The Washington Post reports that News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) Fox News was among the news agencies that downloaded an al-Qaeda video that was leaked by the U.S. government, and in so doing unveiled a security hole in al-Qaeda's network that permanently damages a valuable source of information about its plans.
According to the article, many news agencies downloaded transcripts of the video, but Fox News cited the source, effectively closing that avenue of information for good.
A little background is in order here. Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) was established in 2002 to track and expose terrorist groups. According to the Post piece, SITE obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on September 7, it notified the Bush administration, giving two senior U.S. officials access on the condition that they not reveal what they had until al-Qaeda had officially released the broadcast. But by mid-afternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to media outlets. Fox News had the transcripts up and sourced to SITE by 3 p.m.
So what? SITE -- whose years-long surveillance operation enabled it to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from al-Qaeda's communications network -- believes that this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to the security breach and destroyed a valuable intelligence channel, according to the article. 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.
The article states that SITE administrators urged the utmost discretion when handing the sensitive information over to the government. Why would the U.S. government then leak such critical security information to any media outlet? Ever since the administration let Bin Laden go in the December 2001 Battle of Tora Bora, I've wondered whose side it's on.
Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in News Corp.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-09-2007 @ 4:31PM
robert chapman said...
This article illustrates yet again the lengths to which the Bush Administration will go to gain partisan advantage.
How many times have we heard President Bush dismiss difficult questions by saying that to give an answer would endanger confidentiality and imperil National Security?
How many times have members of the Bush Administration and their supporters BULLIED war opponents and civil liberties advocates with the statement that if secrets are revealed PEOPLE WILL DIE.
Yet when their favorite news Station Fox News decides to air a story and actually endangers lives by blowing apart an active intelligence source, the White House goes into denial mode.
It is clear that for US President GW Bush and his supporters national security means nothing more than GOP electoral advantage.
10-09-2007 @ 4:41PM
Jeff said...
I know Faux News is a great media outlet and all, but revealing that SITE - Search for International Terrorist Entities was the source isn't what closed the source.
I would assume al-Qaeda didn't figure out after the fact what the acronym SITE stood for.
11-23-2007 @ 9:01PM
coconutfactory said...
Very good post. In several occasions Bin Laden's videos seem to support the Bush administration.
I believe that Rita Katz and the Site Institute made the video, that's why the government had it before the Islamic websites. For facts and comments supporting this: http://coconutfactory.blogspot.com/2007/09/rita-katz-site-institute-and-bin-laden.html
10-10-2007 @ 10:06AM
ThatGayConservative said...
Brian Ross at The Blotter (ABC News) had the story at 9:23 AM.
10-10-2007 @ 10:47AM
ThatGayConservative said...
Also, MyPetJawa is reporting that it's possible that the WH and Intel had the video before SITE told them about it. Apparently Brian Ross had a transcript on 6 Sept.