This was just passed on to me:
At least two men who have connections to last week’s London bombings are alive and still at large.
The first is a man, who was seen on surveillance tapes at Luton station, located outside of London, as he bid farewell to the four bombers the morning of the attacks. The other is Magdy El Nashar, an Egyptian chemist, who attended and received training at North Carolina State University…
Officials tell ABC News the London bombers have been connected to an al Qaeda plot planned two years ago in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
The laptop computer of Naeem Noor Khan, a captured al Qaeda leader, contained plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway system, as well as on financial buildings in both New York and Washington.
“There’s absolutely no doubt he was part of an al Qaeda operation aimed at not only the United States but Great Britain,” explained Alexis Debat, a former official in the French Defense Ministry who is now a senior terrorism consultant for ABC News.
At the time, authorities thought they had foiled the London subway plot by arresting more than a dozen young Britons of Pakistani descent last August in Luton, a city known for its ties to terrorism.
“For some time, the locus of terrorism in Britain has been around the Luton area and in some of the northern cities,” said Michael Clark, professor of defense at King’s College in London.
Security officials tell ABC News they have discovered links between the eldest of the London bombers, Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, and the original group in Luton. Officials also believe it was not a coincidence the subway bombers all met at the Luton train station last week.
It appears that is this is the same Naeem Noor Khan who had been flipped that the Brits had to arrest early after the administration apparently blew his cover (or so it was reported):
The disclosure to reporters of the arrest of an al-Qaida computer expert allowed several wanted suspects from Osama bin Laden (news – web sites)’s terror network to escape, government and security officials said Tuesday.
Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old Pakistani computer engineer, was nabbed in a July 13 raid in the eastern city of Lahore. He then led Pakistani authorities to a key al-Qaida figure and cooperated secretly by sending e-mails to terrorists so investigators could trace their locations.His arrest was first reported in American newspapers on Aug. 2 after it was disclosed to reporters by U.S. officials in Washington. Later, the Pakistan government also confirmed his capture but gave no other details.
Two senior Pakistani officials said the reports in “Western media” enabled other al-Qaida suspects to get away.
“Let me say that this intelligence leak jeopardized our plan and some al-Qaida suspects ran away,” one of the officials said on condition of anonymity.
I also remember something about someone in the ISI in Pakistan outing Khan, but I don’t know what is going on. I am so spinned out by everyone and everything it is hard to make heads or tails of events anymore. If it is true this administration blew his cover, and these folks that bombed London were part of the same crew, not good. Again, buyer beware until this is sorted out.
Stormy70
US official doesn’t necessary mean the administration only. Senators also tend to leak to the media, as well as officials in the State Department or the CIA. This is not spin, this is fact. Not enough info, yet. Ask the NYT who leaked the front companies of the airlines of the CIA used to ferry terrorists all over the world. Or did that slip under the Plame radar?
SomeCallMeTim
Yes, by all means. Equate an attempt to discredit a negative report by someone by outing his CIA wife with leaking details about our extraordinary rendition program. Absolutely the same.
Stormy70
Yeah, leaking CIA companies ferrying terrorist scum is the right kind of leak, isn’t it. I guess we’ll chalk that up to being a liberal leak, so it’s A-Ok. No wonder your party is perceived as soft on defense issues, you only care about the CIA secrets if its Bush’s ox being gored. This is Bush Hatred version 6.0.
Bernard Yomtov
So the Administration leaked the name of an agent and that had bad consequences! My my. Who would have thought that? What did he do, write a letter to the editor criticizing Bush? That would justify it, wouldn’t it?
Stormy70
An agent who apparently needed a nanny to keep her toddlers while she clandestinely snuck off to her desk at Langley. I hope she wore he dark glasses and scarf over her hair so noone could recognize her. Sneaky. LOL.
KC
I seem to recall lefty bloggers making a fuss out of this during the election. Juan Cole covered it, Josh Marshall also covered it a couple times, and Drum covered it a few times too. From what I remember, and from what I just posted, the issue was settled in the administration’s favor. Namely, they didn’t leak the name of Khan, the Pakistanis did. Obviously, the truth maybe little less clear.
KC
I seem to recall lefty bloggers making a fuss out of this during the election. Juan Cole covered it, Josh Marshall also covered it a couple times, and Drum covered it a few times too. From what I remember, and from what I just posted, the issue was settled in the administration’s favor. Namely, they didn’t leak the name of Khan, the Pakistanis did. Obviously, the truth maybe a little less clear.
