Why is this not a bigger story? Bush let Al Qaeda operatives escape...

[AmericanLiberal]

...in order to justify the terror alert level??

"Neville Dean of PA News reports that a magistrate has given British police only until Tuesday to finish questioning 9 of 13 men arrested August 3 on suspicion of being part of an al-Qaeda cell. The men had been in email correspondence with Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who since mid-July has been functioning as a double agent for the Pakistani government. He was arrested in Lahore on July 13 and "flipped."

The Bush administration revealed Khan's name to US journalists on Sunday August 1 on background, and it appeared in the US press on Monday. The Bush administration thus effectively outed Khan as a double agent (he sent emails to his London contacts as late as Monday).

The British MI5 was forced to have the London cell of 13 arrested immediately on Tuesday, fearing that they would flee now that they knew Khan had been arrested two weeks earlier. The British do not, however, appear to have finished gathering enough evidence to prosecute the 13 in the courts successfully.

It now turns out, according to Neville, that "Reports last week also claimed that five al Qaida militants were on the run in the UK after escaping capture in last Tuesday’s raids." If this is true, it is likely that the 5 went underground on hearing that Khan was in custody. That is, the loose lips of the Bush administration enabled them to flee arrest."

CNN - http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/08/09/terror.wrap/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/221112p-190071c.html

http://progressivetrail.org/articles/040809Cole.shtml

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/002293.html

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-8-2004_pg7_42

From the Daily Times, an English-language Pakistani newspaper:

"Prof. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan’s analysis is more daring, “The announcement of Khan’s name forced the British to arrest 12 members of an al-Qaeda cell prematurely, before they had finished gathering the necessary evidence against them via Khan. Apparently they feared that the cell members would scatter as soon as they saw that Khan had been compromised. (They would have known he was a double agent, since they got emails from him Sunday and Monday!) One of the 12 has already had to be released for lack of evidence...

Prof. Cole speculates that the scenario could have been like this. “Bush gets the reports that Eisa al-Hindi had been casing the financial institutions, and there was an update as recently as January 2004 in the Al Qaeda file. So this could be a live operation. If Bush doesn’t announce it, and Al Qaeda did strike the institutions, then the fact that he knew of the plot beforehand would sink him if it came out (and it would) before the election. So he has to announce the plot. But if he announces it, people are going to suspect that he is wagging the dog and trying to shore up his popularity by playing the terrorism card. So he has to be able to give a credible account of how he got the information. So when the press is skeptical and critical, he decides to give up Khan so as to strengthen his case. In this scenario, he or someone in his immediate circle decides that a mere double agent inside Al Qaeda can be sacrificed if it helps Bush get re-elected in the short term. On the other hand, sheer stupidity cannot be underestimated as an explanatory device in Washington politics.”

[oasis]

1. Because CNN wants to play nice with the Bushies.

[HootieMcBoob]

2. because

Jim McGreevy is Gay and Kerry used the word sensitive in a speech. Where have you been? What's more important - these two things or our national security and the consistent incompetence of the people in charge?

[AmericanLiberal]

3. The Real Story...

No, whats most important is what Amber Frey did with Scott Peterson on the night of June 17, 2004... The Public Needs to Know!!!

[RC]

4. This administration is in bed with al-qaeda

Why else do they keep doing shit to make more terrorists?