Sunday's Terror Alert Outs Mole

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Sunday's Terror Alert Outs Mole
4
Sat, 08-07-2004 - 6:56pm
Unmasking of Qaeda Mole a U.S. Security Blunder-Experts

By Peter Graff

LONDON (Reuters) - The revelation that a mole within al Qaeda was exposed after Washington launched its "orange alert" this month has shocked security experts, who say the outing of the source may have set back the war on terror.

Reuters learned from Pakistani intelligence sources on Friday that computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, arrested secretly in July, was working under cover to help the authorities track down al Qaeda militants in Britain and the United States 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."

Last Sunday, U.S. officials told reporters that someone held secretly by Pakistan was the source of the bulk of the information justifying the alert. The New York Times obtained Khan's name independently, and U.S. officials confirmed it when it appeared in the paper the next morning.

None of those reports mentioned at the time that Khan had been under cover helping the authorities catch al Qaeda suspects, and that his value in that regard was destroyed by making his name public.

A day later, Britain hastily rounded up terrorism suspects, some of whom are believed to have been in contact with Khan while he was under cover. Washington has portrayed those arrests as a major success, saying one of the suspects, named Abu Musa al-Hindi or Abu Eissa al-Hindi, was a senior al Qaeda figure.

But British police have acknowledged the raids were carried out in a rush. Suspects were dragged out of shops in daylight and caught in a high speed car chase, instead of the usual procedure of catching them at home in the early morning while they can offer less resistance.

"HOLY GRAIL" OF INTELLIGENCE

Security experts contacted by Reuters said they were shocked by the revelations that the source whose information led to the alert was identified within days, and that U.S. officials had confirmed his name.

"The whole thing smacks of either incompetence or worse," said Tim Ripley, a security expert who writes for Jane's Defense publications. "You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place?

"It goes against all the rules of counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, running agents and so forth. It's not exactly cloak and dagger undercover work if it's on the front pages every time there's a development, is it?"

A source such as Khan -- cooperating with the authorities while staying in active contact with trusting al Qaeda agents -- would be among the most prized assets imaginable, he said.

"Running agents within a terrorist organization is the Holy Grail of intelligence agencies. And to have it blown is a major setback which negates months and years of work, which may be difficult to recover."

Rolf Tophoven, head of the Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Policy in Essen, Germany, said allowing Khan's name to become public was "very unclever."

"If it is correct, then I would say its another debacle of the American intelligence community. Maybe other serious sources could have been detected or guys could have been captured in the future" if Khan's identity had been protected, he said.

Britain, which has dealt with Irish bombing campaigns for decades, has a policy of announcing security alerts only under narrow circumstances, when authorities have specific advice they can give the public to take action that will make them safer.

Home Secretary David Blunkett, responsible for Britain's anti-terrorism policy, said in a statement on Friday there was "a difference between alerting the public to a specific threat and alarming people unnecessarily by passing on information indiscriminately."

Kevin Rosser, security expert at the London-based consultancy Control Risks Group, said an inherent risk in public alerts is that secret sources will be compromised.

"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 the case of last week's U.S. alerts, officials said they had ordered tighter security on a number of financial sites in New York, Washington and New Jersey because Khan possessed reports showing al Qaeda agents had studied the buildings.

Although the casing reports were mostly several years old, U.S. officials said they acted urgently because of separate intelligence suggesting an increased likelihood of attacks in the runup to the presidential election in November.

U.S. officials now say Hindi, one of the suspects arrested after Khan's name was compromised, may have been the head of the team that cased those buildings.

But the Pakistani disclosure that Khan was under cover suggests that the cell had been infiltrated, and was under surveillance at the time Washington ordered the orange alert.

The security experts said that under such circumstances it would be extraordinary to issue a public warning, because of the risk of tipping off the cell that it had been compromised. (Additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan in Berlin)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040807/ts_nm/security_source_dc_1

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Sat, 08-07-2004 - 7:21pm
Two colossal screwups there... the government for even HINTING that this guy existed in the first place, and the NYT for actually printing his name. That's just about as dumb as publicly disclosing the name of CIA operatives, and just as counterproductive.