Doug
The Pakistani ISI is a hotbed of jihadists from what I understand. One of the folks on the boards at the Well was formerly a Christian Science Monitor correspondent in Afghanistan and has been wondering since about 9/12/01 why we weren’t doing more to clean out that particular rat hole. (Well, not so much around 9/12/01 — more around 9/12/02 when the Bush administration was rolling out its Iraq “product line”.)
Sojourner
Oh I see. You know better than the CIA who is undercover and who isn’t. I can’t believe you don’t have greater respect for a woman who put her life on the line for this country while you sit on your ass plotting how to get rich. You’re shameful.
Bob
Wasn’t Khan the guy who was outed in order to make a big splash at the Rethug Convention in NYC last year? Yeah, that’s right. The Republicans asked for Pakistan to produce something for the big show and it was Khan who they busted. National Security is just another prop. I guess that’s why Stormy and Darrell don’t mind the consequences of destroying our intelligence services. It’s all show biz! Maybe you guys ought to send your extra purple heart bandaids over to London.
How do you guys sleep at night?
Stormy70
Pakistan is full of nukes, which can make it tricky.
Steve
The implication from last year was that “someone” put big-time pressure on the Pakistanis to announce the arrest of this guy. I remember something about a press conference held at midnight Pakistani time, an odd time to have a press conference. But I don’t know what was verified about any of this.
KC
Bob or whoever on the left, right or center can answer, when did the administration leak Khan’s name? I’m still not seeing exactly when the Bush administration “outed” Khan. From what I posted above and what I’ve looked at since, it seems the Pakistanis leaked his name. Whether or not it was to make a “splash” at the GOP convention, I can’t say.
Also, John, where did you get that last sentence segment you quoted? I didn’t see it in the ABC article.
srv
The Brits will be just waking up, literally and figuratively.
JG
On Eschaton there’s a post about the leak. Seems someone decided to heighten the security level near the end of the dem convention. They used (three year old) info they recieved from Pakistan about buildings being targeted in DC and NY to raise the terror level to whatever meaningless clor was next. True story, a woman I worked with would take days off when the terror alert was up. This stuff works on a scary amount of people.
Stormy70
You guys better check out Drudge. New Devolopments in Plame. Really going to bed soon.
JG
If its on Drudge then its certainly fact.
Stormy70
It’s from the NYT, and it’s very interesting. Very interesting , indeed.
ppgaz
Ask Stormy why she doesn’t pay attention. That bullshit has been covered. Right hereon these pages, IIRC. The names were out there long before the NYT story you refer to.
You are full of crap.
arnott
some of the stories are filed under nothing.
(that’s what i see) . y ?
foolishmortal
Not good? Not Good?!? If “it is true this administration blew his cover” then what we have here is a prime example of
Double-Plus Ungood
W.B. Reeves
As far as the ostensible Khan/Tube Bombing connection is concerned, opinion in this country is largely irrelevant. What matters is what people in Britain think. If the British people believe that the Pakistani Government was acting at the behest of the Bush administration when it announced the arrest of Khan, resulting in queering a British counter-terrorist operation against a network that subsequently bombed the underground, all hell will break loose. I wouldn’t be surprised if Blair got the “Thatcher treatment” from his cohorts in the Labor party. He’s been living on borrowed time since the election anyway. If that happens, the coalition of the willing will be short one very unwilling island.
How likely is it that the British public will give our government the benefit of a doubt?
CK
I sort of wonder if this new Plame story is a counterspin operation, though it’s tough to say. The story appears in the NYTimes and the AP. In the least, it’d be interesting to know who this unidentified source is. Assuming that the source in both articles is the same, all I can see is that he/she works in the legal profession, was briefed on the testimony, and is confident that Rove didn’t “disclose Ms. Wilson’s identity.” At the same time, I think some on the Left are going overboard with things right now too. Honestly, I’m about ready to just give up on this story.
ppgaz
I posted this same material to another thread … the topic keeps moving around like a cockroach.
—-/
The big story on Drudge looks like a dud to me.
1. Novak claims to have used a reporter’s trick to get confirmation of a fact: I heard blah blah blah
2. Rove claims to have said, Yeah, I heard that too.
At this point, Rove confirms the famous fact (Plame, CIA).
3. Rove then claims he “heard this from another reporter” but doesn’t seem to remember who.
—-/
This is why I haven’t followed this goofy story or drilled into the details. We are still at the Major Bullshit stage.
