During his press conference on Monday, President Bush attempted to quash discussion of American methods and tactics in signal intelligence claiming, "We're at war, and we must protect America's secrets." Bush declared that public knowledge of his executive order to intercept the communications of Americans in the United States without court approval was a "shameful act" that had undermined American security.
To strengthen his allegation, Bush claimed that the Washington Times published a leak in 1998 about Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone, alerting the al Qaeda leader to government monitoring and prompting him to abandon the device.
The Washington Post is reporting in its Thursday edition that the claim is nothing more than an urban myth that was first reported by a best-selling book, validated by the Sept. 11 commission and then repeated by the president.
More below
On Aug. 21, 1998, the day after the United States had attacked al-Qaeda targets with cruise missiles in Afghanistan and Sudan, the Washington Times, a staunchly conservative newspaper, published an article saying that Bin Laden "keeps in touch with the world via computers and satellite phones." Shortly after that report, Bin Laden stopped using his satellite phone and relied on aides to do his calling. Monday, Scott McClellan fingered the article as the reference for the Bush claim and the September 11th Commission also cited the article as a leak.
Lee H. Hamilton, vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, gave a speech in October in which he said the leak "was terribly damaging." Yesterday, he said the commission relied on the testimony of three "very responsible, very senior intelligence officers," who he said "linked the Times story to the cessation of the use of the phone." He said they described it as a very serious leak.
But Hamilton said he did not recall any discussion about other news outlets' reports. "I cannot conceive we would have singled out the Washington Times if we knew about all of the reporting," he said.
Research finds that the information was first reported back in 1996 and repeated before the Washington Times piece:
A search of media databases shows that Time magazine had first reported on Dec. 16, 1996, that bin Laden "uses satellite phones to contact fellow Islamic militants in Europe, the Middle East and Africa." Taliban officials provided the information, with one official -- security chief Mulla Abdul Mannan Niazi -- telling Time, "He's in high spirits."
The day before the Washington Times article was published -- and the day of the attacks -- CNN producer Peter Bergen appeared on the network to talk about an interview he had with bin Laden in 1997.
"He communicates by satellite phone, even though Afghanistan in some levels is back in the Middle Ages and a country that barely functions," Bergen said.
Bush implied that the story about the satellite phone and the intercepts were of a kind by saying, "I'm not going to talk about that, because it would help give the enemy notification and/or, perhaps, signal to them methods and uses and sources. And we're not going to do that, which is ... it's really important for people to understand that the protection of sources and the protections of methods and how we use information to understand the nature of the enemy is secret. And the reason it's secret is because if it's not secret, the enemy knows about it, and if the enemy knows about it, adjusts."
The release that this kind of surveillance is done is nothing new. What is new is that Bush has admitted to ordering signals-intelligence collection on American citizens without obtaining the proper warrants.