Stirred But Not Shaken
Michael Walsh at the NY Post describes his unease at how the administration exposed an undercover source in order to trumpet its vigilance on terrorism. “Let’s stipulate that the CIA’s discovery a fortnight ago of yet another underwear-bomber plot, this one originating with al Qaeda in Yemen and aimed at an American airliner, was a splendid feat of intel tradecraft … But here’s a rude question: Why do we even know about this?”
One of the unsung stories in the War on Terror is the active cooperation of Arab and other Muslim officers working in-country: Saudi intelligence officers, Iraqi cops and local Afghani chiefs …
Their identities — their very existences — are generally kept secret, not only for their own protection, but for the continuing effectiveness of counterterrorism ops. You generally don’t let the bad guys know you’ve penetrated their inner sanctums. Moles stay underground for a reason.
Yet here was John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, showing up on national TV to take a very public victory lap. “I think people getting on a plane today should feel confident that their intelligence services are working day in and day out to stop these types of IEDs from getting anywhere near a plane,” he said …
So why blab? Why endanger an asset like the brave Saudi double agent who penetrated al Qaeda, helped track the other plotters and came away with the bomb itself?
No matter how closely guarded his identity is, he is very likely a dead man walking.
According to the Guardian, British intelligence is asking themselves the same thing. Was this press conference really necessary? The reason for their doubts is that the man characterized by Walsh as “a dead man walking” is British.
Michael Scheuer, former head of the Bin Laden team is quoted as saying “MI6 should be as angry as hell. This is something that the prime minister should raise with the president, if he has the balls. This is really tragic.” Well that depends on who you are talking about. It’s probably tragic for the “dead man walking”. It usually is. But it reaffirms the claim that President Obama is standing watch: vigilant, implacable and determined.
Scheuer “noted that the leak came on the heels of a series of disclosures over the last 10 days, beginning with a report that the CIA wanted to expand its drone attacks in Yemen, Barack Obama making a surprise trip to Afghanistan around the time of the Bin Laden anniversary and ‘then this inexplicable leak’.”
The name of the British passport-holder has not yet been released but may come out through al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He is reported to have spent time at at language school in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, and been recruited by al-Qaida as a suicide bomber.
Mustafa Alani of the Gulf Research Centre in Dubai told CNN that the bomber had been recruited by the Saudis to penetrate al-Qaida about a year ago, in part because the group would be attracted by the fact that his UK passport meant he could travel to the US without a visa.
“Apparently he was able to convince al-Qaida that he is genuinely ready to carry out the mission,” said Alani, who CNN said had been briefed by Saudi counter-terrorism officials. Alani said his understanding was that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap) intended the would-be suicide bomber to fly through a Gulf country to connect to a US-bound flight.
There are two possible counter-arguments to these criticisms. One is to assert that the agent was already blown. Hence, nothing was lost by exposing him. The second is what might be termed the “higher purposes” justification. There may have been political or operational considerations which only the President is equipped to judge which required the exposure, or sacrifice of this man. The most obvious possibility is that the British source is not the true deep penetration agent and he is being being blown to draw attention away from the real one. Of course such a decision would be reached only after much soul-searching, and not a little angst as is the case as President Obama said, whenever “I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf”.
It’s a pity that none of these justifications were available to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was “indicted by a federal grand jury concerning the investigation of the leak of the covert identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame Wilson. Plame’s relationship with the CIA was formerly classified information. Libby was indicted on five counts relating to the Plame affair: Two counts of perjury, two counts of making false statements to federal investigators, and one count of obstruction of justice. Libby resigned all three government positions immediately after the indictment was announced.”
Ironically, Libby may have had nothing to do with Plame’s exposure. “On August 28, 2006, Christopher Hitchens asserted that Richard Armitage was the primary source of the Valerie Plame leak and that Fitzgerald knew this at the beginning of his investigation. This was supported a month later by Armitage himself, who stated that Fitzgerald had instructed him not to go public with this information.”
However that may be, the unnamed informant’s life has changed forever. Gregory Johnson, who writes on Yemeni issues says there is no point keeping the British passport holder’s name secret since the terrorists know it. Nothing stops them from announcing it to the world.
“Undoubtedly, Aqap [the terror group] recorded a marytrdom video of the undercover agent before giving him the bomb,” Johnsen wrote. “The US and Saudis won’t divulge his identity for obvious reasons, but will Aqap?
