Al-Qaeda Intranet goes dark

This was on the news when I woke up this morning. My first thought was alright we are severing their communications. No such luck.

WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda's Internet communications system has suddenly gone dark to American intelligence after the leak of Osama bin Laden's September 11 speech inadvertently disclosed the fact that we had penetrated the enemy's system.

The intelligence blunder started with what appeared at the time as an American intelligence victory, namely that the federal government had intercepted, a full four days before it was to be aired, a video of Osama bin Laden's first appearance in three years in a video address marking the sixth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. On the morning of September 7, the Web site of ABC News posted excerpts from the speech.

...

Ms. Katz yesterday said, "We shared a copy of the transcript and the video with the U.S. government, to Michael Leiter, with the request specifically that it was important to keep the subject secret. Then the video was leaked out. An investigation into who downloaded the video from our server indicated that several computers with IP addresses were registered to government agencies."

Yesterday a spokesman for the National Counterterrorism Center, Carl Kropf, denied the accusation that it was responsible for the leak. "That's just absolutely wrong. The allegation and the accusation that we did that is unfounded," he said. The spokesman for the director of national intelligence, Ross Feinstein, yesterday also denied the leak allegation. "The intelligence community and the ODNI senior leadership did not leak this video to the media," he said.

Ms. Katz said, "The government leak damaged our investigation into Al Qaeda's network. Techniques and sources that took years to develop became ineffective. As a result of the leak Al Qaeda changed their methods." Ms. Katz said she also lost potential revenue.

source: NY Sun

This is the problem that has resulted from the politicization of the Global War on Terror and Intelligence operations. The Dems are engaged in a constant game of gotcha and the GOP is constantly trying to prove programs are effective so both sides leak stuff. Eventually something important gets leaked and the enemy is tipped off. I vaguely recall in the cold war a similar situation which resulted in the execution of a number of American assets in the Soviet Union. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.

Terrorism, Global War on Terror, Al-Qaeda, Intelligence, bin Ladin