Posted on 10/09/2007 2:21:58 AM PDT by jsh3180
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.
But the disclosure from ABC and later other news organizations tipped off Qaeda's internal security division that the organization's Internet communications system, known among American intelligence analysts as Obelisk, was compromised. While intranets are usually based on servers in a discrete physical location, Obelisk is a series of sites all over the Web, often with fake names, in some cases sites that are not even known by their proprietors to have been hacked by Al Qaeda.
One intelligence officer who requested anonymity said in an interview last week that the intelligence community watched in real time the shutdown of the Obelisk system. America's Obelisk watchers even saw the order to shut down the system delivered from Qaeda's internal security to a team of technical workers in Malaysia. That was the last internal message America's intelligence community saw. "We saw the whole thing shut down because of this leak," the official said. "We lost an important keyhole into the enemy."
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Funny, you read the headline and first paragraph you think it was an intelligence snafu; you get to the second paragraph, though, and it appears it was the media rushing the material out that ruined the operation.
Do the lives of innocent Americans mean so little to ABC or any other like news organization? Obviously, it does.
And what will the Justice Department do about it? (Nothing)
That's because they aren't Americans and they don't take sides in this war. How Un-American and unpatriotic of you to think that they might let their bias show.
The leak seems to be an intelligence community problem, not a media one.
Looks to me like Rita Katz’ folks are continuing to do outstanding work. Maybe someone smart will someday make her DCI.
BTTT
Damnit somebody needs to hang over this!
Thank You ABC News; traitors.
We need to get to the bottom of this disgusting anti-American media aiding and abetting the enemy. What is it going to take another 9-11? It will happen but it won’t stop the traitors.
It doesn’t surprise me that the media is full of traitors. On the other hand, the story doesn’t make much sense because even if we have broken their security (as I’m sure we have), we certainly would not turn the excerpts over to ABC. And if we did, then maybe we’ve got traitors in the CIA, as well.
Ditto. The news media wouldn't know about it if the intelligence community could keep a secret.
I'd say it's both.
2 problems: the government person(s) who leaked, and the news organizations who publicized the leak.
There are far too many people in government who are just too stupid for words, and most of the remainder are traitors.
Add to that news agencies that are more concerned with a news coup than the welfare of the country and you have a recipe for defeat.
“Enemies, domestic and foreign”
One intelligence officer who requested anonymity said in an interview last week
I want this SOB hung. He works for the government, he works for the people of the United States of America, not the media. If he can't keep his mouth shut he needs to be hung out to dry, tried, imprisoned and suffer the ultimate penalty of traitors.
The Senate Judiciary committee will however do something. They passed out of committee a shield for these traitorous reporters to never have to reveal their sources. Our United States Senate has endorsed espionage on the front page of major media newspapers and headlines from the mainstream media.
These people are pathetic.
Perhaps.
But I also see this as a severe partisan problem, in which the many GWB haters inside the CIA/Intelligence community are eager to leak things ... just to damage this Administration.
Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but that's what I truly believe.
I’m not totally sure this is a bad thing. They relied on that system and now have had to shut it down. This must be significantly reducing their ability to communicate with each other. I expect we’ll locate the replacement system fairly quickly — if we haven’t already; this story may be part of a disinformation campaign to convince al Qaeda that we’ve completely lost access to their communication network, when in fact we haven’t.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.