Disgusting lack of judgement from both parties involved.

~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 08-08-2004 - 12:03am

>" "The whole thing smacks of either incompetence or worse," said Tim Ripley, a security expert who writes for Jane's Defense publications. "You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place? "<


>"It's not exactly cloak and dagger undercover work if it's on the front pages every time there's a development, is it?" "<


Someone that's "in the know" is

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Sun, 08-08-2004 - 12:57pm
<<"You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda,>>

Pakistan turned over Kahn and he was their mole. They are also not playing up the story so who knows what's happening. In all fairness the WH didn't release the name a member of the press followed the clues and released the name. IMO, this WH is too concerned about getting back into the residence in January than in protecting the US. Freudian slips often are a significant window into a speakers mind.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 6:53am
U.S. leak 'harms al Qaeda sting'

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/08/09/terror.wrap/index.html


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The effort by U.S. officials to justify raising the terror alert level last week may have shut down an important source of information that has already led to a series of al Qaeda arrests, Pakistani intelligence sources have said.


Until U.S. officials leaked the arrest of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan to reporters, Pakistan had been using him in a sting operation to track down al Qaeda operatives around the world, the sources said.


In background briefings with journalists last week, unnamed U.S. government officials said it was the capture of Khan that provided the information that led Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to announce a higher terror alert level.


Khan is a computer expert who officials said helped Osama bin Laden communicate with his terror network.


Investigators found detailed surveillance information on certain targets in the United States, apparently conducted by al Qaeda operatives, on Khan's computer disks.


The unnamed U.S. officials leaked Khan's name along with confirmation that most of the surveillance data was three or four years old, arguing that its age was irrelevant because al Qaeda planned attacks so far in advance.


Law enforcement sources said some of the intelligence gleaned from the arrests of Khan and others gave phone numbers and e-mail addresses that the FBI and other agencies were using to try to track down any al Qaeda operatives in the United States.


Then on Friday, after Khan's name was revealed, government sources told CNN that counterterrorism officials had seen a drop in intercepted communications among suspected terrorists.


Officials used Sunday's talk shows to defend last week's heightened alerts, amid widespread claims the White House disclosed Khan's arrest to justify raising its terror alert level. (Full story)


But some observers have said that Islamabad should not have been compromised by political considerations in Washington.


One senator told CNN that U.S. officials should have kept Khan's role quiet.


"You always want to know the evidence," said Sen. George Allen.


"In this situation, in my view, they should have kept their mouth shut and just said, 'We have information, trust us.' "


Sen. Charles Schumer said he was "troubled" by the decision to identify Khan.


He said the public learned little from reports of Khan's role, "and it seems to me they shouldn't have put this name out."


"The Pakistani interior minister, Faisal Hayat, as well as the British home secretary, David Blunkett, have expressed displeasure in fairly severe terms that Khan's name was released, because they were trying to track down other contacts of his," Schumer told CNN.


Looking forward

But Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad downplayed the effect of the U.S. "outing" of Khan, saying Islamabad is looking forward and not back.


"We are moving towards the positive side," he said. "We've got positive information and we believe there will be positive results."


Pakistan continued its crackdown over the weekend, going after multiple al Qaeda cells around the world.


They are on the manhunt for two North African al Qaeda operatives -- Abu Farj of Libya and an Egyptian named Hamza -- who are connected to Ahman Khalfan Ghailani, who was arrested in late July.


Meanwhile, an al Qaeda operative believed to have been close to bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was flown home to Pakistan after he was arrested in Dubai, intelligence sources said. (Senior figure arrested)


Pakistani intelligence officials said information provided by Khan not only contributed to the rise in the U.S. terror alert level but also led to 13 arrests on terrorism charges in Britain.


Four of the 13 have since been released, but British police have been given until Tuesday to question the remaining nine. (Full story)


British officials declined to comment.

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs