http://cliffschecter.bravenewfilms.org/blog/15391-a-secret-white-house-source-or-a-propaganda-plantA secret White House source or a propaganda plant?by GottaLaff · Tuesday October 09, 02:04 PM
snip
When it comes to secrets and leaking them in a timely manner, this White House tops 'em all.
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.
Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.
The founder of SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities), Rita Katz, says that move tipped off Al Qaeda and and "destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network."
The source of the leak is a mystery. U.S. intel gathering abilities were not affected, and nobody at the White House is disputing Katz's version of events.
But privately, some intelligence officials called the incident regrettable, and one official said SITE had been "tremendously helpful" in ferreting out al-Qaeda secrets over time.
SITE has been tracking and exposing terrorist groups since 2002.
Katz said she decided to offer an advance copy of the bin Laden video to the White House without charge so officials there could prepare for its eventual release.
Of course, the White House wanted a copy, but did the White House leak it?
...several television news networks reported obtaining copies of the transcript. A copy posted around 3 p.m. on Fox News's Web site referred to SITE and included page markers identical to those used by the group. "This confirms that the U.S. government was responsible for the leak of this document," Katz wrote in an e-mail to Leiter at 5 p.m.
But here's the point:
"It is not just about getting the video first,"
said. "It is about having the proper methods and procedures in place to make sure that the appropriate intelligence gets to where it needs to go in the intelligence community and elsewhere in order to support ongoing counterterrorism operations."
So why is SITE beating the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA to the punch? Is the White House secretly outsourcing its intel operations? And is it for propaganda purposes?
That last one was rhetorical.