Well maybe that martyrdom video will still come in handy. But should the source make the ultimate sacrifice, he should take comfort in the knowledge that it was all for the best of causes.
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Why should the Chinese bother with hacking American classified systems when it appears that for some desperately needed money to the right PACs they can probably buy what they want?
For any civic-minded allies, government agencies, heads-of-state, or individual citizens face the choice of helping the United States in their fight against terrorists, they must increasingly question the point of risking their lives.
This is a President who has shamed, punished, squandered, embarrassed, and sneered at soldiers who have for years at a stretch risked their lives to hunt and fight terrorists who would laugh while sawing the necks of babies.
Why should they expect to be given any greater consideration.
The Solipsist-in-Chief sees that all other humans exist merely as his playthings, to be ignored or smashed according to his whim.
He has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize! Who then may question his motive?
Shut up and climb into the breach. Meet your fate like a man.
Theory #1. This is a triple fiendish plot from the Cannot Possibly Fail file to get AQAP to test all volunteers by making them detonate before recording the video.
Theory #2. The Democratic fundraisers in Hollywood thought this up because they want a monopoly on producing bombs.
Theory #3. These idiots really are to childish to be allowed access to matches computers or telephones.
The defense of not pardoning Scooter Libby was the worst part of Bush’s book.
Obama is a hurting. He needs every vote he can get as this election is going to be close. Perhaps like 2000. He came out for gay marriage and is trumping his anti-terrorism efforts simply for the votes. Oh yeah, and he killed Bin Laden.
The only thing he hasn’t figured out is how to bring down gasoline prices.
Short on substance? No problem, Obama’s got cool! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__7iB1yBraM
Why is anyone surprised that Teh Won would hesitate to throw anyone under a bus? Hmmm– making me look good or set someone up to die? That’s not a choice. Make me look good.
I used to think he merely suffered from narcissistic personality disorder. More and more I’m beginning to think he’s a full blown sociopath. And his mask is beginning to crack. I’m not sure I can handle seeing what’s really under it.
The consensus seems to be this leak was for political reasons.
Given the current and past behavior of our Commander-in-Chief, this is not a stretch.
Much as I like being a lone wolf and holding views contrary to the majority, I am in complete agreement with your assessments.
I just hope someone with some authority had the guts to call oBummer on this and that he (BO) had the grace to be slightly ashamed of himself. No, that second thought is too fantastical and unlikely. But there is one possible silver lining here – Obama’s conduct is so disgusting even those who pay no attention to politics may begin to notice.
“No matter how closely guarded his identity is, he is very likely a dead man walking.”
WTF??????? How can his identity be secret? Don’t the terrorist know who they gave the bomb to?
This is a sure sign of how scared Axelrod is. Every time “aberrosexuals” bring the issue to a vote they lose. normally by a 2 to 1 or worse majority. For sodomites, losing 40 to 60 is almost as good as a victory. So the obumbler is willing to lose 2 votes to gain 1? I think he really wants to control the narrative.
White House polling must look pretty bad. Watch them do all kinds of stooooopid things attempting to direct the dialogue away from the economy. I don’t think their control of the media is as good as they think it is….
The problem for the uhm “Administration” as I see it, is that all of his moves good, bad, or indifferent, are starting to be seen as self serving, for political gain not national gain, and clumsy. He’s throwing out smoke grenades but moving too soon and not getting enough cover from the smoke and noise.
More and more I’m reading, “That’s nice, but how about some jobs.” That and laughter that his distraction moves are causing.
Also his attempts are causing more splits among his supporters than his enemies.
The Charlatan doesn’t know much, but he knows how to stage frenzied political theater. Week after week we witness his dark narrative serialized. The ‘war on women’, ‘ the 99%’, #OWS, right-wing militia posing the greatest terrorist threat, US guns in Mexico, the racism of the tea party, Muslim outreach at NASA, whitewashing Islam in all government terror training manuals, the homophobia of Mitt, the dog-hatred of Mitt, Mitt the bully, gay marriage, the Wondrous Obama Raid To Kill UBL, the Wondrous End Of WOT, Afghansitan is WON!, Iraq is WON!, amnesty for illegals, class warfare, hate whitey, et cetera unto vomiting. And that is just the last month.