Very skeptical of “leaks” from the Grand Jury process. If I were privy to what is going on in the GJ room, I sure as hell would not piss off this prosecutor by leaking. My ass could end up in jail — and for what? What would be my motive? To muddy the waters around this story? Why would I want to do that?
Novak and Rove together don’t make up one decent human being AFAIC. They stink. They are both veteran liars and gameplayers. These two have a story that sorta kinda maybe insinuates that all ol’ innocent Karl was doing was repeating what some other reporter — unnamed — had already told him?
Karl Rove is a powerful man in the top levels of the executive branch of the government of the United States. He casually “outs” a CIA agent and doesn’t know where he got the information? He knows full well that if the Novak dialogue was as claimed, Novak was using a well-known fishing technique. He fell for that old ruse, and let slip a White House – level “you’re it” on Plame?
If you believe that, then all I can say is, you’ll believe anything. That’s just pure bullshit.
Jon H
CK writes: “I sort of wonder if this new Plame story is a counterspin operation, though it’s tough to say. The story appears in the NYTimes and the AP”
And the Washington Post. Maybe others.
Looks like Rove’s technique.
SamAm
Yeah, it’s obviously from Luskin.
Though I honestly don’t know why. The dude is digging a hole for his client every single time he opens his mouth.
Marcus Wellby
Standard DC procedure — leak a BS story to the press, then the surrogates come out and use that “independant” story to support their spin.
Anyhow, its all trivial BS — the real story is the new season of Battlestar Galactica starts tonight!!! Woo-hoo!
rs
W.B.Reeves is absolutely correct about British perceptions.While American news coverage made this story about the U.S. within the first 8 hours,British media tells a different narrative.Many in England feel dissed by Bush bypassing London when he left G-8,by American military personnel being told it was unsafe to visit London,and by widespread American disregard for yesterdays silent acknowledgment of the victims.Brits are prepared to believe this story.Get ready to replace the French as the assholes of the world in the collective eyes of England.
Tim F
Please explain why this is, even in part, a Plame war thread.
No better, I’ll explain. This story is catastrophic as far as rightwingers are concerned. If as reported the WH did exert tremendous pressure on Pakistan to cough up some WOT scoop to suck some air out of the Dem convention, and the intel scoop they coughted up was Khan, and Khan’s outing allowed the London bomb plot to proceed, then the Republicans are a detestable, malignant force in American politics.
That obviously isn’t a connection that the rightwingers here will ever onsider making. So they throw shit about unrelated subjects. Pretty much says it all IMO.
Marcus Wellby
The thing is, Tim, it just doesn’t matter to Bush supporters. Much like nothing about Clinton could ever bother his supporters. I think we are watching our two party system break, let hope democracy doesn’t go with it.
CaseyL
Clinton didn’t start a war on false pretences, didn’t mock the soldiers who were fighting and dying, didn’t dare the enemy to “Bring it on!,” didn’t have a Svengali who outed a CIA agent for petty political revenge, and didn’t ruin at least three intel operations (Khan, Hassan, Plame). Clinton’s supporters just had to deal with a President who couldn’t keep his pants zipped.
Worlds of difference, there.
And you’re wrong that “nothing bothered Clinton’s supporters.” NAFTA and welfare reform bothered his supporters plenty.
neil
Tim F, I think that this is the sort of thing that, if true, is simply too big to be taken seriously. Nobody, even the Brits, is going to want to carry the ball forward.
So they have nothing to worry about except their own souls.
W.B. Reeves
Perhaps I’m a bit thick but the substance of this comment escapes me. The football analogy appears a little misplaced since the crucial issue isn’t political gamesmanship but British public opinion. The British system doesn’t operate along the lines of our own nor do I think they view the NFL as a political model.
As for the “British soul”, considering the implications of the story, that seems a rather ill considered swipe.
Defense Guy
First, stop supposing you have any idea what matters to Bush supporters and what does not. Second, you may be witnessing the death of the Democratic party, but not of the 2 party system. The Whigs went the way of the dodo once too. Maybe the libertarians will take it’s place.
Oh,Boy.Stupidity!
If we learn that it was the CIA’s Plame herself who singlehandedly 1) created Osama 2) planted crack in S. Central L.A. and 3) really is at the helm of all those black helicopters, will she then get another full-spread in Vanity Fair?
Oh,Boy.Stupidity!
Whoops. Wrong thread!