efforts in the War on Terror deprived al-Qaida of its safe haven in Afghanistan and degraded its network by capturing or killing most of those responsible for September 11, the group has protected its top leadership, replenished operational lieutenants, and regenerated a safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas – core capabilities that would help facilitate another attack on the Homeland.