bush propaganda reveals info warning al-Qaeda of a weakness in their security and loses an intelligence source

posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:21 AM Permalink

If the situation wasn't so serious and the implications so obvious I would be laughing my a$$ off at yet another bush maladministration blunder made in the interest of furthering American propaganda.

See this from the New York Sun detailing the egregiously stupid error that cost America a valuable source of intel on al-Qaeda:

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.[…]

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. […]

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."

First of all, I refuse to believe that this information wasn't leaked to the news agencies at the behest of the bush maladministration as a propaganda tool to show our dedicated efforts to get more intel on al-Qaeda were succeeding.

Secondly, I believe the laws of unintended consequences shows why such propaganda efforts are not only futile, given this maladministration's known tendency to tell extravagant lies and manufacture problems that do not exist in reality, but dangerous to the security of America.

And thirdly, I see this as a clear attempt to ascribe the blame for this failed propaganda effort to ABC and other news outlets in order to silence opposition, dissent, and further the effort to silence free speech by claiming these news agencies themselves are a danger to American security.

Watch as the Republicans in congress start calling for the prosecution of "traitor" news organizations and the investigation of every reporter who reported the story, even though it is clear that these "leaks" were planted at a time when bush is desperate to improve his image as a strong leader and leave behind a legacy of something other than sheer incompetence.

Why else would an intelligence officer who requested anonymity be giving interviews to the press to announce this intelligence failure and clearly seek to blame the press for this disastrous error?

Labels: Bush, disinformation, first amendment, hypocrisy, propaganda, spying, War On Terror