NY Times Blows the Cover of Al Qaeda Mole

LONDON (Reuters) - The revelation that a mole within al Qaeda was exposed after Washington launched its "orange alert" this month has shocked security experts, who say the outing of the source may have set back the war on terror.

Reuters learned from Pakistani intelligence sources on Friday that computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, arrested secretly in July, was working under cover to help the authorities track down al Qaeda militants in Britain and the United States when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers.

Reuters

This likely explains the recent lack of al Qaeda chatter that has for some reason alarmed U.S. officials.

Remeber the "Purple Code" that the press announced was broken during WW2?

Wow! People wonder why I think the press is one notch below lawyers.

Wow.. anything for a big story I guess..

Pretty low

"The whole thing smacks of either incompetence or worse," said Tim Ripley, a security expert who writes for Jane's Defense publications. "You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place?

"It goes against all the rules of counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, running agents and so forth. It's not exactly cloak and dagger undercover work if it's on the front pages every time there's a development, is it?"

You know, I'm all for freedom of press, but Christ, something like this should be illegal.

To give the NY Times a bit of a break, when they reported Khan's name they believed he had simply been a captured al Qaeda who had been the "source" of the intelligence. They had no way of knowing he was working for the Pakistani ISI (or CIA, or whoever) at the time and not just sitting in a cell somewhere being interrogated.

He wasn't a mole. After he was captured, he agreed to continue sending e-mails as if he were still active. Once the US issued his name, Pakistan had to move him to a secret location. This has been covered in a previous thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...