They really can't do anything right.
You probably remember the bin Laden videos that were released last month prior to the 9/11 anniversary. The biggest question when the videos were released were about the timing of the release. The videos did not come on the actual anniversary date, but rather a few days before the anniversary.
Now we know why:
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.
{big snippage}
Around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, Katz sent both Leiter and Fielding an e-mail with a link to a private SITE Web page containing the video and an English transcript. "Please understand the necessity for secrecy," Katz wrote in her e-mail. "We ask you not to distribute . . . [as] it could harm our investigations."
Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.
Now let's see about this for a minute. Go to that dark and/or inept place and let your mind think like a Bushie for a bit. They get the tape and know that bin Laden is looking to make a statement on the anniversary of the terror attack. "We'll show him" they say in their finest cowboy bravado. "He won't get one on us. Get that out now!"
Um...one problem:
The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.
"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder
The well worn storyline comes up again. A political calculation trumps national security.
And for a coda to the story, there is even a FNC angle:
By midafternoon, several television news networks reported obtaining copies of the transcript. A copy posted around 3 p.m. on Fox News's Web site referred to SITE and included page markers identical to those used by the group. "This confirms that the U.S. government was responsible for the leak of this document," Katz wrote in an e-mail to Leiter at 5 p.m.
All those articles lately about White House turnover mean nothing. They haven't learned a thing.
Update [2007-10-9 15:12:2 by MLDB]: I think this story really needs a broader audience. We have our first indication that WaPo's reporting is correct -- a White House denial. And by now we know when there is a categorical denial of something from this White House, there's an exponentially increased chance that they are, in fact, guilty.
Add to this the perhaps not so coincidental release of a boogedy, boogedy report by the White House:
Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network is still trying to acquire apocalyptic weapons including nuclear and biological arms, a new White House report on national security said Tuesday.
"We also must never lose sight of Al-Qaeda's persistent desire for weapons of mass destruction, as the group continues to try to acquire and use chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear material," it said.
The report, which called for redoubled anti-terror coordination at all levels of government, said Al-Qaeda remains "the most serious and dangerous manifestation" of extremist threats against the United States.
Redoubled coordination, huh? How about just doing the damn job and not trying to make political gains out of it?
Update [2007-10-9 15:44:12 by MLDB]: Reuters version of this story here with extra boogedy about al Qaeda trying to get into the US