[NYTr] More on White House Leakers Who Allegedly Exposed anti-al-Qaeda Intell Op

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[This story was originally broken by The Washington Post.  Leakers in
the White House ruined what allegedly was a successful intell operation
against al-Qaeda's computer networks. Some of this story is apparently
based on the Washington Post's reporting. -NY Transfer]

See Earlier Story:
Bush Admin's Leak of Osama Video "Ruined" anti-Al Qaida Spy Op 10/9/07
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071008/069807.html

sent by MichaelP - activ-l

VNUNet - Oct 15, 2007
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2201175/white-house-leak-harms

US hackers crack al-Qaeda computers

...But security leak blows internet spying operation

by Iain Thomson

Details  are  emerging of security leaks at the White House which have 
shut  down an internet spying operation that had successfully cracked 
al-Qaeda's computers.

Reports  suggest  that the latest video from Osama Bin Laden was found 
online before  its  release by the Search for International Terrorist 
Entities  Institute (Site Institute <http://www.siteinstitute.org/>), 
which had infiltrated al-Qaeda's intranet, known in intelligence
circles as 'Obelisk'.

The Site Institute then passed the details on to contacts in the White 
House,  with a link to the new video on the Site Institute website and
a transcript of the contents. Also included was a request to keep the 
information secret.

Government-registered  computers began downloading the video within 20 
minutes, and dozens of government computers went onto the website for 
copies over the next three hours.

By  that  afternoon  Fox  News  and  other  stations were broadcasting 
sections  of  the video,  including  screen  shots of the website and 
mentioning  the Site Institute's name. Within an hour of the publicity 
al-Qaeda's intranet was taken offline.

"Techniques  that  took  years  to  develop  are  now  ineffective and 
worthless,"  Rita Katz, Site's founder, told the Washington Post. "The
US government was responsible for the leak of this document."

The  Site Institute was set up in the wake of the 11 September attacks
and is  a not-for-profit organisation that is widely respected n the 
intelligence community.

The effects of the leak on its ability to monitor terrorists sites has 
severely  weakened attempts to find out more about potential terrorist 
operations.

Fran  Townsend,  assistant  to  the president for counterterrorism and 
homeland security, has promised an investigation.

"We will learn more as time goes on, but I understand that the link to
the Site  was provided to the intelligence community, and the concern
was that  that  link  is  the piece that was the thing that was made
public," Townsend said in a press conference
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/>.

"So, as I say, I mean, obviously, I'm not - we here at the White House
are unable  to conduct  an  investigation,  and  I leave this to the
Director of National Intelligence to ascertain the appropriate way of
dealing with this and understanding what happened, so we can ensure it
doesn't happen again."

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