Posted on 08/06/2004 11:32:40 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
ISLAMABAD/LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. officials providing justification for anti-terrorism alerts revealed details about a Pakistani secret agent, and confirmed his name while he was working under cover in a sting operation, Pakistani sources said on Friday.
A Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was arrested in Lahore secretly last month, had been actively cooperating with intelligence agents to help catch al Qaeda operatives when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers.
"After his capture he admitted being an al Qaeda member and agreed to send e-mails to his contacts," a Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters. "He sent encoded e-mails and received encoded replies. He's a great hacker and even the U.S. agents said he was a computer whiz."
"He was cooperating with interrogators on Sunday and Monday and sent e-mails on both days," the source said.
The New York Times published a story on Monday saying U.S. officials had disclosed that a man arrested secretly in Pakistan was the source of the bulk of information leading to the security alerts.
The newspaper named him as Khan, although it did not say how it had learned his name. U.S. officials subsequently confirmed the name to other news organizations on Monday morning. None of the reports mentioned that Khan was working under cover at the time, helping to catch al Qaeda suspects.
President Bush defended the "orange alert" raised in New York and Washington on Sunday and said his government had an obligation to inform the public of genuine threats.
"When we find out intelligence that is real, that threatens people, I believe we have an obligation as government to share that with people," Bush told journalists.
BRITISH SWOOP
A U.S. official said on Friday one of 12 suspects caught in raids in Britain this week was a senior al Qaeda figure, and Washington would try to extradite him.
But British police said they had been forced to carry out their swoop more hastily than planned -- a day after Khan's name appeared in the New York Times as the source of information behind the U.S. alerts.
On Monday evening, after Khan's name appeared, Pakistani officials moved him to a secret location.
The next day British police mounted the sweep that caught the 12 suspects. Such raids are normally carried out late at night or in the early morning, when suspects might be at home and less likely to resist.
But showing clear signs of haste, British police pounced in daylight. Some suspects were taken in shops; others were caught in a high-speed car chase.
A British anti-terrorism police source would not comment on the reason for their quick action, but confirmed the raids were carried out faster than planned: "It would be a fair assessment to say there was an urgency. Something can happen that prompts us to take action faster than we would," he told Reuters.
A U.S. counterterrorism official told Reuters on Friday that one of the 12 British detainees, known as Abu Musa al-Hindi or Abu Eisa al-Hindi, was a key al Qaeda operative in Britain: "This arrest is a big one."
WASHINGTON TO SEEK EXTRADITION
He said Hindi was centrally involved in an effort to case possible targets in the United States for al Qaeda attacks, and said Washington would seek to extradite him.
Britain has yet to identify or charge any of the suspects or confirm whether Hindi is among them.
Intelligence and security experts said they were surprised Washington would reveal information that could expose the name of a source during an ongoing law enforcement operation.
"If it's true that the Americans have unintentionally revealed the identity of another nation's intelligence agent, who appears to be working in the good of all of us, that is not only a fundamental intelligence flaw its also a monumental foreign relations blunder," security expert Paul Beaver, a former publisher of Jane's Defense Weekly, told Reuters.
Kevin Rosser, security expert at the London-based consultancy Control Risks Group, said such a disclosure was a risk that came with staging public alerts, but that authorities were meant to take special care not to ruin ongoing operations.
"When these public announcements are made they have to be supported with some evidence, and in addition to creating public anxiety and fatigue you can risk revealing sources and methods of sensitive operations," he said.
In a separate case, British police have arrested Londoner Babar Ahmad under a U.S. warrant alleging that he helped fund militants in Afghanistan and Chechnya. At his first court appearance on Friday Ahmed said he would fight extradition.
(Additional reporting by Michael Holden in London)
1) It's clear from the British reaction that, in fact, there was a need to move VERY quickly on this stuff.
2) Trust me, I don't know what it is, but there is a REASON they slipped this guy's name out there. One possible reason is that they want the terrorists to know specifically that they had been compormised and to MOVE.
Movement is the easiest way to catch a "sleeper" or someone in a cell. You can track car rentals, plane tickets, motels, etc. It's certainly not 100% effective, but like a sniper waiting for a target, if he moves he is much more vulnerable than when he is still.
3) It is highly likely that this guy's name was already "out there" via Pakistan and there is a blame game going on.
All I know is that while the FBI has a habit of doing crap like this, I don't think Ridge's boys do.
Guess the news reports missed this critical sentence.
I do, too. Sounds a lot like the MO behind Plame-gate.
My guess is that a leftist within the intell community has leaked this to make it look as if Bush's men are stupid. Remember what matters to the left is not if we are safe, but are they in power. The left will gladly surrender lives and help OBL if it means getting what they want. To them the ends justify the means. Our lives mean nothing to them. Just ask 50,000,000 dead in the former Soviet Union!
You are correct. Just add the Compost as another traitor group. They were the a big factor in the exposing of CIA agents abroad and here during the Carter administration.
WHY do we have to blab about this stuff publically and NAME NAMES?
Exactly what I thought! While most folks here I'm a nosey person, and what to know what's going on, BUT we don't really need to know this...until the operation is finished.
The latter was my guess, the Pakistani was actually working as a double agent.
Either way works.
He was trying to expand his ego by bragging or he was a double agent. Or a combo of both.
That was a sharp observation by you last night.
You're saying that as though it would be a bad thing?
It's now to late in Irag, but there are still Syria and Iran.
As a kindly old grampa, I don't to kill innocents.
However, killing every Islamofascist/kazi AND their liberal supporters in America and round the world would be great. After this latest fiasco, our few Moabs would be used to take out the headquarters of Ny/La Slimes, Washington Compost, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Urinal, Newsweak, Slime and of course ABCNNBC BS.
Immediately America, our troops in country and those of us at home and abroad would be safer.
Maybe he was just emulating, Jethro Bodine, "double-naught spy".
That was a short nap you all took.
OK , wonder what more we will see and hear on this Friday news drop , today and tomorrow.
You can be really funny, (at times)!:)
As another kindly old grampa, could I suggest your plan be amended slightly?
Each of those RATs nests likely have child day care centers.
Those kids, while surely the spawn of RAT evil, are themselves innocent.
Could we remove them first?
Sterilize them if you must, to prevent passing on those RAT genes,
but the little eunuchs themselves might be salvageable.
That was a short nap you all took.
Fortunately, I have maintained my old sleeping routine before I turned 65. Most of the week, I only need about 6 hours of bedtime.
I know people, who are my age, who collapse on the couch shortly after dinner, wake up and go to bed at 9 and sleep until 6-8 the next morning. Then, they have a nap or two during the day. If I have a long and good day fishing, I might go to bed at 9ish. Then, I'm up at at 3:30 to 4:30.
I don't know how to answer that question. :)
Me neither, I wonder if we had that Navy guy first .... who lead us to the guys in Britain....who then lead us to the Pakistan operation and ....is Khan who Pakistan is saying he really is?
Maybe we really rolled this operation up from our end ....
Relates to the naval plans found from 2001.
Remember, earlier this week, I told you what we would have to do to you if you keep asking questions.
I hope that we never find out what happened after we found this IslamoPOS doing what he did until the last IslamoPOS has been killed. Then, conservative reporters can report in some detail what happened.
I was always making trouble in the planning meetings.....
I need some coffee and food.
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