Has it always been thus and I was just to dim to see the rank cynical manipulation by prior presidents to servebthemselves only? Or is this beast, this alien homunculus, this canker of a man something altogether new? I think he’s something new altogether… I don’t know too much about the un-American freak occupying the White House, but I know he is a monster, and I think he is capable of just about anything to hold and attain more power.
The most peculiar thing about this incident isn’t that Obama may have sent a brave man to his death in a cynical attempt to boost poll ratings. The most peculiar thing is that Obama might think this is a really smart move that would generate admiration of Obama, not disgust.
One interpretation of this episode is that what Obama sees as admirable, disgusts the rest of us.
There may be an honourable explanation for Obama’s actions here that we can’t see. There’s also a 1 in 14 million chance of winning Canada’s 649 lottery.
Remember this is a President who said in his latest interview with ABC News that US troops fight on his behalf. His behalf. Let that sink in. Words fail to describe my stunned disbelief that he is even allowed to utter such phrases. On his behalf. There should be such a hue and cry from all quarters that he would be shamed into retracting those words. He is President, not King. And the US soliders owe their allegiance to the Constitution, not him. Of course, the gutless wonder that is the soon to be Republican nominee has not uttered one word about this. And Obamao continues to get away with things like giving up our double agents just to make himself look good. After all the guy was out there risking his life on his behalf.
They couldn’t have let him blow himself up on the airplane. One supposes that they could have arranged to ‘detect’ the agent, stage an arrest and make him disappear into the maw of some dread and secret prison, thereby giving Aqap the impression that they had sent a brave martyr to his doom, and also freeing the agent to resume his life under another identity. Then he could have lived out his life as someone else, toasting to President Obama’s health from Thailand or something.
But then they couldn’t have touted it as a success because the deception would have to remain intact.
Gee, wouldn’t it have been great if the double-agent had been able to send a message like, “oh, crud! They snagged me in one of their sophisticated pre-boarding screens…..I’m being sent to Guantanamo — any messages I should take?”
But, no………
There’s one way to end this kind of treachery by Buraq. Romney and the Pubs need to call him out on this. Make a big deal. Multiple network news appearances and speeches from the floor of Congress. Make Buraq pay dearly for this.
If we had a real opposition party in this country this kind of crap just wouldn’t happen. The cost would be too high.
Well, those are two strong possibilities – either that (a) since the terrorists already know then they know, or else (b) the story is false. But if it were (a) then (c) a false death for the perp might be better than the reveal. But we don’t know the precise details of the events, maybe (c) just wouldn’t work, the agent did an end-zone dance or something, unlikely as that might seem. And they can always false-kill him later, give him a new ID.
But then they couldn’t have touted it as a success because the deception would have to remain intact.
Well, there still could have been a success story, that an agent was captured and the bomb reverse-engineered and some associates blasted.
But also, don’t forget that even if this story is absolutely true, there is also real value in tweaking Aqap and making them second-guess themselves.
Bottom line is, a lot of uncertainty remains, for me anyway. Occam’s Razor suggests the story means just what it says. OTOH maybe the CIA, Brits, or Sauds lied to Obambus and none of this is true even though he thinks it is!
We might also judge by the further public actions of Aqap, which if I’m not mistaken so far have been to stand down in abject silence.
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md @ 9: Has it always been thus and I was just to dim to see the rank cynical manipulation by prior presidents to serve themselves only?
Taking a slightly wider view, it’s the Axelrods and Plouffes of the world who are the slime generators, not to mention the Chris Matthews and Dana Milbanks.
Richard Nixon’s defenders, the Haldeman-Erlichman-Mitchell-and-Dean gang, were comparably slimey, but Nixon had almost no MSM enablers, also Nixon had much more aggressive prosecutors. And there were a LOT of moves by even Reagan cabinet members and white house staff, that were pretty awful. Though the jokers in the Obambus cabinet take the cake.
Woodrow Wilson was clearly as delusional as Obambus in the broadest philosophical terms, heck, arguably so was LBJ. It’s hard to compare in very different times.
And while we’re scrapping the bottom of the barrel, let us not forget Pelosi and Reid, I believe the weakest, strangest Congressional leaders in my lifetime, I don’t know a great deal about historical leaders but would bet money they stand alone in American history in their perverse natures.
Nothing is more precious than Hope&Change! and no price is too high to provide us with another four years of it.
I just hope someone with some authority had the guts to call oBummer on this and that he (BO) had the grace to be slightly ashamed of himself.
Alas, kj_ca, it is far likelier that Obama will induct his dog Bo into the Senate than that either of the above will happen.
