Reply #102: That's it. Thanks. Here's the Naaem Noor Khan timeline

[krkaufman]

The Khan timeline:

• July 13, 2004: Naaem Noor Khan arrested
  
• July 26-29, 2004: Democratic Nat'l Convention
  
• August 1, 2004: Homeland Security head Tom Ridge announces terror-threat increase (nicely timed a couple days after the end of the DNC)
  
• August 2, 2004: Khan still communicating w/ London terror cell
  
• August 2, 2004: NY Times article naming Khan
  
• August, 2004: UK arrests, with several elluding capture
  
• July 7, 2005: London bombings
  

Best bits, IMO, from the CNN article you referenced...

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.

...

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.

...

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.