Crazy times.
Gosh, and the crazies can’t even claim lead poisoning.
I yield to no-one in my distaste for Obambi. But let’s remember that even he has only 24 hours a day, and most of those hours that are not filled with golf are taken up with his focus on re-election.
The CIA leak was much more likely to be a “middle-up” action by some Obaminoid supporter in the bureaucracy, foolishly looking for a way to make Teh Won look good — rather than a “top-down” order from Obambi himself.
If there was a real reason for the leak, Stoi @ 7 may be on to it. Al-Quaeda certainly knows the identity of the man to whom they gave the bomb. And since AQ is fighting a real war, that British/Saudi man’s father, mother, brothers, sisters and first cousins are all meeting nasty ends right now. Perhaps the CIA was really seeking to eliminate more important AQ characters who happened to be related to their double agent, and this was a way of tricking AQ into doing the dirty work themselves?
No they couldn’t let him blow himself. Since they are so good at political theatre why not produce a show trial where he plays the good fanatic and gets a prison sentence. In the second act of the show he “dies” in prison and goes somewhere pleasant for his “afterlife”. After all, most people think exposing him will probably get him killed for real.
19. stevesmith
Er,um, uh, .. correction. It should be “No they couldn’t let him blow himself up.”
#11 – Tarnsman – “Remember this is a President who said in his latest interview with ABC News that US troops fight on his behalf. His behalf. Let that sink in. …”
I noted that too as a huge red flag!
“Valerie Plame” was the first thing that popped into my head on reading this.
That and the word “hypocrisy”.
The name of the game just might be intelligence rather than politics. In that event it is beyond my capability and on the surface beyond the realm of those who post here. Why not drop the derrogatory names for our president and try to have intelligent discussions? If it IS intelligence there are most likely some reasons we may never know for the releases of information so while we should be vigilant we also should extend a degree of trust to our office holders.
jjam58 -
Sure, as soon as you apologize for all the years of calling GW Bush, GHW Bush and Reagan names by the Left. You Liberals seem to quick to forget who started the politics of personal destruction. And one guess, it was not the Conservatives.
I come from a long line of Leftists but I now count myself a Constitutional Conservative. Why? The Dems left me behind in their rush to the extreme, Progressive (really Regressive) Left = Marxists. Why do I know who the fellow travelers really are? Dear Old Dad was a lifelong member of the CPUSA. I know their schtick by rote.
Unless it is wheels within wheels, this is one of the most mis-handled exposes to date. Anyone with a scintilla of grey matter would have concluded that it would have been best to ‘fake it’.
“We have detection methods that you cannot elude. We will find and eliminate every type of bomb you can build. It is hopeless and futile for you to make further attempts. Prove us wrong. translated to: neener neener neener”
Misdirection, an attack on their ability, I can’t phrase all the positive benefits.
But, our current ‘administration’ chose the other route. To what end, only they know, we presume. {Presuming they have another motive other than self-aggrandizement…}
tom
An Al Q supporter or a liberal who wants the United States to fight the war “fair” either would divulge this information.
Just so the US wouldn’t have superiority over it’s enemies.
Tarnsman #11 +1000
BO’s narcissism is appalling, frightening, and dangerous.
to jjam58,
The only way to excuse the endless string of SEEMING idiocies, fumbles, and artless blunders, would be to assume that the C-in-C is trying to convince our antagonists of his own incompetence, and so lull them into letting their guards down.
No effing way.
That strategy is demonstrated only if there is eventually an ACTUAL SUCCESS to show that after all the endless ineptitude is only a ruse.
What we see instead is a relentless advance by our adversaries and the chaotic conditions HE promised to reverse. Meanwhile he bows and genuflects, retreats and soils his diapers before his betters, while blaming everyone and everything but his own policies and thinking for the growing catalog of disasters.
What kind of shameless coward first arrests and subjects his best-trained and most experienced clandestine warriors to courts-martial for bloodying the lip of a terrorist beast they were ordered subdue, then later claims credit for the brilliant success of another team (i.e., for the capture of UBL) of the military he has repeatedly insulted, demeaned, and pissed upon?
This man like William Jefferson Clinton is just another clearly merely — identified early in his life as a photogenic cipher with a malleable combination of patter and tap dancing. Where most humans have a set of morals and ethics, he has a damn great sign, “For Lease to Highest Bidder.”